Google CEO Schmidt opens Twitter account

NEW YORK - Google's CEO Eric Schmidt has started his own Twitter feed, after being quoted earlier this year as calling the service a "poor man's email system".

In his defence, Schmidt quickly clarified his remarks, saying that he had not meant to insult the site and that he had meant to say that people would use a combination of services like email, Facebook and Twitter.

Google has previously been reported to be interested in buying Twitter, and is also planning to add a Twitter search function, having reached an agreement with Twitter in October. Microsoft, however, has a similar agreement with Bing.

of within two hours of his first post, having seen other Google staff pointing to his profile, suggesting that it is the real deal.