Steve Jobs Calls Google Motto 'Crap'

Anyone could have guessed that months of premature tablet speculation would deflate into premature iPad bashing. But it was hardly inevitable that Apple's simmering hostilities with Google--covered by the Wire here and here--would bubble over. In a private town hall with Apple employees this weekend, Jobs threw jabs at the search goliath, saying its "Don't be evil" motto was a bunch of "bullshit." (Or "crap," depending on your source.) As reported by Wired magazine, Jobs also said:

We did not enter the search business. They [Google] entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them."

This bluster heaps more evidence on hints of a Google-Apple rupture. The once-cozy corporate friends have increasingly become open rivals. First Google CEO Eric Schmidt left Apple's board, then Google released the Nexus One smartphone, and lately Apple is reportedly in talks with Microsoft--a legendary enemy--to make Bing the default search engine on iPhones.

Loving a fight, tech-geeks are rooting on a confrontation, if not quite rallying to Jobs's side. If forced to pick between Apple and Google, who knows which way they'll fall.

• Hypocritical Much? In Gawker, Foster Kamer points out an inconsistency in Jobs's stance. "Any companies in the business of technology telling people they're out to make the World a Better Place are basically full of it, which obviously includes Apple."

• Typical Steve Jobs says Joshua Topolsky at Engadget. "His kind of talk falls right in line with what we'd expect from the man who said Microsoft 'had no taste' and makes 'really third-rate products.' We eagerly await Eric Schmidt's response."

• Lends Weight to Bing Deal Rumors, writes Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land. "The anger contained in the remarks attributed to Jobs suggests that the discussions with Microsoft are probably real on some level."