• CNET News.com, Monday, May 21, 2007 10:45 AM

As Microsoft was announcing its acquisition of aQuantive on Friday, Google Chief Eric Schmidt discussed the effect of Internet technology on world politics. To be sure, it's a game changer.

For example, "George Bush never could've been elected president if he'd been at Yale now, and there'd been cell-phone cameras around," said his interviewer, New York Times Thomas Friedman, referring to W.'s college partying days. To be fair, Bill Clinton most likely wouldn't have been president, either. Tomorrow's politicians will have to be extra-careful, as the past can now come back to haunt them like never before.

To that point, Schmidt said jokingly, "I have a societal proposal. I think that at the age of 21, it should be OK to change your name." He added that the benefits of global connectivity are "overwhelming the concerns that everyone has," making it "a much better world as a result." Education will change, he said, as university students will be taught how "to confirm their biases" through the search for information, while taking note of sites that debunk their convictions to fortify those assertions. "You'll literally be taught how to search," he said.

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