• Fortune, Thursday, September 16, 2010 12:33 PM

Google has been offering "huge" bonuses to keep its top engineers from defecting to Facebook, Fortune reports. And the search giant is going to need that talent to successfully execute its ambitious social strategy. "We're trying to take Google's core products and add a social component," CEO Eric Schmidt said this week at the Google Zeitgeist conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"If you think about it, it's obvious. With your permission, knowing more about who your friends are, we can provide more tailored recommendations. Search quality can get better." While Schmidt downplayed copying Facebook's functionality directly, Fortune notes, "He made no bones about wanting Google users to have the same sort of Social Graph that Facebook enjoys." In fact, Schmidt plans to get more social currency directly from Facebook itself, explaining: "The best thing that would happen is for Facebook to open up its data ... Failing that, there are other ways to get that information." Exactly what Schmidt meant by "other ways" wasn't clear, but Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg might want to watch his back.

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