In 2001 Google brought Eric Schmidt aboard for adult supervision, and during his tenure among other earth shattering things Schmidt coined the word “Cloud” (fka time-sharing, and later Application Service Provider – ASP). The Washington Post December 21, 2017 article entitled “Eric Schmidt is stepping down from his role at Google’s parent company, Alphabet” included this background about Schmidt’s tenure at Google:
Schmidt joined Google at a time of rapid growth.
Its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had just a few years earlier launched a disruptive search engine and were viewed as fresh-faced newcomers to the tech sector.
The two openly acknowledged to the San Francisco Chronicle at the time that they lacked guidance from an experienced businessman.
“He’s going to be a bit of [a] chaperone, providing adult supervision,” Brin told the Chronicle.
Schmidt said Thursday that he felt confident stepping aside after having successfully overseen Google’s evolution into Alphabet.
This is the end of an era, and time will tell what a significant impact that Schmidt has had on the Internet while at Google!