14 DAY TRIAL // Steve Jobs, one of the great leaders and visionaries of our times, has passed away leaving his fans, his company and his competitors in mourning. There's hardly anyone in the tech world, and beyond, that haven't expressed their thoughts and regrets, from US President Obama to long time adversary Bill Gates.
Perhaps a better measure of his greatness is the response not from his friends and colleagues, but from his competitors.
Google and Apple have shared a checkered history, but have been allies longer than they have been at odds.
Former Google CEO and current Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt sat on the Apple board for several years until the two companies had too many competing products for that to work.
Even as they became bigger competitors, Google and Apple worked together to bring Google apps and services to the iPhone and iPad, from the search app to Google Maps.
And even as the two companies spat, sometimes publicly, they maintained a mutual respect, as Google's founders would tell you.
Larry Page, thanked Steve for reaching out to him and offering advice as he became CEO of Google, earlier this year, even as Google and Apple battled on so many fields.
"I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it," Larry Page said in his message on Google+.
"His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts and Google's are with his family and the whole Apple family," he added.
Sergey Brin, the second Google cofounder also had some things to say about Jobs' passing.
"From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino," Brin wrote.
"Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met," he said.
"On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology, you will be missed very much. My condolences to family, friends, and colleagues at Apple," he added.
But beyond words, Google is doing something it has never done in its history, it's using its homepage to show its respects with a simple message "Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011" and a link to Apple.com, the first time the company has linked to any commercial entity, other than Google, on the homepage.
UPDATE: Erich Schmidt had some things to say about Jobs as well.
“Today is very sad for all of us. Steve defined a generation of style and technology that’s unlikely to be matched again. Steve was so charismatically brilliant that he inspired people to do the impossible, and he will be remembered as the greatest computer innovator in history,” he said.
"Steve Jobs is the most successful CEO in the U.S. of the last 25 years. He uniquely combined an artists touch and an engineers vision to build an extraordinary company… one of the greatest American leaders in history."