Google pays homage to Apple's Steve Jobs on its home page

Oct. 5, 2011 10:06 PM PT

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Google added a small, one-line tribute to Steve Jobs to arguably its most valuable asset -- its home page.

It read, ‘Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011.’

The unadorned text honoring the Apple co-founder and former CEO who died Wednesday is an interesting move because Apple and Google are major rivals and occasionally business partners.

At one time, Google and Apple were close allies, with Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, sitting on Apple’s board of directors.

Google’s Android mobile operating system is the most widely used in the world, and Apple’s iPhone and iPad are the most popular smartphones and tablets sold.

Touchscreen smartphones weren’t widely used before the iPhone, a device that literally changed the way phones and mobile applications are viewed and used. Some believe Android wouldn’t exist without the release of that influential product.

Google’s influence isn’t removed from the iPhone either. Tap on the maps app and up pops Google Maps. The default search engine in the iPhone and on iPad’s Safari Web browser? Google.

And maybe that’s the point. There are only so many major players in the tech industry and just as there is one Google and one Apple, there is one Steve Jobs. And Google can’t help but recognize that.

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