As announced three months ago, Google's CEO position has today switched owners: from Eric Schmidt to the company's co-founder Larry Page. Page was previously CEO for the first three years of Google's existence, before Schmidt was hired.

Here's Page's bio from Google's website:

As Google's Chief Executive Officer, Larry is responsible for Google's day-to-day-operations, as well as leading the company's product development and technology strategy. He co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in 1998 while pursuing a Ph.D. at Stanford University, and was the first CEO until 2001---growing the company to more than 200 employees and profitability. From 2001 to 2011, Larry was President of Products.

Larry holds a bachelor's degree in Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) of the University of Michigan College of Engineering, and together with co-founder Sergey Brin, Larry was honored with the Marconi Prize in 2004. He is a trustee on the board of the X PRIZE, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004.

Given that he's been CEO for a decade, it's good to know that Schmidt is remaining on Google's board in the role of Executive Chairman, with a focus on outward-facing deals and partnerships. Page will meanwhile take care of strategic and product development decisions going forward. While Page manages Google's day-to-day operations, the other co-founder, Sergey Brin, will work on new products and strategic projects. Despite their separate roles, all three have been equally involved in making decisions over the last 10 years, and that's not going to change.

Schmidt has made some outlandish comments over the years, including telling people to move if they don't like Google StreetView as well as trash talking Windows 7. Overall, he's made terrible privacy gaffes, including saying things like "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." and "We know where you are. We know where you've been. We can more or less know what you're thinking about."

We're hoping Larry Page will be able to do better. His first move in his new role was to make a $900 million bid for Nortel's patent portfolio (6,000 patents) in the company's bankruptcy auction. Nortel has selected Google's bid as the "stalking-horse bid," which is the starting point against which others will bid prior to the auction.