Google punishes journalist for Googling

Google is refusing to speak to journalists from CNet after the US news website published personal information about Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Ironically, the information was not gleaned by any underhand methods but by searching the Internet, using Google.

However Google has decided to ignore the website's reporters for a year.

The offending report gave details of Schmidt's earnings, his wife's name, where he lives, a political donation and his hobbies, all by spending 30 minutes with the search engine.

The article was written to illustrate just how much personal information Google stores about millions of individuals.