CNET: We're 'Sorry,' Google

British CNET subsidiary ZDNet UK issued what appeared to be a sarcastic apology to Google this week, calling into question the search giant's decision not to talk with CNET reporters until July 2006. The open letter was not signed by anyone, only "Leader" whose e-mail directed to the site's general mailbox.

"Acting under the mistaken impression that Google's search engine was intended to help research public data, we have in the past enthusiastically abused the system to conduct exactly the kind of journalism that Google finds so objectionable," the site says in its letter.

The boycott of CNET by Google began over a story written by reporter Elinor Mills on July 14. In the story Mills showed how easy it was to "Google" the company's CEO, finding that Eric Schmidt was worth $1.5 billion last year, lived with his wife Wendy in Atherton, California, complete with street address, and that the then Novell exec attended a fundraiser for Al Gore in 2000 starring Elton John.

The story was not without error. The original article implied that Google Desktop Search transmitted to Google data from a users PC. "The service does not expose a user's content to Google or anyone else without the user's explicit permission," CNET wrote in a retraction.

Citing the privacy of its CEO, Google told News.com that it would not speak to its reporters for one full year. The site is taking no blame for the story. "This is all publicly available information," News.com editor in chief Jai Singh recently said.

"Clearly, there is no place in modern reporting for this kind of unregulated, unprotected access to readily available facts, let alone in capriciously using them to illustrate areas of concern. We apologize unreservedly, and will cooperate fully in helping Google change people's perceptions of its role just as soon as it feels capable of communicating to us how it wishes that role to be seen," the site chided.

Google has not commented on the matter.