Google's Page slams focus on competition in tech, draws rebukes

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Larry Page took questions from audience members during the opening keynote session of the company's annual I/O developer conference and hit on the fact that the tech media likes to play up competition between Google and its various rivals. "Every story I read about Google is 'us vs. some other company' or some stupid thing, and I just don't find that very interesting," Page said, according to The Next Web. "We should be building great things that don't exist. Being negative isn't how we make progress. Most important things are not zero sum, there is a lot of opportunity out there." However, those comments drew various criticisms online. Fortune contributor Verne Kopytoff noted that just minutes later Page criticized rivals Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Oracle. Kopytoff argued Google is as aggressive as any of its competitors. Daring Fireball's John Gruber noted that "Google is the company that built Android after the iPhone, Google Plus after Facebook, and now a subscription music service after Spotify," and that it also competes aggressively in other areas, including digital maps. Article