Google CEO Eric Schmidt (pictured left) appeared to play the role of the cryptic savant in remarks at a recent SES (search engine strategies) summit in San Jose. Schmidt, who once opposed development of the Java programming language during his days at Sun, conceded that it is exceedingly difficult to predict the future in the technology business in general and in the search business in particular.

Noting that whereas outhouses used to outnumber Tivos, but that the Tivo market is now much more flush than the outhouse market, he also expressed concern about things that "are hard to know because you don't know what you don't know."

He also professed a dislike for "terrible, terrible crazy idiot nurderers," according to reports, while noting that AJAX and LAMP are enabling a new model of computing to emerge, one in which people can get access to applications from anywhere on any device (part of a mantra that Sun Chairman Scott McNealy has been reciting for years).

Industry commentator John C. Dvorak (pictured left) (www.dvorak.org/blog) apparently sees signs of overwork in Schmidt's remarks. "Eric needs to take his billion dollars and buy a place in Tuscany and spend about six months there telecommuting. Then perhaps he might, maybe, heal. Meanwhile, he's losing it," Dvorak told us.

Schmidt also touched on net neutrality during his keynote presentation, noting that Google remains steadfastly opposed to legislation being pushed by the telcos and now moving through Congress that would establish multi-tier Internet pricing. He said Google will be able to handle any increase in its costs if this legislation ultimately becomes law, but it remains opposed to it on the principle of maintaining the status quo "neutral" environment.

Schmidt claimed that a two-tiered pricing model will make it more difficult for future Internet innovators (i.e., start-ups) to compete on a level playing field, and noted that "historically, tiered pricing models haven't worked."

He also expressed concerns about Microsoft, its emerging (or emergent) rival in the search space, opining that Google management thinks Vista's default search settings will favor MSN over any other search site. "We have not seen a clear and crisp answer to our concerns," he reportedly noted. "It's still beta software, so we hope changes are made."

Schmidt seemingly has no difficulty accepting that we're still in the very early stages of what search can do--"Google is not a truth machine, he noted--and opined that it will beyond most of our lifetimes before any sort of perfection in search will be realized.

As duly noted, Schmidt isn't confident in a crystal ball approach to the industry when it comes to predicting the future of search and what leading companies in this space such as Google may ultimately embrace as part of their business models, but claims there is "no bubble" with either contextual search or search ads at this point in time.

And whither AJAX, which is causing concern among advertisers as to its measurability when it comes to sarch? "It is true that AJAX is a change in pageview modeling," he said. "(but this) is an example of something I hadn't started thinking about, but I certainly will go back and do that."

• Google CEO Eric Schmidt Tackles Net Neutrality and AJAX