Eric Schmidt knows very well that Google is no stranger to controversy.  In a talk with reporters at Google's headquarters, he responded to a question about Google's strengths and weaknesses, stating, "Every government sort of has some group that's busy trying to figure out what we're up to. Because information is power.  We're quite disruptive, and in the course of that disruption we tend to create enemies, which are hopefully not intended on our part."

Google, is among the most powerful companies in America today, yet it has numerous enemies.  Among those "enemies" include the world's largest nation, China.

The EU and the U.S., while supportive of Google's stand against China, have taken a wary eye to Google's growing marketshare.  The United States Federal Trade Commission is currently investigating Google and trying to figure out whether its acquisition of AdMob for $750M USD will hurt competition.

The California company also has corporate enemies.  Among the most powerful is Apple, which has begun suing handset makers of Google's Android smart phones over violations of iPhone related patents.  Apple also plans to challenge Google in mobile advertising market, announcing the inclusion of in-app ads in the coming iPhone OS 4.0.  And there's some rumors Apple will even launch its own search engine in the next few years.

Still Google continues to find tremendous success in a variety of new areas.  Among Google's more recent conquests is paid productivity software (à la Microsoft Office).  Google has for some time now offered free versions of its productivity software to the public online.  Now it is selling enhanced versions of the software to the company.  

It charges $50 per user per year for access to all its professional apps, including word processing and Gmail.  Currently the company has racked up a couple million subscribers.  And it's adding 3,000 new ones a day.

Still, Google's core business and biggest source of controversy remains its use of search and data mining to deliver smarter ads to consumers.  That business earns Google most of $24B USD in revenue it made last year.