"I did nothing about the memos I wrote," said Schmidt, who now serves as Google's executive chairman. "The CEO should take responsibility. I screwed up."

He said he was busy and simply failed to take Facebook and social networking seriously.

He said it would be helpful today for Google to team up with Facebook and incorporate its social data into Google search results. The problem is that Microsoft -- -- already uses Facebook data with its search engine, Bing.

It's no secret that there's no love lost between Facebook and Google these days. Just last month, news hit that a well-known PR firm to plant in the media.

"That Google missed the whole social networking phenomenon is probably one of the larger understatements we've seen so far this year," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "But you have to give it to Schmidt for stepping up to the plate and taking the blame."