As the global economic crisis squeezes marketing budgets, companies seek to maximize their advertising spending, and this benefits Google, because search advertising -- the company's core business -- is highly effective, he said. Plus, search ad campaigns are easy to monitor because there is so much concrete data to analyze and track, he added.

Economic woes also lead consumers to use search engines more, as they evaluate shopping options and compare prices, Schmidt said.

With so much economic uncertainty, Google will stick to its strategy of focusing on long-term growth and results, investing in its business as it sees fit and not making decisions for short-term gains, he said.

That means making investments to improve the quality of the search engine for consumers and the quality of ads for marketers, Schmidt said.

Although it is a much smaller portion of Google's business, the company's enterprise products, such as its enterprise search wares and hosted applications, also stand to benefit from the downturn, as IT and business managers seek lower-cost alternatives, he said.