BEIJING, July 17 -- Google Inc, owner of the most-used Internet search engine, will keep bolstering capital spending as use of its Websites increases, Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said.

    "We will continue to increase our capital expenditure because of the load," Schmidt said at a conference in Idaho. "Many of our systems have been limited by the load we are able to take. There is a lot more stuff we'd like to make available but the load is too great."

    California-based Google's spending budget mainly pays for data centers, or large warehouses that contain server computers, he said. Google and rivals Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp are boosting capital budgets and searching for data center locations with access to cheap electricity in order to support more users and services, Bloomberg News reported.

    Google's capital spending last year was US$838 million, an increase from US$319 million in 2004.

    Schmidt cited Gmail, Google's free e-mail service, as a product that's been limited by capacity. Schmidt also said the company plans to add more programming to Google Video, which can also put a strain on networks.

    The company is already selling radio ads as part of a plan to capture more revenue from their Internet ad customers by getting into print, radio and television advertising.

    Schmidt also said Google's Checkout online payment system doesn't compete with Ebay Inc's PayPal product.

    Google makes one or two small acquisitions a week, Schmidt said.

    The companies generally have three or fewer employees, the CEO said.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)