Anything you can imagine Google doing, they’re in the process of doing it. That goes from high-level takeovers to feature inclusions on their Apps. This determination to dip their hands into every possible jar is ruffling more than a few feathers, as Google encroaches on Apple’s mobile market, Facebook’s social network, Microsoft’s software, Mozilla’s web browser… the list goes on and on. And on.

For Google CEO Eric Schmidt, this is called progress. Lawsuits be damned. The company’s willingness to try anything and everything, Google thinks, is a good thing. The push back from competitors? That means Google’s plan is working.

A recent article in the New York Times outlines Schmidt’s excitement over Google’s growing reach, as well as its potential. Never mind relations in China aren’t going so well. It’s all part of globalization, right? One note regarding Facebook in particular, harps on the social network’s semi-walled garden approach, while hinting towards Google’s own plans (around GoogleMe, perhaps?),

“The best thing that would happen is Facebook would open up its network and we’d use that information to improve our ads and our search,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Failing that, there are other ways in which we can get that information, which is what we’re working on.”

Nevertheless, a little competition is good for an industry. Apple may not be too thrilled about it, especially as it’s had to make a few changes to the way it operates its app platform. But the opportunities behind Android were more than even Schmidt imagined, as he went on to tell the Times,

“I have been surprised at how important Android is for our business,” Mr. Schmidt said. “It’s fundamentally because Android is seen as representative of the new model of computing, and people are dying to put their best applications on an open platform.”

Yet Google’s core competency–search–is still the focus for the company. Its most recent change, Google Instant, is just one way in which Google’s demonstrated its influence on how we access information, how that access is monetized, and how an industry can shift as a result.