In an interesting piece of corporate cross-pollination, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has joined the board of Apple. While no official reason was given beyond standard PR blather, it's no secret the two share a common enemy: Microsoft - which is targetting Google with its coming Windows Live search engine (which will replace MSN search), and Apple with its Zune player (which, in Microsoft's mind at least, is supposed to take on the iPod by Christmas).

We're talking a tight alliance here. Google and Apple already have one board member in common (Arthur Levinson, CEO of biotech giant Genentech), while former US Vice President turned film maker Al Gore is both an Apple director and a long-time Google advisor.

So what next: Google search ads for iTunes? An iTunes channel on Google? An all-out merger? You read the wild speculation here first.