Google boss Eric Schmidt has had a go at social networking site Twitter, saying it is a “poor man’s email”.

Speaking to the Morgan Stanley Technology conference in San Francisco, he said while Twitter’s success was wonderful, the microblogging service was not particularly useful.

He said Twitter’s 140 character limit could not compare with the features and storage capabilities of email.

“Speaking as a computer scientist, I view all of these as sort of poor man’s email systems,” Schmidt said.

“They have aspects of an email system, but they don’t have a full offering.”

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said although the service was similar to email, it was designed to discover and share information about what people were doing “rignt now”.

“We think it’s important to introduce the power of a real time network to even the weakest of signals around the world,” he said.

“As Twitter grows, we realise it’s not about the triumph of technology, it’s about the triumph of humanity.”

Schmidt said the question was whether Twitter would evolve to take on aspects of email systems, including storage.

“I think the innovation is great,” he said. “In Google’s case, we have a very successful instant messaging product, and that’s what most people end up using.

“Twitter’s success is wonderful, and I think it shows you that there are many, many new ways to reach and communicate, especially if you are willing to do so publicly.”

Schmidt’s comments appear to put to rest rumours the search engine giant was preparing to try to buy Twitter, whose real-time search capabilities could pose a threat to Google’s dominance.