Google (GOOG) considered but rejected the notion of buying the New York Times (NYT), according to author Ken Auletta, the author of a new book on the search engine giant called Google: The End of The World As We Know It. Auletta said Google co-founder Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt told him that they worried such a deal would damage its status as a neutral source.

Auletta made the comment in an interview with the web site I Want Media. Here’s the relevant excerpt:

Auletta: Google co-founder Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt told me that they had discussed buying the New York Times, but in the end decided that if they succeeded it would sabotage their identity as a neutral search engine. The reason they are interested in preserving the New York Times is that Google’s search engine depends on good information, and the Times is the world’s best newspaper.

For more on Auletta’s book, see my colleague Mark Veverka’s piece in the latest issue of the print edition of Barron’s.