The Chief Executive of Google Inc., Eric Schmidt will actively hit the campaign trail this week on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, after having kept a low partisan profile till now, in the 2008 election.

Making the announcement in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, Schmidt said his planned endorsement of the Illinois senator is a ‘natural evolution’ from his role as an informal adviser to the Obama campaign. He noted that he has been advising the campaign on technology and clean-energy issues for most of the summer.

It has been for years now that Schmidt is a major Democratic fundraiser and high-profile supporter of Democratic candidates - particularly 2000 presidential candidate Al Gore, who currently is a senior adviser to Google.

Schmidt, the latest tech leader to take a more formal role in this year’s presidential race, will make a public appearance with Obama on Tuesday, in the tightly contested state of Florida, and will talk about the economy.

Asked at a speech this month whether he would consider entering the political arena, the 53-year-old Schmidt – who made magnanimous donations to the Democrats – said: “H-, no!” However, some tech and media executives speculate that he might desire a role in an Obama administration, possibly the chief technology officer post Obama has said he would be creating.

Schmidt’s endorsement of Obama comes at a time when lawmakers and regulators have intensified their scrutiny of Google. The company’s proposed ad-sharing agreement with Yahoo Inc. triggered a Justice Department probe into whether the deal would give Google too much control over the market and lead to higher prices for online advertisers.

Schmidt, acknowledging that his Internet-search company has quite a few issues pending on Capitol Hill, said in an interview that his endorsement of Obama is a personal matter, and that “Google is officially neutral” in the campaign.