A growing number of small-business owners are expected to try cloud computing services next year, hoping to trim costs and stay up and running if disaster strikes.

Cloud computing refers to any service that operates over an Internet connection, allowing immediate access from any computer or mobile device with Web access. Business owners can access software or store information-such as customer contacts, accounting data and presentations-and leave the technical maintenance to the cloud provider.

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Google Inc., which helped popularize the idea of automated ad sales on the Web, has been quietly turning to an old-fashioned tool-phone calls-to compete in the hot market for local business advertising.

The Internet-search giant this year has hired several hundred sales representatives to call U.S. businesses such as spas, restaurants and hotels to promote new advertising initiatives, people familiar with the matter said. The effort includes an office in Tempe, Ariz., with around 100 sales representatives, one of these people said.

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Google Inc.'s drive to bring the Internet to living-room TVs and generate fresh advertising sales is being threatened by the failure to obtain popular shows such as "Glee" and "NCIS."

CBS Corp. Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves and Chase Carey, the No. 2 executive at Fox parent News Corp., say after months of talks they're in no hurry to let Google TV offer shows via the Web for free. They say there have been no lucrative offers and they aren't sure of the search company's intentions.

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Comcast Corp. is testing a new service that knits together television and the Internet, as the U.S. cable giant goes after rivals that threaten to undermine its business.

Under the new system, which is being tested in Augusta, Ga., content flows through a set-top box that combines features of the Web with those of a digital-video recorder, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Yahoo Inc. is preparing to cut as many as 650 jobs, or almost 5% of its workforce, as early as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the situation.

The cuts are the latest effort by the struggling Internet media company to streamline operations and cut costs as it attempts a multi-year turnaround effort under Chief Executive Carol Bartz.

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Google Inc. increasingly is promoting some of its own content over that of rival websites when users perform an online search, prompting competing sites to cry foul.

The Internet giant is displaying links to its own services-such as local-business information or its Google Health service-above the links to other, non-Google content found by its search engine.

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As you've probably heard, earlier this week Google held a major event to launch the Chrome Web Store and Chrome OS, its new operating system that revolves almost entirely around web apps and browser extensions. There aren't currently any consumer laptops that support Chrome OS - and there won't be until the middle of next year - but Google is running a test program by distributing some unknown quantity of unbranded 'test hardware' codenamed Cr-48 to press and select early adopters across the US. We got our hands on one of these devices earlier today, and I've been using it as my primary computer since then. Here are my initial thoughts.

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December 2010 -- Google Inc., Apple Inc., and Facebook Inc. need to pitch in to help pay for the billions of dollars of network investments needed for their bandwidth-hogging services, European phone operators say.

As mobile and Web companies add videos, music and games, operators including France Telecom SA, Telecom Italia SpA and Vodafone Group Plc want a new deal that would require content providers like Apple and Google to pay fees linked to usage.

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Microsoft Corp. says it will revive a powerful privacy feature in Internet Explorer similar to one it dropped from an earlier version of the Web browser because of concerns about alienating advertisers.

The software giant said the next version of its browser, Internet Explorer 9, will allow users to stop certain websites and tracking companies from gathering information about them.

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SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- The amount of time users spend using Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) key email service is declining because more people are using social network site Facebook Inc.'s "Wall" to communicate with each other, Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz said on Tuesday.

But Bartz did not provide specific user engagement data and she stressed that the number of Yahoo Mail users continues to grow. She added that Internet users will continue to share their time on Yahoo, Facebook and Google Inc. (GOOG) as they seek out information, navigate the Web and communicate with each other.

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Groupon Inc., which rejected a Google Inc. takeover last week, is betting it can keep increasing its valuation after walking away from a deep-pocketed suitor, something Facebook Inc. pulled off and Yahoo! Inc. failed to do.

Groupon, the Chicago-based provider of online coupons, spurned an offer of as much as $6 billion that included performance incentives, a person familiar with the matter said last week. The startup will decide next year whether to go the route of an initial public offering instead, the person said.

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Legislation set to be introduced early next year would prohibit companies from tracking children on the Internet without parental consent.

Massachusetts Rep. Edward Markey, a Democrat, plans to propose legislation that, if passed, would go well beyond current federal law that requires websites aimed at children under 13 to obtain parental permission before collecting personal information such as kids' names or email addresses.

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IRVINE, Calif.-David Norris wants to collect the digital equivalent of fingerprints from every computer, cellphone and TV set-top box in the world.

He's off to a good start. So far, Mr. Norris's start-up company, BlueCava Inc., has identified 200 million devices. By the end of next year, BlueCava says it expects to have cataloged one billion of the world's estimated 10 billion devices.

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Google Inc. is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold.

The long-delayed venture-Google executives had said they hoped to launch this summer-recently has cleared several technical and legal hurdles, people close to the company say. It is set to debut in the U.S. by the end of the year and internationally in the first quarter of next year, said Scott Dougall, a Google product management director.

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WASHINGTON -- Sitting at a computer somewhere overseas in January 2009, computer hackers went phishing.

Within minutes of casting their electronic bait they caught what they were looking for: A small Michigan company where an employee unwittingly clicked on an official-looking e-mail that secretly gave cyberthieves the keys to the firm's bank account.

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Google's reply to Oracle's amended complaint in the Java infringement suit is a barnburner and the search giant isn't going quietly. Remember that Java vs. Android code comparison line by line? Google says Oracle redacted parts to look better.

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topseos.com, an independent authority on search vendors has named the Top 50 Search Engine Optimization Companies for the month of November 2010. All the search engine marketing firms identified next to thousands of other search engine optimization companies have gone through a comprehensive process evaluated by a qualified and experienced team of researchers. Each search engine optimization provider showed a clear-cut understanding of the groundwork behind search engine optimization.

"In order to find the best among the thousands of search engine optimization companies, our team has designed an evaluation system to identify the leading search engine optimization firms. Companies who are determined about increasing the traffic quality that is being directed to their site has to put a search engine marketing campaign in place. Search engines are crucial part of the method how web visitors and potential customers find online information. It has truly become vital that the website is aligned with what the search engine is looking for," said Jeev Trika, Managing Partner of topseos.com (http://www.topseos.com).

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Google has fired the employee who leaked to the press the company's plans to raise worker wages by 10%, according to a published report.

CNNMoney, citing several sources, said the person who revealed the plans outside the company has had their employment terminated. The news of the pay hike first appeared on Business Insider. Hours later, the CNNMoney report said, the employee who disclosed the news was identified and fired.

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NEW YORK (AP) - People searching on Google will soon be able to see previews of websites before clicking on them.

The "Instant Previews" feature announced Tuesday is meant to help people bypass websites that are either irrelevant or simply too visually cluttered for their tastes. It works for Google Web searches, as well as searches for news, video and local businesses.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. still faces a significant gap in residential broadband use that breaks down along incomes, education levels and other socio-economic factors, even as subscriptions among American households overall grew sevenfold between 2001 and 2009.

What's more, even when controlling for key socio-economic characteristics, the U.S. continues to confront a racial gap in residential broadband use, with non-Hispanic white Americans and Asian-Americans more likely to go online using a high-speed connection than African-Americans and Hispanics.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Web has changed a lot since Marc Andreessen revolutionized the Internet with the introduction of his Netscape browser in the mid-1990s. That's why he's betting people are ready to try a different Web-surfing technique on a new browser called RockMelt.

The browser, available for the first time Monday, is built on the premise that most online activity today revolves around socializing on Facebook, searching on Google, tweeting on Twitter and monitoring a handful of favorite websites. It tries to minimize the need to roam from one website to the next by corralling all vital information and favorite services in panes and drop-down windows.

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When Rick Snyder officially takes office on Jan. 1, 2011, he will inherit a $1.42 billion budget deficit, an economy that has lost more than 600,000 jobs in the last eight years, a Michigan Business Tax mess, and an electorate of angry, pessimistic and exhausted citizens. But it is what he will not inherit that may be his saving grace. Simply on term limits alone, there will be 81 new House members and 38 new Senate members. Incumbent losses have added to this number, which means Snyder will come into a state government that still will be trying to figure out where the restrooms and copy machines are at the same time they are dealing with some of the most serious issues ever to face Michigan.

Given that he has only until March 6 to submit a state budget, Snyder will need to start transitioning from one tough nerd to one strong team builder from the very beginning. Snyder's leadership skills will be much more important than his finance or law background during the transition.

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As eBay Inc. prepares for a critical holiday shopping season, the company this week plans to unveil new elements of an overhaul in how shoppers find and buy products on its Web site.

Behind the new look, which includes eBay's first major home-page redesign in nearly four years, is an urgent effort to close a technology gap that has caused the onetime Web pioneer to lag behind rivals like Amazon.com Inc. Amazon for years has had many of the same features that eBay is adding.

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Yahoo has hired former Fox Interactive Media president Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo company announced yesterday.

Starting in November, Levinsohn will become Yahoo's executive vice president of the Americas. In his new role, Levinsohn will be in charge of the Web giant's "media group, advertising sales, and partnerships," the company said in a statement. He will report directly to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz.

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Google won't face any fines from U.S. regulators over its accidental Street View Wi-Fi data collection.

The Federal Trade Commission sent a letter to the search company today, saying that because Google has made improvements to its internal privacy practices, including a formal review process, it would not pursue the matter further.

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WASHINGTON - Several popular online travel companies are joining forces to oppose Google Inc.'s proposed $700 million purchase of ITA Software Inc., the leading provider of flight data, saying the deal would give it too much sway over the travel sector.

Expedia Inc., Kayak.com, Sabre Holdings and Farelogix Inc.-which operate half-a-dozen leading online travel sites-are forming a coalition called FairSearch.org to persuade the Justice Department to block Google's latest deal.

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MySpace and some popular applications on the social-networking site have been transmitting data to outside advertising companies that could be used to identify users, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

The information was primarily sent by MySpace when users clicked on ads. The website had pledged to discontinue the practice of sending personal data when users click on ads after the Journal reported it in May.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. is tightening its privacy leash on employees in an effort to ensure they don't intrude on people while the Internet search leader collects and stores information about its users.

Besides promoting longtime employee Alma Whitten to be its director of privacy, Google said Friday that it will require all 23,000 of its employees to undergo privacy training. The company also is introducing more checks aimed at making sure workers are obeying the rules.

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ABC, CBS and NBC are blocking TV programming on their websites from being viewable on Google Inc.'s new Web-TV service, exposing the rift that remains between the technology giant and some of the media companies it wants to supply content for its new products.

Full-length episodes of shows like NBC's "The Office," CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," and ABC's "Modern Family" can't be viewed on Google TV, a service that allows people to access the Internet and search for Web videos on their television screens, as well as to search live TV listings. Logitech International S.A. and Sony Corp. began selling devices running the software this month.

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BEIJING (AP) - Baidu Inc., which operates China's leading search engine, said Friday its third-quarter net profit more than doubled and revenue jumped 76 percent as online advertising surged.

The Beijing-based company said it earned 1.05 billion yuan ($156.4 million), or 3.01 yuan (45 cents), per American Depositary share, versus 492.9 million yuan, or 1.41 yuan per share, in the same period a year earlier.

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Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years using a technique that moves most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda.

Google's income shifting -- involving strategies known to lawyers as the "Double Irish" and the "Dutch Sandwich" -- helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 percent, the lowest of the top five U.S. technology companies by market capitalization, according to regulatory filings in six countries.

"It's remarkable that Google's effective rate is that low," said Martin A. Sullivan, a tax economist who formerly worked for the U.S. Treasury Department. "We know this company operates throughout the world mostly in high-tax countries where the average corporate rate is well over 20 percent."

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SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo reported lackluster results Tuesday that extended its four-year financial slowdown and could intensify pressure on CEO Carol Bartz.

Third-quarter revenue inched up 2% - to $1.6 billion - from the same quarter a year ago. Google, by comparison, reported a 23% increase this month.

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Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information-in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names-to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook's rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users' activities secure.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is reviewing an Australian program that will allow Internet service providers to alert customers if their computers are taken over by hackers and could limit online access if people don't fix the problem.

Obama administration officials have met with industry leaders and experts to find ways to increase online safety while trying to balance securing the Internet and guarding people's privacy and civil liberties.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. is still spending money like the recession is a distant memory, but investors can't complain too much as long as the Internet search leader keeps expanding its advertising empire like it did in the summer.

The evidence of Google's dominance - and prosperity - emerged in its third-quarter results released late Thursday. The performance marked the latest sign that the technology industry is rolling again, even as other parts of the economy lag.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - With buyout vultures circling the Internet company, Yahoo Inc. CEO Carol Bartz may have to accelerate her timetable for engineering a turnaround if she wants to save her job.

Bartz has said it could take a couple more years to revive Yahoo after a long period of listlessness, but it appears the company could become a takeover target if its financial performance doesn't improve within the next few months.

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Shares of Yahoo were up more than 12% in pre-market trading Thursday following a report the Internet portal may be bought out by a consortium of investors that includes AOL.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed individuals said to be familiar with the plan, reported that Silver Lake Partners and Blackstone Group were among the private equity firms that could team up with AOL to buy out Yahoo.

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Microsoft Corp. launched its latest assault on the crowded smartphone market, where it has struggled to gain traction, with a bevy of handsets based on overhauled software and a big advertising push.

The Redmond, Wash., company on Monday formally released its new Windows Phone 7 operating system, which it spent two years developing. During that time, it was beat to the market by competitors like Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Google Inc.'s Android software.

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ATLANTA - Yahoo (YHOO) shouldn't be such a hard company to figure out. It's one of the oldest and best-known content providers on the Web. Its news, information, entertainment and communications services attract more than 170 million U.S. visitors each month.

Yet many investors consider Yahoo to be a mystery.

Its stock has lost 15.4% of its value in 2010 as Yahoo failed to show significant gains in page views and ad sales. The big question on Wall Street is whether Yahoo is too scattered and stodgy to fend off powerful competitors led by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and AOL.

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An innovative method for wound care places patients in a tube-like chamber filled with pure oxygen. The new treatment approach is cutting edge and highly effective for healing all types wounds.

A case of a patient suffering from ulcers on his legs, associated with venous insufficiency, proves the chamber's wound healing worthiness. The patient's skin is vulnerable to ulceration, and the soreness caused by any sort of friction takes a long time to heal. Starting mid-Summer, he began regular treatment at his local wound healing facility. The center opened in early June and utilizes a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to treat chronic and highly sensitive wounds.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Just because Yahoo Inc.'s U.S. website and Microsoft Corp.'s Bing are using the same technological ingredients for searching the Internet doesn't mean they're slicing and dicing the results the same way, too.

Understanding the differences can be helpful, particularly for people looking for the best alternative to Google Inc.'s dominant search engine.

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They called it "the airport test."

When Google filed its incorporation papers 12 years ago, the company that would grow to a $24 billion-a-year business consisted of three Stanford computer science graduate students, all in their mid-20s. But even back in September 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's co-founders, and Craig Silverstein, Google's first employee, had a clear idea how they would carefully pick their hires, choosing people compatible with the culture they planned to create.

"We had the airport test, which was Larry's test, I think, or maybe it was Sergey's test," Silverstein said. "Which was if your flight got canceled, and you were stuck in the airport for three hours with this guy or this girl, how happy would you be about that?"

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Facebook and Twitter users take heed: Expect those surges of spam you've been experiencing to recur. Hackers and spammers have staked out new turf for attacking the popular social networks, and it'll take the good guys some time to shore up defenses, cybersecurity experts say.

Here's what's happening: Hackers are aggressively probing Twitter and Facebook for security holes, especially ones they can use to tap into mechanisms for rapidly disseminating content to millions of users. On discovering a fresh vulnerability, an attacker will usually disperse a test posting that spreads in wormlike fashion, proving his skill.

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Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt had an interview with Charlie Rose this week and it will be aired on PBS Network this Friday. In the interview, Schmidt says that Facebook isn't really any concern of Google's right now. The search engine that Microsoft has, called Bing, is actually the competitor they are concerned about most right now.

Microsoft has more cash and engineers than Google, Schmidt says and they are more well known for their "storied reputation of technology innovation". Google's search numbers are still well at the top of the charts with about 65 percent, but Microsoft has been on the increase over the past year, and they are sitting at about 11 percent, according to comScore.

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Google bought five social networking companies in the past month, and has a big stake in the industry's hottest venture. Here's a look at Google's new building blocks.

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Search engines from Bing to Google to AOL to now Yahoo! have been debuting redesigned search pages. The changes have ranged from cosmetic, to, in the case of Google Instant, a fundamental shift in how search is delivered. No matter where on the spectrum the changes are, though, marketers can find both opportunities and possible challenges.

Yahoo! is the latest search engine to tweak its user interface. Entertainment-related searches will pull up richer content results by combining images, news articles, videos, tweets, events, and ratings. News searches will be organized with videos, images, articles, and tweets on a single page. Also the Trending Now lists on Yahoo.com and across the Yahoo! network will be accompanied by slideshows beginning in the fall. To see the slideshows, click on a trending term on Yahoo! A search results page will appear, featuring a slideshow of the top images related to the term in the center of the page and a list of other trending topics on the left side of the page.

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Justin Timberlake has been a professional performer for 17 years, and he's not yet 30 years old. He started at age 12 when he joined "The New Mickey Mouse Club." He was in the one of the biggest boy bands of the '90s, and became a multiplatinum solo artist in the 2000s. So it's probably been a while since someone made JT jump through hoops just to land a job.

But that's exactly what director David Fincher did before he cast Timberlake for a major role in "The Social Network." The movie is about the early days of Facebook and how the site went from a project in Mark Zuckerberg's dorm room to a global sensation. Timberlake plays Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster and first president of Facebook. But despite his fame -- or maybe because of it -- Fincher made the pop star work to land the part.

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SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) - Yahoo Inc. wants to prove it has regained its technological stride after years of meandering that have caused the Internet company to lose ground to its rivals.

The proof of Yahoo's renewed vigor will come this fall when the company plans to unveil facelifts to its free e-mail service and search results, a top executive told reporters Thursday.

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NEW YORK (AP) - YouTube is making its long expected foray into live streaming by launching an experimental trial with four new media partners.

The new live streaming platform will be previewed in a two-day trial beginning Monday, but is expected to later grow considerably across the Google Inc.-owned website.

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GoDaddy.com, the closely held website that registers Internet domain names, has put itself up for sale in an auction that could fetch more than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

Qatalyst Partners, the boutique firm run by veteran technology banker Frank Quattrone, has been hired to shop the Go Daddy Group Inc., which runs the world's largest domain name registrar, these people said. Private-equity firms are expected to bid for the company, which currently has more than 43 million domains under management.

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Earlier today, Google launched a new feature that could fundamentally change the way people go about searching the web: Google Instant. The feature, which is rolling out now, shows results for your search queries as soon as you begin typing them - oftentimes you'll have the information you were looking for before you're even finished typing your query. You can see our full coverage on the launch here.

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Elevated scrutiny over Google has lead the Texas attorney general's office to conduct an antitrust review of Google Inc.'s core search-engine operations.

The lead prosecutor of Texas has pursued allegations made by several small businesses that the search giant unfairly devalued their ranking results or ad placements in the search engines, Google said Friday.

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BERLIN (AP) - A German court ruled Friday that Google Inc.'s subsidiary YouTube LLC must pay compensation after users uploaded several videos of performances by singer Sarah Brightman in violation of copyright laws.

The Hamburg state court said the standardized question to users about whether they have the necessary rights to publish material is not enough to relieve YouTube of the legal responsibility for the content, especially because the platform can be used anonymously.

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They're the everyday fixtures of the Internet experience: pop-up stock quotes on a website, suggestions for related reading near a news article, videos along the side of your screen.

Now, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen says he owns the technology behind all these ideas, and he's demanding that some of the world's top Web companies pay up to use them.

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MOSCOW - On the Internet, he was known as BadB, a disembodied criminal flitting from one server to another selling stolen credit card numbers despite being pursued by the United States Secret Service.

And in real life, he was nearly as untouchable - because he lived in Russia.

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To some, Google has been looking a bit sallow lately. The stock is down. Where once everything seemed to go the company's way, along came Apple's iPhone, launching a new wave of Web growth on a platform that largely bypassed the browser and Google's search box. The "app" revolution was going to spell an end to Google's dominance of Web advertising.

But that's all so six-months-ago. When a group of Journal editors sat down with Eric Schmidt on a recent Friday, Google's CEO sounded nothing like a man whose company was facing a midlife crisis, let alone intimations of mortality.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Tweeting your favorite stories may be getting a little easier.

Twitter introduced Thursday a "tweet" button that websites can place alongside their content. The button serves as an invitation to Twitter's legion of users to share what they're reading without having to copy and paste the Web link.

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Google Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. on Monday called for equal treatment of most Internet traffic while at the same time saying fast-growing cellular networks and yet-to-be-developed broadband services should be exempt from such restrictions.

The ideas outlined in the proposal put forth by the Internet search giant and one of the largest broadband providers stand in contrast to the Federal Communications Commission's recent proposals on "net neutrality" rules, which would prevent companies from giving preferential handling to certain types of online traffic.

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The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday reaffirmed its commitment to an open Internet and scuttled a potentially embarrassing effort by Google and Verizon to propose rules that would enable Web providers to favor some services.

The FCC called off discussions that it was having with Internet services and providers to help develop new rules for the Web. They had not "generated a robust framework to preserve the openness and freedom of the Internet," chief of staff Edward Lazarus said in a statement. Still, "All options remain on the table as we continue to seek broad input," he said.

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Google this week confirmed its acquisition of online entertainment company Slide. The purchase rehashed speculation that the search giant is interested in working its way into social media, possibly with a game-centered service called "Google Me."

Although there isn't any word on specific product details David Glazer, engineering director at Google confirms the company will invest more effort to make its services more "socially aware" in a recent blog post.

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Facebook Inc.'s biggest advertisers have boosted spending by at least 10-fold in the past year as the social network crossed the half-billion user mark, becoming more alluring to marketers that want to reach a broad online audience.

Some advertisers have increased spending by as much as 20-fold or more, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said in an interview. The site's ad prices have held steady even as user growth fueled a surge in inventory, or pages that can carry ads, she said.

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Google is waving good-bye to Wave.

The company said on its blog on Wednesday that it is halting development on Google Wave, a real-time collaboration tool aiming to combine various forms of online communication.

"Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked," Senior Vice President Urs Holzle said in the blog post. "We don't plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site, at least through the end of the year, and extend the technology for use in other Google projects."

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Reports that Google's site in China was again blocked late last week highlights how the media narrative on China "is sometimes skewed", Shaun Rein, managing director at China Market Research Group told CNBC.

"A lot of people criticize China's government for doing things that they're not actually doing," said Rein, and cautioned investors to "dig in deep" to "really understand what's happening in the China market."

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Google Inc.'s pullback in China earlier this year left homegrown giant Baidu Inc. more dominant than ever as China's biggest search engine.

Now, Robin Li, Baidu's chief executive, must figure out new ways to grow amid immense investor expectations.

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Google has fixed a flaw in its Audio CAPTCHA software that could have given scammers a way to automatically set up phoney accounts with the company's services.

The flaw was described in a post to the Full Disclosure mailing list Monday. According to the post, anyone could pass a Google Audio CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) test by typing in any 10 words as the response.

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(Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., AT&T Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc. executives are meeting behind closed doors with U.S. officials in talks that critics say reduce the public's voice in keeping the Internet open.

The companies sought a compromise, in a rare Saturday session last weekend at the Federal Communications Commission, on rules proposed by Chairman Julius Genachowski to regulate how phone and cable companies handle Web traffic such as Google's YouTube videos.

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The online habits of most people who use the world's dominant Web browser are an open book to advertisers. That wasn't the plan at first.

In early 2008, Microsoft Corp.'s product planners for the Internet Explorer 8.0 browser intended to give users a simple, effective way to avoid being tracked online. They wanted to design the software to automatically thwart common tracking tools, unless a user deliberately switched to settings affording less privacy.

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(Bloomberg) -- Paul Ceglia, who claims in a lawsuit that he owns 84 percent of Facebook Inc., said his case wouldn't have been possible if state troopers hadn't come to his house in October to arrest him for fraud.

Ceglia's arrest and a suit by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo two months later, both the result of complaints related to his startup wood-pellet business, got him looking through old files to find assets to pay back customers, he said in an interview in his home in Wellsville, New York. One of those files held a forgotten 2003 contract with Mark Zuckerberg, now chief executive officer of Facebook, he said.

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Hidden inside Ashley Hayes-Beaty's computer, a tiny file helps gather personal details about her, all to be put up for sale for a tenth of a penny.

The file consists of a single code- 4c812db292272995e5416a323e79bd37-that secretly identifies her as a 26-year-old female in Nashville, Tenn.

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If the rumors are accurate, Google is planning something big in social gaming, and not just with Farmville.

The Wall Street Journal's "people familiar with the matter" say Google is negotiating with a few heavy hitters of social games. Not only has Google reportedly invested in Farmville maker Zynga - between $100 million and $200 million, according to an earlier rumor from TechCrunch - but the company is also in discussions with Playdom and Playfish, owned by Disney and Electronic Arts, respectively.

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Behind the recovery in business spending is a surge in purchases of the computers that form the backbone of the Internet, as companies scramble to meet growing demand for video and other Web-based services.

The need to reach customers and employees over the Web is driving furious demand for server systems, the machines that power corporate computer rooms.

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MCLEAN, Va. (AP) - Gannett Co., the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, is partnering with Yahoo Inc. to sell local online advertising. It's a deal that could help Gannett boost revenue as its traditional print business declines.

Gannett said that all of its newspapers and seven of its 23 TV stations will help sell Yahoo ad inventory in their local markets. Gannett and Yahoo will share the revenue, though specific financial terms were not disclosed.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) - Search giant Google Inc. says it has bought Metaweb Inc., a company that helps connect Internet search words to real-world things.

Terms were not disclosed.

Google director of product management, Jack Menzel, said in a blog post Friday that the acquisition will help "improve search and make the Web richer and more meaningful."

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SUN VALLEY, Idaho-Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Thursday that Google believes it will resolve its ongoing fight with the Chinese government over operating in the country and dismissed a range of probes facing the company over privacy and regulatory issues.

Addressing a topic that has been hanging over the company for months-the fate of its business in China, he said the company now expects to have its operating license from the Chinese government renewed, allowing it to continue to offer search services to Chinese users.

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BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union's antitrust chief said Wednesday he is looking "very carefully" at allegations that Google Inc. unfairly demotes rivals' sites in search results.

Joaquin Almunia said in a speech that the EU investigation is still at an early stage but that officials were aware of the "importance of search to a competitive online marketplace."

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BEIJING (AP) - A Google search feature was blocked in China on Thursday, the company said as it awaited Beijing's decision on whether to renew its operating license amid tensions over censorship.

Google Inc. said mainland users were unable to use the search giant's "suggest" feature, which offers possible results as they start to type a query. When it works, the feature may offer Chinese users a reminder that "tiananmen square massacre pictures" are available - but perhaps blocked - when they simply start typing in "tiananmen."

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WASHINGTON (AP) - In the murky world of the Internet, how do you ever really know who you're talking to, who you're buying from or if your bank can actually tell it's you when you log in to pay a bill?

Amid growing instances of identity theft, bank account breaches and sophisticated Internet scams, the government is looking for ways to make those transactions in cyberspace more secure.

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A federal judge in New York ruled in favor of Google Inc.'s YouTube unit Wednesday, in a closely watched copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by Viacom Inc.

The judge granted Google's motion for summary judgment in a three-year-old lawsuit in which Viacom claimed that the video-sharing Web site had sought to exploit Viacom's copyrighted works for profit. Google argued that YouTube was protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

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The Times, the London newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is offering free tickets to Toy Story 3 or the chance of a weekend at the Grosvenor Hotel in Dorset to persuade readers to pay for news online.

The newspaper this week began closing down its free website and will charge for access, mirroring a long-standing practice at the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times Co. plans to do the same next year. Both concede the step will mean fewer readers. A drop in advertising revenue is forcing them to seek other, more steady, sources of income.

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Google Inc.'s collection of data via Wi-Fi networks was the subject of a conference call among law enforcement officials from 30 U.S. states, according to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

"We're looking to establish where, when, why, for how long and for what purpose there was this collection of information on wireless networks," Blumenthal said yesterday in an interview. The call included representatives of the states' attorneys general.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators are reconsidering the rules that govern high-speed Internet connections - wading into a bitter policy dispute that could be tied up in court for years.

The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday to begin taking public comments on three different paths for regulating broadband. That includes a proposal by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a Democrat, to define broadband access as a telecommunications service subject to "common carrier" obligations to treat all traffic equally.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Yahoo Inc.'s latest facelift will include a Facebook touchup.

As part of changes rolling out this week, Yahoo will import personal updates from Facebook's social network for users who want a bridge between two of the world's most popular websites. The Facebook link will need to be turned on by each Yahoo user.

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Sources from within Google are claiming that the online search and advertising giant is implementing an official transition away from the Microsoft Windows operating system. According to the reports, the culture shift is intended to reduce security concerns. That makes a compelling headline--especially for a Microsoft rival developing its own operating system--but it doesn't make a very good security strategy.

Google has valid reasons to abandon Windows, but it better have a better security strategy than that alone.On one level, it makes perfect sense for Google to abandon Windows. Google has always been a bitter rival of Microsoft, and Google's Android mobile operating system and upcoming Chrome operating system are built on Linux. Of course Google should avoid generating additional revenue for Microsoft and rely on the platform that forms the foundation of what Google expects its customers to use.

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Two million businesses have "gone Google," according to the search giant's latest marketing. To date that has meant embracing Google Apps. Will it come to mean embracing Linux, as well?

Google, after all, is reportedly moving away from Microsoft's Windows operating system and is now requiring employees to choose Mac OS X or Linux. It's not a stretch to believe that Google's sales force will talk up Mac and Linux while talking CIOs out of their dependence on Microsoft Office and Exchange.

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Microsoft Corp. reorganized its entertainment division as rival Apple Inc. appeared poised to overtake it in stock market capitalization, highlighting the software behemoth's failure to ride the wave of consumer devices that is reshaping the balance of power in the technology industry.

The Redmond, Wash., company said the president of the division, Robbie Bach, will retire this fall. Another Microsoft veteran, J Allard, is also leaving. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer will take over leadership of the division with the heads of the Xbox videogame business and mobile-software business, reporting directly to Mr. Ballmer starting July 1.

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Nokia Corp. and Yahoo Inc. unveiled a partnership to work together on their email, chat and navigation services in an effort to bolster their respective positions in the world of mobile phones.

Nokia will power Yahoo's maps and navigation services, while Yahoo will run the email and chat programs on Nokia's Ovi platform. The companies weren't disclosing the financial terms.

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Symantec Corp.'s decision to pay $1.28 billion to buy a division of VeriSign Inc. that sells security technology to websites highlights how quickly the companies are moving in opposite directions.

Symantec, best known for its antivirus software for personal computers, wants to secure more things.

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Google Inc. believes it has come up with the technology to unite Web surfing with channel surfing on televisions.

To reach the long-elusive goal of turning TV sets into Internet gateways, Google has partnered with Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and Logitech International. They unveiled their much-anticipated plan for a "smart" TV on Thursday, and Intel CEO Paul Otellini predicted the effort will be "the biggest improvement to television since color."

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Click fraud is on the rise, as cybergangs step up the use of infected PCs to divert advertising dollars into their hands.

In the first three months of this year, 17% to 29% of clicks to online ads were fraudulent, according to separate estimates by Click Forensics and Anchor Intelligence, leading suppliers of click fraud detection technology. That's up from 15% to 25% in fourth-quarter 2009.

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A series of gaffes at Blippy, Google, and a Midwest bank exposed the credit card numbers of four individuals within Google search results for more than two months.

Friday was easily the worst day in the history of Blippy, a young start-up that enables people to create social networks around sharing information on goods and services they buy. VentureBeat discovered that credit card numbers of four Blippy users could be found in Google's search index, and it published its findings in a story, forcing the start-up's three founders to scramble to repair the damage and get the numbers removed from Google's search index.

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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Google Inc. accused Vietnam on Wednesday of stifling political dissent with cyberattacks, the latest complaint by the Internet giant against a communist regime following a public dispute with China over online censorship.

Like China, Vietnam tightly controls the flow of information and has said it reserves the right to take "appropriate action" against Web sites it deems harmful to national security.

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SAN BRUNO, Calif. (AP) - YouTube is adding captions to millions of Internet videos.

The feature unveiled Thursday expands upon speech-recognition technology that YouTube began using to make captions available on a limited number of videos late last year.

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BRUSSELS (AP) - Some 100 million Europeans using Microsoft software will be asked to choose among rival Web browsers by mid-May under a deal the company struck to settle antitrust action, the European Union said Tuesday.

Microsoft Corp. is starting this month to send updates to Windows computers in Europe so that when computer users log on, they will see a pop-up screen asking them to pick one or more of 12 free Web browsers to download and install, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

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The fight against distracted driving may be at a tipping point as 23 states debate legislation to ban texting while driving, a practice 19 states already prohibit.

"Legislators are looking to see if it (texting) is enough of a safety issue that they need to intervene," says Anne Teigen, a transportation specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures, who says 194 bills concerning various forms of distracted driving, including texting, are being debated in 34 states. "They often get involved because there's a high-profile accident that had to do with texting. Also, because everybody has a cellphone now."

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BEIJING -- In 2000, a 31-year-old software engineer named Li Yanhong, a.k.a. Robin Li, left his job in Silicon Valley and returned home to China to start an Internet search engine. He raised $26.2 million in venture capital, including a modest investment by Google.

Ten years later, Li's company, Baidu, has become the dominant search engine in China, a goliath with 7,000 employees and a market value of $16.2 billion on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Google, which sold its stake in 2006 when it launched its own Chinese site, has lagged far behind, capturing less than half of the market share Baidu has here.

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