This may not come as a surprise, but the end of 2010 didn't pose much of a stumbling block for Google's mobile operating system. New numbers from comScore are out, and Android continued to make significant gains in December. comScore pegged Google's share of American smartphone subscribers at 28.7 percent in December, up from 26.0 percent in November. That's a big rise, suggesting Android devices were a go-to holiday present.

If a company's success can be linked with its CEO's popularity, then Twitter is going to have a very bright future. New rankings concerning Silicon Valley CEOs are out, and Dick Costolo, who replaced Twitter cofounder Evan Williams in October, came in first place. It's of course possible to like a clueless person or respect someone who's a jerk, so we're not really suggesting anyone put too much stock in these findings. Still,

Whenever Google gets around to planning its I/O 2012 event, someone should really consider either hiking ticket prices or finding a bigger place to host it. This afternoon, people were invited to register for Google I/O 2011, and within one hour, the event was sold out. Vic Gundotra, Vice President of Engineering, made the feat official with an announcement on Twitter. By comparison, it took 90 days to sell out Google I/O in 2009,

The group that's fined companies like Microsoft and Intel billions of euros in the past few years might reach a less harsh solution where its antitrust probe of Google is concerned. Rumors indicate that Google and the European Commission are holding talks. Note: these rumors are very much unproven, with even the unnamed source who leaked them indicating that negotiations aren't far along. Google could still be in a lot of trouble. Reuters reported this morning, however,

It should soon become much easier for people in Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain to find the best deals online. Google indicated today that it's moving towards launching Google Product Search/Google Shopping in those countries, opening the Google Merchant Center as a preliminary step. The Google Merchant Center is in large part what makes Google Product Search work; it's a site that allows businesses to submit data product feeds,

Any developers who wanted to tinker with Google TV but felt they lacked a solid starting point should look again. Google's released a pair of templates and a user interface library meant to give developers a leg up on building optimized sites. A post on the Official Google TV Blog explained, "We've created two template designs that are focused on delivering video content, but equally suitable for photos or other multimedia.

It seems like all's been quiet on the Google Books front for a while. There's been little talk of new partners, lawsuits, or just about anything. But that doesn't mean nothing's been happening, as today, Google signaled that it's scanned )and returned( one million books from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. A quick note in case you're not familiar with the CIC : it's an association that's been around since 1958,

If you happen to live in California and know any Facebook employees, consider saving cardboard boxes and bubble wrap for them. The company's poised to make a big announcement about establishing a new headquarters, scheduling a media event for Tuesday, February 8th. Caroline McCarthy reported this afternoon, "Facebook has sent out an invitation for a Tuesday press conference at an address in Menlo Park, Calif., which houses the city's municipal buildings.

The social network that made a 20-something a billionaire, grew to be a mainstay of many people's everyday lives, and became the subject of an award-winning film has now achieved something else. Today, Facebook turned seven years old. Indeed, the official version of events )as described by a Facebook " Info " page( indicates that Facebook was founded on February 4th, 2004. And it's somewhat impressive for any organization to have just survived so long,

The concerns that Google Instant might make incorrect guesses, act as a flashy distraction, or focus too much on quantity versus quality )in relation to results( have apparently been dismissed. A Google employee shared an impressive fact yesterday: the opt-out rate is under three percent. Austin Carr wrote after an interview, "According to Ben Gomes, the lead engineer on Google Instant,

Facebook's short-lived )but soon-to-be-re-enabled( experiment with sharing users' addresses and phone numbers with third parties did not impress certain politicians. Indeed, Representatives Barton and Markey, Co-Chairmen of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, were bothered enough to write to Mark Zuckerberg. In fairness to Facebook, the company only intended to share users' data with their permission. It was quick to back down in response to criticism, too.

Nine days ago, Google announced with some fanfare that it intended to hire at least 6,000 new employees this year. Now, it turns out the response was immediate and almost overwhelming, as a representative's said over 75,000 people submitted applications last week. Google of course has a lot of things working in its favor, from a market cap of $195 billion to a reputation for being a great place to work. The combination of high pay, dogs,

People who have put off giving Chrome a try now have several more reasons to set aside their usual browser for at least an hour or two. Today, three significant updates - Chrome Instant, the Chrome Web Store, and WebGL - all graduated from the beta channel to the stable build. Chrome Instant will be the most helpful feature for ordinary users. A post on the Google Chrome Blog explained, "With Chrome Instant ) la Google Instant(,

Over the next few days, onlookers shouldn't be surprised if the mix of questions on Answers.com begins to favor inquiries of the "what kind of _ should I buy?" variety. Fans may have some extra money coming to them, as Answers.com announced this morning that it's being acquired for $127 million. AFCV Holdings, which is controlled by Summit Partners, is the organization that's making the purchase. And Summit Partners, if you're interested,

Any hackers who think they know a thing or two about Chrome should strongly consider booking a flight to Vancouver, British Columbia. At the Pwn2Own competition in early March, the first person who can exploit the browser will get $20,000 )and a Cr-48 notebook, if it matters( from Google itself. Aaron Portnoy, Manager of the Security Research Team at TippingPoint Technologies )which is behind the event(, explained in an official blog post ,

Eleven months ago, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were pulled from Hulu. Fans complained in response. Now the shows are back thanks to a wider deal between Hulu and Viacom, and Hulu's CEO, Jason Kilar, has also revealed some interesting stats and opinions regarding the site's performance and the future of television. Let's start with a quick rundown of the content deal.

Google may be losing some of its charm. Two months after Groupon supposedly turned down an acquisition offer worth $6 billion, rumors indicate that a small company called Path has declined an offer worth an initial $100 million. If you haven't heard of Path, you're not alone. "The Personal Network," as former Facebook employee and Path CEO Dave Morin labeled it in an introductory blog post , just launched in November,

Using an app on a smartphone can be both easy and fun. Browsing through dozens or hundreds of them, on the other hand, might result in an unscheduled trip to the optometrist. So this afternoon, Google introduced the Android Market website in the midst of some other Android announcements. The Android Market website is exactly what its name should lead you to expect: a site that lets users navigate the Android Market from a normal browser.

About three weeks ago, Google announced that Chrome would no longer support the H.264 video codec. Now, following some unpleasantness over allegedly copied search results, Microsoft's struck back by introducing an H.264 extension for Chrome. To be fair, there's room for interpretation regarding how aggressive this move is )or isn't(. Microsoft's offered similar plug-ins for Firefox for quite some time, and no one's identified any real animosity there.

iPhone owners now have another option when it comes to apps that can help them save money. Almost exactly a year after it became available to Android users, a version of Google Shopper for the iPhone has launched. Obviously, Google's a little late to this game on the iOS platform, and the new version of Google Shopper doesn't offer any fresh, groundbreaking features. But the app is free, and its functionality is hard to dispute. To start with,