Earlier this morning, AOL reported its fourth quarter earnings results, and for shareholders, there's both good news and bad news. The good: the company beat most analysts' expectations. The bad: a column documenting year-over-year changes is still almost full of double-digit negative numbers. Indeed, total revenue decreased 26 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2009, advertising revenue fell by the same amount, and free cash flow plunged by 38 percent,

Facebook, Foursquare, and Gowalla )along with several other companies( now have a little more competition when it comes to location-based check-in services. Starting this afternoon, Google Latitude users can also let their friends know when they've arrived at a certain place. Google's rationale for this upgrade is that check-ins add context. Now, rather than just seeing a pal is on a certain street,

When making a big decision, many people like to do some research on their own before meeting with a salesperson. And sellers might prefer this arrangement, too, since it saves them from having to answer the same basic questions over and over. So Google's probably made a wise move by releasing a "Guide to Going Google" for schools and universities. Think of this as a sophisticated online sales brochure designed to promote Google Apps for Education.

eBay lost an important employee last week )the VP of product development at PayPal jumped to Google( but things are now looking up on the personnel front. The company's managed to poach one staff member each from Bing and Facebook, and both men have rather impressive resumes. Let's discuss them in alphabetical order. Dennis DeCoste hails from Facebook, where he held the title "research scientist." Before that,

Whether or not any of us realized it at the time, the first month of 2011 was an exciting one when it came to Microsoft, Google, and the ongoing browser wars. New stats from Net Applications indicate that some big changes took place, with Chrome gaining ground and Internet Explorer taking a hit. Chrome's success story is the more straightforward development. Net Applications found that, between December and January, its market share increased from 9.98 percent to 10.

Chinese search company Baidu shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to making money. Late yesterday, the company released its fourth quarter earnings report, and analysts' expectations were surpassed in pretty much every respect. To sort of cut to the chase: Baidu's stock is up 6.69 percent in early morning trading, which shows the degree to which the company impressed investors. Jumps like that don't occur on an everyday basis. As for some details,

The comments that people leave on blogs and news sites scattered across the Web might soon )and presumably with their permission( be tied their Facebook profiles. A rumor's indicated that Facebook will unveil a third-party commenting system in the near future. Caroline McCarthy wrote this afternoon, "Facebook is planning to launch a third-party commenting system in a matter of weeks, according to multiple sources familiar with the new product.

Google fans may want to brace for another round of accusations about the company's influence. The Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, which is backed by the U.S. Senate itself, shows that the search giant spent $5.16 million to talk to politicians in 2010. That's up a significant amount - $1.13 billion or 28 percent - from the $4.03 billion Google spent in 2009. Groups like Consumer Watchdog are sure to object as a result,

It looks like Microsoft isn't going to defy Google and Baidu and achieve a great victory in China anytime soon. Three and a half months after it began, a partnership involving Bing and a search engine owned by Alibaba has already ended. To be fair, little is known about the situation, and it could have been someone at Microsoft who pulled the plug. The comments of one Microsoft representative hint that a corporate memo didn't exactly go around, however.

Current and potential Facebook employees who are weighing their options should set aside any concerns about lack of elbow space. Although things might be getting tight at the company's current headquarters, reports indicate Facebook has bought two new buildings. Mike Swift wrote, "Records filed with the San Mateo County recorder's office show that Giant Properties LLC, an entity connected to Facebook, bought the properties at 312 and 314 Constitution Drive on Dec.

Google's decision to ignore a Civil Investigative Demand issued by Richard Blumenthal may work out all right for the company. New Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen and Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell have reached an agreement with Google that should keep the matter from going to court. A little background information,

The Egyptian government's decision to shut down Internet access doesn't seem to have gone over well with Twitter cofounder Biz Stone. While Stone was diplomatic enough not to name the country, a new 400-word post on the official Twitter Blog very much speaks to the situation, stressing the importance of freedom of speech. Stone wrote this afternoon, "Our goal is to instantly connect people everywhere to what is most meaningful to them. For this to happen,

The company that's said to have turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google has now lured an important employee away from the second-biggest name in search. Michael Shim, Vice President of Mobile Business Development and Partnerships at Yahoo, will soon start at Groupon. Shim's resume is quite impressive. After graduating from Georgetown University and Cornell Law School, he worked for a time as a corporate lawyer.

Quora, the Q&A site that bloggers and Silicon Valley early adopters can't get enough of, is growing quickly, according to a new report. Andrew Chen published some stats today showing that even a conservative estimate pegs the January growth rate at 150 percent. A little background info: Chen's a blogger who's worked as both an entrepreneur-in-residence at Mohr Davidow Ventures and a director of product marketing at Revenue Science. He's also a big Quora fan, writing,

Amazon shareholders who were already on edge over the company's disappointing earnings report and forecast now have one more thing to fret about. A new SEC document indicates that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos cut his stake in the company by a significant amount at the end of last year. The Schedule 13G , which Amazon filed today, shows that Bezos reduced his stake to 19.5 percent on December 31st, 2010. That's down from 21.2 percent beforehand, which works out to a cut of 8.

We're not quite sure how the average individual is supposed to celebrate this - don a tinfoil hat and watch a few episodes of The X-Files, perhaps? - but Data Privacy Day is here, and Google's attempted to acknowledge the occasion in several different ways. Method of support number one: as you can see from the screenshot below, Google )along with Microsoft( is a sponsor of Data Privacy Day. That means the search giant officially supports The Privacy Projects,

Microsoft shareholders may not be impressed )the company's stock has been a little droopy in after-hours trading(, but the quarter ending December 31st seems to have gone well. Microsoft reported its earnings this afternoon and beat analysts' forecasts by significant margins. The key figures: analysts thought Microsoft would report earnings per share of $0.68. The company reported earnings per share of $0.77, instead, which represents a pretty significant jump. Also,

A single high-profile deal has done wonders for LivingSocial's popularity, according to a new Hitwise report. The site, which trailed Groupon in terms of visits by a huge margin, closed the gap by a significant amount after offering $20 Amazon gift certificates for $10 last week. A disclaimer: it's of course far too early to say whether the traffic bump will be permanent.

Netflix, which for better or worse possesses a rather unique ability to entertain solitary users for hours on end, is about to get both more social and more specific. The company has informed shareholders that it will connect with Facebook in order to develop personal Netflix accounts. Netflix announced in a letter , "[W]e're working on an extensive Facebook integration, which will further the notion of a personal Netflix account." )Household accounts are the norm now,

"Principal scientist" is an important-sounding title, and it's hard to imagine any person holding it wouldn't contribute a lot to his or her company. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it looks like Bing's principal scientist was lured away by Twitter. Nothing's been confirmed through official channels just yet, but Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote late yesterday with respect to Alek Kolcz, "[W]e noticed tonight that he's been added to the list of staff members on the Twitter website.