In the tech community, a lot of people profess to dislike Facebook games such as FarmVille and CityVille. They're snubbed due to requiring little thought or skill, and viewed with suspicion since users are encouraged to spend real money. But there's no denying their popularity, and it looks like CityVille is about to take the crown. A few days ago, bloggers noticed that CityVille was closing in on Farmville - long Facebook's top game - in terms of monthly active users.

To mark the end of 2010, Nielsen published a document called "The Top Trends for 2010" this morning, and it's an interesting read, even if most of the lists don't fall within the scope of this site's coverage )FYI: "frozen novelties" were the top consumer packaged good on the basis of unit volume growth(. But one thing that is relevant is the fact YouTube was crowned "Top Mobile Internet Video Channel." This counts as an important victory for Google.

While a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, Google will not have to see if the same concept applies in the case of its mobile operating system. A judge has thrown out an Android trademark lawsuit and given Google the right to continue using the word "android." Granted, it was unlikely that Google - with its market cap of $193 billion and army of lawyers - would ever have actually needed to develop a new name for the OS.

The man who created Gmail and came up with Google's "don't be evil" motto has been a bit tough on the company in recent days. Two examples : he gave Google better odds of landing on the moon than succeeding with social, and described Chrome OS as doomed. But late yesterday, Paul Buchheit made it clear that he believes the company as a whole "is still awesome." In keeping with his programming background,

Android and iOS fanatics are likely to be all smiles today. Microsoft's at last released a figure related to the sales of Windows Phone 7 devices, and it's not anything that'll have investors dumping their shares of Google and Apple in order to get behind Steve Ballmer. A quick refresher: on December 8th, Android guru Andy Rubin tweeted that more than 300,000 Android phones were being activated each day. Also, Apple announced not too long ago that 14.

When turned down for a job or a date, the average person doesn't give up on either the idea of employment or a relationship. He or she just tries again, perhaps with lower standards. And similarly, after being rejected by Groupon, Google's now supposed to be on the hunt again, looking to acquire another company in the same space. Josh Kosman reported early this morning, "Google, whose $6 billion buyout offer was spurned by online coupon site Groupon,

A couple words of caution: Baidu doesn't speak for the Chinese government, and no one's hinted that any sort of formal alliance exists between Baidu and Facebook. A high-ranking Baidu spokesperson has said he'd like to see Facebook operate in China, however. Kaiser Kuo, Director of International Communications at Baidu, indicated his support while participating in an online discussion about Mark Zuckerberg today. On Quora ,

Early this month, Google offered military families free $10 international call credits. The goal was to help soldiers deployed around the world stay in touch with their loved ones. Now, Google's also set to make it easier for ordinary U.S. citizens to save money when chatting, as it's offered free calling in Gmail through the end of next year. A post on the Official Gmail Blog explained this afternoon, "When we launched calling in Gmail back in August,

The company that supposedly turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google has now given another sign that it has some very interesting financial plans. Groupon announced today that it's secured Jason Child, a high-ranking exec at Amazon, as its chief financial officer. Child held the title "Vice President of Finance" for Amazon's international business prior to this move, and that role put him in within a department worth about $14 billion.

Shareholders may grumble, but there's perhaps a bit of good news regarding the four percent of Yahoo's employees who were laid off last week. Yahoo's calculated the pre-tax cost of the layoffs at somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 million. A form the company filed with the SEC explained, "In connection with the worldwide workforce reduction,

The corporate world tends to slow down this time of year; people take time off, offices close, and product announcements are delayed. A dispute between Google and the Connecticut Attorney General over Street View is escalating, however, and it looks like some lawyers might be called into action as a result. Earlier this month, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal gave Google one week to share the sensitive data collected by its Street View cars.

Early reviews of Hulu Plus weren't too favorable, with most folks coming to the conclusion that Netflix was a better deal. The newer service has cut its price and improved its content selection, however, and as a result, apparently caught on to the point that it helped Hulu earn an unanticipated $20 million. Here's what happened: last month at the NewTeeVee Live conference, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar predicted that his company would take in $240 million this year. Then yesterday,

The United Nations Commission on Science & Technology for Development needs to open its doors and allow many more organizations to join an Internet-related group, according to Google. Vint Cerf, who serves as "Chief Internet Evangelist" at the search giant, spoke up this morning following a row over a governments-only proposal. Cerf explained on the Official Google Blog ,

Google's lawyers in Europe, who have been forced to deal with all sorts of investigations and inquiries over the past few years, have just had more obstacles dropped in their way. A new report's indicated that the European Commission will look into two antitrust complaints originating in Germany. The complaints come from two publishers and one mapping company, and first surfaced quite a while ago. But to recap: the publishers,

Facebook and Hulu, while doing fine in many respects, couldn't quite hold online video viewers' interest in November as they've done before. New stats from comScore indicate that both companies failed to match past performances last month, with Facebook losing a spot on a top ten list and Hulu falling off it. To delve into the numbers: Facebook saw its unique user count fall from 47.4 million individuals in October to 42.5 million in November,

Fans of AltaVista, Delicious, Fire Eagle, and Yahoo Buzz - along with many other Yahoo properties - may want to devise a backup plan. A leaked corporate document indicates that a number of sites are due to be shut down, and more than a few others will in some way be merged. A note regarding the authenticity of the Yahoo document: this does indeed seem to be the real thing. A product called myM that it mentions fell off the map a long time ago,

It can be a bit of a balancing act when reports concerning the search market come out; if comScore, Experian Hitwise, and Nielsen all say different things, it's embarrassing to have three contradictory headlines. New numbers from Experian Hitwise tend to agree with yesterday's comScore stats in asserting that November was a good month for Bing, however. comScore said Google's market share went down, Yahoo's went down, and Bing's went up.

Less than 24 hours after Twitter raised $200 million in funding at a valuation of $3.7 billion, there's good news about Facebook on the financial front, as well. A report's claimed that Facebook will pull in a whopping $2 billion in sales revenue this year. Word comes from Brian Womack and "three sources familiar with the matter," which should mean the figure's fairly reliable. Bloomberg isn't in the habit of printing wild rumors. As for some additional details,

Facebook long ago passed Flickr to become the world's largest photo-sharing site, and thanks to an impending upgrade, its lead may soon increase. Facebook announced late yesterday that it's developed facial recognition software to help users tag photos. Justin Mitchell, an engineer, explained on the Facebook Blog , "When you or a friend upload new photos,

For most people with a financial interest in Twitter, these are going to be some happy holidays indeed. The company's confirmed a new round of funding, and reports indicate that it raised $200 million at a valuation of a stunning $3.7 billion. Dick Costolo confirmed on the Twitter Blog that Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers was, as had been rumored, the leading force behind this round. Then other "existing investors" participated, too, according to Twitter's new CEO.