Google first unveiled the Android mobile phone operating system in November 2007, and in recent months they've been showing the phone off to various media types and tech geeks, swearing them to secrecy about any of the phone's details. And now, an accidental slip by Google's legal advisor, Richard Whitt, indicates that we may perhaps actually see the Google Android phones by as early as this summer. According to CNET ,

Yahoo issued a press release today announcing the launch of a new search ranking algorithm to be used with their HotJobs service. They've named the new algorithm REAL, which stands for Relevance, Engagement, Availability,

When you update iTunes, Apple pushes their Safari browser to you. It's not all that surprising that they'd want to do this, considering they now have Safari for Windows, and pretty much told everyone that they'd be doing it. But nevertheless, the move seems to have ruffled a few feathers, particularly those at Mozilla. But why do they care, and how is it any different from what any other software company does? What it all comes down to is money . You know,

Microsoft is still gunning for Yahoo in hopes that by acquiring the company they'd be able to take on and seriously compete with Google in the online realm. But according to the results of a new comScore report, taking on Yahoo doesn't look like it'd help them all that much. In February 2008 both Microsoft and Yahoo lost ground to Google, who continues to widen its lead. Microsoft's share of the search market dropped from 9.8% in January to 9.6% in February,

Google Inc. lost their recent bid to obtain European Union-wide trademark protection for the term "Gmail", the name of their web mail service. According to a ruling by the EU's trademark agency, the Gmail name is too similar to an existing German trademark. A trademark for a slogan owned by German businessman Daniel Giersch contains the name "G-mail",

China is cracking down on the coverage of riot and demonstrations in Tibet, and has now banned access to YouTube and Google News within the country. This is an attempt to stop the rapid spread of video footage and reports that have already been widely publicized throughout the world. In addition to YouTube and Google, China has also restricted the broadcasts of CNN and BBC World. Speaking on the ban, CNET said that YouTube has become a sort of symbol of free speech,

As the amount of spam coming from Gmail accounts has been increasing in recent months, some have suggested that spammers have come up with a way to break past the captchas that protect Gmail with automated bots. Google, however, contends that this is simply not the case, and suggests instead that the driving force behind the increase in spam is actually low-wage workers from third-world countries being paid to get past the captchas.

Omid Kordestani, Google's senior vice president of global sales & business development, has made a generous $3 million donation to his alma mater, San Jose State University's College of Engineering. His gift will establish an endowed chair to support faculty teaching in multidisciplinary programs at the college. In Forbes recent list of worldwide billionaires, Kordestani was indicated as being worth $2.1 billion and the 458th most richest person in the world.

This week, Google announced that it will be holding a developers event in May that will cover a variety of topics as related to "Web 2.0″ application development. The event, known as "Google I/O" will span two days on May 28-29, 2008, and will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Google engineers will not only discuss the company's own developer products, but will also cover application development in general.

Google have all but conquered contextual-based advertising and are the clear leader in that area, however, they've yet to take the top spot in another area of online advertising: display advertising. However, the company does expect a bright future in this area, and are expecting to have a "very significant position" by 2008-2009. Key to their success in this area is the acquisition of DoubleClick, which has been approved by US regulatory officials,

In their efforts to avoid a takeover by Microsoft, Yahoo has been looking to the likes of AOL, News Corp. )MySpace(, and Google to help fend off the Redmond giant. But now, it appears that at least one of them is dropping out of the game. According to the San Jose Mercury News , Ruport Murdoch revealed today that he will not be pursuing any attempts to overthrow Microsoft. Murdoch indicated that although it would be "fun to beat Microsoft", it all comes down to money.

After a recent ComScore report indicated that the paid click rates for Google AdSense had dropped 12% year-over-year, and 7% from last December, Google felt the need to comment. According to Google, the decline is intentional and due to some quality initiatives that the company has taken. Not surprisingly efforts to reduce click fraud and other accidental clicks have affected the company's stock price. Speaking recently at the Bear Stearns Media Conference in Florida,

After detailed, street-level photographs of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas appeared in Google's controversial "Street View", the Pentagon acted quickly to have the images removed, calling them a threat to national security. Because of this security threat, Google is no longer permitted to take pictures of military installations. Google takes pictures of locations in cities as a part of their "Street Views" project,

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is no longer the world's richest person . He lost that title today, after having held onto it for an astounding 13 years. Taking over as the world's richest person is the American investor Warren Buffett, who increased his fortune by $10 billion in the past year. Comparatively, Bill Gates lost $1 billion in net worth over the past year, and can attribute losing the top spot to his Yahoo bid and the fall of Microsoft stock.

This week, Google launched a new application known as "Google Calendar Sync", which allows you to sync your Google Calendar with Microsoft's Outlook Calendar. Not only will you be able to view your Outlook Calendar events in Google Calendar, but you can also now view your Google Calendar events in Outlook Calendar. Google and Microsoft play nice for a change! If you're already signed up for Google Calendar,

Yahoo has extended the time allowed for shareholders to nominate directors, in an attempt to bide some time while the company explores alternative solutions amid Microsoft's unsolicited buyout offer. Yahoo said that in amending their bylaws and extending the deadline, the board can continue to look into alternatives "without the distraction of a proxy contest." The deadline for nominating directors was initially March 14,

According to Core Security Technologies, Google's Android SDK faces multiple remotely exploitable vulnerabilities . Core Security issued an advisory, indicating heap and interflow overflow issues with Android, and reserved eight CVE identifiers. They've also outlined a proof of concept exploit, including technical descriptions.

For the past two and a half years, Google has been asking its employees to make their predictions and bets on everything from their perception of projects, to the predicted number of Gmail users by the end of the year. Googlers make the bets anonymously with fake Google "money", which allows Google to track the opinions of its employees, as well as give them insight into the way information flows internally. In the time that the program has been running, 1,

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates doesn't like Google, and never misses an opportunity to take a dig at them. In his latest jab at the Mountain View search giant, Gates bashed Google Apps, stating that they haven't a clue how to provide enterprise grade software, and that their application suite is proof of that. Bill Gates issued these other other scathing remarks at the SharePoint Conference this week at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center. In terms of Google,

Sheryl Sandberg, the Vice President of Global Online Sales & at Google for six years, has deflected to Facebook where she will serve as their new Chief Operating Officer. Facebook announced the move today, and Sandberg will officially join the Facebook team just after Easter on March 24, 2008. As Facebook's new COO, Sandberg will be charged with helping the company scale its operations and expanding its global presence. According to the press release,