So if you've been following the Google-Microsoft Copygate fiasco , you know that Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services Division, shot back at Google for accusing it of copying its search results. Mehdi plainly stated : We do not copy results from any of our competitors. Period. Full stop. We have some of the best minds in the world at work on search quality and relevance,

Motorola is throwing Apple's own iconic marketing muscle back into its mighty face as it prepares to launch its iPad-challenging Xoom tablet computer. Notably, the company that has pinned its hopes to Android is airing an ad during the Super Bowl Feb. 6 designed to denigrate the iPad and pump up the Xoom, which sports a 10.1-inch screen powered by the Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system . Incidentally,

Google spent $5.2 million in lobbying in 2010, up almost one third from the $4 million it spent in all of 2009 . Per usual, the company paid to curry support for in online advertising regulation, patent reform, cyber security and online privacy, renewable energy, freedom of expression and censorship, tax reform, free trade, Internet service usage rules and broadband access. We the media have become fascinated by what Google spends on lobbying.

The Wall Street Journal uncovered something that isn't exactly a bombshell in the wake of Google's announcement last week that it would hire more than 6,200 people in 2011: Many of them will be mobile-application developers . The Journal noted: Google Inc. plans to hire dozens of software developers to create applications for smartphones and other mobile devices, people familiar with the matter said,

The Wall Street Journal uncovered something that isn't exactly a bombshell in the wake of Google's announcement last week that it would hire more than 6,200 people in 2011: many of them will be mobile application developers . The Journal noted: Google Inc. plans to hire dozens of software developers to create applications for smartphones and other mobile devices, people familiar with the matter said, a new strategy aimed partly at helping Google counter Apple Inc.

Google Jan. 26 surrendered to Zillow, Trulia and other real estate Websites by giving up on offering real estate listings Google in July 2009 began retrieving property sale and rental listings in a one-box format directly on Google Maps. Google improved the feature in October 2009 by offering a "real estate" option where users could see balloons on the maps of listings, as well as a pop-up real estate refinement panel on the left.

With the exception of the super important ability to print Gmail messages from the cloud , I've haven't been focusing on the passel little Gmail features of late )such as the new unread message icon or the search-as-you-type (. I'm making an exception today to discuss the new HTML5 desktop notifications that alert Google Chrome users when a new e-mail or chat message arrives. This is a great little tool. I've noticed that when I receive alerts to my Motorola Droid X,

Google served notice to rivals such as Apple and Facebook Jan. 25 when it put a big help wanted notice up on the Web and the media gobbled it up . After hiring more than 4,500 full-timers in 2010, Google is adding more than 6,200 new workers in 2011. Or, at least, it's hiring more than the 6,131 people Google tacked on in its previous biggest hiring year in 2007. We know this because this will be the "biggest hiring year in company history," according to Alan Eustace,

After helping the Justice Department exorcise the demon that was Microsoft more than a decade ago, attorney Gary Reback is preaching about why he sees Google as the new antitrust antichrist. It's a tasty tongue-twister to be sure, but it's a serious matter. Reback shared some great insights about how Google, with its delightifully devilish 66.6 percent U.S. search market share,

Of the many different ways Google CEO Eric Schmidt's turning over ultimate control to co-founder Larry Page will impact the company I believe Google Apps - really, the company's entire enterprise business - will be affected the most. If I'm Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard, I'm cursing the change. With two decades at Sun Microsystems and Novell under his belt, Schmidt was clearly a commander with deep enterprise computing chops.

Several times in 2010 Google CEO Eric Schmidt mentioned that Google was taking a "mobile first" approach to computing, including anything from smartphones to Google Apps and its other technologies. Google is moving that needle forward in 2011. Schmidt wrote in the Harvard Business Review that all of Google's initiatives for year are mobile-centric. We are at the point where, between the geolocation capability of the phone and the power of the phone's browser platform,

The jig is up. Google Games is coming. Let us no longer be fooled or fool ourselves. Yesterday, Mary Jo Foley discovered that Johnny Chung Lee, a noted "core contributor" for the Microsoft Kinect gaming sensor used for the Xbox 360, had joined Google as a "rapid evaluator." Lee wrote in a blog post : Very recently, I have left Microsoft to join a special projects team at Google.

The media spend an inordinate amount of time amping the pros of smartphones such as Apple's can-do-no-wrong iPhone and Google's latest high-end handsets. Some folks, perhaps sick of the accolades heaped on the iPhone 4 coming to Verizon Wireless and Google's Samsung Nexus S, offered some contrarian views. Let's start with Joe Nocera of The New York Times . Nocera, noting that Apple COO Tim Cook said at the Verizon iPhone 4 launch Jan.

The European Commission is doing its due diligence in its investigation of Google's search engine practices with a questionnaire to advertisers asking whether Google manipulated search results to promote its own Web services. We learned in early December Europe's antitrust arm was investigating Google, but thanks to The New York Times , we now know the commission is circulating a written inquiry with 120 questions for Google advertisers.

Google got bolder with its Google Apps service level agreement Jan. 14, removing the clause that allows for scheduled downtime for its Web-based collaboration software and promising to give customers credit for any downtime. Moreover, the SLA has been improved so that any intermittent downtime of these e-mail and document apps is counted, according to Google Enterprise Product Management Director Matthew Glotzbach, who added : Previously,

Yes, there will be a Google mobile payments system. It's now a matter of when, not if. A week ago, BusinessWeekBloomberg said Google is building a payment and ad service consumers would use to buy goods from their Android handsets. The service is powered by near field communications short-range wireless technology, which will let users buy products by tapping or waving their mobile phones against a register at checkout.

As I sat in the theater Jan. 11, which is totally appropriate considering I was listening to the dramatic flourish that was Verizon Wireless' support for Apple's iPhone 4 , I couldn't help but think with each passing data nail driven home about how the launch on Verizon would impact Google's Android platform. Verizon has over 93 million wireless customers, but how many are itching for an iPhone?My empirical data suggests a lot.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has shown a disposition toward frankness in his answers to journalists' questions. He's even exhibited wit at in opportune times, joking about people's privacy, which typically private people, and the privacy advocates who try to get everyone riled up, found to be no laughing matter. So I'm curious as to how Schmidt viewed this comment to The Daily Beast from Marissa Mayer, the company's new head of local products,

Engadget scored this sweet interview with Google's Android user experience lead Matias Duarte, who discussed the new Android 3.0 )Honeycomb( OS powering the Motorola Xoom when Verizon Wireless launches it next month he helped craft. Duarte, who left Palm after creating the heralded webOS user interface, explains in a politic way why he joined Google: "Google was an opportunity to make stuff better on a much bigger scale - the fastest growing scale.

Funny story, or at least funny to those who appreciate fine PR slipperiness. A few weeks ago - before I landed in this Godforsaken city in the desert for the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show - I approached Google to see if any of its executives would be appearing at the show. I was told that no, not officially. Moreover, Google would not be making spokespeople available at the show for interviews. Google PR didn't say Google wouldn't have a force here,