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Hewlett-Packard confirmed Tuesday that it is testing Google's Android operating system as a possible alternative to Windows in some of its netbook computers.

Google said it was responding to the phenomenal popularity of free music downloads in China, one of the few markets where the company lags, by forming an alliance with the music industry.

K, it's California. So we are quite used to the rest of the country rolling their eyes in knowing exasperation at our fads. But often, they turn out to be harbingers of national trends. And so the question: Will AB-255 (a bill that would "censor" some aspects of Google Earth) number among them as well?

The Internet giant's search engine could make Web site design and navigation obsolete.

Likaholix is a brand new web service that lets you share personal recommendations about virtually anything with the world.

Power browsers are coming. And they'll look mighty familiar. Software is supposed to be a mature industry, characterized by some sort of mono- or duopoly. How to explain, then, the activity around Web browsers. Three of the tech industry's biggest names -- Microsoft, Google and Apple -- each has a significant in-house browser development effort, with periodic fresh releases.

ASUS on Friday said it has been developing a netbook based on Google's Android platform that would ship by the end of 2009 -- and would make Linux on netbooks a real alternative to more expensive (not to mention closed) Windows PCs.

Google is officially denying widespread Internet rumors that its Google Earth software located the mythical sunken city of Atlantis off the coast of Africa. Either that, or Google is totally trying to hide something. Since I always appreciate a nice juicy conspiracy theory, I'm going to go with the latter.

Last month we reported a potentially important change in search-market share trends: After years of steady decline, Yahoo's domestic share numbers (YHOO) had increased for five months in a row. Well, the good news continued in January, with Yahoo's share jumping a half-point to 21%, per Comscore.

A second phone based on Google's operating system Android is unveiled by Vodafone at the Mobile World Congress.