Google and smartphone vendor Motorola Mobility have entered an agreement where the search giant will acquire the mobile maker for $12.5 billion, formally announcing the beginning of Google’s official entry into the smartphone market as a vendor. Announcing the deal on its official blog, Google CEO Larry Page details its phenomenal success with its Android operating system, noting that more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide, with over 550,000 devices activated each day....

Google has reached an agreement with a German regulator over the way it collects and utilises user information for its Analytics websites traffic monitoring tool in Europe,Bloomberg reports. Google has agreed to expand a browser add-on that will allow users to opt-out of website data collection, allowing website owners to request that the search giant does not store their complete IP addresses within Europe. To adhere to German law, the company will also sign data-administration contracts with website owners....

Google is facing a €295m (approx. $421,800.000) damages claim in France from one of the companies which initiated the current European anti-trust investigation into its dominance in the search, news and mapping sectors. 1plusV, which operates search serviceEjustice.fr, aimed at the legal profession, claims that Google blocked its sites from results. It claims that between 2007 and 2010, 30 ‘vertical’ (specialist) search sites developed by the French firm had been “black-listed....

It’s no secret thatGooglehas intentionally stayed clear of developing native smart phone apps – particularly for the iPhone. Instead, the Internet giant has focused its attentions on developing web based mobile websites/web-applications where access is only limited by a browser. Well, according to areport on the WSJ, that is all soon to change. With an upcomingchange in CEOcomes a change in strategy; one that will see new CEO Larry Page lead with the development of native mobile applications for the scope of OS’s available....

Today,in a blog post, Google announced it will be shutting down Google Buzz in a few week’s time. Google says it will be shutting down Buzz and the Buzz API to focus on Google+, where users will be able to see their existing Buzz content and download it usingGoogle Takeout. We aspire to build great products that really change people’s lives, products they use two or three times a day. To succeed you need real focus and thought—thought about what you work on and, just as important, what you don’t work on....