Topic: Mountain View (California)

Forget 'Men in Black 3': Why aliens won't attack Earth

SETI hunter Jill Tarter says Sir Stephen Hawking is wrong about aliens coming to attack or colonize Earth.  If aliens can get here, Tarter reasons, they'll be advanced enough not to need slaves, food or other planets,

Google to split stock to preserve control

The split will take the form of an issue of new, non-voting shares after Google reported increased earnings in its first quarter.

Appeals court reinstates Viacom lawsuit against Google's YouTube

The court ruling Thursday allows Viacom and other entities to sue Google over the use of copyrighted video on the internet search engine's YouTube video platform.

Google privacy changes allow company to dig deeper into users' lives: Q&A

Google says the changes will make its privacy policy easier to understand. Critics argue that Google is trampling on people's privacy rights in its relentless drive to sell more ads.

Young Internet entrepreneurs embrace philanthropy

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter's Biz Stone, Craigslist's Craig Newmark, and many others have turned their entrepreneurial skills to solving the world's social problems.

Quadrantid Meteor Shower peaks Weds, one of 2012's best

The Quadrantids are notoriously unpredictable, but if any year promises a fine display, this could be it.

Black Friday: Small firms saw big bounce, too

Black Friday and Thanksgiving weekend sales rose 23 percent from last year for America's smallest businesses, according to a new survey. 'Small Business Saturday' helped sole proprietors, but Black Friday was where they saw the biggest gains. 

Charity 2.0? Silicon Valley reinvents philanthropy.

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs bring a fresh eye to social problems. In some cases, their innovative solutions are changing the way charity is delivered.  

Happy Halloween! Do giant pumpkins have a size limit?

Happy Halloween! Google commemorates Halloween with a massive-pumpkin-carving video. What's the science behind gargantuan gourds?

Happy Halloween: The story behind Google's 1,000-pound pumpkins

Happy Halloween, says Google in its pumpkin-carving video. Here's the story behind the YouTube doodle and those massive Halloween jack-o'-lanterns.

Draconid meteor shower: Don't let daylight or nearly full moon stop you

Draconid meteor shower viewing is potentially much more exciting this year, as Earth is expected to hit some tendrils of comet dust head-on. But the peak is Saturday afternoon.

Data centers: Google expands to Asia

Data centers are planned for Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. They will be Google's first data centers in Asia.

President Obama sells jobs plan in Silicon Valley

President Obama: was to appear Monday at a town hall-style event hosted by the career-focused social networking site LinkedIn to pitch his nearly $450 billion jobs proposal as he travels through California scooping up campaign cash.

Insider trading: Consultant James Fleishman convicted

Insider trading is the downfall of yet another Wall Street trader, as hedge fund consultant James Fleishman is convicted of insider trading for putting clients in touch with consultants at publicly traded companies.

iBIO of Steve Jobs

Tatooine for real? Scientists confirm planet orbiting two suns.

Tatooine is the mythical home of Luke Skywalker. Now, scientists have identified a planet in a binary system 200 light-years away, although the planet is more like Saturn in mass and makeup.

Chris Tucker: Why he left, and why he's back on stage

Chris Tucker returned to the stage Aug. 13 after four years away from the spotlight. But Chris Tucker is far from the first comedian to take a sabbatical.

Internet stocks: Google takes off

Internet stocks are doing well for Google. The company's internet stocks rose from $5.71 a share a year ago to $7.68 a share at the end of the second quarter.

Home solar gets $280 million boost from Google

Home solar is target of Google's largest clean-energy investment yet. Under home solar program, homeowners would get free rooftop panels, paying set amount for the power.

Letters to the Editor – Weekly Issue of June 6, 2011

Readers write in to decry the treatment of Kentucky Derby horses, rebut Paul Ryan's defense of his budget plan, and spotlight Pakistan's wasted resources on its border 'battle' with India.

EBay sues Google over stolen secrets, poached employees

EBay sues Google over mobile payment technology: PayPal's parent company, eBay, is suing Google after Google allegedly poached eBay executives in an effort to better understand PayPal's mobile payment strategy.

SETI puts E.T. on hold

SETI has temporarily halted one of its chief alien-hunting tools, the Allen Telescope Array, citing lack of funding.

Coming web IPOs: the Renaissance roundup

LinkedIn, Zillow, and HomeAway are among the web-based companies that have recently filed for IPOs

Epsilon security breach: 5 signs it's only the tip of the iceberg

This week millions of e-mail addresses were reported stolen from Epsilon, a firm that supplies e-mail marketing to BestBuy, Disney, and many others. Here are five more emerging targets for precision attacks:

Smartphones help Girl Scouts sell cookies

Smartphones with an attachment for swiping credit cards help a Girl Scout troop in Ohio sell cookies to customers who don't want to pay cash