White River Junction, Vermont -- Global search leader Google Inc.'s “Matt Dunne,” the man who oversees its worldwide community affairs efforts to polish its image in the places where it has offices, running his candidacy for governor of Vermont is drawing attention, because of his other job -- as an executive with the Internet search giant Google.

Dunne 40, a former legislator is head of community affairs for the California-based Google and functions out of White River Junction. Dunne's dream of using innovative technology -- and the broadband Internet connection supporting it -- is an indication of what he touts as the key to Vermont's economic future as he campaigns for the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor. He says he wishes to import Google's culture of being organizationally flat, fast and innovative into state government.

San Francisco-- According to a December SEC filing, search and advertising titan Google Inc. is feeling the heat of recession, which prompted slashing down a large number of temporary workers at Google’s lavish campuses and the layoff of an unspecified number of its contractors. Google on Dec. 15, submitted a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but it was prepared on paper, making it unavailable through the various Web services that track reports to the agency.

The search giant has declined to mention exactly how many contractors were cut and a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from mid-December, which surfaced Wednesday, did not shed further light on the matter.

Google seems to have got it right at last! After the disastrous Google Wave, Open Social and the Google Buzz, its latest social network endeavor Google+ seems to be a winning product. When unveiled, Google+ was viewed skeptically By many. Jason Hiner of ZDNet was one of them.

Beijing, China -- In a head-to-head confrontation with the Chinese government, internet search powerhouse Google Inc. late Tuesday said it might exit China after an investigation revealed that the company had adversely been hit with major cyber attacks on email accounts of human rights activists using Google's Gmail service, which it believes originated from the country -- a move that would amount to a high-profile rebuke of China by a major U.S. firm.

According to AdWordsAdvisor, the official Google mouthpiece at the WebmasterWorld, we now have confirmed reports that Google is carrying out a beta test on a new AdWords budgeting option is named “Timeframe” and offers advertisers the capability to shape their budget by month or by day. Normally, a monthly budget enables Google to supply ads for your campaign during a calendar month depending upon user traffic demands rather than daily budget limits. This option allows you to receive as many eligible impressions as possible according to the budget you set.

 The snippet below gives a better picture of the difference between monthly and daily budget option as:

Following a strong demand, the Google+ team is contemplating expansion. “In order to double the social network's population Google briefly let Google+ users invite new members last night,” said a Cnet blog post on Thursday.

In addition, Google has begun working on its plans for letting business users, apart from individuals, use the service sometime later this year.

Due to 'insane' demand, Google had been limiting the individual sign-up rate, leading to frustration among many who wanted to get in. But all that seems to be a thing of the past. Dave Besbris , the Google+ engineering director declared on Wednesday that it was time for another growth spurt for Google+.

San Francisco -- The physicist whose most significant breakthrough was portrayed in the original Apple logo, is the latest event being celebrated today by a “Google Doodle” that depicts an apple falling from a tree: an event that inspired him to formulate his theory of gravity, and established him as one of the world's greatest scientists. This impressive piece comes as the world organizes parties beneath apple trees to commemorate the birth of Sir Isaac Newton, who was born on Christmas day in 1642.

As the story goes, Sir Isaac Newton, the famed physicist who was inspired to hypothesize his theory of gravitation by an apple falling on his head as he was taking a walk in a garden, was born on December 25, 1642 but after England switched to the Gregorian calendar, in 1752, his birthday became January 4, 1643. He died, aged 84, on March 31, 1727.

Mountain View, Calif., -- In an attention-grabbing strategy of inter-mingling their products, Google aims to tap customers from their more successful products to their less successful ones. On its Google Checkout page, Google claims that when you use a “Checkout” icon and buy an AdWords ads, you will not only get the Checkout sale processed for free, but it will also lead to higher conversions and can increase ad click-through by 10%.

The 10% higher clickthrough figures is surely getting noticed now, as well as another statistics from the Google Checkout Merchant page, which contends that ads displaying the icon also have a 40% higher conversion rate. That's quite a number.