Google finally put the world's oceans on the map.

During a splashy presentation at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco today, the Internet giant unveiled new water features for Google Earth, the online replica of the planet that anyone can search.

Three years ago, renowned marine scientist Sylvia Earle told John Hanke, who helped create Google Earth, that she loved the way the program helped people get to know the planet. But, she pointed out, Google had overlooked two-thirds of it.

"She turned to me with an evil grin and said: 'Why don't you rename it Google Dirt?' That kind of got under my skin," Hanke recalled. "She was right. We had been blind to the ocean."

It reminded him of a Marshall McLuhan quotation: "We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us."

The oceans shaped Hanke's priorities. Earle and others joined Google in a partnership to move beyond mountains and valleys to simulate the ocean so anyone can explore its vast surface and depths online.

It began as a side project for some software engineers ...

... working on Google Earth. More recently it became a full-time obsession, reflecting the experience of other travelers who return from sea voyages as passionate conservationists. The team spent months collaborating with partners to collect new data, including detailed topography of continental shelves and other remote places of underwater wonder.

Anyone can download the latest ocean-enabled version at the Google Earth home page. Earle said the program brings the ocean to life: Users can swim like a dolphin along the Monterey Canyon (deep in the Monterey Bay), discover critically endangered prehistoric fish called coelacanth and descend seven miles into the abyss known as the Mariana Trench.

Another feature being released in the new version of Google Earth: historical imagery that allows you to scroll back through decades of satellite images. Another function, called Touring, allows you to create narrated tours on land and above and below the surface of the sea.

Google Earth is one of the company's most popular products. The software has been downloaded on half a billion computers.

"Talk about a dream coming true," said Earle, who has struggled for decades to find a way to connect the public to the ocean. "Now anyone in just a few minutes can understand what it has taken me 50 years to understand, that the ocean really matters, that in fact the world is blue."

To drive home that point, Google presented the new technology to a group of fourth-graders, whom Greg Farrington, executive director of the California Academy of Science, called the world's greatest renewable resource.

Google hopes to inspire the public to push for more marine exploration. Only 5% of the ocean floor has been mapped in any detail, and less than 1% of the oceans are designated marine protected areas.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said: "This is a platform for science and research and literally understanding the future of the world." Former vice president and Google board member Al Gore, who also attended the event, called the latest version of Google Earth "an extremely powerful educational tool" that he hoped would influence the Climate Conference in Copenhagen later this year. While in office, Gore sponsored NASA's work to create a digital Earth. Hanke said that work helped Google Earth.

Serge Dedina, executive director of Wildcoast in Imperial Beach, which works to protect and preserve coastal ecosystems and wildlife in California and Latin America, said the new tool would transform ocean research.

Dedina said the ability to see the ocean floor used to be reserved for expensive scientific studies: "It is hard for me to identify ocean hot spots to present to policymakers. Now I have the capacity to cost-effectively zoom in on my desktop and print what areas need to be conserved and what the potential impact of human activities might have on the area.

"This type of technology allows us to compete in the global marketplace without having to be huge. What would have cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and would have been the domain of huge research institutions and universities now is available at almost no cost. You just download it off the Internet and use it."

The crowd was filled with like-minded environmentalists inspired by Google's vision. The guests of honor were a who's who of ocean science and research. The crowd favorite was country legend Jimmy Buffett.

"I have never stood behind a lectern with bubbles in it before," Buffett joked.

Buffett -- whose lyrics include "Mother, mother ocean, I have heard your call. Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was 3 feet tall" -- said that he has been more proud of being featured in National Geographic magazine than Rolling Stone. Music is a natural companion on ocean expeditions, he said. His involvement with Google Earth was conceived on a boat in the French West Indies, he added.

Buffett found his philosophy on a bumper sticker: "Without geography, you are nowhere." "Now I know where I am thanks to Google," Buffett said.

Then he picked up his guitar and strummed "Son of a Son of a Sailor," cleverly inserting Google Earth into the lyrics.

He quipped: "We'll see this version on YouTube real quick, won't we?"

Buffett got a standing ovation.

Corrected, 3:25 p.m.: A previous version of this post incorrectly referred to the Mariana Trench as the Marietta Trench.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Marine scientist Sylvia Earle. Credit: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press

-- Google changes its privacy policy in what could be a red flag for privacy advocates. Digital Inspiration

-- Warning: Not everyone is loving Google apps. The Business of Software

-- YouTube, trying to get all professional after its love fest with user-generated content, is close to a Hollywood deal. NYT

-- Best friends forever until I delete you on Facebook. NYT

-- Jason Calacanis diagnoses a new condition: Internet Asperger’s syndrome. Calacanis

-- My Nigerian payday and other offers I can't refuse are more plentiful now as online scammers proliferate. WSJ

-- The secrets of Netflix's success. Fortune

-- AdMob on a growth spurt raises more money. AdMob

-- Video games see profits migrating east. Venture Beat

-- And now for your moment of zzzzzzz zen. Cute Things Falling Asleep

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: President Obama with economic advisor and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Credit: Charles Dharapak / Associated Press

After the market closed, Yahoo said it had lost $303 million, or 22 cents a share, during the fourth quarter. That compared with a profit of $206 million, or 15 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet giant said revenue fell 1% to $1.81 billion.

It was Yahoo's first money-losing quarter since the first three months of 2002, and the first time its revenue declined since the fourth quarter of 2001.

Despite the loss, Yahoo outperformed Wall Street's lowered expectations. The financial results included one-time charges of more than $600 million to write down international assets and reduce its headcount, among other things. Excluding those charges, Yahoo earned 17 cents a share, better than the 13 cents predicted by analysts. Revenue excluding commissions paid to advertisers fell 2% to $1.38 billion, slightly better than the $1.37 billion expected by Wall Street.

It falls to Yahoo's new CEO, Carol Bartz, to discuss for the first time the company's dreary financial results and present her plans to turn around the company. Analysts expect Bartz to set the bar low for Yahoo in 2009.

She also will face questions about what, if any, plans Yahoo has to sell its search engine to Microsoft, which is eager to challenge Google's dominance in online advertising. Yahoo is vulnerable to the economic downturn because it focuses on display advertising, which hasn't fared as well as the text-based search ads that helped Google deliver an upbeat financial performance last week.

Bartz replaced Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who ended an 18-month stint at the helm after losing potentially lucrative deals with Microsoft and Google.

Expect more tough talk from Bartz, who seems well aware how dire the situation is. She has already imposed a wage freeze on all employees through 2009. Bartz herself is getting handsome compensation: At least $19 million in cash and stock awards during her first year.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. Credit: Martin Sundberg / Associated Press

As we describe in this front-page story, Google employees, including Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, threw their support behind Obama early in the campaign and now stand poised to push their agenda, which includes boosting Internet access and pushing for network neutrality. Obama's election helped make Google, which hired its first Washington employee less than three years ago, into a power player.

Given the pomp and circumstance of Inauguration Day, the Internet giant's coming out soiree at the grand Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium was an unusual hybrid of geek and glam (heavy on the geek).

Partygoers, one sporting a denim ball gown, live-blogged, Twittered and Facebooked the night away to '80s grooves.

A game room featured Guitar Hero and Wii. A white board was scrawled with requests for the incoming administration: "Launch more satellites," "educate the poor," "keep the Internet open, innovative and free." Hors d'oeuvres included hamburger shooters and pigs in a blanket.

The guest list was as eclectic as it was high-powered: Hollywood stars Ben Affleck, John Cusack and Jessica Alba; Obama transition team members Jon Favreau and John Podesta; Obama new-media guru and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes; and Craigslist's Craig Newmark (sans tuxedo, natch). Media superstars also made an appearance, including CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Asked why he decided to attend, former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris, who has replaced Obama in the U.S. Senate, said: "They invited me."

Observers say Google and Schmidt appear sincere in their support of the new administration, which shares many of their views. But Matthew Cooper, contributing editor of Portfolio, said that Google had no choice but to reinforce its presence in Washington with such a big splash. It has weighty policy issues that it cannot ignore, particularly after a near-disastrous run-in with the Department of Justice, which was ready to sue Google on antitrust grounds until the company abandoned its search-ad partnership with Yahoo. "There is a regulatory environment that Google has to deal with," Cooper said.

Google is already making a favorable impression on at least one lawmaker. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) praised the company, saying it has a more "charitable attitude and a willingness to compete" than many.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: President Obama in this October file photo is reflected in the teleprompter as he speaks at an economic summit in Florida. Pictured, from left, are Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Gov. Bill Ritter of Colorado. Credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press

Though Google's operating profit was up sharply, the Internet giant posted its first-ever decline in net profit. Blame bad investments and legal settlements: In its earnings report, Google said it had to write down its stakes in Time Warner's AOL unit and Clearwire, the struggling wireless Internet service provider. It also took a hit for the legal settlement with book publishers that Google announced in October.

CEO Eric Schmidt today acknowledged an "increasingly difficult economic environment." He said the Internet giant continued to hold its own while keeping a tight lid on costs.

"Now it's clear we are in a worldwide recession," Schmidt told analysts during a conference call. "We don't know how long this period will last. But we are prepared to get through this, no problem."

The Mountain View, Calif., company said fourth-quarter revenue jumped 18% to $5.7 billion, up from $4.83 billion in the year-ago quarter. Excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, Google had sales of $4.22 billion, higher than the $4.2 billion analysts had estimated.

Google reported fourth-quarter net income of $382 million, down 68% from $1.2 billion a year ago. Excluding certain charges, such as the cost of employee stock options, the company earned $5.10 a share, better than Wall Street's estimate of $4.95 a share.

Google also announced a voluntary one-for-one stock option exchange to retain the 85% of its employees whose options are underwater -- meaning their strike price is higher than Google's trading price.

Google's profit growth has slowed in part because of the dour U.S. economy. It still dominates search advertising and rivals such as Yahoo. Google's stock has dropped 25% during the most recent quarter.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press

Eclipsed by Microsoft's decision to slash the jobs of up to 5,000 workers amid all the growing economic gloom, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer still wants Yahoo's search business.

Asked about it during a conference call with analysts today, Ballmer said: "I’ve been quite public about the fact that I think there is advantages for consumers, advertisers, Microsoft and Yahoo through a search partnership, and we’d like to do one. I know Carol Bartz well from the Autodesk days and am glad to see her at the helm of Yahoo. And if it’s appropriate, I’m sure we will have the right discussion."

Ballmer met last week with Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. And he says Microsoft will keep challenging market leader Google in search even as it continues to cede ground.

"We are going to continue to invest in important areas of opportunity for the company," Ballmer said. "And so even while we take out up to 5,000 jobs, we will also be adding a few thousand jobs back in the areas like search where we continue to see incredible opportunity to do good work."

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press

-- IBM may be cutting jobs. Wall Street Journal

-- Nokia is having a bad day too. Barrons

-- Yahoo's revolving executive door. BoomTown

-- Watch out Wikipedia, here comes Britannica 2.0. Sydney Morning Herald

-- YouTube may let content partners sell their own ads. TechCrunch

-- T-Mobile uses YouTube to get down and viral. YouTube

-- Now you can watch videos in Gmail chat. Gmail blog

-- Cool new iPhone apps from Stanford students. TechCrunch

-- Y Combinator is going to raise kids and companies on the West Coast only. Y Combinator

-- Ever wanted to know why people stop following you on Twitter? Useqwitter

-- Obama's new-media team enters an old-media White House. Washington Post

-- Web accessibility helps everyone. Do It Myself

-- 15,300 things that tech blogger Robert Scoble likes. Scobleizer

-- And now for your moment of social graph zen. Geek&Poke

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Sony CEO Howard Stringer. Credit: Koji Watanabe / Getty Images

Looking to sock it to search market leader Google, Ballmer had been waiting to approach Yahoo about a search partnership deal until new management was in place. So he jumped when Bartz was hired Tuesday. Ballmer told Bostock that he hoped to move quickly on a deal between the companies, the person said. Microsoft has a proposal already prepared, he added. He declined to be identified because the discussion was supposed to be private.

Yahoo and Microsoft declined to comment.

Bartz, the former Autodesk CEO, told employees at a companywide meeting this week that she needed time to get to know Yahoo's search business but that her gut instinct was not to sell it. Bartz is facing daunting challenges as she takes the reins of Yahoo, which continues to lose ground to Google. Investors are hopeful that Yahoo will strike some kind of search deal that would reduce its costs and boost its profit. 

BoomTown reported that the latest Microsoft offer would probably be similar to the past ones it has offered, with a small upfront payment and a long-term, guaranteed revenue that's hefty.

Here we go again.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Credit: Lee Celano / Microsoft Corp. via Getty Images

-- That didn't take long: Calls begin for Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock's resignation. BoomTown

-- Is new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on a "glass cliff"? Susan Mernit

-- YouTube mutes copyrighted material. Mashable

-- Life and death unfold on Twitter. Scripting News

-- Meet Comcast's Twitter man, the most famous customer service manager in the world. BusinessWeek

-- Ex-Yahoo executive Dan Rosensweig joins Adobe board. MarketWatch

-- Google start a reseller program for Gmail, Google Docs and other software. Venture Beat

-- Apple finally lets other companies' Web browsers into the App Store. MacRumors

-- And now for your moment of T-shirt zen. Shirt-Fight

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. Credit: Yahoo

----

Yahoo is close to naming Silicon Valley software veteran Carol A. Bartz as its new CEO, according to people familiar with the matter. The company hopes to announce her hire after the stock market closes today.

Bartz, former chief executive of design-software-maker Autodesk, appears to have beaten a host of internal and outside candidates to land one of Silicon Valley's most high-profile and challenging jobs. If the deal is finalized as expected, she will take over for Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who will remain on the Sunnyvale, Calif., company's board.

Yahoo and Autodesk declined to comment. The agreement was reported this morning by the Wall Street Journal and News.com.

The hire would cap a two-month search for Yang's replacement. In Bartz, 60, Yahoo has found a seasoned executive from the software industry; from 1992 to 2006, she served as CEO of Autodesk, which makes design programs used by architects and engineers (she is currently executive chairwoman of the San Rafael, Calif., company). Her résumé also includes hard-core tech companies Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment Corp.

But Yahoo will present different challenges: Its products are used not by design corporations, but by 500 million consumers across the globe. It employs twice as many people as Autodesk and has four times the market valuation. And it has faced heavy criticism from investors for a series of missteps over the past year, including rebuffing Microsoft's acquisition offer, failing to reach a deal to sell its Web search business to the software giant and then having a search-advertising business with Google fall apart under antitrust scrutiny.

Plus, Bartz will have to please the thousands of advertisers who pitch their products and services through Yahoo and the Yahoo employees who are worried about whether the company can remain relevant.

Yahoo shares are trading down 2% near $12 at 11:40 a.m.

-- Jessica Guynn and Chris Gaither

Photo credit: Autodesk

Anyone who has loved a dog can appreciate the old French saying, which roughly translates to, "The more I see of man, the more I love my dog." And of this, there is no question: Mark Pincus, the well-known San Francisco Internet entrepreneur, loved his American bulldog Zinga.

She lent her name to his company and her company to his days.

In 2007, this is how I led off a story about the emerging Facebook economy:

Mark Pincus may hold a winning hand with his latest Internet venture.

More than 130,000 Facebook users a day play an online version of Texas Hold ‘Em that the San Francisco entrepreneur created at his kitchen table while his American bulldog, Zinga, slept at his feet.

Zinga, who appeared to be happiest at Pincus' feet, beat cancer three times, the first at the age of 6. She finally succumbed last week. "She died with her head in my lap as I watched her big smile turn into a quiet rest," Pincus wrote on his blog.

Zinga was 13 years old and had watched as Pincus built several start-ups. She counted among her admirers Craigslist's Craig Newmark. She had graced several publications, and Pincus named ...

... his social gaming network after her (with a slight spelling change). Zynga works on the pages of popular sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and it has attracted high-profile investors including Peter Thiel, a Facebook investor and board member, and Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn.

In his online eulogy to her, Pincus wrote:

Zinga was the one constant in my life. When I first got her, people said it wouldn't work. A frenetic entrepreneur who is never home should not have a dog. But we adapted to each other. She learned to sleep in chairs and under desks and acquired a taste for restaurant food and small prop planes.

Pincus said she taught him an important lesson: to be here, now.

That's something we could all learn from Zinga.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Mark Pincus and his dog Zinga. Credit: Mark Pincus via Flickr

-- Happy new year, and welcome back to the daily bogus Yahoo rumors. Boomtown

-- Google is tightening its belt; will it pull back on all these products that don't make money? Google Blogoscoped

-- No technology venture is immune to the economic maelstrom. One Laptop Per Child

-- Never fear, Obama's new technology czar is almost here. Daily Beast

-- Dilbert for technology czar! The Internet will transform our economy. Scott Adams

-- Renkoo reinvents itself -- again? GigaOm

-- Blimey, Yelp expands to London. Financial Times

-- The recession can't take the bite -- or the bark -- out of Dogster. VentureBeat

-- Microsoft gives us something to sing about in the shower. ReadWriteWeb

-- And there will still be parody videos to watch: JibJab raises $7.5 million (thank Sony and Will Smith). TechCrunch

-- A Google search guru paints us a picture of his ideal conference badge. Matt Cutts

-- So don't let all the belt tightening get you down: Now is your moment of belt-expanding Zen. SkyMall

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang at last year's Consumer Electronics Show. Credit: Ethan Miller / Getty Images

To help die-hard fans count down to the final episodes of "Battlestar Galactica," Tara Gelsomino has created Battlestarbook: the epic Sci Fi Channel series told through faux Facebook status updates:

"Kara Thrace has changed her status from Single to It's Complicated."

"Lee Adama has changed his status from Single to It's Complicated."

"The Cylons created an event: The Destruction of the 12 Colonies."

"Commander Adama became a fan of Earth."

"Dr. Gaius Baltar became a fan of himself."

The Facebooking of "Battlestar" has become an Internet hit, much to the surprise of Gelsomino, an imaginative acquisitions editor for an audiobook publisher.  Ironically, the 33-year-old Rhode Islander was never much of a sci-fan fan until last spring, when she was persuaded by relentlessly glowing reviews to rent past seasons of "Battlestar" on DVD and catch up on the cult series. Soon she was hooked just as surely as Apollo on Starbuck.

"I was blown away by what a smart, character-driven show it was," she said. She also liked the reverse gender politics and feminist portrayals, particularly what she called Katee Sackhoff's "fearless and phenomenal" portrayal of Starbuck.

Soon after reading DeeDee Baldwin's Austenbook and observing a flurry of friends changing their relationship status to "It's Complicated," she decided to spoof the ever increasingly complex web of relationships on "Battlestar" with a specific news feed for the show.

"I couldn't help thinking that if they were all on Facebook, every single one of them would have an 'It's Complicated' status," she said.

The result was Battlestarbook. The response from sci-fi sites such as i09.com and The Escapist stunned Gelsomino, who has been lobbied for sequels. "Battlestar" concludes its run this spring -- unless the Cylon regeneration ship turn its sites on extending the life of the cult series.

"I'm considering doing more episodes," Gelsomino said. "Colonel Tigh is just itching to be Superpoked -- pre-eyepatch, of course."

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Katee Sackhoff as Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, Jamie Bamber as Lee "Apollo" Adama. Credit: Carole Segal / Sci Fi Channel

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs broke with his usual code of secrecy Monday to explain his health problems, but the disclosure that a hormone imbalance was causing his noticeable weight loss will probably do little to tamp down concerns.

Medical experts said a hormone imbalance in a pancreatic cancer survivor raises red flags about a possible recurrence. Jobs said in 2004 that he had undergone surgery to treat a rare form of the deadly disease.

Although Jobs is known as one of the nation's most intensely private corporate leaders, he issued an open letter Monday in which he tried to assure Apple investors and customers that he was healthy enough to lead the pioneering technology company he co-founded.

The 53-year-old CEO said his doctors discovered his condition had been "robbing" his body of proteins needed for good nutrition. He is undergoing treatment, which he described as simple and straightforward.

He did not mention cancer in his letter.

"I've said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this," Jobs wrote.

Several medical experts, who had no access to Jobs' health records, said problems other than cancer could have caused a hormone imbalance. For example, the surgery to remove his tumor could have left Jobs with a pancreas too small to produce the necessary enzymes.

Yet hormone imbalances are common in people who have an active neuroendocrine tumor, not in people who have been cured of the cancer, said Dr. Selwyn M. Vickers, chairman of the surgery department at the University of Minnesota.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment. The board said it would give Jobs its "complete and unwavering support" while he recovered.

Read the full story here.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski and Jessica Guynn

Photo credit: Associated Press

Check out how John Lilly made it.

The Stanford University-trained computer scientist is chief executive of Mozilla, maker of the Firefox Web browser, which broke Microsoft's hold on the market so it couldn't dominate the Internet the way it does computer operating systems. About 95% of Web surfers used Microsoft's Internet Explorer in 2004; now 20% use Firefox, and other companies are offering browsers that are smarter and faster than ever before.

Lilly grew up playing with technology. Lilly's father, a physics major and Air Force officer, built the family's first television and computer from kits and taught him binary and hexidecimal numeric systems. Lilly's grandfather was a rocket engineer. While in college, he got his first real job, working on an atom smasher. Being a short-order cook for a Chinese fast-food restaurant and a game monitor at a playground didn't help him figure out what the world was made of in quite the same way.

With 200 employees and a $50-million budget, Mozilla is the for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation. Firefox is "open source," meaning users everywhere are encouraged to improve it. Its success depends largely on thousands of devoted, unpaid volunteers -- 40% of the code is written by people who don't clock in.

"If people participate in the construction of the Web," Lilly says, "it will be better and more robust." He says consumers appreciate the Mozilla mission. "It's like organic food. When you tell people about the values that go into building the product, it builds loyalty."

Read the full story here.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Mozilla CEO John Lilly. Credit: Randi Lynn Beach / For the Los Angeles Times

Power.com has hit a snag in its quest to build a business out of helping people access social networking sites.

As first reported by the New York Times today, Facebook this week filed a complaint in federal court in San Jose against the Brazilian start-up, alleging "irreparable and incalculable harm" from copyright and trademark infringement, unlawful competition and violation of the computer fraud and abuse act.

Here's how Power.com works: Users provide their log-in information for social networks to Power.com, which then accesses those sites and allows its users to view the pages without visiting them. It used to work for Facebook, but Power.com removed that ability after Facebook complained.

Facebook objects to how Power.com has been soliciting the social networking giant's users and storing its user names and passwords. It asked that Power.com instead use Facebook Connect, its own service for allowing users to access their friends from other sites.

"After discussing the issue with Power.com for about a month without reaching a resolution, we filed a lawsuit to enforce our terms of service, maintain the integrity of our site and to assure our users’ privacy and security is protected," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in a statement.

Power.com founder Steve Vachani tells us the dispute has been resolved and that Power.com will use Facebook Connect starting in late January. "We support mutual industry cooperation to help responsibly create a borderless Web," Vachani said in a statement. "Power.com is focused on providing value-added services to social network users, and it is not necessary for us to store the user's name and password if a site prefers that we don't."

In fact, Power.com says it's going to announce a new industry standard called "Social InterConnect" that the company says will allow users to share their account information for any site with any other site without the host site storing the user name and password.

Power.com began publicizing its service in the United States late last year. It has raised money from some splashy backers including Powerset's Barney Pell (his company was bought by Microsoft) and celeb technology analyst and cosmonaut-in-training Esther Dyson. Here's a review of Power.com by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page. Credit: Markham Johnson / AFP/Getty Images

* This post was updated with a link to the New York Times story.

Yahoo and Microsoft still have an edge when it comes to your inbox, but the Internet search leader is pushing to win more share, the Financial Times reports.

Google is reportedly banking on Gmail, the Web service it launched in 2004, to deliver more advertising dollars and get users to spend more time on Google products. To accelerate its progress, the company has been rolling out a steady stream of new features and improvements -- even safeguards for those who are strangers to sobriety.

Yahoo and Microsoft are not sitting idle. Yahoo has pledged a "smarter inbox" that will allow users to add photos, status updates and more. Microsoft is making its Windows Live Hotmail inbox even more social too.

So far, Yahoo and Microsoft each have more than 250 million users to Gmail's 100 million. But Google's service is gaining ground.

Wonder which service Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan would use if "You've Got Mail" were filmed today?

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Tom Hanks as Joe Fox makes a love connection in Warner Bros' "You've Got Mail." Credit: Brian Hamill

"How great is YouTube?" he asked rhetorically. "Endless entertainment. Endless! Every day. What the hell? You can type in anything, like 'frogs getting laid,' and they have, like 70 clips. It's fabulous."

The shout out (not the amphibian mating reference) made our favorite YouTuber Hunter Walk blush -- and quibble just a little.

"I admit we really don't have great results for the query, 'frogs getting laid,'" blogged Walk, a director of product management.

Something to do with that new spic-'n'-span no-pornography policy, perhaps? Maybe there's a Wild Kingdom exemption. So get busy, Kermit.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: A group of swimmers pose with a giant frog puppet during a Christmas race in Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Credit: Fabrice Coffrini / AFP/Getty Images

As the site explains: "Hobo code" was a set of covert markings used to alert fellow hobos to good and bad situations. Cockeyed has updated the code for the modern day. Cockeyed's version was a big hit on Reddit.com. And it got some love from Laughing Squid.

According to Wikipedia: "To cope with the difficulty of hobo life, hobos developed a system of symbols, or a code. Hobos would write this code with chalk or coal to provide directions, information and warnings to other hobos. Some signs included 'turn right here,' 'beware of hostile railroad police,' 'dangerous dog,' 'food available here' and so on."

Our favorite hobo code is in flashbacks on AMC's "Mad Men."

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Maurice "Steam Train Maury" Graham, shown in 1989 near his home in Toledo, Ohio, was a founding member of the National Hobo Foundation and helped establish the Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa. Credit: Scott Martin

Standard & Poor's Internet analyst Scott Kessler has a few predictions.

He says Microsoft and Yahoo will "bury the hatchet" to better compete against Google. He doubts Microsoft will buy Yahoo but may pursue a joint venture in search, which would boost Yahoo's shares.

On the other hand, Apple and Google might get out the hatchet. Kessler predicts the companies' relationship could grow "uneasy" as the two tech giants increasingly compete on the mobile front (Apple has its iPhone and Google has its Android mobile operating system). Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt sits on Apple's board. Awkward.

In last year's predictions, Kessler had some hits and misses. He guessed that Google would continue to make inroads in mobile. Correct. He also predicted that Yahoo would have a better 2008 than 2007. He says "we were painfully close in that prediction but resoundingly wrong nonetheless."

"Painful" seems the most technically correct term to sum up Yahoo's 2008.

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Google CEO Eric Schmidt on "Meet the Press" with former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images