Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google as a graduate-school project run from a Silicon Valley garage. Since then, the project-turned-$120-billion Fortune 500 Company has maintained this stubborn do-it-yourself approach to technology, writes The New York Times. Google is building massive data centers worldwide, including that huge one the Times wrote about in The Dalles, Ore., with technologies designed to reduce its immense need for electricity. These computers will run on software designed by Google, and there are even signs they will run on company-prepared microchips. "Google is as much about infrastructure as it is about the search engine," says …

While each new Google product--like the new Google Checkout, for example--is released to a ton of fanfare, Business Week points out that not one of Google's non-search-related products is a market leader. Remember Google Talk, the instant messaging application the tech giant released last year? MSN Messenger leads that market, with AOL and Yahoo close behind. Last month, Google's launch of online spreadsheet software was supposed to leave Microsoft quaking about the future of Excel--and most recently, Google Checkout has been tipped as the beginning of the end for eBay's PayPal. Why do these products get so much hype? And …

French lawmakers have given final approval to a new law that could force Apple Computer Inc. to make files from its iTunes online store that are compatible with rival media players. France's Senate and National Assembly both voted in favor of the copyright bill, leading many analysts to the conclusion that Apple will close iTunes France and pull its iPod from the country's shelves. The vote by the Senate and the National Assembly is the last step in France's legislative process before the bill becomes law---barring any last-ditch challenges from the opposition Socialists and Greens. The iPod currently does not …