Web critics used to complain that Google was spreading itself thin by launching too many unfinished products and services that didn't add up to a discernible whole. Google reveals that its expanding package of Web-based software and services are part of a greater movement than many would have imagined. As Google CEO Eric Schmidt says, Google Apps, the company's suite of free online computing services, represents no less than Google's march to put your entire desktop on the Web. Schmidt says it will be a real improvement in people's lives if a powerful gatekeeper like Google offered …

The European Commission has been prompted to look further into the bundling practices of tech giant Microsoft Corp. following a formal complaint accusing the company of thwarting competition by tying the two services together. Opera, maker of the fourth-most-popular Web browser, said that Microsoft made it hard for rivals to offer a serious choice when Internet Explorer comes bundled with its operating system. The company wants the Commission to make Microsoft separate IE from Windows and pre-install other browsers on new personal computers. Microsoft responded to the complaint by saying, "We believe the inclusion of the browser …

Forbes.com looks back at the year in CEO apologies, starting with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who recently had to apologize for touting his company's privacy-violating peer-to-peer recommendation system, Beacon, as the greatest media invention of the last hundred years. The report claims that such apologies are becoming so commonplace that the executive apology has become a sector of study for public relations groups. "You have to act like a leader," says Torod Neptune, crisis management leader at tech-focused PR firm Waggener Edstrom. "Get out ahead of something and manage it before it becomes a crisis. If you act quickly …

Last week, Google unveiled yet another key component of its "master plan" for Web domination: Google Profiles. The new program links your Google related activities under one profile. At the moment it's most easily accessible through Google Maps and Google Reader. Profiles can contain as much or as little information as the user decides; there are entry fields for name, nickname, occupation, location, "about me" and a photo. Users will also be allowed to create multiple links for their site. For example, if you add or edit content on Google Maps, someone else can click through to your …

For years, Google has frustratingly watched Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, become one of the top destinations of its search traffic. Google would kill to supply ads to Wikipedia, but the stubborn non-profit has resisted any temptation to sell ads on its pages. The possibility of a partnership shot down, it makes for Google to launch a direct competitor, which is exactly Knol is. Given the pressure of Web giant's enormous public valuation, the idea of Google hosting a knowledge base shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Google plans to lure authors and editors …

Mobile phone advertising has to be the next big thing--why else would Google, Microsoft and Yahoo spend untold millions on building mobile phone applications? The mobile business may yet deliver on its promise, but one industry source says that market research firms are painting way too rosy a picture when it comes to mobile spending predictions. Gartner expects $11 billion in global revenue from ads on mobile phones by 2011. Strategy Analytics predicts an even bigger $14.4 billion, representing one-fifth of all online ad spending. Meanwhile, mobile phone spending in 2007 will be less than $1 billion. …

More proof that Time Warner may be preparing to unload AOL: Google has the right to force Time Warner to take AOL public, or the media conglomerate runs the risk of search giant buying back its 5 percent stake in AOL. Back in December 2005, Google agreed to invest $1 billion in the beleaguered Web portal, a deal that strengthened the companies' ties (Google also powers AOL's search engine). As part of the deal, Google has the right to force Time Warner to conduct an AOL IPO or buyback its stake "at fair market value" on July 1, 2008. …