Even if they are merely dalliances as far as Google is concerned, the search giant's acquisitions and sideline pursuits have a history of reshaping specialties, shuttering startups, and, as often as not, opening up new realms of entrepreneurial opportunity. Enter Google's latest prize: photo-editing website Picnik.com. What does it mean? Well, Google already made its interest in the online photo market known when it snatched up photo storage site Picasa back in 2004. The Telegraph, however, notes that Picnik "is distinctive primarily because of its integration with social networks" -- An attribute that ties in …

Making Apple's efforts to market its $500 and $700 e-readers more difficult, rival devices are likely to sell for less than $150 this year. The price drop is the result of a new chip from Freescale Semiconductor Inc., whose products power about 90% of electronic book readers, according to Bloomberg. A former division of Motorola, Freescale plans to begin offering samples of a new processor that takes on the functions of other chips, and thereby reduces e-reader costs. Market leaders like Amazon and Sony are both Freescale customers. Presently, Amazon's Kindle readers retail for $259 and $489, …

In February, Chrome was the only desktop browser to show any gains, according to new data from Web metrics firm Net Applications. Google's web browser saw a jump in usage share to 5.61%, up 0.39% from 5.22% in January. "While Chrome has a long way to go to catch up with Firefox, it's now clear that this browser has what it takes to grab significant market share quickly," writes ZDNet's Hardwire 2.0 blog. As a result, Chrome has grabbed 0.96% in market share in 2010. By contrast, Internet Explorer was down 0.54% o 61.58%; Firefox was down …

Late last year, Google filed suit against a small Internet site in Ohio, in an effort to collect $335,000 in unpaid advertising bills. In response, last month, the site countered with a 24-page antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the search giant of various "monopolistic abuses," The Wall Street Journal reports. Making things more interesting, the site's legal counsel just so happens to be Charles "Rick" Rule -- the longtime chief outside counsel on competition issues for Microsoft Corp. Perhaps more interesting still, TheStreet.com suggests in no uncertain terms that "fear of a global conspiracy by Microsoft" …

New York Magazine takes a long and probing look at one Rupert Murdoch, asking some big questions of the man and his empire, such as: "Is Fox News a disreputable cash cow, its reported $700 million in profit something to be tolerated with a held nose? Or is it central to the News Corp. mission?" and "Who is Rupert Murdoch, really? And what does he want now?" And while these questions "do not lend themselves to easy answers," one thing seems certain: "Rupert Murdoch is not going anywhere" -- and would appear to be just warming up. …

In what might not come as a surprise to anyone reading this digital news brief, consumers now prefer "grazing" the Web for news over more thorough newspaper reading. That according to the Pew Research Center, which also found -- perhaps surprisingly -- that the Web remains the third most popular news channel, behind local and national TV stations: 61% of readers surveyed said they got their news online on a typical day, compared with 78% from local news channels and 71% from a national TV network such as NBC or cable channels such as CNN or Fox News.

Though nothing is finalized and hurdles remain, Condé Nast is nearing a deal with Apple to distribute its most popular titles over the iPad. So, let the iPad testing begin! According to The New York Times, "Condé Nast plans to test different prices, types of advertising and approaches to digitizing the magazines for several months before wrapping up the experiment in the fall." "We need to know a little bit more about what kind of a product we can make, how consumers will respond to it, what the distribution system will be," Thomas J. Wallace, …