Hulu's horde of owners is reportedly entertaining four buyout bids from Amazon, Yahoo, Dish Network, and Google. Yes, Google, reports All Things D. "The search giant has also made an offer for the video site, but it seems to be playing a different sport than the rest of its peers. Rather than bid on what Hulu's owners have offered for sale, Google has proposed a different acquisition, on a larger scale," All Things D writes, citing sources. Still, it not entirely clear to the blog's sources, whether Google has actually made a formal bid yet, or has merely …

About three out of every 20 videos on Facebook are "fake," according to new findings from security software maker Symantec. Using a sample of 3.5 million posts with videos on August 2, Symantec found that up to 15% of unique posts were identified as "likejacking attacks." A play on the term "clickjacking," likejacking involves asking a victim to click something while a different action is taken behind the scenes. "Likejacking specifically refers to a victim clicking on something only to have some piece of content Liked, without their knowledge, in the background," ZDNet explains. "This typically occurs with …

When operating correctly, Google Maps can be a boon to local businesses. As The New York Times reports, however, the dynamic mapping service doesn't always operate correctly. In some documented instances, for example, Google Maps has indicated that thriving businesses have actually closed down. "In recent months, plenty of perfectly healthy businesses across the country have expired -- sometimes for hours, other times for weeks -- though only in the online realm cataloged and curated by Google," NYT writes. How is this possible? "It is surprisingly easy to report a business as closed in Google Places, the search …

With some big reputations on the line, TechCrunch writer MG Siegler has sent an S.O.S. from what he insists is a sinking ship. His plea is that AOL -- which acquired TechCrunch late last year -- not cut off founder Michael Arrington from the tech blog. Odd thing is that Arrington already announced plans to hang up his editor hat last week, with the intention of raising a venture capital fund, dubbed "Crunchfund," with the help of AOL. "TechCrunch is on the precipice," according to Siegler. "As soon as tomorrow, Mike may be thrown out of the company …

Amazon's anticipated tablet strategy will disrupt Apple's mobile mission in a way that Google can't. So says the Guardian's Charles Arthur, noting that: "The key difference between Amazon and Google is that one of them holds millions of credit cards and is a famous name in retail." Adds Arthur: "Amazon is a conduit to lots of content; and, just as importantly, it already has a way for you to buy content from it." Google, despite its mobile progress, lacks that critical financial relationship with consumers. "By contrast Apple and Amazon are familiar as transaction handlers: Apple has 200m …

Does the market really have room for another social network -- and one for college kids, no less? Jonathan Lazarus, who retired from his vice president role at Microsoft in 1996, thinks so. That's because his new venture, CollegeBrain, won't compete directly with other social networks -- or Facebook, at least. "I am not stupid enough to compete with Facebook," Lazarus tells GeekWire. On the contrary, "We are very complementary with Facebook." CollegeBrain, which just landed $600,000 in start-up capital, "is a very broad look at everything from the campus to what classes and instructors are like," Lazarus …

A few weeks -- and a million theories -- after Google agreed to buy Motorola Mobility, chairman Eric Schmidt is talking about why the deal went down. "We did it for more than just patents," Schmidt said in a conversation this week with Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, as reported by Reuters. "The Motorola team has some amazing products." Still, as Reuters notes, the deal will give Google more than 17,000 patents, which it can use to protect its Android operating system. Fundamentally, Google's plan to pay $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility is a defensive move against Apple and …

Netflix reportedly offered Starz more than $300 million a year to renew their content partnership, but to no avail. "The pay cable channel was insistent on so-called tiered pricing," writes The Los Angeles Times, citing sources. Tiered pricing would have require Netflix subscribers who wanted movies and television shows from Starz and other premium providers to pay more than the standard $8 per month. "That demand was apparently a key sticking point in talks that fell apart this week. As a result, their deal, which began in 2008, is set to expire at the end of February. "Starz …

In what Reuters is calling a first, Google this week promoted a Groupon-like daily deals offer directly on its home page. It was "a rare instance of the Internet giant using its prized online real estate for advertising," Reuters writes. Dubbed Google Offers, the search giant debuted its Groupon rival in select cities earlier this year. What does the premier plug mean? For one, it "may signal an escalation of competition with Groupon," suggests Reuters. "The pair are vying for advertising dollars from local businesses, such as restaurants and retail stores." Also of note, Hitwise reported earlier this week …

Google this week relaunched Blogger with the hope of streamlining the "blogging experience," making it easier to add or edit posts from any screen, providing a more spacious editor and overhauling the dashboard. "The goal: make it a more competitive tool," Econsultancy writes -- something, it adds, Google has failed to do since acquiring Blogger in 2003. "Under Google's watch, Blogger has gone from one of the most popular self-publishing services on the Internet to a has-been in a market that is now dominated by platforms and services like WordPress and Tumblr." According to figures compiled by Web …