Boston Marathon, government shutdown, and MTV Video Music Awards were the most-searched terms in 2013 for the Events category, along with the tornado in Moore, Okla. and the birth of the royal baby. Paul Walker surfaced as the Top Trend and People Trending. "Fast and Furious" star Walker was killed in a car accident in November. Top-trending subjects also include Boston Marathon Bombing and Nelson Mandela.

A Google Glass update on Google+ explains how wearers can now blink to take photos. The update explains how the feature today allows users to take a photo with a wink, but in the future it might allow users to transfer funds from their bank account to a taxicab meter -- or pay for a pair of shoes in a shop window, and have those shoes sent directly to your home. Google also developed a way to make the device more secure with the ability to lock the screen, similar to a laptop or phone. Read the update here.

Microsoft has had only two CEOs in the 38-year history of the company, John Thompson reminds us in a blog post. The Microsoft director explains that the company identified more than 100 possible candidates, talked with several dozen, and then focused the energy on a group of about 20 individuals. He explains that the company won't complete the search for a new CEO until 2014. Read the post here.

Apple's Tim Cook, Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, Dropbox's Drew Houston, and Google's Eric Schmidt, along with 15 total tech industry attendees, will meet Tuesday with President Barack Obama to discuss how to improve the health care Web site and the federal IT contracting system. The Washington Post runs down a full attendee list.

Shopping sites like Amazon and eBay became popular search terms in the U.K. this year, but Google reveals that Facebook surfaced as the most searched-for term on Google.com. Google also analyzed the questions people typed into its search engine and compiled a "what is" list. Among the terms on the list: Facebook, cancer, energy, blood pressure.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft have been slowly buying up portions of the Internet infrastructure that allows people to surf the Web and companies to serve ads. This means bringing online new underground cables and long-term leasing agreements for dark fiber to build their own networking hardware. Drew Fitzgerald cites one source that says Google pieced together, and now controls, 100,000 miles of routes and fiber-optic cable worldwide. Thanks to Gizmodo for pointing out the story.

Yahoo has added another company to its coffer. This time a content management platform. Indeed, a statement on PeerCDN's Web site confirms that Yahoo has acquired the company. The technology is a peer-to-peer CDN for Web browsers. Powered by JavaScript, the technology serves a site's static assets such as images, streaming videos, and file downloads over a peer-to-peer network made up of the visitors currently on a Web site.

A Microsoft engineer and software designer working on Bing features has left the company to join Google to work on machine learning, reports The New York Times. Blaise Agüera y Arcas oversaw the latest service called Photosynth, which creates 3-D panoramas. His team worked on augmented reality, mapping, wearable computing and natural user interfaces.

A backlash continues against Google after experts discovered the company eliminated privacy controls in its latest Android 4.3 operating system version. Google told the Electronic Frontier Foundation the feature had been released by accident. It was experimental and was not ready for widespread use. The EFF runs down missing pieces such as disabling any collection of identifiers it can trace and track.

Mobile search advertising will rise 118.8% in 2013; mobile banner ad spending will have increased 155.22%; and mobile rich media ad growth will hit 95.89% in 2013, eMarketer estimates. The analysis firm expects marketers to spend $9.60 billion in the United States this year, up from $4.36 billion in 2012. Not all of the 120% uptick will eat into desktop and laptop budgets. Spending on ads served to desktops and laptops will grow a mere 1.69% to $32.98 -- down from 6.60% growth last year, according to the company.