Hooray! Google is going to become a public company. The news came yesterday afternoon amid a torrent of earnings reports from Internet and non-Internet companies.

Surprise. Time Warner's America Online turned in a better than expected performance in the first quarter. The rate of subscriber defections has slowed a bit and AOL says it has more than 3 million subscribers to its broadband product. It's masterminding a new ad campaign for broadband at this moment. A review of the facts: AOL lost 237,000 subscribers in the first quarter. Ad revenue declined 5 percent, attributed to a loss of $31 million in intercompany revenue.

Tomorrow, either Google will, or won't pull the trigger on one of the most hotly anticipated initial public offerings in recent memory.

Ah ... the Google gang must be living it up right now. So much speculation and intrigue. So much attention paid to every move, every product launch and test. Lots of heady hype heaped on the quirky cool company that's turned the Internet inside out and essentially embedded itself into pop culture.

A few odds and ends on this rainy day in Manhattan. Nielsen//NetRatings reports that Hispanics are the fastest growing group online with more than 12.6 million people accessing the Internet from home. No surprise there.

We've signed up for Google Gmail accounts here, via invitations from the Google gang.

It's that time of year again. Time to honor unusual and breakthrough creative? Well yes, the flurry of advertising awards shows has already begun. The Advertising Club's International ANDY Awards fired off an initial round of honors on Tuesday night. The Clios come next, and then Cannes, I believe. We also look forward to the One Show. In August, Microsoft's MSN uncorks its second annual interactive creative awards honors now dubbed "The Emmessennys." Cute. Now, try to say it three times fast.

Exciting news last night on the creative front. The Advertising Club celebrated the 40th anniversary of the International ANDY Awards with a big celebration at Capitale in lower Manhattan.

The war in Iraq isn't the only thing politicians are talking about in Washington.

The pace of broadband adoption is quickening, according to the results of a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life foundation.