Google Inc

Google Inc. started out 13 years ago as a simple search engine, but it has grown into a behemoth that has shaken up dozens of industries, including computers and cellphones. On Wednesday, it jumped into the music industry. The Mountain View, Calif., Internet giant unveiled a music search feature that lets users play millions of songs for free with an option to buy or rent them from several online music stores. Although not a direct threat to Apple Inc.'s hugely popular iTunes store, the new feature is expected to bolster the music services that compete with iTunes.

Google Inc. took another major step in its quest to ensure that wherever consumers go -- whether to their laptops to search sports scores or videos or to their phones to find a restaurant -- advertisers will be there too. On Monday the search giant said it was buying AdMob Inc., a developer of technology that plops ads into thousands of mobile phone applications, for $750 million in Google stock. It's one of the largest acquisitions yet for the 11-year-old company and illustrates Google's double-barreled strategy of attracting consumers with free tools to access billions of Web pages, books, maps and movies -- and then charging advertisers to pitch their wares to its huge audience.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped its stock option backdating case against Ann Mather, a Google Inc. board member since November 2005 and former chief financial officer of Pixar Animation Studios. Her spokesman, Paul Kranhold, said the SEC sent a letter last week saying it was no longer pursuing the case, which it began in April 2008. The SEC's Los Angeles office had said last year that it would recommend a civil complaint be filed against Mather alleging stock option abuses that occurred during her five years overseeing Pixar's books.

Google, the No. 1 Web search company in the United States, identified numerous users of its product that helps companies search their own data in corporate networks and Web sites. The company said pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., the Army and the city of San Diego are among the new paying users of Google's enterprise search appliance, which is a hardware and software product. Other customers include Xerox Corp., Nextel Communications Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., Cisco Systems Inc. and Boeing Co.

Nearly everyone on Google Inc.'s sprawling campus here knows Thunder Parley, at least by reputation. But it's not his unusual name, outgoing personality or skills as a software engineer that make him stand out. He is the most famous foodie at a company that takes gastronomy nearly as seriously as Web-search algorithms. Parley was raised in a small New England town on Life cereal and SpaghettiOs. He used to think Taco Bell was authentic Mexican fare, and he never ate salmon except out of a can.

European regulators are likely to approve Google Inc.'s $3.1-billion takeover of ad firm DoubleClick Inc., despite rivals' worries that the deal could squeeze them and make Web advertising more expensive. The European Commission, which is in charge of preserving competition in the 27-country European Union, is about to decide whether it will express serious doubts about the deal, which would combine Mountain View, Calif.

Whether a Microsoft Corp.-Yahoo Inc. combination would put a real obstacle in Google Inc.'s path or just a pothole would depend on whether the merged company got the kind of dynamic leadership that neither side has exhibited in recent years, analysts said Friday. The two companies have complementary strengths that ought to make them a tougher competitor as a team, such people said.

After sparring for two years over antitrust issues, Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. are preparing for the main event: a lobbying showdown over the fate of Yahoo Inc. Google, which has bulked up its presence in the nation's capital, has started raising concerns about the antitrust implications of Microsoft's proposed $44.6-billion takeover of Yahoo. Analysts said it could ask regulators to stop the deal.

Yahoo Inc.'s negotiations with Google Inc. have intensified as Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang races to find alternatives to Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited $44.6-billion takeover offer, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Yang told Yahoo employees in an e-mail that the board of directors was evaluating "a wide range of potential strategic alternatives" and had "made no decisions" about the Microsoft bid, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Web search company Google Inc. is collaborating with Cleveland Clinic, one of the premier U.S. health institutions, to pilot an exchange of data that puts patients in charge of their own medical records. The healthcare industry has been trying to usher in a paperless era for more than a decade, holding out the promise that electronic medical records would bring significant cost savings. Currently, only a tiny minority of hospitals and primary care physicians use electronic medical records.