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Everyone's getting gaga over the news that Motorola is going to launch a new line of Google Android phones specifically tailored to young people with Facebook addictions.

After three years of court battles, the lawsuit between Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers has reached a settlement. In 2005, Google was all set to scan and post on the Internet significant portions of the University of Michigan library's content, including books that were still protected under copyright law.

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft have gotten into more than one awkward moment, thanks to their business operations in undemocratic countries, particularly China. Google has been roundly criticized for excluding search results that dwell on the Tiananmen Square democracy movement or Tibetan independence, and congressmen have personally dressed down Yahoo execs for giving the Chinese government the names of bloggers who criticized the regime.

Google made a big play to enter the Russian search-ad market, but regulators today killed the company's chances. According to the New York Times, the country's Federal Antimonopoly Service refused to allow Google to buy the search engine and contextual-ad company Zao Begun, ending a $140 million deal that had been in the works since July.

Yes, it's true. As our capacity to communicate in English continues to degrade, Google has decided to accommodate our decline with a new line of animated Gmail emoticons. Now, you can send that special someone a cartoon of two blocks snuggling up to one another instead of articulating your feelings or some other dreary nonsense. And who doesn't want to get a turd with animated stink lines radiating from it? Our day isn't complete without one.

Google and T-Mobile put their mobile Internet phone out on the market today, and Google broke with its tradition of keeping its search page clean to promote the phone. The move has left some critics sniffing about violating the purity and cleanliness of Google's search page, as well as threatening the slow down the load time due to additional characters.

You've all seen them: Try logging onto Slate's web page but accidentally type sslate.com instead, and you find yourself on a "typosquatter" site, where enterprising men and women set up a site bristling with links to advertisers in the hopes that a small percentage of Web viewers will click on one of them. They're mostly harmless—or are they?

Lots o' rumors flying around as the Wednesday deadline approaches for the Justice Department to decide whether to green light the Google-Yahoo deal. First up: CNET finds an anonymous source to say that both companies have extended the deadline past tomorrow, probably because they haven't come to an agreement with Justice on the antitrust concerns. "Wouldn't it be nice to get it resolved, one way or another, before Thanksgiving?" the source jokes.

As developers rush to make applications for the new Android smart phone, PC World has highlighted 15 new services for any prospective G1 geek. Here are the highlights of the, um, highlights.

Remember when Google reps boasted that their new Android software would let any developer build any applications for their new smart phones? Turns out that's not quite true. When Google releases its new T-Mobile G1 phone on Oct. 22, users will learn that the company has built a "kill switch" into the device. If Google doesn't like what a developer has done with its software, it has the capacity to remotely remove that application from your phone, wherever you may be.

The debate wasn't even two hours old before someone tossed a mashup of John McCain's alleged anger management issues onto YouTube. Cut a few clips of McCain rolling his eyes, throw in a disco soundtrack, and you've got a piece of theater in under 90 seconds. More than 147,000 people have already watched this clip.