2012 Update from the CEO  —  Velocity, execution and focus Sergey and I founded Google because we believed that building a great search experience would improve people's lives and, hopefully, the world.  And in the decade-plus that's followed, we've been constantly delighted by the ways …

Facebook Picks Nasdaq for I.P.O.  —  Facebook, which is preparing for its highly anticipated initial public offering, has picked a home.  —  The social network will list its shares on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol “FB,” according a person familiar with the matter, who demanded anonymity because the discussions were private.

Shutting down spammers  —  Twitter continues to grow at a record pace — we now have 140 million active users and more than 340 million Tweets each day.  As our reach expands, we become a more attractive target for spammers.  While spam is a small fraction of the incredible content you can find on Twitter …

Apple investigating new iPad WiFi issues, tells AppleCare to replace affected units  —  According to an internal AppleCare document, Apple is actively investigating a series of WiFi-related issues affecting the third-generation iPad.  Since the new iPad's launch, many users have been complaining …

Actually, Arianna Huffington Has Been Demoted  —  Despite a story in today's New York Times headlined: “Huffington Gains More Control in AOL Revamping,” Arianna Huffington has in recent weeks seen a “narrowing” of her job at AOL, a source close to AOL tells us.

Security hole exposes Android, iOS to Facebook identity theft  —  Summary: A new security vulnerability discovered in Facebook for Android and Facebook for iOS means your Facebook identity can be stolen if you use an Android phone, Android tablet, iPhone, and/or iPad.

Apple's Highest Priority Is Obviousness  —  Good piece from Sebastiaan de With, riffing on my bit last week regarding the tension between simplicity and obviousness.  But I gently disagree with this: … Apple has started using gestures more widely, but they're not requiring them.

Spotify's subscriber growth disappoints  —  Spotify's US performance has been less than rocking, according to sources who say the digital music service has been under-delivering in terms of subscribers.  —  It has been nine months since Spotify debuted in the US and was hailed as a coming music revolution …

Jobs's Biographer to Page: What Part of “I'm Going to Destroy Android” Didn't You Understand?  —  Google CEO Larry Page's revisionist approach to Steve Jobs's infamous ire over the company's Android operating system isn't sitting well with the late Apple CEO's biographer, Walter Isaacson.

Amid Worries About Strategery, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson Tries to Soothe the Savaged Troops (Memo Time!)  —  Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, who has developed a tough-talk reputation within Yahoo of late, went all sweet — well, less crabby, I guess — the day after the layoffs in which 2,000 employees were fired.

New York State Attorney General Announces Purge of Sex Offenders From Online Games  —  New York State Attorney General Erik Schneiderman announced a sweeping purge of registered sex offenders from online worlds Thursday.  In what's being called Operation: Game Over, his office is cooperating …

Keeping Instagram up with over a million new users in twelve hours  —  On Tuesday we launched Instagram for Android, and it's had a fantastic response so far.  The last few weeks (on the infrastructure side) have been all about capacity planning and preparation to get everything in place …

Samsung: We're still not into 3D smartphones  —  By now you may have already seen a handful of “leaks” on Samsung's imminent Galaxy S III, but if you ask us, they all smell like a cruel prank on anticipating fans.  As far as we're concerned, the only reliable tidbits so far are the GT-i9300 …

Facebook e-commerce: the next big thing?  —  (Reuters) - A group of e-commerce start-ups, backed by some of the tech world's most pedigreed financiers, are betting that Facebook Inc can become an e-commerce powerhouse to rival Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc.  —  As the world's largest social …

PSA: Apple patches Flashback trojan affecting 600,000 Macs globally  —  Apple released a Java 1.6.0_31 update for OS X on Tuesday that claims to deliver “improved compatibility, security, and reliability.”  The patch closes multiple vulnerabilities found in Java 1.6.0_29 …

Google: No more e-books for indie booksellers  —  Google is ending the program that allows independent booksellers to sell Google e-books through their websites.  It is a big blow for small bookstores seeking to compete against Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  —  The full letter that the American …

More people using TV and tablets at same time  —  Do you check e-mail while you watch TV?  If so, you're far from alone.  —  Nielsen's fourth-quarter poll of mobile users in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Italy discovered that people are increasingly checking e-mail or searching for program …

Apple has a 7.85-inch iPad prototype in its labs, according to John Gruber  —  Apple has been working on a smaller version of the iPad in its Cupertino labs, according to Daring Fireball's John Gruber.  On an episode of The Talk Show podcast, Gruber said that he's heard details …

Stolen Samsung AMOLED technology sold to rival, 11 suspects arrested  —  Nearly a dozen suspects have been arrested and charged with crimes related to the theft and sale of AMOLED display technology under development at Samsung.  Yonhap News Agency on Thursday reported that 11 suspects either currently …

Just how big are porn sites?  —  It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a person in possession of a fast internet connection must be in want of some porn.  —  While it's difficult domain to penetrate — hard numbers are few and far between — we know for a fact that porn sites …

Red Hat, IBM sign on for OpenStack  —  Two tech powers — IBM and Red Hat — are ready to officially bless OpenStack's open source cloud project.  —  The news — which should come next week or the week after at the OpenStack Spring Conference — is a big boost to OpenStack …

The rise of e-reading  —  21% of Americans have read an e-book.  The increasing availability of e-content is prompting some to read more than in the past and to prefer buying books to borrowing them.  —  Summary of findings  —  One-fifth of American adults (21%) report that they have read …

Apple Holds Out as E-Book Pricing Settlement Nears  —  Talks to resolve U.S. and European price-fixing probes into e-books are heating up, with three international publishers inclined to settle the matter, according to people familiar with the matter.  —  Apple Inc., another target of the investigation …