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Google Analyst Day could have been big news for Google.

Executives at the event on Wednesday trumpeted their enterprise Apps business, explained why they would bid on wireless spectrum, and said they were optimistic about getting approval to acquire DoubleClick, while trying as hard as they could to ignore the elephant in the room--Microsoft snagging a big Facebook deal.

All the positive spin on Google's future with advertising and social networks couldn't change the fact that Microsoft had stolen Google's thunder. Earlier in the day, Microsoft announced that it was taking a $240 million stake in Facebook, … Read more

It's official. Facebook decided to ignore the friend request from Google and instead clicked "OK" to one from Microsoft.

The deal, reported first in this spot earlier Wednesday, gives Microsoft a much-needed win against its Silicon Valley search rival. As noted over at Caroline McCarthy's blog, The Social, Microsoft is paying $240 million for a stake in Facebook, in a deal that values the social networking company at $15 billion. That's at the high end of what had been rumored.

Under the deal, Microsoft will also get an expanded role in Facebook's ad sales, … Read more

Updated 3:50 p.m. PDT: It's official: Microsoft will take a $240 million equity stake in Facebook during its next round of financing, valuing the company at a whopping $15 billion.

News.com's Ina Fried in her Beyond Binary blog reported earlier Wednesday that Microsoft had beaten out Google in the high-stakes bidding war for the slice of tasty Facebook cake. The final deal resulted in a 1.6 percent stake in the social-networking company, notably smaller than the 5 to 10 percent that had been talked about in recent weeks.

"We are pleased to take … Read more

Google sometimes wears its source code on its sleeve (Summer of Code), and sometimes it doesn't, as when it was reported today that Google will be contributing significant source code to MySQL. Given how innovative and engineering-oriented Google is, it's hard to imagine a better vote of confidence in MySQL and a better code partner for MySQL.

Or a bigger reason for Oracle to worry about MySQL.

Earlier this year Google signed a Contributor License Agreement, which provides the legal framework under which MySQL can include code from another company in its database, MySQL co-founder and Vice President David Axmark said on Tuesday....

The search company has done a lot of work customizing MySQL to meet its special needs, which include better database replication, and tools to monitor a high volume of database instances, Axmark said in an interview at MySQL's user conference in Paris. … Read more

Update 12:15 PT

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--At its Analyst Day here Wednesday, Google talked up updates to the set-up for its popular iGoogle personal home page.

But so far there's no comment on word that Microsoft has beat out Google for a deal with Facebook or any new information about the much-anticipated Google phone.

With the iGoogle changes, people now can create their own home page quickly by checking off category boxes for news and other modules, and selecting a background theme (say, beach) that changes dynamically to match the local time of day.

People can create their … Read more

Google Calendar could be the latest Google service to get the much-hallowed Gears treatment--Google's offline site viewing extension for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Earlier this morning, a post by Andy Beal on the Marketing Pilgrim caused a stir when he noted that he got a Google Gears security access request while logging into Google Calendar. Despite the pop-up, there was no offline functionality added to the service, or screenshots for proof.

Since publishing the post, Google has officially responded to Beal, stating that there are no specific announcements for any services that will end up with Gears functionality or … Read more

After weeks of speculation, Microsoft appears to have won a battle with Google over who would get a stake in Facebook, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Microsoft and Facebook were close to a deal, according to the source. Exact details were not immediately available, but the deal is expected to include at least an ownership stake in Facebook and an expansion of Microsoft's current Facebook advertising deal, which only covers the U.S.

Google and Microsoft had both been said to be bidding hard for a deal with fast-growing … Read more

If you want to watch a bunch of A-list bloggers and business folks at big-name news sites go a little ape, I recommend observing them when their Google PageRank takes a hit.

According to blogger Andy Beard, a number of high-profile blogs and news sites have had just that happen to them in recent days.

Some examples, according to Beard, include Engadget, which saw its PageRank drop from 7 to 5; Joystiq, from 6 to 4; and SFGate, Forbes.com and WashingtonPost.com, all of which had their PageRank drop from 7 to 5.

What's behind this?

Well, speculation … Read more