This week at work

The tech industry is constantly see-sawing between good signs and bad ones. This week, the news teetered the plank toward the former.

In the latest sign of better times ahead for techies, a new study has found that chief information officers plan to increase their hiring in the last three months of the year.

Another report due out this week from job search service NimbleCat shows that California remained dominant in August when it came to new tech jobs posted online.

Meahwhile, Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com, sees a trend in which workers are goofing off more, partly because they're putting in more hours on the job. What's more, he suggested, personal and professional time are blending.

Google announced Thursday that it hired Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, as the search giant seeks to build a network foundation for its future Internet applications. What does he have to bring? Some big ideas for Google Earth and mobile phones, for starters.

Speaking of Google hires, a Washington state court judge plans to issue a ruling Tuesday on whether former Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee will be allowed to immediately begin setting up a China development center for the search giant. The tech heavyweights squared off this week in court.

Microsoft will also take aim at rival Google next week with a new Web development plan. The company plans to open access to its MSN and other public Web sites to let developers assemble new applications that build on those sites--a technique used successfully at Google and at other Web companies to promote their properties.