Last night Google shares (GOOG) dropped from $548.59 per share to $502.47 a share, a drop valued at around $13 billion in total value. $13 Billion is enough to buy some very big companies. It’s a shame to see this happen, but, it’s also good to see that Google isn’t perfect. At least this will encourage some competition to jump in while Google is down. Interestingly enough, Google stock opened this morning at $511.90, up a bit from the low $502 early morning and late last night.

It’s safe to say that if Google goes back over $548.59 that anybody who gets in now is bound to make some cash. The only problem is that with a drop of $13 billion, a lot of people are going to be hesitant to jump on board right away. Google has been purchasing several companies lately including Doubleclick, which has earned them a court date in Washington. On top of that, several Google AdSense publishers have reported that their AdSense checks have been bouncing lately. I don’t know what would have caused that, but, I doubt Google is going out of business anytime soon. At the very least their stock value is simply balancing itself out. A lot of people have considered it to be very saturated over the past few years. It seems that every once in a while it takes a drop like this. So far it has managed to rebound each time.

While Microsoft lost money on the XBOX 360 due to recalls and warranty claims, they have managed to do quite well all things considered. Their profit for Q4 is up 7% with Office and Vista doing well. While Vista didn’t do as well as Microsoft had hoped, it still is selling and after the initial bugs were sorted, consumers felt more comfortable with the new operating system.

Microsoft also released the Zune, an iPod clone that has also been doing ok. Overall, Microsoft continues to do best when it comes to software. Office is doing exceptionally well and has been getting very positive reviews. I’m not sure it’s worth buying the new Office every time a new version is released, but, either way, it seems that a good amount of people seem to agree that Microsoft Office is the best business software suite on the market.

Source: Yahoo

When you are a multi billion dollar company and one day you decide that you want to make and sell a videogame console, you can pretty much do it. You can do almost anything you want when you are a multi billion dollar company. This is very true for XBOX and Playstation. Both Microsoft AND Sony have been selling their newest videogame systems at a loss. Playstation’s $600 price tag apparently does not include any profit for Sony, and the XBOX brand has never turned a profit according to the Wall Street Journal.

The funny thing is that Nintendo was considered to be the underdog throughout this current generation of gaming. Instead they are the only ones to have made any money with their “Wii” console. The funny thing is that both Microsoft and Sony can both afford to run their videogame brands at complete losses year after year due to the overwhelming success of their products in other markets. I don’t think we will see XBOX of Playstation disappearing from the map anytime soon. If anything they are both likely on the verge of becoming very profitable. You’d think they would be making money already but I guess being innovative is more profitable than having the best graphics. That’s why the Nintendo Wii took and is continuing to take the market by storm.

“Air mice” have been around for a while now. The most common use for them has been in power point presentations. Just last year Nintendo brought a new functionality to the concept with the “Wii-mote” for the Nintendo Wii. Gamers who use the Wii can move the controller in the air to control the on screen movement. The idea wasn’t 100% new, but it was the first time it had been used in gaming. Now PC gamers can possibly enjoy the same air movement controller system. It will all depend if developers like the idea enough to include support for such a feature in future game releases.

Logitech has created the “MX Air Mouse” which is essentially a sleeker more high tech looking Wii-mote. It’s black, slick, curved, and costs around $150. It might not take off as quickly or as successfully as the Wii-mote concept, but, it does open the door for possibilities for more similar “Air mice” gadgets for the PC.

Source: Business2.com

Vista, which means “View” in Spanish, has turned out to be a little blurry for most. Microsoft’s new operating system was hyped up as the next big “must have” for businesses, home, and really any computer use, however, many people who have made the switch are still waiting for their computers to work as well as they did when they used XP. Furthermore, many XP users are wondering why they ever considered the switch, and frankly if they will even be needing Vista.

I’m still using XP and doing just fine. The idea of my hardware not working properly doesn’t excite me. The idea of me paying $400 to have my hardware stop working REALLY doesn’t excite me. As far as I’m concerned XP is all I need for now. It is very stable and for the most part doesn’t have any significant drawbacks at all. Microsoft has sold around 40 million copies of Vista so far. With all of the bad publicity surrounding Vista I wouldn’t be surprised if a good chunk of those 40 million are wondering why they bought it. I almost grabbed a copy myself back when it came out. Even 6 months later now I am glad that I’m still running XP. I haven’t had a problem with XP since then and expect to continue using it without any real issues.

I came across some interesting news today about a Starbucks franchise in China’s Forbidden City. It seems that the locals felt that Starbucks was too “western” to be accepted into such an ancient city. From what I can tell, the store was forced to close down after they refused to sell generic non-Starbucks coffee alongside their brand. The catch was that Starbucks would not be aloud to use the name “Starbucks” anymore. The Chinese government doesn’t have a problem using custom American-made Microsoft Windows software, but, apparently drinking an American-made cup of coffee is jut too much. Something doesn’t quite add up. Maybe it’s just me.

I find it hard to believe that there is a place in the world that would oust Starbucks, but hey what can you do. It’s not like there aren’t already too many Starbucks coffee shops in the world. I’m not a big fan of coffee in general, so I’m not too worried about this whole situation, but, I do find it funny that a Starbucks was shut down when there has been a McDonald’s in the SAME city for years. If McDonald’s isn’t “western” culture I’m not sure what is. Now, granted the McDonald’s in the Forbidden City has also undergone political scrutiny and has been forced to make some changes, but, they are still in business as of today.

Source: The Times of India

Once again social networking is where it’s at. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said today that Google would be interested in talking with social networking giant Facebook about setting up “potential ties”. In plain English, Google would like to order one Facebook to go please. Hold the pickles.

Facebook’s owner and founder Mark Zuckerberg has already confirmed that there will be no deal. Facebook turned down a $900 million dollar bid from Yahoo last year. This time around even before an offer was laid out it seems that Facebook has already closed the book. It’s obvious that Zuckerberg has learned from the MySpace sale. MySpace sold for $800 million and is now worth around $10 billion just a few short years later. Maybe Zuckerberg is looking to follow in a similar light.

Facebook seems to be headed in a very unique and exciting direction. They have recently formed many partnerships with developers of “widgets” that will soon be used by millions of Facebook users to enhance and improve their “profiles”. They are taking the social networking platform where no competition has gone before and just in the past few weeks their total member count has rocketed to 29 million active members. With all of the anti-MySpace talk lately it looks like a good deal of social networking fans are looking for a new face.

Source: CNN

If any of you have ever used AOL, you’ve probably experienced the dreaded cancellation phone calls, and how difficult it sometimes was to actually get the rep to cancel your account. I used AOL back in the end of the Dial-Up days when I was out of town and needed to get online on my laptop. Most hotels at that point didn’t have Ethernet wired throughout and sometimes I just needed to get online to keep things afloat.

In a recent $3 Million dollar settlement AOL has agreed to make it easier for customers to “get out” if they want to. AOL had originally paid employees bonuses of up to $3,000 if they were able to keep customers from canceling. As part of the settlement requires, AOL will now make it possible for subscribers to cancel online, without having to talk to a phone rep.

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I blogged about a month ago about Rupert Murdoch and the offer his News Corp made to buy the Down Jones. There’s a new development in this story that involves another bid, and two others who originally had shown interest in helping the Dow Jones AVOID being purchased by New Corp.

a committee of Dow Jones directors met with supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle and Web entrepreneur Brad Greenspan earlier today to apparently discuss possible deals. It seems that the two billionares could possibly be working on a mutual bid, in which they both would put their money together in hopes of outbidding Murdoch’s offer of $5 billion dollars.  A $5 billion dollar bid is not something that is generally beaten easily.

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Boeing unveiled it’s newest airplane model since 1995 today, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. 07-08-07 seemed to be the perfect day for such an announcement. The new plane is expected to make air travel much cheaper due to better lightweight construction. Approximately 210-250 passengers can travel on the 787-8 model, while the 787-9 will carry 250-290 according to Boeing.com. Another model, the 787-3 will hold 290-330 passengers.

Airbus, another airplane manufacturer at the forefront of air based transportation has officially congratulated Boeing on the success of their new launch. This shows that while the two are obviously competing within this niche market, they still have enough class to give credit when credit is due.

Boeing stock has continued to go up during this past week. It opened Monday at just under $97 and closed Friday at $98.88. It will be interesting to see what happens with it during this next week. Chances are it will stay pretty solid as the 787 Dreamliner continues to receive praise in the industry. As of right now Boeing has already received 677 orders for the new 787.

Source: Yahoo Finance