Eric Auchard

Google is set to introduce on Tuesday a new web browser designed to handle more quickly video-rich or other complex web programs.

A United States judge's order to Google to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom has sparked an outcry from privacy advocates.

Microsoft plans to give users of the next version of its Windows operating system touch screen controls as one option for controlling the software, its top executives said on Tuesday. Chairperson Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer showed off new Windows features based on software it calls ''multi-touch'' that will be part of Windows 7.

Google on Monday unveiled Google Health, a long-anticipated United States health information service that combines the leading web company's classic search services with a user's personal health records online. The password-protected service stores a user's basic medical history and gathers relevant information connected to their health conditions.

Powerset on Sunday unveiled tools for searching Wikipedia that use conversational phrasing instead of keywords, marking the first step of its challenge to established web-search services such as Google. Powerset's technology breaks down the meaning of words and sentences into related concepts, freeing users from always needing to type the exact words they want to find.

Yahoo! is working to rewire the dozens of services across its site so that users can manage all information about themselves in a single place and share it with friends across the web. ''We are not building another social network,'' said chief technology officer Ari Balogh.

The Sydney Opera House to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge went dark as people switched off lights in their homes and skylines dimmed around the world on Saturday to show concern with global warming. Up to 30-million people were expected to have turned off their lights for 60 minutes by the time ''Earth Hour'' -- which started in Suva in Fiji -- completed its cycle westward.

Savvy office workers frustrated that their on-the-job computer tools don't function as smoothly as, say, an Apple iPod are taking matters into their own hands. No longer are they relying on company technicians, or information technology (IT) administrators, to choose the software needed to get the job done.

<i>News24</i>, the breaking news service in the 24.com stable, has become South Africa's first website to record more than one million unique South African visitors in a month. But is <i>News24</i>'s achievement an indicator that South Africa is more digitally developed than previously believed?

Google said on Tuesday it plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help drive down the cost of electricity made from renewable energy below the price of coal. The project, dubbed Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, is hiring dozens of engineers and targeting investment financing.

Local online retailer Kalahari.net, a popular stop on the web for South Africans looking to buy especially CDs, books and DVDs, has been chosen as best e-commerce store of the year, for the second year in a row. The South African e-Commerce Awards is an initiative hosted by online shopping search engine Jump Shopping.

Google on Monday spelled out long-rumoured plans to enter the cellphone market in 2008 by building software that could help the industry make the internet run more easily on phones. The web search company is looking to expand the range of internet services it now offers through computer browsers to the far larger cellphone market.