Technology - PC World

Google's gobbling up another advertising company, the search giant has announced. Google will acquire Teracent, a Silicon Valley startup specializing in "intelligent display advertising." Yep -- that means more online ads customized specifically for your visit.

Hewlett-Packard reported an 18 percent jump in profit for its fiscal fourth quarter, thanks in large part to the strength of its services business.

Have a laptop or netbook and want to get more out of it? You're not alone. We've experienced the frustration of trying to keep data or bookmarks on a portable synchronized with those of a desktop PC or other laptops. We've struggled with diminishing battery life. We've needed assistance getting connected at hotspots or staying safe once online. And we've wondered how to take full advantage of USB flash drives.

A proposed standard meant to help content management systems communicate with each other has steady momentum, and an initial version could be finalized early next year.

A report from AdMob has people claiming there is now proof that iPhone users now account for more than half of mobile data traffic. For months now many have suspected the iPhone - with its data-hungry applications - is a network bandwidth hog. But a closer look at the AdMob report reveals iPhone users probably aren't as hoggish as some in the blogosphere are claiming.

This fall, more than 20,000 stolen usernames and passwords for such Webmail providers as AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo appeared on Pastebin.com, a programmer's Website.

A month ago, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission began a proceeding to create formal net neutrality rules for broadband providers, and the proposals have generated serious debate in the telecom community.

Redmond turned red-faced upon learning that an automatically installed Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation plug-in for Firefox opened a major security hole. Following Microsoft's disclosure of the bug, Mozilla blocked the plug-in. According to Mozilla, Microsoft agreed with the move, even though it had released a patch to close the underlying flaw.

If you had over $3,000 to spare, what would you do with it it? Component vendor OCZ Technology hopes that you'd spend it on one of its new, massive 1TB Colossus Series SSDs.

Just two weeks after buying mobile advertising company AdMob, Google on Monday announced plans to purchase Teracent, an online display advertising company.

With the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 last month, we saw a variety of new smartphones showcasing the updated OS.

It's official: AOL is now Aol. As the fading Internet giant nears its 20th anniversary, the newly independent media company is prepping for another revamp. The latest step is a new logo, as seen below. The corporate name is now spelled with an upper case "A," a lower case "o" and "l," and a period:

A newly discovered threat that doesn't yet have any patch can allow for a Web-based attack against up-to-date Internet Explorer 6 and 7 browsers, according to security companies.

Microsoft Windows 8 may be coming as early as 2012, based on a recent rash of comments and hints dropped by Microsoft personnel in official capacity and informal context.

Wipro, India's third largest outsourcer, is expanding its development center in Atlanta from 350 to 1,000 staff, reflecting a growing trend for Indian outsourcers to expand and hire locally in the U.S. market.

About 10 percent of software applications turned down by Apple's App Store are "inappropriate," either because they will steal personal data, are meant to help users break the law, or contain "inappropriate content," an Apple senior executive reportedly said.

News Corp. and Microsoft are reportedly in "early stage talks" to cut an exclusive deal that would prevent Google from indexing the media conglomerate's news Websites some of which include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and others.

Of all the Mario Kart games, the best was probably the first, and now you can see why for 800 Wii Points, or about eight US dollars. We're talking the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) original here, born 17 years ago in 1992. It supported 1 to 2 players, packed eight playable Mario-verse characters, and offered three championship cups divvied into three distinct 'kart' classes.

To get the best deals on Black Friday, you'll need patience, aggression and preferably advanced knowledge of what you're looking for. But with the help of Web sites, mobile apps and social media tools, your day of shopping can be made easier, or even avoided thanks to online or early deals. Here's a list of tech tools to ease the pain of Black Friday: