Larry Page

Jeff Moore, Google Inc.'s lead recruiter in Cambridge, can't contain his grin. He's about to escort a visitor into the second floor of Google Cambridge. It's their coolest space, he said - high praise in an office like a designer dorm room around one corner and a techie fantasy land around another. Moore walked into a room tricked out to evoke a Nantucket beach house. The photo mural of the ocean on one wall is not quite convincing, but there's real wood planking on the faux porch.

SAN FRANCISCO — Google has completed its $12.5 billion purchase of device maker Motorola Mobility in a deal that poses new challenges for the Internet's most powerful company as it tries to shape the future of mobile computing. The deal closed Tuesday, nine months after Google Inc. disclosed that it wanted to expand into the hardware business with the most expensive and riskiest acquisition in its 14-year history. The purchase pushes Google deeper into the cellphone business, a market it entered four years ago with the debut of its Android software, now the chief challenger to Apple Inc.'s...

Facebook is the hottest Internet company to hit the stock market since Google went public in 2004. The Silicon Valley companies, located seven miles apart, also happen to be locked in a bitter battle for Web surfers' allegiance and online advertisers' money. The duel is likely to intensify now that the IPO has given Facebook Inc.'s social network billions of dollars to battle Google Inc.'s dominant search engine. Here's the two rivals stack up, based on the latest available data: ANNUAL REVENUE: Google, $38 billion; Facebook, $3.7 billion.

Facebook is the hottest Internet company to hit the stock market since Google went public in 2004. The Silicon Valley companies, located seven miles apart, also happen to be locked in a bitter battle for Web surfers' allegiance and online advertisers' money. The duel is likely to intensify now that the IPO has given Facebook Inc.'s social network billions of dollars to battle Google Inc.'s dominant search engine. Here's the two rivals stack up, based on the latest available data: ANNUAL REVENUE: Google, $38 billion; Facebook, $3.7 billion.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc.'s chief executive, Larry Page, spent nearly an hour in a federal courtroom Wednesday deflecting questions about his role in a copyright dispute over some of the technology in his company's Android software for smartphones. Page often looked uncomfortable as he sparred with David Boies, a tenacious lawyer who grilled former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the government in the 1990s. In this trial, Boies is working for Oracle Corp., which accused Google of building its Android software by stealing pieces of the technology from Java, a...

Iowa's attorney general has joined nearly three dozen other attorneys general in criticizing Google's plans to change its privacy policy. Attorney General Tom Miller added his name to a letter sent to Google executive Larry Page on Wednesday. The letter says the changes expected to go into effect March 1 would be an "invasion of privacy. " Miller says in a news release that Google "is not giving consumers the options they should have to control their own privacy. " Google intends to merge data it collects from email, video, social-networking and other services used by...

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has taken a break from his work on the Internet search leader's secret projects to make a surprise appearance at a technology conference. Although he shared few specifics, Brin told the audience at the Web 2.0 Summit on Wednesday that he remains as busy as he was during a decade-long stint as the company's president of technology. He switched to a stealth role earlier this year as part of a shake-up that ushered in his longtime partner, Larry Page, as Google's CEO. Brin has kept a low profile since the changes.

Google Inc. agreed to pay $12.5 billion for cellphone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., the biggest acquisition in the Internet search giant's history and one designed to make it a more formidable competitor to Apple Inc. and its iPhone. The result, said Google's chief executive, Larry Page, will be more and better smartphones for consumers. Google, which produces Android software for smartphones and tablet computers, will be able to make its own hardware once it owns Motorola, which makes Droid smartphones and the Xoom tablet computer.

Google will report its results for the latest quarter after the market closes Thursday. Investors will be looking for clues on whether an unexpected drop in its advertising prices late last year was just an aberration or the start of a trend that could slow the company's growth. In the final three months of last year, Google Inc.'s net revenue fell nearly $300 million, or 3 percent, missing analyst estimates. Adjusted earnings per share missed Wall Street's target by 10 percent.

WASHINGTON — Google Inc.’s reluctance to provide a top executive for testimony to a Senate panel probing its market power has prompted threats of subpoenas for chief executive Larry Page and chairman Eric Schmidt. In a letter dated June 10, the Democratic chairman and leading Republican on the antitrust subcommittee asked Google to provide one of the company’s two senior executives before Congress’s August recess. The letter urged a resolution “by agreement’’ to avoid “more formal procedures,’’ according to a copy of the letter obtained by Bloomberg News.

Shifting from Google's CEO to executive chairman proved to be lucrative career move for Eric Schmidt. Google Inc. awarded Schmidt a compensation package valued at $101 million last year, according to a Friday regulatory filing. The amount is 322 times higher than the $313,219 package that Schmidt received in 2010 during his final full year as the Internet search leader's CEO. Schmidt, 56, ended a decade-long stint as Google's CEO last April and turned over the job to Google co-founder Larry Page.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc.'s chief executive, Larry Page, spent nearly an hour in a federal courtroom Wednesday deflecting questions about his role in a copyright dispute over some of the technology in his company's Android software for smartphones. Page often looked uncomfortable as he sparred with David Boies, a tenacious lawyer who grilled former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the government in the 1990s. In this trial, Boies is working for Oracle Corp., which accused Google of building its Android software by stealing...

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc., the world's largest Internet-search company, reported first-quarter profit that topped analysts' estimates after demand for its newer services fueled growth. It also introduced a new stock structure. Profit before certain costs was $10.08 a share, the Mountain View, California-based company said on its website. Analysts had projected $9.64 on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Excluding revenue passed to partner sites, sales rose to $8.14 billion, matching estimates.

NEW YORK - Google is tweaking its social network, Google Plus, to make it easier to use and to distinguish it from rival Facebook. The most visible change is a new navigation ribbon on the left side of the Google Plus page with icons for the most used features, such as games, photos, and your personal profile. Hover over an icon to do specific tasks, such as add photos from your phone or an online album. You can reorder the features in the ribbon and hide the ones you do not use often.

Google will report its results for the latest quarter after the market closes Thursday. Investors will be looking for clues on whether an unexpected drop in its advertising prices late last year was just an aberration or the start of a trend that could slow the company's growth. In the final three months of last year, Google Inc.'s net revenue fell nearly $300 million, or 3 percent, missing analyst estimates. Adjusted earnings per share missed Wall Street's target by 10 percent.

Now that he has been Google's CEO for a year, Larry Page may be ready to tackle some of the public-relations duties that typically accompany the job. Page opened up in a way that he hasn't previously with a Thursday dispatch that shared some of his thoughts about Google's past accomplishments and future possibilities. The post appeared on the company's website for investors and Page's personal profile on Google Plus, a social networking service that has become Page's pet project as he scrambles to counter the threat posed by Facebook's growing popularity.

BRUSSELS - The European Union's data protection authorities have asked Google to delay the rollout of its new privacy policy until they have verified that it doesn't break the bloc's data protection laws. Google publicized its new privacy rules - which regulate how the Web giant uses the enormous amounts of personal data it collects through its search engine, e-mail, and other services - with much fanfare last week. Since then, it has launched a huge publicity campaign informing its users around the globe of the new policy, which is set to come into force on March 1. But that launch...

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc., owner of the world's largest Internet search engine, reported sales and profit that topped analysts' estimates, a sign the company is benefiting from an effort to expand into mobile and display advertising. Second-quarter sales, excluding revenue passed on to partner sites, rose to $6.92 billion, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said on its website. That topped analyst estimates of $6.57 billion. Net income climbed 36 percent to $2.51 billion, or $7.68 a share, from $1.84 billion, or $5.71, a year earlier.

PARIS - The French data protection authority said yesterday that Google's new privacy policy appeared to violate European Union law, raising the stakes in a showdown with the company only days before it planned to put the new system into effect. Google announced the new policy last month, billing it as a way to streamline and simplify the privacy practices it employs worldwide across about 60 different online services, and to introduce greater clarity for users. But the French privacy agency, the National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties, said in a letter to Larry Page,...

Iowa's attorney general has joined nearly three dozen other attorneys general in criticizing Google's plans to change its privacy policy. Attorney General Tom Miller added his name to a letter sent to Google executive Larry Page on Wednesday. The letter says the changes expected to go into effect March 1 would be an "invasion of privacy. " Miller says in a news release that Google "is not giving consumers the options they should have to control their own privacy. " Google intends to merge data it collects from email, video, social-networking and other...