Bear Stearns maintained an "outperform" rating on Google and said the Internet search giant may be looking to expand into the MP3 downloading business.

"We believe that Google is in the midst of creating its own iTunes competitor, which we've dubbed 'Google Tunes'," the analyst wrote in a client note issued today. "We think this is a logical step, now that the nascent Google Video product has been introduced."

Analyst Robert Peck speculated that it makes sense for Google to create a rival for the popular iTunes service by Apple Computer, given the explosive growth of unique visitors to the iTunes' Web site.

Converting insane asylums into condos (#1)

Sony BMG making customers' PCs more prone to viruses (#13)

The LA Times' wikitorial disaster (#25)

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's Google chair-toss moment (#40)

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne ranting about teh "Sith Lord" shorting his stock on a conference call (#97)

5. So that's why they call it a CrackBerry.
A study by the University of London's Institute of Psychiatry, commissioned by Hewlett-Packard, finds that "an average worker's functioning IQ falls 10 points when distracted by ringing telephones and incoming e-mails ... more than double the four-point drop seen following studies on the impact of smoking marijuana."

The chance of a Blackberry-less future loomed more vividly this week when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a major patent infringement ruling against maker Research In Motion Ltd.

Now, a federal judge could issue an injunction to block RIM's U.S. business. Many observers, however, suspect RIM may develop alternative technology or perhaps pay what some say could be as much as a billion dollars to settle with patent-holding company NTP Inc.

"I'm addicted. They should pay the billion dollars and get it over with," Blackberry user and insurance company executive Jim Long said outside his Manhattan office on Monday.

So pervasive is the Blackberry culture, with some 3.65 million customers, that the device is nicknamed the "Crackberry" for its addictive allure. And it's blamed for woes ranging from rudeness to injury to obsession.

The People's Choice Award for the contestant that creates the entry that gets the most total traffic during the month. The winner dines with Arianna Huffington and receives $2,500.

The Jury Prize for the favorite entry of our jury is a meeting with the judge most interested in their work and receives $2,500. Judges will vote based on creativity, originality and social commentary.

The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.

The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors. The government contends it needs the Google data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches.

In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records, which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.

The case worries privacy advocates, given the vast amount of information Google and other search engines know about their users.

"This is exactly the kind of case that privacy advocates have long feared," said Ray Everett-Church, a South Bay privacy consultant. "The idea that these massive databases are being thrown open to anyone with a court document is the worst-case scenario. If they lose this fight, consumers will think twice about letting Google deep into their lives."

Gartner estimated 218.5 million PCs were shipped in 2005 while IDC said it believes worldwide PC shipments totaled 208.6 million units. Both companies count desktops, mobile computers and x86-based servers in their figures and both said the data is provisional.

"The general good news is that it's another strong quarter," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's PC Tracker research. Despite long-standing concerns about weakening consumer PC sales, shipments have grown more than 17 percent above 2004's totals for the past three quarters running, he said.

The Europe, Middle East, and Africa region (EMEA) came out on top of Gartner's regional ranking for the first time to become the largest PC market worldwide. Shipments in EMEA totaled 72.6 million in 2005, a 17.1 percent jump on 2004 and several million units ahead of the U.S. market, which was estimated to have seen 67.2 million shipments in the year. U.S. market growth was pegged at 7.5 percent, which was well below the worldwide average of 15.3 percent.

A initiative to expose the Google ranking system is under way and has some major backing from the SEO (search engine optimmization), blogging, and web development community, and it's as simple as a contest. The v7n SEO Contest is offering (in one way or another) prize winnings of up to $7,000 plus an iPod if an entrant places in the #1 position in Google for determined keywords. The SEO contest keywords which must sites must be ranked are "V7ndotcom Elursrebmem". v7n.com, which is sponsoring the contest, announced the keywords this week, stating that that Elursrebmem is "Members rule" spelled backwards.

After only a few days, the v7ndotcom elursrebmem contest is starting to gain momentum outside of the SEO corner of the web as major blogs, authority sites, and new V7ndotcom Elursrebmem domains, wikis, Google Base listings, etc. are entering the competition. Speaking of domains, there is already an eBay auction going on right now for the domain name V7nlursrebmem.com. By monitoring the results of the contest, site publishers and SEO practicioners hope to pick apart Google's ranking system and see what makes it tick.

Seagate's new drive, the Momentus 5400.3, was being shipped as of Monday, the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company said. The shift to perpendicular recording allows it to bump up the maximum capacity of its notebook drive to 160 gigabytes from 120 gigabytes.

The 2.5-inch drive costs $325, compared to about $240 for the 120 gig model. Seagate plans to extend the new recording technology to other notebook drives, as well its 1-inch drives used in handheld gadgets and 3.5-inch drives for desktop PCs.

"Our transition to perpendicular technology increases our ability to meet the needs of our growing customer base," said Karl Chicca, general manager of Seagate's Personal Storage unit.

Other drive makers also have either announced products or plans that include perpendicular recording. At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, Toshiba unveiled its second 1.8-inch drive that relies on the new technology.

For example, 33% of teens predicted that gasoline-powered cars will go the way of the horse and buggy by 2015. Just 16% of adults agreed.

Meanwhile, 22% of teenagers predicted desktop computers will become obsolete a decade from now, while only 10% of adults agreed.

Adults, on the other hand, were far more certain about the demise of the landline telephone by 2015 (45% made that prediction) than teenagers (17 percent).

The teens queried also said new inventions - over any time frame, not necessarily by 2015 - can solve such global problems as unclean water (91 percent), hunger (89 percent), disease (88 percent) and pollution (84 percent). Adults were less optimistic about hunger, with 77% saying technology will play an important role.

It's all worth remembering for two reasons. First, that kind of mania has taken hold of another stock -- Google. Last week, Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy, one of the best known experts on the search industry, put a $600 price target on the stock, only to be topped two days later by Mark Stahlman at Caris & Co., who said that over the longer term Google would likely hit $2000. The stock, which had been trading at about $425, instantly shot up to near $475. It closed Thursday at $463.

Second, Henry Blodget himself has become one of Google's most vocal bears. Indeed, on Tuesday, readers of his blog, InternetOutsider, found the following next to a picture of a grizzly: "No one else is writing this piece, so it will have to be me. I should say upfront that I'm not predicting that this will happen (yet), and I'm certainly not making a recommendation. I'm just laying out a scenario that could kneecap Google and take its stock back to, say, $100 a share."