Subways have a bad reputation, but Google’s not (too) afraid – at long last, the search giant is mapping New York City’s subway system, and this move is likely to draw in more users than all of Google’s other transit-related projects.

The patent battle between Microsoft and Alcatel-Lucent over digital music patents took a twist when a judge decided Microsoft won’t have to pay a $1.52 billion jury verdict.

The Federal Communications Commission will lay down the ground rules for the 700MHz auction coming in 2008, as Google and a host of telcos watch.

A lackluster financial announcement from CEO Jerry Yang has one industry observer stating the time is right for someone, likely Microsoft, to purchase the company.

Sumner Redstone, who controls Viacom and CBS, said Google’s YouTube Web site can live peacefully with companies like Viacom.

Between Google and a seemingly endless slew of challengers like Facebook and MySpace, Yahoo could be grilled like a panini in the battle for display advertising dollars.

Google and YouTube don’t usually comment on lawsuits; instead, we’re left to look over various court documents.  These are still helpful, however, and they’ve recently provided an update on the case between YouTube and the Football Association Premier League.  To sum up: YouTube pleaded innocent.

Belgium becomes the focal point for a heated confrontation between Google, and the news management organization that beat it in court.

The Department of Justice has reached an agreement with Microsoft that will end a complaint made by Google about a Vista feature.

Two of the world’s major pharmaceutical companies have launched public blogs that are intended to be channels to engage with US consumers on specific issues.

The growing scrutiny of the company’s stated aim to organize all the world’s information, and its more prosaic acquisition of DoubleClick, means Google has to pay more attention to Washington’s K Street lobbying practices.

Lobbyists work on behalf of all sorts of nasty causes – some people might not approve of oil companies and tobacco corporations, for example.  But lobbyists also work on behalf of charitable organizations and the like.  And now one more lobbyist works for Google.

Since Microsoft acquired online ad firm aQuantive for $6 billion, the likelihood of Steve Ballmer and company following that up with a Yahoo purchase became greater.

News Corp’s hostile $5 billion offer for publisher Dow Jones may spur a bidding war, and Google’s name has been invoked alongside other potential bidders.

After a promising start for the Microsoft Zune player, market sales dropped drastically.

This past weekend was BlogHer. I only was able to make it down for the Saturday sessions, but overall, I think it was a great event. In a sentence, it was the most valuable blogging-related event I have attended in the past year.

I’d intended to title this post “more twists in the Jupiter tale” but I think the actual title is far more appropriate.

Google has just wrapped up a successful test for advertising via mobile phones in Japan, according to Bloomberg. The Japanese mobile phone market, more robust and advanced than the US market, is often used to test mobile technologies.

Google is about to release a new version of its toolbar.

As expected, the roll out of change in the world of search is proving to be highly disruptive.

In a bid not to be outdone by Yahoo, Google is now telling Bloomberg that they screwed up the launch of Google Video.