Funny, I thought something was up when I noticed a photo posted of Google's Wi-Fi service in and around New York City's Bryant Park. I even blogged about it.

When Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) shares hit the $300 mark earlier this year, I couldn't have been the only one to sum up the equity's run in bowling parlance. It was a perfect game. A 300. The stock had more than tripled in its first year as a public company by mowing down the pins -- and then some -- when it came time to roll its quarterly frame.

UBS Investment Research reiterated a "buy" rating on Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people) and raised the 12-month price target to $375 from $350. Google will announce third quarter earnings Oct. 20.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer isn't the only executive Google has moved to cursing. IceRocket's Mark Cuban has joined the chorus after his search engine results were clogged with spam blog (splog) returns, most of which bore the blogspot.com URL. Cuban says its time for Google to get its expletive deleted together, and until that time has blocked blogspot.com from his IceRocket index.

Google has fixed a security flaw on its Web site that opened the door to phishing scams, account hijacks and other attacks, security researchers said Monday.

Google's hybrid auction gives brands a huge discount on top positions. Starting later this month, MSN's, Ask Jeeves', and LookSmart's PPC (define) keyword auctions will all use a hybrid system that rewards brands and compelling, relevant creative. The brand discount allows marketers to reach a higher position at a lower bid.

Google shares shot up about $30 today as Google released its earnings numbers from Q3 which blew away industry and Wall Street expectations. The earnings amounts even shocked one of the top Googlers. “We surprised ourselves this quarter,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said during a Thursday interview. “Business was much stronger than I expected.”

Google and Comcast are reportedly in talks over a possible joint purchase of a portion of the AOL business, several media outlets reported late Wednesday. According to at least one source, the value of the deal could be worth as much as $5 billion.

This seems suspect for a number of reasons, but it's interesting to think about so we'll let the reader decide. Widely read PBS tech-author, Robert X. Cringely, outlines an experiment (one experiment, one reader, one website) that concludes Google AdWords punishes advertisers for dropping keyword bid amounts. But many remain unconvinced.

Google has teamed-up with Thomson Directories - the first European directory publisher to sell advertising through the Google AdWords network.