Plugged In: Gaga Over Google Games

1. Games Google Plays

The Buzz: Don't tell me you use Google only to search for Web sites. If so, you're missing out on a procrastinator's paradise. Think you're up for a Googlefight ? Enter two names (as in Bush and Gore, or Eminem and M&Ms), click 'Make a fight', and see which entry "wins," based on the number of search results the engine returns. Want to Googlewhack ? Just compose a two-word query that yields only one Google result (tough, believe me). Or check out Googlism , where you supply a keyword (your hometown, your name, the name of your ex) and see what "opinions" emerge, as culled from search results.

Bottom Line: The real game is staying employed after your boss realizes you're spending your days discovering Googlewhacks like "demisemiquaver svengali."

2. 3G Fizzling

The Buzz: It's a phone, it's a gaming device, it's a portal to pricey mobile services. Oh, wait, I misspoke: It's a bust. 3G--the coming high-speed standard that was supposed to turn your everyday wireless phone into Superphone--has hit the Kryptonite skids. Japanese phone giant DoCoMo recently revealed that it has signed up a paltry 320,000 3G subscribers. If 3G isn't soaring in phone-crazed Japan, it won't be taking off in the United States anytime soon.

Bottom Line: 3G in the U.S. might just stand for "going, going, gone."

3. Girding for Grids

The Buzz: The catchphrase du jour is grid computing, a bit of techie wizardry that puts the power of multiple networked computers to work on a single task. You may know about SETI@home , which borrows regular folks' computer time to analyze raw celestial data for signs of intelligent life in the universe. Butterfly.net is flying high with its grid-based, massively multiplayer games. Gateway is creating a grid from nearly 8000 PCs in its stores and offering it to groups that need processing punch. IBM, meanwhile, is throwing $5 billion in R&D at grid computing to develop "e-business on demand"--a means of selling computing power on tap, utility-company style.

Bottom Line: If memory serves, IBM launched a little thing called the PC a few years back. It's about time for an encore.

4. Bluetooth Finds a Niche

The Buzz: Bluetooth always held such promise. The short-range wireless technology would connect devices, facilitate voice and data communications, ensure world peace, and whiten your teeth. Yet despite some headsets, phones, and other ho-hum gizmos, Bluetooth has largely remained a solution in search of a problem. Now it may have found its place: the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth, a keyboard-and-mouse combination that truly makes sense. No wires, no muss, no fuss.

Bottom Line: World peace remains elusive. In the meantime, I can always use a better wireless mouse.