Computerworld, Jaikumar Vijayan, Sharon Gaudin

With its new search/browser app Axis, Yahoo is trying to change the search game, while also trying to change its image as a troubled company.

Late in the day Wednesday, Yahoo launched Axis, which it's calling a "search browser." Axis is an HTML5-based browser app, as well as a browser plug-in, that delivers search results as images rather than as links.

A federal judge in Kentucky this week upheld a lower court's decision to throw out crucial evidence in a drug case because the evidence was gathered with the help of a GPS tracking device that was installed without a warrant on the suspect's vehicle.

In a 19-page ruling Tuesday, Judge Amul Thapar of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky wrote that Robert Lee's constitutional rights were violated when drug enforcement agents illegally tracked his car and then seized 150 pounds of marijuana from it.

In its third day of trading, Facebook's stock is still in a slump, taking the shine off the frenzy that led up to the company's initial public offering (IPO) last week.

After closing just slightly above $34 a share on Monday, the company's stock was trading at below $31.50 per share a half hour before the market close. The high for today was $33.59 a share.

This probably isn't how Facebook envisioned its initial public offering would roll out.

The first hours of the social networking company's IPO got off to a shaky start yesterday with the share price wavering around the $40 mark, never gaining the astronomical momentum that had been anticipated by many. The stock closed in its first day of trading at $38.23, 23 cents above its initial share price.

True privacy can be hard to come by in the socially enabled online world, but Twitter on Thursday announced that it has joined Firefox maker Mozilla in taking a big step forward for users.

Specifically, the popular microblogging site has signed onto enabling Firefox's Do Not Track feature, making it possible for Firefox users on Twitter to opt out of third-party tracking cookies used for advertising and other purposes.

After all the buildup, Facebook's long-anticipated initial public offering is finally here.

Facebook stock is set to begin trading with the stock symbol FB on the Nasdaq Stock Market at 11 a.m. ET. That means Wall Street has had an hour and a half after the market normally opens at 9:30 to prepare for what is expected to be a deluge of Facebook-centered trading activity today. See a livestream of the Facebook launch at Nasdaq.

Yahoo today launched a new tool for online advertisers designed to take advantage of the company's extensive experience with big data analytics.

The tool, called Genome, is designed to help companies deliver more targeted online advertising and marketing campaigns. Genome is scheduled to become available in July and will let online advertisers sift through and analyze massive amounts of behavioral and advertising-related data gathered from Yahoo's networks as well as those of interclick, a company Yahoo acquired in December.

Mark Zuckerberg typically wears hooded sweatshirts.Of all the things discussed and analyzed surrounding Facebook's upcoming initial public offering, perhaps the most surprising -- or just plain funniest -- is co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's hoodie.

Facebook launched a pre-IPO roadshow this week, meeting with investors in New York, Boston and other cities to pitch the company's stock to potential investors.

The row over Yahoo's leadership intensified over weekend as another major investor called for CEO Scott Thompson to be fired.

Scott Thompson

Calls for Thompson's firing started last week after Yahoo disclosed that its board is investigating a discrepancy in the CEO's resume. The investigation prompted a very public debate over Thompson's ability to continue to lead the struggling company.

All the momentum and vision that Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson has been building for the struggling company may have been thrown off course.

Yahoo chief Scott ThompsonYahoo said late Thursday that its board of directors is looking into a discrepancy in the new CEO's resume that likely means big trouble not just for Thompson but for the company that he's been steering since January.

Google plans to move ahead with its self-driving car technology and hopes to get a hand from the folks in Detroit.

Anthony Levandowski, head of Google's self-driving car project, told an audience at the Society of Automotive Engineers conference last week that the company is looking for partners to help it get autonomous cars on the road within the next decade, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act despite opposition from privacy advocates, lawmakers and even the White House, which threatened to veto the bill if it lands on the president's desk in its current form.

Here's what you need to know about CISPA.