It's the waning hours of 2011 here on the West Coast of North America and in Los Angeles. With sentiments tuned to the "retrospective-y" bent for the past couple of weeks, we offer you a look at the year that was 2011, through the lens of those who released "Year in Review" videos. more ›

Google's invite for its upcoming music product launch is rather ambiguous. Mashable, along with other tech press members, received a mysterious invitation on Friday to attend the launch this Wednesday in L.A. Metro removed much of the mystery in a post today, detailing that Google will launch an online Google Music store for Android devices. more ›

The city's much-ballyhooed switch to Google for official city business two years ago — for e-mail, documents and other Google apps — has been an utter failure for the Los Angeles Police Department, according to documents obtained by the consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. more ›

Google produced its second ever animated Google doodle (the first was for Charlie Chaplin) with an exuberant one-minute thirty-eight-second piece for Freddie Mercury. The Queen frontman would have been 65 today. more ›

OK Go has been making ridiculously weird and awesome music videos for some time but the LA-based band's latest video has an interactive element that allows YOU to tell THEM what to do and watch as it renders before your eyes. We even created a video dance message for you. more ›

A separate site, Find People On Plus, offers an intuitive search index of all Google+ users. Searchable categories include relationship, gender, looking for, following, followers, occupation, on Twitter, on Facebook, country, state and city. more ›

As part of its ongoing mission to give their bucks to green projects, internet search giant Google has announced they will finance a portion of the Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC) in the Mojave Desert. Google posted details about their investment on their blog, explaining that the will be putting their money towards what's known as the 102 MW Alta IV project; portions of the AWEC are already up and running. more ›

The general pitch at Google I/O 2011 was this: Use Google's web-based tools and applications, combine with seemingly infinite storage space in the cloud, and bulky hard drives and desktop PC's will become remnants of our technological evolution. A Google account combined with a device running Android or Chrome OS will be all you need to do [almost] anything. more ›

Less than 3 months after firming up a lease on at least 100,000 square feet of office space in 3 buildings surrounding the Frank Gehry-designed Binoculars in Venice, Google is buying up more prime office space, presumably to base its growing entertainment and YouTube operations closer to Hollywood. more ›

Google is going Hollywood and "enlisting top stars to supply original content for YouTube in a bid to boost profits and user engagement at the company’s online video site," reports the Financial Times. For lending their name to specialized channels and/or overseeing content (think: themes, niches, games, fashion, food, etc.), Google is reportedly offering top tier talent big cash advances against future ad revenue. more ›

Thousands of Gmail users found themselves without much of an email account recently, and now Google is stepping up with an explanation, though not all is fixed, says the HuffPo. At fault is "a software bug" that chewed up some account info and emails for 0.02% of their customer, which is "about 40,000 of the service's 200 million accounts," according to CNET. more ›

For many of us, it's hard to pick where to go for a meal out. So how about when you pick a place, and can't find it? Even in this era of search engine ingenuity, a plainly-named restaurant may have to rely more on word of mouth than the virtual vortex of online information. This is the impetus behind a fun piece on Squid Ink today called "Top 5 Least-Google-Friendly L.A. Restaurants." As in, you name it, we can't find it. more ›

Google is making a big move in Los Angeles, and announced yesterday that they are "leasing more than 100,000 square feet of office space in three buildings, including the famed Binoculars Building" in Venice, according to the LA Times. The internet search engine giant is making the move as part of a "major expansion" in SoCal, and could signal the establishment of "a new center of operation in the region." more ›

41 years ago today at UCLA, the first ever e-mail was sent. The message landed at Stanford University in Silicon Valley where decades later Google made home with the slogan "Don't Be Evil." The man behind phrase, and behind Adsense and Gmail, is Paul Buchheit. more ›

It looks like Big Blue Bus finally jumped on the Google train! Today transit activists were excited to find that Google Maps offered transit directions via Big Blue Bus, something that has been desired for awhile now, even prompting a petition last month. more ›

Last month Google CEO Eric Schmidt hinted towards a big announcement they made Saturday: “Your car should drive itself. It just makes sense,” he said at a conference. “It’s a bug that cars were invented before computers." more ›

Why is the Google homepage "doodle" or logo breaking up into a bunch of bouncing balls that seem to follow your mouse movement? more ›

Just Say Now, the pro-pot legalization group using the web to mobilize support, have found a new home for the very same ads that were yanked by Facebook earlier this month. The ads are now running on Google. more ›

RIP Google Wave. It's time to say farewell, though many of us hardly knew ye. Google has announced they're pulling the plug onthe internet giant's attempt to turn your inbox into something as loud and theoretically interactive as a college dorm's bulletin board. more ›

The alleged "Grim Sleeper" serial killer Lonnie Franklin, Jr., arrested last week and charged with 10 murders, had been arrested at least 15 times, but stayed off the LAPD's radar because DNA was never swabbed. He was eventually caught via familial DNA -- his son was arrested and swabbed, leading authorities to Franklin. It's a first for this approach in the U.S., one that has LAPD Chief Charlie Beck saying it "will change the way policing is done." more ›

Today's go-to excuse is provided by the good people of Google, whose free Calendar service is experiencing a widespread outage today. Once the complaints started flowing on Twitter (another free web service prone to outage), Mashable went to the source and got the word from Google: "We’re aware of a problem with Google Calendar affecting a majority of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Calendar. We will provide an update by May 6, 2010 12:00:00 PM UTC-4 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change." One good way to back up calendar files? Pen and paper is a fairly reliable option. more ›

In a geeky and humorous move today, Google honored Topeka, Kansas for its desperate-yet-silly action it took last month to get the internet search giant's attention. In February, Google--err, Topeka--announced intentions to "test ultra..." more ›

Big news from Google came this morning in the form of beta bicycle data on their popular Google Maps program. From routes that consider biking infrastructure and uphill/downhill slopes to marking where off-street, bike lanes and preferred routes are, this is a welcome tool. And, of course, they are welcoming your feedback because they know there's much room for improvement. more ›

While here in Los Angeles and the greater Southern California area are anticipating Pacific wave activity as a result of today's early morning devastating 8.8 quake off the coast of Chile, many are working diligently reach loved ones in South America and regions under more serious tsunami warnings. Additionally, many here might be interested in ways to help out in the relief and recovery in Chile, and as a result, Google has just launched a Crisis Response portal where you can donate funds to the American Red Cross and UNICEF, get updates from news sources, and locate loved ones. To follow relief efforts and opportunities for aid, you can also follow the Red Cross on Twitter. more ›

Google is starting to experiment with broadband services and L.A. wants in, according to USC's NeonTommy. "They've opened this up to everyone, but we're actively pursuing a deal," said Kevin Crawford, the deputy director of L.A.'s Information Tech... more ›

Thanks to the blog, Refreshing News, we find that bird shit graces Sunset Boulevard for one block in Google Street View. The best view, perhaps, is of the building at 6464 Sunset, which has been in the news for its possibly-illegal supergraphic installations and no bicycle parking policies. more ›

Local businesses have a new way to show off their popularity via the launch of Google "Favorite Places." A press release explains that the top businesses "were selected based on how many times Google users looked for information about a business by a click on their business listing on Google and Google Maps." The favorites are then given a window decal to display, and Google hopes this leads to more opportunities for customers to "interact with their favorite places from their mobile phones and instantly access maps, reviews, coupons, photos and more." more ›

Google recently came out with its year-end Zeitgeist, featuring the "most popular for 2009"--globally, it was Michael Jackson--including "popular searches unique to specific U.S. cities." Here's how Los Angeles fared: more ›

Just for fun, we're following in the footsteps of Torontoist and Chicagoist, playing with Google Suggest, seeing what it tells us about our fair city. Through this we learn that where the Jonas Brothers are is an important landmark, the desire to have Dunkin' Donuts and why we are better than New York City.. more ›

But LAX won't be one of them. Through January 15, 2010, 47 airports nationwide--that includes Burbank and San Diego--will have free WiFi. However, you can pay if you want. "The holidays are about giving and we hope that you can continue to spread holiday cheer by making a donation via Google Checkout to any of the participating non-profits," says the search engine giant. "At the end of the program, Google will match donations made via participating WiFi networks, up to a maximum of $250,000." more ›