The Law, Information and Technology Authority at Israel’s Justice Ministry finally sanctioned Google’s request to operate its “Street View” here. In Israel it took longer than everywhere else to grant this permission, in part because of a longstanding national aversion to anything that might reveal security installations to a prurient and not necessarily well-meaning world.

In its quest to map the entire planet, Google has started in on the world’s largest tropical rainforest. The tech giant plans to work with Amazonas Sustainable Foundation, a non-profit that works to conserve the forest and improve the livelihood of communities who live there. The hope is that it will help outsiders better understand the scope and the importance of the world’s largest tropical rainforest.

This past year, social media replaced traditional news outlets as an unrivaled source of information.The problem is, an unfiltered hashtag feed provides quality journalism in a haystack of foreign languages. So technically savvy outlets found that by editorially curating quality social media channels, they could cut out the noise associated with a raw Twitter feed and still relay key information at Internet speed.

Mumbai is a social media-savvy city. It is also a magnet for terrorists who engage in acts of spectacular violence.When the bombings occurred during evening rush hour, shutting down transit networks throughout the famously congested city, residents also kicked in to use the power of cloud computing to help.

By general consensus, if not an absolutely proven fact, Moscow's iconic St. Basil's Cathedral (take a virtual tour), Red Square's famous architectural jewel with its nine swirling, candy cane like multicolored domes, turned 450 today. And Google has marked the occasion with one of those increasingly noticed and prized little honors known as a doodle.

The British Library has signed a landmark deal with Google, making one of the largest collections of books and pamphlets in the world available and searchable online for the first time. Internet users will be able to search for and access the huge volume of out-of-copyright works for free for the first time on the Internet.

"It was the soft power of Ghoneim and his associates, not bin Laden's crude power, that led to regime change" in Egypt says Khalil el-Anani, referring to the former Google executive who became the face of the youth-driven protests in January.

Favelas, sprawling shanty towns which are home to tens of thousands of people, are a defining feature of Rio. But the Globo newspaper said their labelling on the map and the absence of wealthier districts and tourist sites gave a bad impression of the city.