Business

Google has revealed its top search terms for 2013. Topping the list: gadgets, dead people, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters. Google broke its top search terms into several categories, including People, Events, Athletes, Consumer Electronics, ... Movies, Performing Artists, and TV Shows. Death Casts Shadow Over Popular Search Terms The people Google users searched for the most: recently deceased South African leader Nelson Mandela and American actor Paul Walker, who was killed in a high-speed traffic accident a few weeks ago. Google users also searched for Pakistani education activist ... (view more)

Google has bought up a firm that makes animal-like robots for the US military. It's all part of Google's plan to become more involved in the robotics industry. The company in question is Boston Dynamics, a contractor for the Pentagon. The company ... has worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a government organization that works on some outlandish projects -- such as making a robot that can outrun Olympic champion Usain Bolt. In the past Boston Dynamics has focused on producing technology that assists military officials fighting in harsh territory against enemies who ... (view more)

Microsoft will revive the complete Start Menu in a future version of its Windows operating system. That's the claim of Windows insider Paul Thurrott, who says he has learned from sources at the Redmond, Washington-based firm that the Start Menu ... could be back as soon as 2015. Thurrott suggests the new Start Menu could be far closer to the interface seen in Windows 7. Microsoft introduced what Computerworld calls a "pseudo-Start button" with Windows 8.1 (or Windows 'Blue'), which was released this fall. Thurrott's claim has resulted in an explosion of speculation about how and when the Start ... (view more)

It's been a tough couple of months for users of Yahoo Mail. Not long ago the Internet firm pushed out an overhauled user interface that alienated more users than it pleased . Now, many Yahoo Mail users can't even connect to their accounts and check ... their messages. Yahoo Mail has been suffering outages since early last week. When reports of the outage first emerged, Yahoo took to Twitter to acknowledge that it was experiencing technical difficulties, but promised the issues would be resolved quickly. Yahoo Mail Users Knocked Offline For Days "We know some of our users are unable to use Yahoo ... (view more)

Microsoft has withdrawn a deadline that would have blocked retailers from selling new Windows 7 computers. But it's sticking to another key deadline: that ending support for the Windows XP operating system (OS). Last week Microsoft posted a note on ... its website saying that computer manufacturers would no longer be able to ship computers running Windows 7 after October 2014. The statement is consistent with previous release schedules for Windows. In the past, retail copies of earlier editions of the OS (like Vista) were sold for one year after a new system was released. Meanwhile, OEMs (or ... (view more)

Hewlett-Packard (HP) chief executive officer Meg Whitman says her firm isn't about to give up on 'traditional' computers, like desktops. In a recent interview, Whitman said she believes "desktops are not dead". Whitman made that comment in a CNBC ... interview published earlier this week. When asked whether her firm would focus more on mobile hardware, like tablet computers, Whitman had this to say: "In the commercial business, we've got a tremendously strong lineup, because we can go all the way from virtual desktop to workstations to desktops -- by the way, desktops are not dead -- to laptops ... (view more)

Microsoft has unveiled several new security features designed to help users protect their accounts against hackers. The list includes a recent activity log, security email notifications, and changes to two-step verification. The new features apply ... to Microsoft Accounts, or the platform used by Microsoft for its various online services, including SkyDrive, Office 365, Xbox Live, etc. Because many Microsoft Accounts contain sensitive information -- from email addresses to credit card and banking data -- the Redmond, Washington-based firm is taking security very seriously. Activity Log Shows ... (view more)