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Google Maps unveiled the addition of biking directions Wednesday at the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. The new beta offering is being launched in partnership with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy -- a nonprofit organization that has already built a database for locating more than 1,600 rail trails and connecting corridors available for free public use.

To improve accessibility for the hearing impaired, YouTube on Thursday rolled out auto-captioning for all users. The video site initiated the project in 2008 and opened it up to a small group of users last November.

A rash of new laptops set for display at the CeBIT computing trade show underline the growing shift in the market to tinier machines with fancier features such as 3D graphics.

Taiwan-based Acer will be at the show with the Aspire 5740D, which will retail in Europe for 800 euros (1,090 dollars). Thanks to a special coating on its 15.6-inch screen, users who wear polarizing spectacles can see the third dimension when they play movies.

Experts say 2010 will be the year that 3D becomes widely available on notebook computers.

Google's effort to launch a social-media network on top of its existing 143 million Gmail users had a rough first week. Within days of last week's launch of Google Buzz, it was hard to keep up with users' privacy complaints and the company's rapid responses. Being automatically linked to contacts was a nonstarter. So was having those contacts revealed to other Gmail users.

Google on Thursday launched a click-to-call feature for its mobile advertisements. The new function works with the iPhone, Android-based devices, and other smartphones. The AdWords function lets consumers call a vendor by clicking on a link that displays the phone number rather than clicking through to a web site and searching for the number.

In the highly publicized aftermath of a Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerability that opened the door for malicious hackers to tap into Google's infrastructure, the search giant on Monday rolled out a new "stable" release of its Google Chrome for Windows. Although the timing of the new release probably isn't connected to the security issues facing IE, Google nonetheless is pressing ahead in its efforts to grab market share from IE and Firefox, the market-leading browsers.

Google is showing signs that it intends to push harder into Microsoft Office territory. On Tuesday the company announced that users of its Google Docs service will get one gigabyte of free storage and be able to upload all file types, not just word processing, spreadsheet and presentation files.

Privately held Memeo has introduced a service for Google Apps Premier Edition customers that enables them to access, migrate and synchronize all file types -- including Microsoft Office files -- to Google Docs. Called Memeo Connect, the offering lets subscribers integrate online and offline content.

With Memeo Connect, Office 2003 documents on the desktop can be converted into Google Docs and automatically uploaded to the cloud. Moreover, Google Docs can be converted into local Office files for offline editing.

Privately held Memeo has introduced a service for Google Apps Premier Edition customers that enables them to access, migrate and synchronize all file types -- including Microsoft Office files -- to Google Docs. Called Memeo Connect, the offering lets subscribers integrate online and offline content.

With Memeo Connect, Office 2003 documents on the desktop can be converted into Google Docs and automatically uploaded to the cloud. Moreover, Google Docs can be converted into local Office files for offline editing.

U.S. antitrust regulators are taking a closer look at Google Inc.'s proposed $750 million purchase of mobile phone marketer AdMob, the latest sign of greater government vigilance as Google tries to expand its advertising empire.

The Federal Trade Commission sought more information about the deal this week, according to a Wednesday post on Google's blog.

This so-called "second request" doesn't mean regulators intend to block Google's AdMob deal. Most other acquisitions that go through this stage end up getting approved.