Google Accuses Tech Giants of "Intentional" Campaign Against Android Software

Every week, Mountain View makes news with technology developments, discoveries and sometimes controversies.

Today, Mountain View Patch brings you the first of a weekly “Bits and Bytes” column where we’ll relay the past week’s news highlights from our backyard giants, start-ups and small businesses alike.

Google accused fellow tech giants Apple, Oracle and Microsoft Corp of waging an “intentional, organized campaign” against its Android mobile phone software through “bogus patents,” according to the company’s chief legal officer. The company feels it was excluded from a bidding process for thousands of patents from Novell, Inc. and Nortel, which went bankrupt.

LinkedIn saw its revenue more than double since its second quarter ended on June 30. It also posted a 5.1 percent increase in profit, far exceeding Wall Street expectations. Membership also skyrocketed to 115.8 million worldwide, a 61 percent increase from June 2010. It has not all been smooth sailing for the company, though, as it lost of its stock value Thursday after the largest stock sell-off since 2008.

Google’s latest big puchase is daily deal aggregator The Dealmap, though the pricetag has not been disclosed. Launched in May 2010, the site lassos in deals from around the web. It boasts more than two million users, and has an app which has been downloaded to Apple's iPhone and Google Android phones over one million times.

Complete Genomics, which sequences human genomes, lost more than one-fourth of its value due a decline in its second quarter revenue. The drop may have been in part due to price decreases in its services, and a delay in collection of the DNA samples it needs.

Geeks Without Frontiers have combined their braininess for the global good. On Wednesday the Mountain View-based group, backed by big names such as Google, announced the development of a Wi-Fi network that will be available for at least half the traditional cost, and available to a billion people within 10 years.

On Monday, Steve Bennett was named the new CEO of Symantec, a security software maker, replacing John W. Thompson.