Google Gives Thanks With Turkey Doodle; How Safe Is Your Password?

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

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

Internet search giant Google began its Thanksgiving celebration Tuesday, Nov. 22 with an interactive turkey doodle. Users had option of dressing the turkey their way by playing around with various hairstyles, feathers and footwear–which could then be shared on Google Plus. In keeping with the tradition of hand-made versions of the bird, there were 12 secret combinations to be unearthed.  Mashable put together a slideshow of all special designs that appeared, with a puff of smoke when the right combo was hit.

In a bid to simplify its range of services, Google announced that it's dropping off seven more products, including Google Wave, Knol and Google Friends Connect. "Overall, our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience," said Urs Holzle, Google’s vice president of operations.

LinkedIn share price dropped nearly 3 percent to $70 Monday, Nov. 21 as the 180-day lock-up period for LinkedIn ended, allowing employees and early investors to sell an estimated 24 million shares. While it is not known how many insiders sold their stakes, the trading volume was unusually high.

Chip and hardware designer Ceva doubled down with investment in EyeSight, motion-gesture recognition firm. Under the new investment agreement, EyeSight’s touch-free solutions will be available to users of the Ceva-MM3000 platform.

Mountain View-based network intelligence company, cPacket Networks, has partnered with nPulse Technologies in an attempt to, “bring the most accurate analytics and highest level of applications visibility to Network Operations Centers (NOCs) and Security Operations Centers (SOCs).”

Internet security company, SplashData, released a list of "25 Worst Passwords of the Year" for 2011. Compiled from files containing millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers, the list includes words like, "Monkey, dragon and Superman," among others. So if your password is "password" or "123456," you’re inviting trouble from your hacker friends. On a more serious note, reconsider your password and guard yourself against risk of fraud and identity theft.