Google Purchases Meebo; 'Save Our Science' Event Sat. at Red Rock Cafe

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

In the weekly “Bits and Bytes” column we’ll relay the past week’s news highlights from our backyard giants, start-ups and small businesses alike.

Watch out, Google Maps. On Monday, main competitor Apple is expected to announce its own mapping application. About half of Google’s map traffic hails from iPhones and iPads, but Apple is looking to change that with its new app, which will be unveiled at an annual conference for software developers in San Francisco.  

Google has purchased Mountain View start-up Meebo in order to expand Google+, its social networking service. The costs of the acquisition weren’t revealed. Meebo, which helps connect people through instant messaging, has raised $70 million since it was acquired in 2005. 

LinkedIn suffered a security breach this week: more than six million passwords were hacked. Several users were angered that it took a few days for LinkedIn to notify them, feeling that the major social networking site should have been more swift. 

Start-up Education-Portal.com published its 300th video lesson this week, part of a growing library of 11 free college courses ranging from Intro to Western Civilization to Calculus. Unlike other online education sites like Udemy and Khan Academy, students can earn transferable college credit. 

The proposed FY 2013 budget cuts would trim 20 percent from NASA’s Planetary Science Division budget, potentially causing it to cancel plans for exploration missions, and its collaboration with the European Space Agency. In protest, planetary scientists are speaking out at a “Save Our Science” event Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at . 

Vayama.com, which specializes in international travel bookings, launched a mobile site for smartphones this week. Unlike other websites, Vayama only focuses on international travel, and claims to offer a selection of flights not found on other sites.