Microsoft Files Antitrust Complaint Against Google; New Tech Apps Released

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.

On Thursday, Microsoft filed an antitrust complaint against Google in Europe. Microsoft joins several companies in grumbling that Google is unfairly promoting its own products, such as Google Price Search, through its search engines and smart phone software. It also accused its fellow Mountain View giant of barring its Bing search service from indexing up to half the videos on YouTube.

Today Clearwell Systems Inc. announced the release of eDiscovery World, its first online social game. Available on Facebook, the game simulates a law office, replete with stressed out IT employees and leafless trees. Gamers start out in the role of  "summer associate” and then work their way up in positions by helping to solve cases, reaching the ultimate goal of the “general counsel” avatar.

The social browser RockMelt announced today that it will add its users’ most requested features to its browser. The new “RockMelt Beta 2” includes a new Facebook chat, Twitter app and “View Later” function. The company is upping its browsing speed for these features, which runs on Google's Chromium 10.

Google had its April Fool's laugh today with the pseudo-launch of “Google Motion." But on Wednesday, it was more serious, officially jumpstarting the “+1  button." Similarly to the Facebook "like" button, the new features enables users to express what websites and products they recommend. To use the new feature, people need to create a public profile on Google.

SolFocus has partnered with Bechtel to complete the first photovoltaic plant at Nichols Farms in Hanford. Today, the companies announced the conclusion of the project, which will produce 2,244 kilowatt hours in the first year—or 70 percent of the demand of the pistachio processing facility.

On Wednesday, Mint.com launched a “Quest for Money” game, providing free online tools to help middle-school students learn financial management skills. The company partnered with the New York-based Scholastic to develop a game that challenges players with questions about money, shopping and savings.