Google on Monday announced that it will let users of its online social network have verified accounts with names or brands in a manner similar to that offered at Facebook and Twitter.

Custom Google+ page addresses were rolled out to a limited number of profiles including the footballer David Beckham, actor Hugh Jackman, singer Britney Spears, and Japanese car maker Toyota, the company said in a blog post.

A court Saturday reversed an order that would have blocked access to Facebook in Brazil for a day after the popular U.S. social media site allegedly refused to pull a page including illegal political material.

An electoral court in Florianopolis, capital of the southern state of Santa Catarina, voided the ruling which also included a fine of about $25,000.

Internet giant Google on Monday said it plans to lay off about 4,000 employees at Motorola, a cellphone maker it purchased in May, in order to return the company to profitability.

"While we expect this strategy to create new opportunities and help return Motorola's mobile devices unit to profitability, we understand how hard these changes will be for the employees concerned," a company spokesperson told Agence France Presse.

Yahoo! stock price slid Thursday on word that freshly-appointed chief Marissa Mayer could overhaul the struggling Internet pioneer's strategy to regain its faded glory.

Mayer is re-evaluating Yahoo's plans, including a promise that billions of dollars from the sale of part of its stake in Alibaba Group in China would be channeled to stockholders, probably by buying back shares, according to paperwork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Archeologists in Peru plan to use a U.S.-made drone to survey ancient Andean ruins, in the latest civilian application of the unmanned aerial vehicles used to hunt militants in the world's war zones.

The device, which can fit in a backpack, is due to be tested later this month at the ruins of the 16th-century Spanish colonial town Mawchu Llacta, some 13,450 feet (4,100 meters) above sea level.

A new "state-sponsored" cyber surveillance virus dubbed "Gauss" has stolen passwords and key data from thousands of bank users in the Middle East, including Lebanon, the top IT security firm Kaspersky Lab said Thursday.

According to Kaspersky, Gauss was a complete and "complex, nation-state sponsored cyber-espionage toolkit," which aims to steal sensitive data, with a specific focus on browser passwords and online banking account details.

Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has hit out at Facebook over its failure to immediately take down a page that stereotyped Aboriginal people as hopeless petrol-sniffing drunks.

While the content could not be viewed Thursday, Conroy said Facebook should have shut down the site as soon as it was brought to its attention and urged more cooperation from the social network.

Google on Wednesday began allowing users to extend online searches to include messages stored in accounts at Web-based email service Gmail.

"Sometimes the best answer to your question isn't available on the public Web -- it may be contained elsewhere, such as in your email," Google search senior vice president Amit Singhal said in a blog post.

A former Google executive on Wednesday opened an online venue where college graduates with dreams of starting companies can be matched with investors and mentors.

Recent and soon-to-be graduates are invited to pitch entrepreneurial ideas at Upstart.com, which one-time Google Enterprise president Dave Girouard created as way for young people to launch businesses with "crowd funding."

A 17-year-old boy retained his title as America's fastest texter Wednesday in a duel of the thumbs staged before yelling fans in New York's Times Square.

Austin Weirschke took home $50,000 in prize money for the second time in two years when he bested 10 other texting demons in feats of thumb speed, memory and fluency in texting shorthand.