China's popular social media sites buzzed Thursday with the downfall of Bo Xilai, a high-profile political leader famed for his Maoist revival campaign, filling a gap in information left by state media.

The news that Bo had been removed as party chief of the southwestern city of Chongqing quickly became a "hot topic" on popular social media, generating millions of comments from the nation of half a billion Internet users.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday he wants "Internet giants" to pay tax in France, shortly before he was due to meet the founder of the micro-blogging site Twitter.

"It is unacceptable that they have a turnover of several billion euros in France without paying tax," he told Le Point magazine, adding that the French government should consider taxing online advertising revenues.

The U.S. Federal Reserve, the financial backbone of the world's biggest economy, said Wednesday it would try its hand at Twitter to improve communications with the public.

The central bank's board launched its official Twitter channel -- @federalreserve -- "with the aim of increasing the accessibility and availability of Federal Reserve Board news," its said.

Google paid tribute on Wednesday to the "father of the modern origami" Akira Yoshizawa by transforming its celebrated homepage logo into a homage to the folded-paper art pioneer.

To mark what would have been Yoshizawa's 101st birthday, the letters in Google's name are formed by folded paper shapes created by origami artist Robert Lang.

Google linked up Tuesday with Belgian museum, the Mundaneum, which was set up as a 19th-century paper equivalent of the U.S. Internet search giant.

"We want to honor and promote the important European pioneers of computing and the Internet," said Google Belgium's chief Thierry Geerts. "For Google, this mission sounds eerily and pleasantly familiar."

Internet music service Rdio.com on Tuesday unveiled a redesign intended to make it "faster, simpler and more social" as it battles with rivals such as Pandora and Spotify.

Rdio also announced that its music catalogue has grown to more than 15 million songs.

PayPal on Tuesday pulled out a revamped digital wallet service amid rumors it is poised to introduce a plug-in gizmo that will let small businesses accept credit card payments using smartphones.

PayPal digital "wallet" improvements to begin rolling out in May include the ability to make purchases at stores but decide days later which credit or debit cards will be used to pay.

The Encyclopedia Britannica will end print publication after 244 years and go "completely digital," the Chicago-based company said.

"The end of the print set is something we've foreseen for some time," Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopedia Britannica, said in a statement.

The makers of an Instagram photo-sharing application wildly popular on Apple gadgets are tailoring a version for smartphones powered by Android software.

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom provided a glimpse of the Android "app" to technology trend-setters at a South By Southwest Interactive conference that wraps up on Tuesday in the Texas capitol of Austin.

Twitter on Monday announced that it has bought mobile blogging startup Posterous and will put engineers behind the popular "lifestreaming" service to work on special projects.

"This team has built an innovative product that makes sharing across the Web and mobile devices simple -- a goal we share," San Francisco-based Twitter said in a blog post.