Google co-founder Sergey Brin at the company's New York office in 2008

Just after Google (GOOG) co-founder Sergey Brin and his team unveiled Google Buzz, the company’s new Gmail feature that brings in Twitter-like social updates, a discerning audience member asked Brin why Google’s social efforts to date have failed. Brin denied this, and then hedged, explaining, “Past services have focused on friends and entertainment.” This one, he explained, also enhances productivity.

Like many of the services Google has launched, Buzz is technically magnificent and could be disruptive if users embrace it. It will have five key features: You can follow the people you email and chat with. You can share content like YouTube videos, photos, and newspaper articles. You can update your status both publicly and privately. You can get social updates in your inbox. And Google will use an algorithm to recommend popular content.

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Mark Zuckerberg

The social networking site is all grown up.

Facebook celebrates its sixth birthday today. Just one year ago, Fortune put founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the magazine’s cover in a story entitled "How Facebook is taking over our lives." The site had 150 million users. Today, that number has more than doubled to 350 million users.

There’s no question Facebook has emerged as one of the most significant Internet companies of its time. At its current growth rate, it will surpass Yahoo (YHOO)  for unique monthly visitors within the year to become the third largest site on the net. Half of the company’s users log on in any given day. Average users spend 55 minutes a day on the site. More than 2.5 billion photos are uploaded each month.

The scope of Zuckerberg’s vision for the site is tremendous, and his success has yet to be fully determined. But on the occasion of its sixth birthday, let’s take a look at six ways it has shaped our culture. More

Mobile payments company gets new investment, and a high-profile board member

Anyone who texted donations to the American Red Cross recently knows your cell phone is on its way to replacing your wallet.

CEO Malka targets community banks. Photo: Bling Nation.

From big banks and wireless companies to startups, there is fierce competition over who enables the new payment systems emerging. One Palo Alto-based startup thinks it has a plan to win: Bling Nation has $33 million in venture funding, advisors from most of the major banks, and today the company is announcing a buzz-worthy new board member: Facebook vice president Chamath Palihapitiya. More

Online publisher Stratfor provides news and information people are willing to pay for.

George Friedman is not in the business of journalism. He wants to make that clear. But while traditional media organizations are on the decline, Stratfor, the Austin, Tex.-based global intelligence company he started in 1996, is on the rise as readers look for alternatives to the ailing international sections of their daily papers.

Stratfor publishes online analysis of global events. An increasing number of respectable thought leaders and mainstream publications are relying on the company's briefings. Its subscriber base is growing. And earlier this month, Friedman brought on journalism veteran Robert Merry as publisher. Merry covered Washington for the Wall Street Journal for 12 years before moving to the Congressional Quarterly, where he spent his last 12 years as president and editor-in-chief.

Stratfor’s big bet is that while news organizations may be declining, people still need to understand the news and they’ll be willing to pay for that analysis.  More

The biggest computing and networking companies in the world are getting bigger – and former partners are now fierce rivals. Is tech's new strife good for customers?

The largest technology companies in the world are at war.

Sure, the executives who run Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, and others appear to play nice: Cisco touts the "regular dialogue" between its CEO, John Chambers, and IBM's chief executive, Sam Palmisano. Ann Livermore, an HP executive vice president, spoke at Oracle's annual customer event in October and extolled the virtues of their partnership. And because large customers buy software, gear, and services from all the tech giants, their staffs must work together to get computers and networks up and running.

Don't be fooled by the handshakes and air kisses. Increasingly these titans are invading one another's territories in a bid to grab as much of the $1.5 trillion in projected 2010 worldwide corporate tech spending as they possibly can — and it's going to get bloody.

Customers have cut their tech purchases, and when they do loosen their purse strings, they are buying software and services that help them run their systems more cheaply. To boost sales and profits in this low-growth environment, technology companies are bulking up by buying companies in entirely new businesses.

The endgame? Each aims to steal business from rivals by promising customers one-stop shopping for most, if not all, of their computing and networking needs. More

Becoming a mobile-device maker seems like madness, but Google's not crazy.

Why on earth would Google (GOOG) want to go into the business of making cell phones?

CEO Schmidt presides over an increasingly mobile-oriented Google. Photo: Google.

By now most followers of tech news are aware that the company has been testing a product dubbed the Google Nexus–the highly anticipated "Google phone" set to be launched today. But does Google's move into territory dominated by specialists like Nokia (NOK) and Motorola (MOT) and consumer electronics stalwarts like Apple (AAPL) and Samsung make sense?

Google is an Internet advertising company, after all, trafficking in search terms and text ads. The company has partnered with myriad handset makers and carriers to bring its Android operating system for mobile devices to consumers. Why would it ever want to bypass its partners, putting out its own phone? More

The rapper-turned-entrepreneur sees cash money in the commodity's boom.

MC Hammer has had many professional careers: he’s been a preacher, a rapper, and a tech entrepreneur.

Now the pioneer of the parachute pants has an equity stake in Cash4Gold, a Pompano Beach-Fla., refinery. Customers who send in their gold—grandma’s necklace, dad’s watch—will receive an estimate of its worth. If they’re happy with the estimate, they get a check.

With the price of gold hitting new highs, it’s hardly surprising that pawnshops are flourishing. Cash4Gold claims to be the first such service to operate fully online; indeed, its backers include a handful of tech venture capital firms, including Luxembourg-based Mangrove Partners ( an early backer of Skype) and Boston’s General Catalyst and Highland Capital Partners. More

Electronic mail is so 1996. Will "Waving" replace it?

Email is antiquated. We need a better way to get things done online than hitting “reply all” to long message chains and sending constantly updated attachments.

Google aims to make waves in email. Image: Google.

Google (GOOG) is attempting to solve this program with a new service called Google Wave. Announced at a developers’ conference last May, the software application and computing platform blends email, instant messaging and online collaboration. If it gains traction, it could be disruptive, particularly in the enterprise market—but the chances for that may be slim.

Here's how Google says Wave works: You create a wave and add people to it. Wave members can add their own text, photos and feeds. They can also edit the wave. Everyone on the wave can view changes being made in real time. Through a playback feature, you can also rewind the wave and look at how it has evolved.

If you’re having trouble wrapping your mind around what exactly Google Wave is, you’re not alone.  Google opened the service to a limited number of users in September. I am not in this group, which includes a sampling of software developers and early technology adopters, but I spoke to a half-dozen folks who are trying it, and all report that it’s a little hard to understand. More

Few people are more delighted that Skype cofounders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis finally settled their lawsuit with eBay (EBAY) on November 6 than Marc Andreessen. The venture capital firm he cofounded last summer is one of a group of investment outfits that will now take control of the Internet communications company in a planned $2 billion deal. I caught up with him just after the settlement was announced to ask a few questions: More

And a few things we don't love about Motorola's forthcoming Google-powered phone.

Droid does (and doesn't) wow our writer.

The Droid is a fierce phone. Motorola's newest smartphone has a number of features that match and even best its biggest competitor, Apple's (AAPL) iPhone. It has a fast processor. It’s got a large display with almost double the resolution of the iPhone as well as a slide-out keyboard. And it’s got a five megapixel camera with flash and zoom and a video camera that renders your Flip camera unnecessary. Add to that a new sharp-edged form factor straight out of Star Trek. And the marketers have given their campaign a bunch of attitude with their “iDon’t” commercial that pits the Droid directly against the iPhone.

But is any of that going to be enough to woo iPhone fans to Motorola's new device? As I wrote in a September feature, the company has a lot riding on it. Thanks to a massive marketing push by Verizon Wireless (VZ), plenty of excitement is building for the Droid’s November 6 launch. But just a year ago there was a lot of similar hype around RIM's Storm, which was also going to take on the iPhone. Though initial sales were pretty good, the smartphone received lukewarm reviews.

Motorola's new offering will have to prove itself once the hype dies down. And with so many Android-powered devices coming to market in the next few months, it may be hard for the Droid, which Verizon Wireless will sell for $199 after an $100 rebate with a two-year contract, to stand out.

Fortune received a Droid to test this morning. I powered it up, and a monotone robotic voice uttered “Droid.” Here are five things I think Motorola (MOT) has done right with the Droid…and a couple features I miss.
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