Google on Thursday will launch a mobile payment platform that lets people use smartphones to pay at shops as easily as they use a credit card, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Google is to unveil the system at a press conference in New York with the help of major financial institutions that have partnered with the California-based Internet giant on the project.

Hackers have attacked Sony Ericsson's Canadian eShop website, affecting 2,000 users, the latest online strike against the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant, a Sony spokesman said Wednesday.

The new security breach follows a massive theft of personal data from Sony's PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services, including names, passwords and addresses from more than 100 million accounts.

This week marks a new decade for Naharnet as it bids farewell to its 10-year-old website and enters a new era with a groundbreaking Content Management Platform completely built in-house.

The initial Naharnet 2.0 website will slowly develop into a new environment that will redefine Naharnet as a digital and social media destination for the Lebanese and Arabs across the world.

EBay may use some of the $2.4 billion it will receive from the sale of its stake in Skype to make acquisitions, the chief executive of the online auction giant said in an interview published Monday.

EBay CEO Jack Donahoe told The Wall Street Journal that the company may also use some of the proceeds from its sale of the 30 percent stake it owns in Skype to return money to investors through share buybacks.

Falungong members are suing Cisco Systems for custom-building "Golden Shield" Internet technology used by China to track down devotees of the spiritual movement.

A lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court in the northern California city of San Jose calls for the computer networking gear giant to pay damages and stop helping China find Falungong supporters.

Yahoo Inc. is giving its popular email service a long-promised facelift in an attempt to make it more appealing to people who are increasingly using Facebook, Twitter, Google and other online alternatives to communicate.

The changes announced Tuesday build upon a redesigned email format that Yahoo began testing seven months ago. The estimated 277 million users of Yahoo's free email service will be switched to the new version during the next few weeks.

Britain's privacy rules are under assault by rambunctious journalists, Twitter users and even sports fans, as thousands defy a judge's order keeping the name of a well-known soccer star secret.

The disclosure of the sportsman's identity has made a mockery of recently introduced rules protecting public figures' privacy, raising questions about whether it was desirable — or even possible — to order journalists to keep a secret in an age where a single rogue tweet can be read around the world.

Japan's Toyota Motor on Monday said it planned to create a private social networking service that will let cars "tweet" their drivers when they need servicing.

The Japanese automaker said it would work in conjunction with US cloud computing firm Salesforce.com to create the "Toyota Friend" service for owners of electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles to be introduced next year.

Just weeks after Amazon and Google unveiled their music offerings, Apple appears set to raise the bar.

The Cupertino, California-based gadget-maker is expected to launch a new Web-hosted music service next month, according to multiple reports, after negotiating deals with at least three of the four major record labels.

Google on Friday had stopped digitizing old newspapers as publishers sought to make money off story archives instead of having them hosted free online.

People will still be able to find newspapers already converted to digital format in the Google News Archives at news.google.com/archivesearch but the collection won't grow.