IBT Staff Reporter

Google Inc will begin allowing users to personally endorse search results and Web pages, its latest attempt to stave off rival Facebook Inc while trying to jump onboard a social networking boom.

Any old cobra can hiss but the one that tweets on Wednesday had more than 150,000 people following Twitter posts about her escape from the Bronx Zoo, including top politicians and celebrities.

The shares of Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd, China's third most-popular Internet company, soared in their debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday in an echo of the Chinese technology IPO euphoria of late 2010.

Bank of America Corp's chief executive received a 70 percent pay cut in 2010, mainly because the bank shifted its schedule for paying bonuses.

Jamie Dimon and Elizabeth Warren, both power players in U.S. finance, used a high-profile U.S. Chamber of Commerce platform on Wednesday to advance opposing agendas in the debate over regulation reform.

President Barack Obama on Monday accepted an award celebrating transparency in government in a meeting closed to the press.

Google's fiber city of choice is Kansas City, Kansas

The technology would make the company the third major player, behind Google and Apple, said to be entering the mobile payment sphere.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday as investors positioned themselves for the quarter's end and the S&P 500 attempted to hold above a key technical level.

In what was billed 'the mother of all clashes', India scrapped past old-rivals Pakistan in a see-saw semi-final encounter and will face Sri Lanka in the finals of the Cricket World Cup 2011.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday with activity dominated by money managers buying recent winners, including energy and small-caps, as the quarter nears its end.

NASA's MESSENGER has downloaded 1,500 closeup images of Mercury, the first ever to be produced of the planet closest to the Sun.

Users of Samsung laptops may be sending private information to Samsung without their knowledge, according to a report from Network World.

AT&T Inc's $39 billion (24 billion pounds) bid to buy Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA came under scrutiny from New York's attorney general, who said he was looking into whether it was anti-competitive.

The impact on the U.S. economy of the Japanese crisis is far greater than realized, a top trade group said on Wednesday.

Weeks after Rebecca Black released the song Friday, which got the internet buzzing about it being the worst song ever made, her name is still making rounds.

(Corrects spelling of name to read Neal in paragraph 3 quoting Neal Dietz)

Fund manager Raj Rajaratnam made $1 million in two minutes of frantic calls after receiving an inside tip about a big investment in Goldman Sachs Group Inc at the height of the financial crisis, prosecutors said at the Galleon founder's insider trading trial.

Oil prices eased on Wednesday in choppy, thin trading, pressured by record high stockpiles at the Cushing delivery point for U.S. crude even as Libya and Middle East uncertainty supported oil, which remained on track to end the first-quarter up more than 10 percent.

(Corrects amount in first sentence to $1 million from millions)

Record labels such as Sony are not happy that Amazon is offering a cloud-based storage service for music.

In what was billed 'the mother of all clashes', India scrapped past old-rivals Pakistan in a see-saw semi-final encounter and will face Sri Lanka in the finals of the Cricket World Cup 2011.

An inveterate Federal Reserve advocate of tighter financial conditions on Wednesday renewed his call for higher benchmark interest rates and shrinking the Fed's balance sheet to pre-financial crisis levels.

House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday said President Barack Obama had not been able to answer a question about how long NATO would enforce a no fly zone over Libya if Col. Muammar Gaddafi did not leave the country.

Lady Gaga has a long list of successes to add to her resume: singer, dancer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and now she has one more - columnist.

Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie isn't convinced that tablets will stick around.

Tesla says the popular BBC show has spread a campaign of misinformation regarding its Roadster electric car.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, as a private employment report did little to shake up expectations for Friday's payrolls data while investors positioned themselves for the quarter's end.

The recent nuclear disaster in Japan has put a spotlight on measuring radiation dosage and the health effects, and how to diagnose thousands of people at a time.