After almost 10 years, Google has won a patent for its “Google Doodles”. The patent is titled “Systems and methods for enticing users to access a web site” and protects Google’s system of changing a company logo to go along with a special event. Google co-founder Sergey Brin is said to be the inventor of the system.

A patent on doodles might seem a bit silly for a company like Google, but since we all associate the practice with that company, it’s a good thing for them that they now have a patent.

Google’s Mobile App that’s been around on iOS for awhile has now been updated and has a name change. The app is now called Google Search and it packs some new useful search features for the iOS platform. For one thing, there’s a new toolbar when using Google Search.

If you want to filter your search results into different categories like you can do on the desktop version of Google, the toolbar makes it easy to do on your iOS device. Just swipe from left to right on the device and a toolbar will appear. Select the category and the results on the right will be filtered according to your choice. Pretty sweet.

Google has announced a new way to automatically sort out the mail in your Gmail account, with Smart Labels. Gmail already lets you create your own labels if you want to label your mail, but if you want it done automatically Smart Labels will do the job. You get 3 new labels in all: Bulk, Forums and Notifications.

Gmail will detect which emails fit into those categories and label them accordingly. Emails labeled Bulk are things like newsletters and promotions, while Notifications are account statements and receipts. Forums are group mailing lists that you are subscribed to. Pretty simple stuff. If a message doesn’t get labeled correctly, you can fix it and even tell Google so they can improve the system.

According to an official announcement from Google, the recent issues involving a number of Gmail users who lost all of their old emails has been resolved. They claimed it was fixed a few days after it came to light, but it hadn’t been completely fixed, as a number of Gmail users were still without access to their old emails.

Now however, Google’s latest statement says that all of these issues should be fixed, but if anybody still has problems with Gmail, they should contact Google. It’s a good lesson to learn about not completely relying on cloud computing. Offline backups of your email might be a good idea.

It might be a good idea to backup your gmail account. Now would be a good time. As many as 500,000 Gmail users lost access to their inboxes this morning and some of them are even reporting that years worth of messages, attachments and Google Chat logs have vanished when they were able to log back on. That’s pretty frightening stuff, to think that you could lose all of that info so easily.

Apparently the bug reset some accounts, treating their owners as new users, even displaying welcome messages. Google says that the issue “affects less than .29% of the Google Mail userbase,” and of course engineers are working to fix the issue.

Google has updated their social search feature, and now social search results will appear within normal search results. Previously social search results only appeared at the bottom of the page. Google has also made other changes to its social search and it will now integrate search results from Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.

They have added notes for links people have shared on Twitter and other sites. Previously, they would show you results people created and linked through their Google profiles. Now, if someone you’re connected to has publicly shared a link, they may show that link in results.

Google has seemingly invaded every aspect of our lives and now it has rolled out a site to help you create your own wedding, edit photos and plan the wedding using Google’s tools, like Sites, Docs and Picnik.

Google teamed up with wedding planner Michelle Rago for the templates. She also provides tips for the couple. There’s also a wedding sweepstakes for $25,000 and the chance to get Rago help plan your wedding. Sounds crazy. Would you use this?

The keyboard that ships with the Logitech Revue set top box is comfortable to type on, but many people may have trouble finding a place to store it when it’s not in use. Here’s a great solution. EFO has a small keyboard that will be much easier to store.

Maybe not as comfortable to use, but it is more compact. The EFO Bluetooth Google TV Keyboard has 82 keys including the typical QWERTY keyboard and keys specifically for Google TV. There’s also a track pad. The keyboard has an RF option and normally communicates via Bluetooth. It has a operating range of 10 meters and the rechargeable battery has 400mA of power. Just $52.50.

$10 million to Google is like $1 for us. Just a drop in the bucket. That’s how much the company paid to buy movie recommendation site fflick. It looks like this is a strategic move to boost its upcoming YouTube movie service. It is a movie recommendation site after all.

The deal is currently in progress and will help Google gain access to a Twitter-based sentiment engine that is capable of gauging whether viewers prefer a particular movie or whether it has recieved enough pre-release momentum. It isn’t clear whether fflick will survive as an independent company or will be consumed wholly by the almighty Google. The buyout should be announced formally before the week is over.

While Google TV has had it share of challenges, Google isn’t giving up. They are moving forward on the platform in a big way if rumors are accurate. Now rumor has it that Google is adding a filtration system into the Android Market that will prevent users of non-touchscreen devices from viewing apps that require a touchscreen.

That would be very useful if the Android Market arrives on Google TV, since you wouldn’t want to sort through apps that don’t work on your device. The rumor is that Android Market for Google TV is expected to arrive very soon. In March or April specifically.

Google recently launched their second generation Nexus smartphone, the Google Nexus S, and now one company is selling a limited edition of the popular Nexus S smartphone.

Negri Electronics is offering a limited edition Nexus S, but we aren’t sure if it has been produced by Samsung, Google or a third party company, and it seems a bit more expensive than the standard version. The limited edition Nexus S features a different backplate filled with tiny Android mascots and that seems to be the only difference between it and the standard model.

Our friends over at Engadget have some photos of the Chrome Laptop being taken apart, which reveals the inner working and shows what is inside. According to Engadget, inside the Chrome OS notebook you’ll find a SanDisk branded SSD, and some Hynix memory chips.

This poor laptop is supposed to be getting tested and instead it was subjected to the horrors of a teardown. Well, it’s a cruel world. Hopefully all the kings horses and all the kings men were able to put it back together.

Google has announced an unbranded Google Cr-48 laptop. The name comes from the symbol for the chromium isotope on the periodic table. The device will be distributed through a Chrome OS Pilot Program, which is in public beta.

Google is hoping that early users will provide valuable feedback, but there isn’t a purchase option right now. Retail units from Acer and Samsung will be available in 2011. The Cr-48 will feature a 12.1-inch display, a full keyboard over a capacious trackpad, world roaming support for 3G mobile broadband with Verizon support in the U.S., 802.11n dual-band WiFi, 8+ hours of battery life and 8+ days of standby time, a webcam, and flash storage.

[Ubergizmo]

Google has now officially announced its electronic book store called the Google ebookstore, instead of Google Editions which was the rumored name. Google eBooks are available from the Google ebookstore in the US, and the company has announced that they have over three million titles available in the store.

The big G says that their eBooks are compatible with a wide range of devices, including most smartphones, tablets, e-readers and netbooks. In addition they are also launching free applications for Android and Apple iOS devices, and the apps are already available in the Android marketplace and the Apple App Store.

Google Hong Kong gave away a handful of Android 2.3 features in a video demonstrating voice commands on a Nexus One. The video has since been removed. The clip showed some cosmetic changes, like the green icons in the shortcut bar, the black menu bar and new buttons, but also the expanded Android Market. A third tab has also appeared on an app’s page that lets users find related apps on the store.

The video didn’t showcase some of the biggest features that are expected for Android 2.3, like video chat or WebM video, but it did confirm a push to make Android Market more discoverable.