“The site you are about to visit may harm your computer” warns a by-now familiar refrain from Google. And usually they have their reasons. But over the weekend, Google said that about the entire Internet. Oops.

Google’s controversial Street View feature – often accused of invading privacy – is back in the news again. A few weeks ago, the Google StreetView van caught a woman in Madrid, Spain squatting behind a parked car and, well, relieving herself. Yes, Google published an image of a woman urinating. Here it is.

Want to know the flu picture in your area? Don’t wait for the Center for Disease Control to tell you – use the Google flu tracker! According to Google, their new Google Flu Trends service can predict and provide you with flu trend predictions as much as two weeks earlier than can the CDC!

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have all signed on to the Global Initiative Network, pledging to protect the privacy of their users around the world, including – perhaps particularly – users in countries such as China, where demands that ISPs rat out their users are routinely made.

Google has just released Mail Goggles (do you have any idea how hard it is to not typo that as “Mail Googles”?), a new enhancement for Gmail designed to keep you from sending that 3 a.m. email while under the influence that you know you’ll regret in the morning, but send anyways. The Google Goggles work by requiring you to solve several math problems within sixty seconds before allowing you to effectively hit “send”.

An untold number of users attempted to log into their Gmail account recently only to be confronted with the chilling message, “We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is currently experiencing errors. You won’t be able to use your account while these errors last, but don’t worry, your account data and messages are safe. Our engineers are working to resolve this issue.

The Internet is all abuzz today with a line from Google’s response in the invasion of privacy lawsuit filed against Google by Aaron Boring and Christine Boring of Pennsylvania. That line is “Complete privacy does not exist.” There’s only one problem – Google didn’t actually say it.

In a move that can only be described as, at best, disingenuous, Microsoft testified this week before the U.S. Congress that if Yahoo were allowed to partner with Google in a search advertising deal, it would, they implied, be an illegal monopoly. Oh, right, but if Microsoft buys Yahoo for the very same reason, that’s ok??

Here are some Google search options that you may not be aware of, to make your search experience better, and even more fun!