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A Tokyo court has ordered that Google suspend its autocomplete search function after a Japanese man claimed it violated his privacy and cost him his job. The case is a first involving the search function, which instantly suggests words or phrases a person may want to look for before the user has finished typing. So far, Google, headquartered in California, has refused to halt the feature, saying it will not be regulated by Japanese law and did not violate any privacy policies, according to the Kyodo news agency.

People in China may be barred from accessing Facebook, but that hasn't stopped them from making software for the 845-million member social network. The partnerships with Chinese software developers allow Facebook to find ways to show investors in its upcoming initial public offering growth and expansion in China, even though the Chinese government has banned access to the site since 2009.

Now that everyone’s had a good moan about Apple paying higher than average Chinese wages to the Chinese workers who assemble its products it seems that it is Facebook’s turn to be attacked for paying what are, in the parts of the world where they’re paid, pretty good wages.

In a strong affront to the Chinese government’s attempt to censor artists and internet users, fans of the artist Ai Weiwei have raised more than $830,000 in three days through social media to help the artist fight a $2.4 million tax bill from the state.

Chinese search engine Baidu reports an 80% surge in profits for the third quarter, boosted by increased advertising sales.

China's online population -- the largest in the world -- has topped half a billion, the state Xinhua news agency reported Thursday, citing a senior official.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is aiming to handle one trillion yuan ($157 billion) of transactions in 2012 on its Taobao consumer sales platforms, the company's Chairman Jack Ma said Saturday.

Yahoo executives said they had made "significant progress" with Alibaba Group to settle a row over ownership of a key unit that affects the value of the U.S. Internet giant's investment in its Chinese partner.

Sina’s Weibo has nearly 8 times more users than Twitter. In 2010, Twitter had approximately 17 million users in the US, according to an Edison Research report called Twitter Usage in America 2010. Even if Twitter doubled in size this year, which is unlikely, its Twitter account numbers would be dwarfed by Sina accounts alone.

The State Internet Information Office will regulate every corner of the nation’s vast Internet community, a move that appeared to complement a continuing crackdown on political dissidents.