Not all proverbs are proverbial. Yesterday, an Apple fell far from the tree.

In the middle 1990s, Timothy M. Armstrong, the young co-owner of a struggling small newspaper in Boston, had lunch with some people from Mosaic.

In addition to its lobbying efforts in Washington, which have increased dramatically in recent years, Google has many connections to the top people around President Obama.

Marissa Mayer isn’t leaving Google. Really. She isn’t. The New York Times says so.

In a move that could signal its intention to go to court against two Internet giants, the U.S. Justice Department has hired the former head of its antitrust division to look at a revenue-sharing deal between Google and Yahoo Inc.

Google is planning a venture-capital division, to be headed by David Drummond, company SVP and chief legal officer.

Cuil isn’t the first, and it won’t be the last startup to experience embarrassing bugs - including an out-and-out crash - on its first day out.

Wouldn’t you love to know what you’d earn if you worked for your employer’s biggest competitor?

Never accuse Google co-founder Sergey Brin of failing to see the big-picture.

In a collaborative campaign to compete with Microsoft in internet-delivered software, Google and Salesforce.com have become increasingly cozy.

Can Google maintain the company motto - “Don’t be evil” - while building a powerful lobbying machine?

That’s just one of the challenges facing the internet giant. Another is Microsoft, a competitor not only on the web, but in the courts and the halls of Congress.

The media company co-founded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt five years ago plans to go public.

Current Media, which operates a TV network and a web site aimed at young audiences, notified the SEC of its intentions today.

Do a Google search for Dr. Larry Brilliant and you’ll get links to the worlds of medicine, technology, music and religion.

Prominent, too, is a link to Google Inc. itself, as Brilliant, 63, is now the executive director of Google.org, the Internet company’s philanthropic arm.

The Federal Trade Commission today approved Google’s $3.1 acquisition of DoubleClick, clearing the way for tremendous growth in the company’s online advertising revenues.

Microsoft and consumer privacy organizations had opposed the deal, arguing that it would create an advertising monopoly.

The story on Thanksgiving Day began bravely (ironically?) with five simple words: “Even lawyers need a hug.”

But if they’re a recent law school graduate already making well over $100,000 a year do they also need free milkshakes brought to their desks?

The “happiness committee” at the Washington office of the law firm Perkins Coie has answered that question in the affirmative, according to The New York Times.

Add another line to what has to be one of the greatest resumes of all time.

Al Gore is now a partner at Kleiner Perkins, the storied Silicon Valley venture capital company that has backed such web and technology giants as Google, Sun Microsystems and Amazon.

Despite losing to Microsoft in its bid for a piece of Facebook, Google isn’t giving up on social networks.

The behemoth of search is partnering with other tech companies and social networks to develop a competing approach called OpenSocial. The open-source technology will enable developers to write applications that can be used on many sites, including partners in the project, such as LinkedInand Friendster.

Sure, he’s won every award known to man except the Olympic gold. (Unless he gets into wrestling or weight lifting, that honor seems beyond even his reach.)

But the main achievement of Al Gore is not his comeback from having the White House snatched away, not his Oscar or even his sharing of the Nobel Peace Prize, announced today.

The real phenomenon of Al Gore is how connected he has become despite (and because of) his losing the presidency.

Gore has forged strong bonds not only in politics, science and the international environmental movement, but in finance, high-tech and Hollywood.

If you want insight into the federal government’s vision of safeguarding America in the future, take a look at the investment portfolio of In-Q-Tel, the venture arm of the CIA.

In-Q-Tel was formed in 1999 to provide capital to startup companies developing technologies that could be used for national security. It operates not as a division of the CIA, but as an independent nonprofit.

High on its list of priorities is finding new ways to analyze massive amounts of information. Many of In-Q-Tel’s portfolio companies provide technologies that gather and make sense of data. For example, Language Weaver provides automated language translation. NovoDynamics reads and translates text in Mideastern languages.

Execs from Google and Microsoft are scheduled to appear before the Senate today to argue the merits of Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick.

Google announced the $3.1 billion deal in April, but the plan requires approval of the Federal Trade Commission and regulators abroad.