If a robotic rover soon cavorts on the surface of the moon, you can trace its genesis to a gala fundraiser held at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., last March.

Hosted by Google co-founder Larry Page, the event raised $2.7 million for the X Prize Foundation. Page is a trustee.

Attendees included Tipper Gore, Sir Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington and Robin Williams. The actor/comedian, whose roles have included a space alien as well as a short-term president-elect of the United States, brought down the house with an impromptu routine.

American adventurer Steve Fossett never did much on a small scale. Now, extraordinary and sophisticated measures are being taken to find the lost aviator, who has been missing for nearly two weeks.

Two of America’s largest companies and tens of thousands of people - literally - are searching for Fossett.

Since Fossett disappeared, the state of Nevada has spent more than $600,000 looking for the expert pilot and world-class yachtsman. Fossett, who made a fortune in commodities trading, was last seen taking off from Barron Hilton’s sprawling Nevada ranch in a Bellanca Super Decathalon fixed wing aircraft.

Google News has begun hosting news from four major wire services: Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, UK Press Association and the Canadian Press.

The company explained the new feature on its blog as an effort to eliminate duplication that occurred when many news outlets ran the same wire story.

“Instead of 20 ‘different’ articles (which actually used the exact same content), we’ll show the definitive original copy and give credit to the original journalist,” reads the blog posting.

Google, which last year purchased YouTube for a whopping $1.65 billion, has unveiled a plan to make money from the site.

Ads now appear at the bottom of some videos, eventually disappearing if the users don’t click on them. In an approach similar to Google’s AdSense program, selected content providers receive a portion of the revenues.

The board of directors of Dow Jones said late Tuesday night that itw as “prepared to approve” a buyout offer from Rupert Murdoch, which would give the conservative press baron control of The Wall Street Journal.

Fine, but the real news is that Al Gore says Murdoch is a man of his word who supports independent voices, according to The New York Times.

It’s not often that the Times buries a lead, but this is one of them. The newspaper acknowledged that Gore’s support is an “unlikely endorsement,” but put it at the very end of its main Murdoch-Dow Jones story, posted to its Web site late Tuesday night.