SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc took the wraps off its first tablet computer on Wednesday, looking to replicate its smartphone success in the tablet market despite tough competition from Apple Inc, Microsoft and Amazon.

The “Nexus 7″ tablet, built by and co-branded with Taiwan’s Asus, will begin selling for as low as $199 on the Google Play website and apps store from around mid-July.

At 7 inches and $199, the device takes aim initially at the Kindle model, which analysts consider a window into Amazon.com’s trove of online content.

Google can similarly use the Nexus 7 – unveiled at its annual developer conference in San Francisco – to connect to its own online offerings, which include video service YouTube and Google Play. It will go after more cost-conscious users who might shun the loftier price tag of $499 and above on Apple’s iPad.

“That range of services will be the secret to stitching together this rag-tag fleet of Android gadgets into a platform that can compete with Apple for minutes of users’ attention rather than premium device dollars,” said Forrester analyst James McQuivey.

Shares in Google gained 0.8 percent to $569.37 in afternoon trade.

The Nexus will feature the new 4.1 “Jelly Bean” version of Google’s software, as well as a front-facing camera, a 1280×800 resolution screen, and an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc(GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) unveiled its first tablet PC on Wednesday, as the Internet company looks to replicate its smartphone success in a tablet market where it faces stiff competition from Apple Inc(AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research), Microsoft(MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Amazon(AMZN.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

The “Nexus 7″ tablet, built and co-branded in partnership with hardware maker Asus (2357.TW: Quote, Profile, Research), will be priced starting at $199. Google unveiled the tablet at its annual developer conference in San Francisco.

The 7-inch tablet will feature the new 4.1 “Jelly Bean” version of Google’s software, as well as a front-facing camera, a 1280×800 resolution screen, and an Nvidia (NVDA.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Tegra 3 processor.

Google’s Android software is the No. 1 operating system for smartphones, but has struggled to compete with Apple’s iPad in the market for tablets.

Executives showcased the new 4.1 “Jelly Bean” version of Android operating system at the event in San Francisco. The new software delivers faster performance, according to the company, and new features such as “voice search.”

The Internet search leader said that 1 million devices using its Android mobile software are being activated every day.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic, Poornima Gupta; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Gary Hill)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc CEO Larry Page, who plans to skip several high-profile events in coming weeks after losing his voice, told employees there was “nothing seriously wrong with me,” according to a source who had seen an internal staff memo.

Page sat out his company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Thursday. The 39-year-old Google co-founder is resting his voice because of an unspecified condition, and he will miss Google’s annual developer conference next week as well as its quarterly results announcement next month, executives said on Thursday without elaborating.

Page’s prolonged absence from the public spotlight raises questions about his condition, and the company’s obligation to highlight issues of concern to shareholders.

Corporate governance experts say Google has met minimal disclosure requirements but will face increasing pressure while Page remains out of sight.

On Friday, Google’s shares rose 1.1 percent to $571.48, lifted along with the rest of the Nasdaq.

“It gets them over the first disclosure hurdle, that is they’ve alerted shareholders to the fact he’s going to have this health effect,” said James Post, a professor of management at Boston University who focuses on corporate governance issues.

“It’s OK for them not to say that. As more information emerges from other sources, the tough questions still lie ahead, and there will be continued pressure to keep answering those tough questions.”

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc has begun showing ads on Zynga Inc’s website, the first time the company has distributed ads beyond the borders of its own website and raising the possibility that Facebook could eventually launch an online advertising network.

“People may now see ads and sponsored stories from Facebook on Zynga.com,” said Facebook spokesperson Tucker Bounds. He said that Facebook does not share information about people or advertisers with Zynga, and that Facebook’s advertisers do not have any new “targeting criteria.”

Asked if Facebook was planning to create a full-fledged online ad network that distributes ads on other sites, Bounds said “we are only showing ads on Zynga right now.”

Zynga was not immediately available for comment.

Shares of Facebook, the world’s No.1 social network, were up 4.4 percent to $33.25 in mid-afternoon trading on Friday.

Facebook’s stock has been under pressure since its initial public offering last month, due in part to concerns about the company’s slowing revenue growth.

Facebook made most of its $3.7 billion in revenue last year from ads that appear on its site.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc Chief Executive Larry Page sat out his company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Thursday due to an unspecified condition affecting his voice that will sideline him from speaking engagements for several weeks.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told shareholders at the company’s Mountain View headquarters that Page, who replaced Schmidt as CEO in April 2011, had “lost his voice” and would not be able to do any public speaking engagements for the time being.

Schmidt said Page continues to run the company, but that he will also not speak at the Google developer conference next week and at the company’s second-quarter earnings results next month.

A Google spokesman said Page has been “asked to rest,” but would not provide more details on his condition.

Page, along with co-founder Sergey Brin and Schmidt, control a majority of the Internet company through special shares that give them more voting power.

That capital structure, which has been emulated by the new generation of Web companies such as Facebook Inc and Zynga Inc, was also in the spotlight at Thursday’s meeting.

A Google proposed stock-split plan designed to preserve the Page and Brin’s majority control was passed with a majority of votes at the meeting.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc offered a rare peek on Tuesday at one facet of the elaborate system it uses to police its 900 million-user social network, as it attempts to keep it free of content it deems offensive, illegal or just plain inappropriate.

The company said it employs “hundreds” of staffers in several offices around the world to handle the millions of user reports it receives every week about everything from spam to threats of violence.

A detailed, and somewhat confusing, chart published by Facebook on its website on Tuesday depicts how reports of various infractions are routed through the company and lays out all the potential outcomes, which can range from an account being disabled to Facebook alerting law enforcement.

Facebook spokesman Fred Wolens said the company decided to publish the chart to provide more “transparency” about how user reports are dealt with. “There was a feeling that once users clicked ‘report,’ it was not immediately clear what happens,” Wolens said.

The user reports are one way that Facebook maintains order on its service, where U.S. users spend more than six hours per month sharing videos and photos, playing video games and listening to music, according to research firm comScore.

Facebook, which last month had one of the largest initial public offerings in U.S. history but whose stock has since fallen below its offering price, competes with Google Inc, Yahoo Inc and other Web companies as a top online destination.

‘CORE VALUE PROPOSITION’

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc and Apple Inc are attracting renewed scrutiny of their practices due to privacy concerns – this time for flying “military-grade spy planes” over major U.S. cities as they race to shore up their rival 3D mapping services.

Staffers for Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, met with Google officials on Monday to discuss privacy issues related to the camera-equipped planes. They plan to meet with Apple on Friday.

The senator’s office also plans to reach out to Microsoft and other companies that may be developing similar technologies.

Schumer told Reuters in a statement on Tuesday that he wanted Apple and Google to clarify their plans and ensure “they understand the significance of our concerns over the potential publication of images captured in people’s backyards and other private settings.”

FEAR OF FLYOVERS

On Monday, Schumer wrote to the two rival Silicon Valley corporations, accusing them of “an unprecedented invasion of privacy” by using filming technology capable of imaging objects as small as 4 inches.

In his letter, Schumer raised concerns over Apple’s and Google’s reported “digital mapping plans that use military-grade spy planes with enough precision to see through windows, catch detailed images of private backyard activities, and record images as small as four inches.”

BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Oracle Corp (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported stronger-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, releasing the results three days ahead of schedule after news of the pending departure of a senior sales executive fueled concerns that business was stagnating.

While the departure of senior sales personnel, particularly at the end of a quarter can often signal weaker sales, the exit of executive in question, Keith Block, appeared linked to criticisms of his boss Oracle President Mark Hurd and the company’s Sun Microsystems division in internal communications that later became public.

“The things he said about his boss and the things he said about the company are very damaging. At some point Oracle has to deal with that,” UBS analyst Brent Thill. “They moved on.”

Block, executive vice president for Oracle’s sales and consulting groups in North America and a 26-year Oracle veteran, was leaving the company, a person familiar with the matter said.

Oracle, the world’s No. 3 software maker, did not officially confirm his departure but it became apparent in a call with analysts that other executives would be assuming his responsibilities. Block could not be reached for comment.

Oracle, whose chief rivals are Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and International Business Machines (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said fourth-quarter results were helped by a 7 percent jump in new software license revenue to $4 billion.

It also said new software sales growth in the current quarter should be flat to 10 percent higher, despite fears of further weakening in technology spending as the euro zone crisis deepens and U.S. job creation stagnates.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 18 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc said Monday it was buying Face.com, the company that now provides facial-recognition technology used by the world’s largest social network to help users identify and tag photos.

The deal bolsters one of Facebook’s most popular features – the sharing and handling of photos — but the use of the startup’s technology has spurred concerns about user privacy.

Responding to inquiries from U.S. and European privacy advocates, Facebook last year made it easier for users to opt out of its controversial facial-recognition technology for photographs posted on the website, an effort to address concerns that it had violated consumers’ privacy.

Neither Facebook nor Face.com disclosed terms of the deal, which is expected to close in coming weeks. Media reports in past weeks have pegged the size of the transaction at between $80 million to $100 million.

Facebook will acquire the technology and the employees of the 11-person Israeli company.

Face.com, which has raised nearly $5 million from investors including Russian Web search site Yandex, launched its first product in 2009. The company makes standalone applications that consumers can use to help them identify photos of themselves and of their friends on Facebook, as well as providing the technology that Facebook has integrated into its service.

Faceboook uses the technology to scan a user’s newly uploaded photos, compares faces in the snapshots with previous pictures, then tries to match faces and suggest name tags. When a match is found, Facebook alerts the person uploading the photos and invites them to “tag,” or identify, the person in the photo.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Yahoo Inc has hired former Google director and media veteran Michael Barrett to help lead its efforts to reemerge as an entertainment and information destination that wins advertising revenue.

Barrett, who will take the title of Chief Revenue Officer, is one of new interim CEO Ross Levinsohn’s first key appointments, underscoring signs that Yahoo — a company that has suffered from strategy flip-flops under successive CEOs — is now thinking of itself as more of a media company than a technology company.

Those close to Levinsohn have said he is committed to building out Yahoo’s own video programming and striking more syndication deals in pursuit of ads that command a higher price.

This will be the second time that Barrett and Levinsohn have worked together. Both were once at Fox Interactive Media where Barrett also held the title of Chief Revenue Officer and oversaw worldwide revenue for properties including MySpace and FoxSports.com.

Barrett was most recently at Google where he led integration efforts following the acquisition of digital advertising platform Admeld Inc where he served as CEO.

He will assume his new position in July and be responsible for Yahoo’s ad revenue and operations globally.

Generic display advertising has lost favor to search-based ads and other more interactive formats but still generated $12.4 billion in U.S. industry revenue last year and should produce $15.4 billion in 2012, according to eMarketer analyst David Hallerman.