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Google is sneaky. It has quietly launched a new service that lets people share bookmarks. It is called Google Shared Stuff.

To get started, you drag an “Email/Share” button to your browser toolbar. When you click on the button, you have the option of e-mailing the link or a preview of the Web page you are visiting to someone, sharing it on Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Furl, Social Poster or Reddit, or posting it to a Shared Stuff page.

You can keep track of bookmarks that your Gmail contacts have shared and see popular links, as well as subscribe to feeds…

With widgets hailed as the “next small thing” for advertising, and newspapers going “widget-happy”, it was about time Google expanded the beta release of its new Google Gadget Ads to advertisers worldwide. Google Gadget Ads are interactive ads that contain rich media capabilities. They can contain data feeds, images and videos, plus they can be developed in Flash and HTML. The Gadget Ads will run on Google’s content network, and the pricing model will be both cost-per-click and cost-per-impression.

John Battelle, author of the seminal book on “search,” welcomes Google’s embracing of rich media and is “particularly pleased with the…

Google may cut its workforce as it integrates online ad firm DoubleClick into its operations, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt warned in a blog posting after the acquisition was approved by the European Commission on Tuesday.

“As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well,” he wrote. The process of determining the right staffing levels in the U.S. is expected to be completed in the U.S. by early April, and could take longer for offices outside the country, he said.

Schmidt also offered…

Hitwise released statistics today that showed Google has nearly 64 percent of the U.S. search market, compared to Yahoo’s 23 percent, Microsoft’s 8 percent and Ask’s 3.5 percent. Year-over-year, Google’s share inched up, Asks’ and Yahoo’s were fairly flat and Microsoft lost market share, nearly 4 percentage points.

Google garners nearly 64 percent market share in U.S. Web search.

Meanwhile, Nielsen/NetRatings figures for August 2007 put Google at 53.6 percent U.S. market share, Yahoo at 20 percent, Microsoft at 13 percent and AOL at 5.6 percent.

As expected, the proposed union of Google and ad-tech firm DoubleClick is about to get some congressional scrutiny.

According to an aide, the U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee that deals with antitrust issues has scheduled a hearing for September 27 entitled “An Examination of the Google-DoubleClick Merger and the Online Advertising Industry: What Are the Risks for Competition and Privacy?”

A witness list hasn’t yet been finalized but is likely to be released Thursday, the subcommittee aide said. But the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that lawyers from Google and its rivals Yahoo and Microsoft are likely to appear. Marc Rotenberg…