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Google (GOOG) changed the game of many global GPS appliance makers this month by announcing a completely free and quite capable GPS product as part of the Motorola Droid handset announced and now being sold by Verizon Wireless.

In what seems to be the norm for Google, it is once again disrupting an entire market by giving something away for free that's both competitive and capable. TomTom and Garmin saw their share prices plummet upon Google's announcement, and rightfully so.

The day before Thanksgiving is always an unusual one. We had a slew of economic data today and that all propelled shares higher than what the pre-market indications were.The largest figure today was that jobless claims finally broke under the 500K per week mark... Initial Jobless Claims came in at 466,000, under the 495,000 expected by Bloomberg. The continuing jobless claims also fell by 190,000 to 5,423,000.

The Department of Energy's weekly oil inventories data did show gains after recent drops. This was in crude, gasoline, and refining capacity, with distillates as the only loser. The data on Personal Income & Spending for September were +0.2% on income and +0.7% on spending, versus Dow Jones estimates of +0.1% and +0.6%, respectively.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,464.40 +30.69 (0.29%)
S&P 500 1,110.63 +4.98 (0.45%)
Nasdaq 2,176.05 +6.87 (0.32%)

TOP ANALYST CALLS
TOP MARKET RUMORS

Look for a LinkedIn IPO, but not in the near future. Company co-founder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman has revealed his (and his investors') exit strategy, even if it could take a while to get there. Any social media company IPO would take a while to get off the ground in this market, since companies are being incredibly cautious. So, "not anytime soon" could coincide with a change in market conditions ... but Hoffman stopped well short of that.

At an event in London to celebrate LinkedIn's hitting the 3 million user mark in Britain, Hoffman said about the company's IPO prospects, "Probably at some point a balance will occur when that's the right thing. That will not occur in the near term." Worldwide, LinkedIn has 53 million members.

One of the top performers in the U.S. growth fund sector has lost his appetite for tech. Jerry Jordan has booted almost all his Apple (AAPL) holdings from his portfolio, and he's done the same with Google (GOOG). Both, Jordan says, have become too expensive. In fact, he's getting out of almost all U.S. and European tech companies for that reason -- and is turning his attention to China.

Jordan tells Reuters, "The growth [in China] is much faster, it's much more of a green field opportunity."

Facebook is implementing a new stock structure to make sure the founders retain control, immediately causing rumors about an impending initial public offering. Why would Facebook need Class A and Class B shares otherwise? Under the new structure, which is similar to Google's (GOOG), Mark Zuckerberg and other early entrants wouldn't have to worry about yielding the floor to outsiders when if the company goes public.

The stock structure was adopted to ensure that existing shareholders keep control on voting issues, according to Facebook statement. No details were given as to who the winners are in this arrangement, but a Wall Street Journal report says that, according to its sources, all current shareholders would be converted to Class B shares, which carry 10 times the voting rights of Class A shares.

Google (GOOG) just picked up another promising startup in its effort to gain some ground in the online visual advertising market. Teracent, which was formed three years ago, is becoming part of the search engine giant.

Yahoo! (YHOO) currently leads the market in display advertising sales, and Google has been trying push into the space. Last year, this led to its acquisition of online ad service DoubleClick, but that was a first step rather than a total solution to Google's display ad ambitions.

Google, Inc. (GOOG) may not be scaring Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) to the bone just yet, and many pundits continue to believe that PCs -- the way they've always been -- will largely remain in Microsoft's grasp.

But how wrong that perspective is.

Often, we confuse winning with being the best. This isn't always the case. There are plenty of ways to get ahead when you don't have the top product on the market. The smoke-filled backroom meetings may be a thing of the past, but the net effect lingers. This is exactly what went down, according to a Reuters report, when Microsoft (MSFT) had a chat with News Corp (NWS).

Microsoft suggested a relationship with News Corp which would involve the latter's yanking its news sites from Google (GOOG) ... for a fee, of course. This would cost the search engine giant -- which is also a news aggregation giant -- access to some hefty publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Sun and the New York Post.

Twitter calls Google (GOOG) a "good role model," but says it isn't ready to rush down the road to advertising.

Nonetheless, an ad-based revenue model is something that cofounder Biz Stone says they "will be looking to do down the line." But, for now, he continues, Twitter is focused on "creating value for our users." For now, revenue generation ideas are being put on paper, "and we're definitely going to get to them," Stone says.

Google (GOOG) is letting a few developers peek behind the curtain. The early look the company's new operating system, Chrome, is happening in true Google style: by invitation only. When it's released, which should be in time for the holidays, developers will be able to bang away at an open source solution, tapping an army of volunteers who are eager to work for bragging rights.

The open source version is called Chromium OS, which will hit the market a year before the "consumer" version is ready, which is how Google will be able to tap the wisdom of developers around the world. In a blog entry, Google explained, "This means the code is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions." The project includes the code base, user interface experiments and some preliminary designs, all of which can be used for ongoing development efforts. To energize the potential base of contributors, Google said that "development will be done in the open from this point on."

Yahoo! (YHOO) is the latest company that wants to optimize its search results for Twitter. This follows moves by Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) to integrate Twitter data into their search results. Unlike its competitors, however, Yahoo! wants to do this without spending a dime (well, without giving a dime to the hot new social media platform).

Twitter's microblogging service has become famous not only for its rapid growth but also because it's found no way to turn it into revenue. Its recent discussions with Microsoft and Google demonstrated that Twitter can indeed bring in some cash -- by licensing its data for use in fine-tuning search engines. With two of the top search engines now optimizing for Twitter, it was only a matter of time before Yahoo! would rush to join the party.

Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) were once favorite friends. When Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board of directors, though, the gloves came off. With Apple's venerable and extremely popular iPhone selling for $99 (for the base edition), Google's "Android" phones -- made by several manufacturers and sold by many carriers -- have not matched those low Apple prices. Not any more.

Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY) is selling the Samsung Moment and the HTC Hero for $99 through December -- matching Apple's iPhone pricing for a two-year contract. That's with no rebates, either. So, the question is this: will Google's Android-powered phones start gaining traction on the iPhone? With AT&T's (T) penchant for poor service and for exorbitant calling plan prices, this may be enough to get those on the iPhone fence switching over to a touchscreen Android phone.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says traders who focus on the negative will pounce on this poor report.

Thanks for nothing, Dell (DELL) (Cramer's Take)! Given that this market seems to care less about the good like NetApp (NTAP) (Cramer's Take), Ross Stores (ROST) (Cramer's Take) or Limited (LTD) (Cramer's Take) and is focused on the bad, like the semi-downgrade from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, I am sure that Dell will be viewed as part and parcel with the downgrade.

I can't stand Dell. I actually slam it in Getting Back to Even, taking a chance that it would get its act together and make me look bad on the very quarter the book is released. Looks like that was a lot of worry for nothing.

Wednesday's strong IPO of Fortinet is yet another sign that investors are warming up to early-stage deals -- especially of fast-growing companies.

So does this mean we'll see a public offering of a company like Facebook?

Maybe so. According to Bloomberg News, there has been lots of activity in the private shares of Facebook, which have spiked 42% over the past couple months. The valuation now comes to about $9.5 billion.

Once upon a time, Mac users could brag they were much safer from malicious electronic attacks. After all, in the days before Google (GOOG), when Microsoft (MSFT) was the only uber-player in town, Windows was the perpetual malware target. Phishers, however, aren't discriminating; they're just looking for an account to plunge. So, both Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft users are threatened. Virus writers do tend to focus on the Windows operating system, which owns 90% of the OS market, but phishers are platform independent.

Phishing involves attempts to get a user to reveal information about their accounts. Once the soon-to-be victim clicks that link or fills out a form, the "transaction" is complete -- no operating system interaction necessary. As a result, there really isn't any advantage to using a Mac over a PC.