Facebook on Wednesday awarded a $50,000 Internet Defense Prize to a pair of German researchers with a seemingly viable approach to detecting vulnerabilities in Web applications.

Johannes Dahse and Thorsten Holz from Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany won the new cash award for a paper outlining how to find flaws hackers could exploit, according to the California based social network.

Internet giant Google will offer management courses to 3,000 tourism businesses on the island of Crete as part of an initiative to promote the sector in Greece, industry union Sete said on Thursday.

"Given the continuing growth in tourism in the past two years, Google has focused on the promotion of tourism services, especially in helping the small businesses that are the heart of the industry," Sete president Andreas Andreadis told Agence France Presse.

A news report out Thursday indicated that Microsoft is poised to give the world a glimpse at a new-generation computer operating system that will succeed Windows 8.

The U.S. software titan could hold an event as early as the end of September to provide a look at a version of what is expected to be called "Windows 9," according to technology news website The Verge.

A German minister on Wednesday threw her weight behind the authors battling U.S. online retail giant Amazon over its alleged strong-arm negotiating tactics with publishers.

"Market power and domination over central distribution channels should not endanger our cultural diversity," said state minister for culture and media Monika Gruetters. 

Shazam announced Wednesday that 100 million people use its song-recognition mobile service monthly in a 34 percent surge from a year earlier.

Shazam applications have been downloaded to more than 500 million mobile devices since the the 1999 launch of the firm, which said it was adding users at the rate of 13 million monthly.

Uber teamed up with dining and travel smartphone applications Wednesday as the controversial Internet-age car-hailing service moved to park itself at the heart of mobile lifestyles.

The San Francisco-based startup let about a dozen businesses such as Starbucks, Hyatt Hotels, United Airlines, TripAdvisor and restaurant reservation service OpenTable make it simple for people to summon Uber cars from inside their applications for smartphones or tablet computers.

Facebook on Wednesday awarded a $50,000 Internet Defense Prize to a pair of German researchers with a seemingly viable approach to detecting vulnerabilities in Web applications.

Johannes Dahse and Thorsten Holz from Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany won the new cash award for a paper outlining how to find flaws hackers could exploit, according to the California based social network.

Twitter Wednesday removed from its service photos and video of the beheading of a U.S. journalist that had been posted online by jihadists.

The gruesome, almost five-minute-long video titled "A Message to America" surfaced Tuesday, confronting Twitter and other online platforms with a quandary over whether to allow their sites, normally committed to free expression, to be used to propagate graphic material like that in the video.

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is stepping down from the company's board, closing a chapter on 34 years with the software giant.

Ballmer says he plans to devote more time to his ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers, civic contributions, study and teaching business at Stanford in the fall and USC next spring.

The U.S. government is offering a free online service for drivers to find out if their vehicles have been recalled but not repaired.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the service started Wednesday on its website, www.safercar.gov.