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Today Google rolled out the latest of its Google+ integration projects. This time it was YouTube, which at the same time launched a snazzy new design. The redesign is not only visually more colorful and appealing, it also promotes sharing in a big way. YouTube is enabling you to autoshare to four different social networks: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Orkut. But wait... notice anything missing there? That's right, Google+ is not included in the autosharing.

On the face of it, this makes little sense. Now I can 'like' a video on YouTube and it automatically shows up on my Facebook wall and Twitter feed. That's actually very cool. It saves me having to manually share things, yet I still control the autosharing (as I have to click the 'like' button in YouTube). Indeed this is frictionless sharing the way it should be - the user is in control of what gets shared, but it's made much easier for them. So why on earth isn't Google+ part of the autosharing?

Google has been on a killing spree the last few months, whacking projects that are non-essential to the company strategy or that haven't caught on. Even though this has angered some users, Google is still stubbornly clinging to one of its biggest dogs to date: ChromeOS and the Chromebooks.

Google announced the ChromeOS in July 2009, and finally started shipping them to consumers in June of this year. (Not counting Cr-48s, which weren't commercially available.)

As part of its ongoing sponsored research into mobile computing habits, Google released some interesting findings about the way consumers use their different devices. Google refers to the tablet as a "third digital screen in consumer's lives that fill[s] the gap between desktops and smartphones." Its study found that people use tablets for personal rather than work-related activities 91% of the time.

Google found that users quickly migrate entertainment activities over to their tablets when they get them. They use tablets for longer sessions on weekends than on weekdays. And 42% of the time, people are using tablets to multitask, especially in front of the TV, and even while eating or cooking.

It appears that the U.S. government has resumed Operation In Our Sites, a program aimed at capturing counterfeit and pirated products online. Today a federal judge in Nevada ruled in favor of luxury goods maker Chanel in a battle against websites trafficking counterfeit luxury goods. The court can now seize all questionable domain names, transferring them to a US-based registrar GoDaddy. Wait, what?

Venkat Balasubramani writes about this bizarre case Eric Goldman's technology and law blog. He asks why the case was took place in Nevada, and asks why not one of the 228 websites were able to say something in their defense. It is unclear whether all of these sites are even registered in the United States.

Google has replaced that ubiquitous black bar with a Google search bar that more closely matches the gray, red and blue design scheme that has rolled out across so many of its Web properties this year.

Instead of text links to the various Google services across the bar, they now appear in a drop-down menu under the Google logo. The new bar still displays the Google+ notification box and share button. There's also a search box right in the toolbar now, restoring Google's core product to the very top of all its pages. The bar lets you search whatever Google service you're currently using, offering voice search when available.

Google Maps just went indoors. Starting with Google Maps 6.0 for Android, users of Google Maps can now navigate inside of mapped locations such as airports, malls and IKEA stores. The program launches with selected partners, and any business owner can apply to have a floor plan included.

This is a key move for Google's mobile business, which up until now could only take you to the front door of the place for which you were searching. Google Maps on the desktop recently got 3D photo tours of small locations, an extension of Street View, but this is a bigger step. When Google Maps goes inside, Google can take you all the way from searching for something to holding it in your hand, advertising and data-gathering all the way.

Puppet Labs announced today that it is receiving $8.5 million in Series C financing from Google Ventures, Cisco and VMware. The new round of financing brings Puppet Labs up to $15.75 million, which begs the question – what does the IT automation company need with that kind of dosh?

Luke Kanies, CEO of Puppet Labs, says that the money is going into development, marketing and sales. Kanies says that the company is looking to grow faster than "organic growth" would carry the company.

Google has rescheduled the 2012 Google I/O developers' conference for June 27-29. It was initially announced for April 24-25. The event was immensely popular this year, and the new date allows it to be extended for three days instead of two. It will still take place at Moscone Center West in San Francisco as planned.

The announcement on the Google Code Blog also hints at a new application process for tickets to the conference. Instead of a mad rush for tickets, Google is going to test developers' "coding skills" when its "new application process opens in February." A Google spokesperson says that "the application process will test general programming skills, as opposed to product-specific knowledge. We're designing it so that every developer is given a fair shot at attending Google I/O, but don't expect it to be as involved as last year's Last Call for Google I/O."

Egyptians go to the polls today to vote in the first election since the ouster of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak. Egypt was a flashpoint in the so-called Arab Spring this year, a string of popular uprisings in which the Web and mobile technology played crucial and unprecedented roles. Google is celebrating this historic event with an election-day doodle on its Egypt's Google homepage.

Google has also launched an extensive Egyptian elections page full of info on candidates, major issues and polling stations. The information is provided by Egypt's Higher Elections Committee, but Google's page enhances the content with Google News, Maps and its other election tools. Google is building tools and programs to improve elections around the world, and this landmark election in Egypt is a storybook example of Web technology as a force for open and accountable government.

As the year winds down, Google has released some introspective blog posts about its changing nature. Today, it recapped the evolution of search in six minutes, describing the evolution of Google's core product from its breakout PageRank algorithm to its new real-time, local and social directions. It also published an illuminating timeline of the major changes to Google search.

Last week, Google fellow Amit Singhal, who appears in today's video, published some thoughts on personalization, which has been Google's most publicized and controversial change to its core product. Google's in a thoughtful mood about its recent changes. As Vic Gundotra made clear at Web 2.0 this fall, the company's whole identity is shifting. Here are four major trends in how Google search has evolved over time.