Computerworld – Several Google security engineers have countered claims that a French security company found a vulnerability in Chrome that could let attackers hijack Windows PCs running the company’s browser.

Instead, those engineers said the bug Vupen exploited to hack Chrome was in Adobe’s Flash, which Google has bundled with the browserfor over a year.

Google’s official position, however, has not changed since Monday, when Vupen announced it had successfully hacked Chrome by sidestepping not only the browser’s built-in “sandbox” but also by evading Windows 7′s integrated anti-exploit technologies.

Last month, an unknown San Francisco publishing start-up had just about the best debut imaginable. Byliner’s first product became an instant best-seller and seriously called into question the reputation of an international sensation a decade in the making–all in less than 25,000 words that never touched a printing press.

The tiny operation released Jon Krakauer’s “Three Cups of Deceit”–a scathing deconstruction of alleged fraud and mismanagement at the hands of world-famous do-gooder Greg Mortenson of “Three Cups of Tea” fame–as a free PDF in mid-April. The launch got a big boost from a story that aired last month on “60 Minutes” about Mortenson, based largely on Krakauer’s research. (Disclosure: “60 Minutes” is broadcast by CBS, publisher of CNET.)

“Reaction has been extraordinary,” Byliner.com founder John Tayman told CNET. “In the 72 hours it was available as (a) free download, more than 70,000 readers downloaded a copy. It then moved to the Amazon Kindle Singles store, and it went to No. 1 within six hours.”

The war of words between Microsoft and Google over the use of Google Apps in the enterprise continues.

Sharing his thoughts yesterday in a blog called “The Hidden Google Tax,” Microsoft’s director of online services, Tom Rizzo, took some swings at Google Apps, proclaiming that it’s not a cost-effective solution for the enterprise.

Your grandmother–the one with the birthday book, so she never forgets a family member’s special day–would approve of Fellowup. It’s a modern-day version of the same thing. It watches your contacts on Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as your Google mail and calendar, and gives you a clear dashboard showing you which of your contacts could benefit from the personal touch today.

In addition to grabbing birth dates from social profiles, it also keeps an eye out for things like relationship and job status changes, and news articles that mention your contacts. It will show you an alert when these things come up, so you have an excuse to make personal contact.

Google has updated its version of Google Earth for Android to take advantage of the large screen size and processing power of tablets.

In a blog post yesterday, product manager Peter Birch said the update added support for fully textured 3D buildings, as well as a new action bar making it easier to search the imagery and navigate layers of information.

Demand Media, which operates sites such as eHow and Livestrong, has been hit hard by Google’s algorithm changes, the company revealed yesterday.

“In February and April, we experienced two major algorithm changes,” Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt said during his company’s first-quarter earnings call yesterday. “For eHow, here is the impact: as compared to the levels before the first February change, we saw a net decline in search engine referrals of 20 percent.”

Following yesterday’s revelation of a likely security breach at password management company LastPass, the company’s CEO is revealing more details about the incident and trying to offer some comfort and advice to his users.

Speaking yesterday with PC World, LastPass CEO Joe Siegrist admits he may have been too “alarmist” in sounding the alarm bell over the potential security breach.