Over the past year Google has weathered a recession, and the loss of former sales boss Tim Armstrong, who is now the CEO of AOL.

In case you trade stock here’s a special note. Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Richard Fetyko, initiated coverage of Google (goog) with a SELL rating on November 21, 2008 when the stock was trading at $260, just days before the stock’s 52-week low. Since then, shares have more than doubled. Fetyko did upgrade the stock to "neutral" when it reached $328 and a "buy" when the stock price reached $342.

If the DoubleClick Ad Exchange boosts profits as Google hopes, the stock could reach new highs over the next 2 years.

The Lowe Ginkgo agency in Montevideo created an ad for a new deodorant to be launched in Uruguay. The ad was placed in magazines that edited the best parts, but had this message for frustrated readers:

To complete this ad send AXE to 2345 after 9 pm.

Once the server received the SMS text message it replied with a MMS picture of the model from the ad without the editing, so the best parts could now be viewed.

Absolutely genius.

Starbucks has released in app for the iPhone, so now besides getting free wi-fi from AT&T hotspots, you can now buy your coffee and songs from Apple iTunes at the same time.

Now available in the App Store, myStarbucks, and Starbucks Card Mobile let users find their nearest Starbucks and manage their Starbucks Card. If you live near one of 16 stores in the Seattle or San Francisco Bay Area, you can even pay for your purchases with the Starbucks Card Mobile app via barcode.

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Google is now eleven years old on Sunday September 27.

Google’s official birthday isn’t exactly clear. Some say the company was born on September 15th 1997, the day the Google.com domain was registered. The Google incorporation paperwork was filed on September 4th, but Google has been known to celebrate on both September 7th and September 27th.

To explain the inconsistency, the company’s FAQ once said:

“Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake.”

In recent years, Google has taken to changing its logo on September 27th, which more or less means Google has settled on a fixed date.

We’re looking forward to many more years of Google.

Happy birthday Google. Oh, and don’t worry about getting bigger, it comes with aging.

Honda has come up with a unicycle called the U3-X. The device is intended to aid elderly people to be more mobile.

The device has an omin-directional driving system that integrates a large wheel that moves forward and backward, and smaller wheels that move from side to side. The wheels can even produce diagonal movement.

The U3-X weighs 22 pounds, and operates for an hour on a single charge to the lithium-ion batteries.

In the video it appears that the seat is too small, combined with tiny foot pedals, makes the U3-X very uncomfortable to ride, as opposed to the Segway which allows for a standing position.

The commercial success of the U3-X seems unlikely, much as it has been for the Segway, but eventually these device concepts should lead to something far more useful.