Technology & Digital Life

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The Federal Trade Commission has closed its long running anti-trust investigation of Google. While the search giant agreed to change some of its business practices, the FTC did not launch a formal anti-trust case against the company or impose any financial penalties.

Here's NPR's Steve Henn.

California has a new law in affect this year that bars employers from forcing employees to hand over their social media passwords. Some companies have been asking for these passwords to keep tabs on employees.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The Federal Trade Commission has closed its long-running antitrust investigation of Google. The search giant avoided any financial penalties, and the FTC's move is widely seen as a victory for Google. NPR's Steve Henn has been following the story and joins us now to fill us in on the details. And, Steve, this investigation has been going on for years. And now that it's over, I mean, how big a victory is it really for Google?

Google has agreed to change some of its business practices, in an agreement made with the Federal Trade Commission that will end the U.S. agency's antitrust probe of the search and technology company.

In the terms of the deal, Google agrees not to appropriate content such as users' reviews from other sites for use in its search and mobile offerings. The company also pledged to make it easier for advertisers to compare the value of running ad campaigns through Google compared to advertising on rivals Yahoo and Microsoft.

Unwanted telemarketing calls, trademarked for interrupting dinners across the nation, have become such a nuisance over the years that the Federal Trade Commission is calling for help to stop the illegal robocalls.

The agency receives more than 200,000 complaints a month about the prerecorded messages, which offer everything from credit cards to new medications.

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Finally, we're going to take a step back to look at the best apps of 2012. And for help compiling that list, we asked five tech writers to share a few of their favorites.

MAT HONAN: My favorite app of 2012 is Strava.

CORNISH: That's Mat Honan. He's a senior writer at Wired. Strava is an activity tracker for cycling and running, though Honan says he uses it mostly for riding his bike around town.

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Here's a motley crew for you. Newsman Dan Rather, rapper Snoop Dogg - or is it Snoop Lion - actress Molly Ringwald, Public Radio host Ira Glass and President Obama. All right, what do they all have in common? They all hosted question and answer sessions on Reddit this year, a link sharing website that's become one of the most popular social media communities online. This month, the site reported more than three and a half billion page views.