Google Music hasn't been making a lot of noise lately and is, in some ways, in danger of being overshadowed by other cloud music sites. But the Internet giant has roared back with the addition of a key backup feature for users.

Starting immediately, Google Music users are able to instantly restore their music collection with a single click. That applies to both purchased music and any songs they've added from their own library.

It is, of course, a direct response to Apple's iCloud, which automatically backs up App Store purchases, but also lets users backup music from other sources on their hard drive – for a price.

Google Music's new features don't appear to carry any charge – and they're being targeted at the Android audience, though PC users will able to use them as well. The only catch? Users are restricted to two downloads each via the Web interface.

It takes a lot of guts for a social game to turn its back on Facebook, but you probably would expect nothing less of a game based on the Godfather franchise.

The Godfather: Five Families has decided to bypass the largest social networking site and launch exclusively on Google+.

"As Michael Corleone said, 'It’s not personal... It’s strictly business,'" Kabam VP of marketing Ted Simon told Gamasutra. "As we were evaluating our options, Google+ games came to us and put together the most compelling marketing and merchandising package to support the expansion of The Godfather: Five Families and help drive traffic to their platform."

The game, developed by Kabam and backed by Paramount, acts as a prequel to the book and films. Set 10 years before the first film, the game will let players be a part of the rise to power of the Corleones, Straccis, Cuneos, Barzinis and Tattaglias.

The game isn't likely to stay off of Facebook forever, though. Google+ only has a 45 day window of exclusivity, at which time the studio can bring the game to other sites.

Google TV was the biggest thing that didn't happen at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. Released with a lot of fanfare in late 2010, it immediately hit resistance and most television manufacturers quickly scrapped plans to include it in their 2011 sets.

The system probably won't have much of a presence at the 2012 CES either, but it looks to have found an ally with one of the largest names in TV.

Samsung president Boo Keun tells Reuters that the company is in "last stage" talks with Google to launch a Google TV device. The big question is whether the technology will be integrated into one of the company's sets or if this will be a standalone set-top box, along the lines of Logitech's Revue (something the company's own CEO has dubbed "a big mistake").

Whatever form the alliance takes, it's unlikely Samsung will debut the product at CES. Keun says the company plans to unveil it at a separate event later in the year.

It's rare that a company is this candid about one of its products.

Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca, in an earnings conference call with investors this week, dubbed the company's Google TV set top box – officially called the Logitech Revue – "a big mistake" and said the company had no plans to build future versions of the product.

"We expected everybody to line up for Christmas and buy these boxes [at] $300," he said. "That was a big mistake."

De Luca, who wasn't running the company at the time, says Logitech "executed a full scale launch with a beta product and it cost us dearly." Combined with other missteps, he estimates the company lost $100 million due to operational miscues.

Not all of his comments were quite so harsh. De Luca said Google TV was, in fact, a "great concept" and he believed the success of it or a descendant is "inevitable", but the company would not be building a successor to the Revue.

The first iteration of Google TV fell flat. It was, at its core, a good idea that was marred by poor execution and mismanagement. Now the search giant is ready to give it another go.

Starting Sunday, Google will roll out a software update to existing owners that's meant to serve as a reboot of the service. The update will bring a new interface as well as selected apps from the Android Marketplace – but it will also bring a lot of baggage and hurdles from the existing service (most notably the lack of any support from the major networks). 

Sony Internet TV units will get the update first, with Logitech Revue devices receiving theirs a few days later.

The interface is a much more streamlined row of options that will adorn the bottom of the screen (much like the home screen of a Mac), which is entirely customizable. Gone is the screen dominating collection of small screenshots.

The focus this time is on content discovery, helping people find what they want when they want it. Network streaming sites and Hulu still aren't playing ball with Google, so the company instead has launched a TV & Movies app, bringing your cable/satellite company's offerings with the major paid streaming services. Google+ is being planned as an additional offering in the months to come, which will add a social element.

See a series of videos explaining the product after the jump.

Taking on the undisputed leader in online search might seem like a fool's mission for any company, regardless of size, but MC Hammer says when it comes to searches that go beyond keywords, Google can't touch what he has planned.

The 80s rapper, real name Stanley Burrell, has spent the past two years working on WireDoo, a search engine he recently introduced at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco – and hopes will become the new standard for web inquries.

WireDoo, Hammer told attendees of the summit, adds relationship information to search results, meaning searches for cars would also pull up information on insurance, pricing and consumer safety.

On his shift from music to tech, he mentioned "no one is playing for singles anymore".

The site is currently in pre-beta and is accepting signups. 

Amazon and Google caused a stir when they launched their cloud music storage initiatives. Rather than following the path Apple eventually would, both companies decided to bypass securing permissions from the record labels, causing quite a tempest in a teapot in the process.

Now it seems the pair have the courts on their side.

On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that users, ultimately, are responsible for what's stored in their cloud accounts. In other words, the companies hosting them are not. That puts services like Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music under the protective umbrella of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) – which essentially says that websites cannot be held liable for copyright infringement if they promptly take down infringing material once they're notified by copyright holders.

Labels had complained that by end-running the music industry, cloud storage sites like the ones Amazon and Google are offering would become havens for pirates to store their files. Assuming the ruling (which was tied to a long-standing case against music locker site MP3tunes.com) withstands appeal, the onus will shift to them to find those pirates.

The court also ruled that a playback from a cloud system does not constitute a "public performance," which brings other rights payments into the picture.

Given Motorola's notable presence in the cell phone world, the bulk of today's coverage on the $12.5 billion deal has focused on what will happen with the Android operating system (quick answer: Not much- HTC, Samsung and other phones will still be supported). But the real interesting twist on this takeover could be its impact on Google TV.

The service, which lets users access the Web on their TV, hasn't had a particularly strong launch. To be blunt, it has stumbled more than a baby taking its first steps. (In the first quarter of this year, there were more returns of Logitech's Google TV box than there were sales.)

But with Motorola, Google suddenly has an in to the cable industry – since that company makes cable boxes for Time Warner and several other cable companies. The formal rivals have instantly been turned into allies.

By integrating Google TV onto those set-top boxes, Google not only expands its footprint, it has a chance to one-up Apple's Apple TV and actually beat that company at its own game. Also put immediately on the defensive is Roku, whose streaming boxes have sold more than 3 million units.

Today's Motorola purchase adds a degree of credibility and scale that Google TV has been sorely lacking – and it could be the turnaround the company needs to make this once promising technology worth its customers' time.

Don't look for any immediate announcements on this, but all of a sudden, the set-top box announcements at January's Consumer Electronics Show have become something that move higher on your radar.

Apple is certainly the biggest music/tech company around, but Amazon has been very clear in its intention to up the stakes in the fight with the company – and today, it threw a haymaker.

Amazon is offering a daily special for Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," offering the entire album as a digital download for 99 cents. That's less than the cost of a single track on iTunes.

In the big picture, it's a short-term nuisance for Apple, which will almost certainly still see massive revenues from the digital sale of the CD. However, Amazon's using this promotion to drive traffic to its Cloud Drive online storage program. (Buyers are encouraged to store their music there – and by buying the under-a-buck CD, their account is automatically upgraded to a 20 GB tier.

Why is that important? Amazon is already fighting Google for users in its cloud storage system – and Apple's entry in the field is seemingly imminent. Promotions like this give Amazon the chance to establish a customer base before the other services get a foothold.

Cloud storage sites traditionally have been like email accounts for users – once they have taken the time to set up the service and use it a few times (or, in this example, have loaded their files to one), they quickly become embedded and are less likely jump to a competing one.

Google's planning to get more aggressive in the mobile and tablet markets – and it's looking to pick a fight in the digital music space as well.

At its I/O developer conference, the search giant announced the next iteration of its Android operating system, codenamed "Ice Cream Sandwich," which should hit the market by the end of the year. Google also announced its long-awaited cloud-based music storage system, which will compete with Amazon.

Ice Cream Sandwich will be a single OS, designed for both tablets and mobile phones. Right now, the company has different versions for each – and Honeycomb, built for tablets, has been underperforming. By creating a single operating system that runs everywhere, it will bring Android into a more competitive position against Apple – and will create some interesting synergy opportunities between those devices.

The cloud service, which lacks a fun code name, is Google's answer to Amazon.com's recently unveiled Cloud Drive, which offers 5 GB of storage to all users. Google didn't unveil how much storage space it plans to offer users, but vowed the service would be free – at least initially.

Users are able to upload their own music to the Web-based service, then access it via any computer or Android device. In an attempt to head off any criticism from the music industry, which has been quite vocal in its opposition to Amazon's service, Google sas it will delete user MP3s if the copyright holder has a "legitimate claim" against their music being on the server.

Unlike Amazon, Google has no immediate plans to add a retail component to its music storage system.