Yesterday will not be remembered as a great day in Google's history. As well as the vertiginous stock slide [3], which sliced 9% off its share value before trading was halted for a couple of hours, the search engine firm threatened war with the French media. L'horage dans le teacup is over a proposed law [4] that will force search engines to pay for content.

The (somewhat protectionist) legislation is a popular one amongst French media and publishing firms, as they have been hit by falling circulation. Google has sent a (somewhat bombastic) letter to various ministries to voice its displeasure, claiming that the law would threaten the firm's existence. "As a consequence, [Google] would be required to no longer reference French sites," it states. Culture Minster Aurelie Filippetti, who is backing the proposals, told a news agency yesterday that "you don't deal with a democratically elected government with threats."

One piece of good news for the firm (apart from the fact that Larry's got his voice back [5]) was that it yesterday released its Chromebook. The $249 device, made alongside Samsung, is aimed at "everyone," although Cloud aficionados may find the screen-ARM processor-what, you want more? combo-in-a-clamshell more useful than anyone else. The bad news, however, is that non-tablet/smartphone devices have still taken a bit of a hit thanks to the unbridled popularity of tablets and smartphones, with low sales expected [6] for the first quarter of 2013.