Like the others, Ms. Harrison hoped the California giant would bring Oregon a higher profile.

WSJ: The Great Pinots of Oregon's Chummy Vintners | On Wine by Lettie Teague

But chip giant Qualcomm snapped up a lot of high-profile assignments and newcomers like Nvidia started nosing into the phone market.

FORBES: TI Views Tablets, MeeGo, Windows Phone 7 As ��Big Opportunity��

Last week, the internet giant put forth a poll asking users to vote on new privacy controls lowering the bar to accessing user profile information.

FORBES: FTC Scolds Children's App Makers Over Privacy Issues: A Privacy Expert Responds

That was the rumor du jour as the high-profile South by Southwest festival kicked off in Austin Texas, after ReadWriteWeb reported hearing that the search giant would launch a service offering photo, video and status message sharing.

FORBES: Morning Tech Wrap: iPad 2, Google Circles, Anonymous