Long before it became the center of international controversy, the practice of offshore outsourcing could be traced to the technology sector. As a result, many looked to Silicon Valley as the topic rose to political prominence in last year’s presidential election, during which both George Bush and John Kerry included the trend in their platforms. But beyond the immediate labor issues, the technology industry has been more concerned with the competitive and security risks in offshoring intellectual property.

The House of Representatives holds hearings on Indian out-sourcing. More than 3 million US IT jobs are predicted to go offshore by 2015.

Jon Stewart’s Crossfire appearance reaches a bigger audience online than on TV.

Another bubble hits as Google raises $1,7 billion in its IPO in August.

The number of Americans trading songs online at any given moment doubles to 8.6 million. Also some 57 million american taxpayers filed their 2004 tax returns by computer.

The amount spent online by shoppers nears $150 billions. 

Browser war is back as Mozilla foundation launches the next-generation browser. Firefox, launched in November tops nearly 80 million downloads in a little more than 6 months, and reaches nearly 25% of the market in countries as Germany.

IBM sells its PC division to Chinese IT power Lenovo.

In other news:

• iPod holds 10,000 tunes, but fits into a shirt pocket.
• 95% of U.S. public libraries offer Internet access.
• Google gets 138,000 requests a minute in 90 languages.
• 1 in 5 people under 30 say Internet is main information source.
• $21 billion spent on online ads in U.S. alone.
• 1.5 billion cellphones worldwide.
• Multi-million dollar mapping programs now cost less than $100.
• University in San Diego offers degree in wireless communication.
• Employers can use GPS tracking to see if service workers are on the job.