You have to hand it to the tabloid headline writers at the New York Post: They know nothing if not how to turn the tiniest spark into a five-alarm conflagration.

"Fear grips Google," the Post blared on Saturday, June 13.

Why? Well, the introduction of Microsoft's much-ballyhooed search engine, Bing, has Google so gobsmacked as to shake company co-founder Sergey Brin from his slumber to lead an internal effort aimed at assessing and countering the threat, according to an anonymous Google "insider."

By Sunday — and based on little more than the Post's say-so — a CNET headline asked: "Does Microsoft's Bing have Google running scared?"

See? "Fear grips Google."

And by Monday morning we had a merry band of copycats (mostly) numbering nearly 100.

Did you hear me? "FEAR GRIPS GOOGLE!"

But what did the Post's unnamed source actually say? Here's the heart of it: " 'New search engines have come and gone in the past 10 years, but Bing seems to be of particular interest to Sergey,' said one insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The move by Brin is unusual, as it is rare these days for the Google founders to have such hands-on involvement in day-to-day operations at the company, the source added."

So a frontal assault on Google's primary business by the world's largest and most successful software company is "of particular interest to Sergey?"

Get out.

And he's not just interested but has rolled up his sleeves?

That's not even news, never mind "Fear grips Google."

A question asked and answered

Why wasn't 'tweet' in the running for 1-millionth word fame?

At the very bottom of a recent column bemoaning the coronation of "Web 2.0" as the 1 millionth "word or phrase" in the English language, I posed this question and comment: "What, no 'tweet'? Shocking."

After all, as cloyingly ubiquitous as Web 2.0 has become, it's a lexicon wannabee when pitted alongside the verb formulation of "to Twitter": namely, tweet.

What gives?

Stepping up to offer a probable answer is Buzzblog reader Bruce Burke, who writes in an e-mail: "Tweet got snubbed because it's not a new word like defriended, sexting and N00b."

Doh! The thought had never occurred to me, despite having watched my fair share of Looney Tunes as a kid.

Burke continues: "The newly coined term 'twitterati,' used to describe the Twitter elite, should be a strong contender for inclusion in the list."