Hitwise reports that for the first time ever, people spent more time on Facebook than Google for the week ending March 13, 2010. Amazing, isn't it! From the Hitwise blog:

March 15, 2010 Facebook reached an important milestone for the week ending March 13, 2010 and surpassed Google in the US to become the most visited website for the week. Facebook.com recently reached the #1 ranking on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day as well as the weekend of March 6th and 7th. The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame. Together Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of all US Internet visits last week.

Don't you love it when two grown-up colleagues start calling each other names on their own broadcast? Steve Liesman and Rick Santelli really went after each other today. It all started when Liesman called Santelli "ignorant" and Santelli fired back for Liesman to "grow up."

It's pretty clear that the Apple and Google fistfight is coming. This should be fun to watch -- kind of like watching two preppy investment bankers go at each other in the corporate parking lot. A little background: I think the defining moment came last summer when Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board. Today, developer Tim Bray showed us why Google is gearing up for a fight with Apple with Android, and why it could be worthy.Both Google and Apple are headed for a collision course because they both want a large piece of mobile apps and mobile services. I've been doing some research, and Android is real, and it's coming soon (we'll have a comprehensive report next week!). Here are my top ten reasons why I look forward to this: 10) Fawning press reports on the iPhone and Google get boring. 9) It would be interesting to watch the iPad fail, just to mix things up for a change. Eight) Google has a point: Apple's system is far too closed. 7) Apple has a point: They make better user interfaces than anyone. Period. 6) It would make the world seem less obvious. 5) Googlers need to prove they can do something other than Adwords. 4) It doesn't involve Redmond. 3) Maybe there's a chance we get to see Eric Schmidt go Steve Ballmer on us? 2) We'll get cheaper phones. 1) It's the battle of the arrogant preppies! Somebody will lose!

Well, if you didn't think economic and policy actions in China were driving the markets, look again. Nearly all the market activity this morning revolves around China, whether it be stock markets, commodities, foreign currency, Google, Baidu, or whatever. Take a look:

• Markets are off on fears that Chinese officials will tighten policy further to cool off inflation, says da Bloomberg.
• Baidu shares are flying -- up more than 6% -- on reports that Google is close to shuttering its China site (Wall Street Journal).
• Word is that China is talking tough on censorship (Washington Post). Did you expect anything less?
• Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is pushing back on calls to let China's currency rise (Reuters). Hmm, yet he's worried about inflation? Unpeg your currency, dude!
• Chinese energy company Cnooc is gobbling up oil resources in South America (New York Times). That's a hungry monster, that China!

And in other, non-China news:

• The Apple blogs are reporting that orders for the iPad are slowing down (Apple Insider).
• Flurry reports that the iPad has boosted app developers, who are excited about the platform (Fortune).
• Here's a daily news wrap from the SXSW show (Billboard). Billboard? Yes, billboard. You know, SXSW was supposed to be a music show.
• ABBA and Jimmy Cliff have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (CNN). Now that is one interesting combo. I would like to see a concert with them playing together.
• Colorado is ground-zero for Amazon's fight to stave off state taxes (MSNBC). Note to Amazon: Have you noticed that the states are, like, broke?
• FBI details most difficult Internet scams (NetworkWorld).

Noted developer Tim Bray, who is an XML co-author, former Sun Microsystems employee, and outspoken tech blogger, has decided to take a job working on Google's Android platform and framed the decision as a battle against an evil empire: Apple. Bray writes in his blog that Apple is creating a sterile, controlled future of the Internet with the iPhone. From his blog:

The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger. I hate it.

Bray likes Google Android because it creates a more open alternative to Apple's mobile platform. The blog is an interesting read if you want to take a look at Android's competitive advantages. Some advantages that make Android a good competitive mobile OS with Apple, according to Bray, are that Android is more open to the Web, it has a good user experience, and good developer APIs. Bray isn't a pure idealist, though. He points out that Google's a big corporation itself and is likely to develop plenty of its own evil:

It’s now too big to be purely good or in fact purely anything. I’m sure that tendrils of stupidity and evil are even now finding interstitial breeding grounds whence they will emerge to cause grief. And there are some Google initiatives that I feel no urge to go near.

You can read the rest of his post here.