TechConsumer News is a feature we started out of a hobby of tracking the latest happenings within the consumer related technology sphere. The goal is to provide a concise, compiled overview of the most intriguing stories from the last few days. Feel free to give us feedback or send us tips. If you like what you find, you can subscribe via email or RSS.

Here’s the latest in TechConsumer news:

In a new study highlighted by the Associated Press, 47% of U.S. adult Internet users have looked for information about themselves via Google or another search engine. That is more than double the percent of users who did the same in 2002. And 60% of Internet users said they aren’t worried about the info online about themselves even if privacy concerns seem to have been on the rise. And lastly, 53% of adult Internet users admit to looking up information about someone else (celebrities excluded).

The New York Times has a long article revolving around the Google vs. Microsoft battle when it comes to software. In short, Google sees almost all software and computer usage (90%) moving to the Web so that your computer would be little more than a gateway to all your files/programs which are located on remote servers in faraway data centers. It’s referred to as “cloud computing.” Microsoft, on the other hand, sees some work being done in the cloud, but more as an extension to the hugely popular desktop PC software. While perhaps Google should be taken seriously, a new study shows that hardly anyone has even heard of Google Docs (the Google equivalent of Microsoft Office).

Google is indirectly going after another large entity: online encyclopedia Wikipedia. A new Google service will let users write authoritative entries on subjects they know about so that the search giant can have more content that can carry its ads. The new platform is being privately tested and allows for entries to have photos and diagrams about a wide variety of subjects. It’ll be known as Google Knol, as in a unit of knowledge.