Cloud computing is a type of on-demand hosting services on the internet. Not only a necessity for mainstream e-commerce sites, it also increases efficiency, is scalable, and lowers expenses. The monetary savings may be misleading to consumers and businesses who do not fully understand the potential risks involved.

With a pay-as-you-go type structure, users are only charged for the amount of traffic, bandwidth, and memory used. Online businesses become more efficient by only utilizing the storage and space needed, while also being assured capacity for any usage increases. The buzz has been building for years, so cloud computing has attracted a diverse customer base, ranging from popular social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, to educational websites of Arizona State and Northwestern University.

Nokia (NYSE: NOK), the Finnish provider of mobile telephones and networking equipment, recently hit some rough seas. The company's sales and market share tanked, due mostly to recession woes. And in the first quarter of this year, Nokia posted its first ever pre-tax loss of 12 million euros.

Now, as the world's largest cellphone manufacturer tries to compete with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Samsung in the market for smart phones (see my article about this on DailyFinance, "Nokia's smartphone gets deadpan debut as carriers skip subsidies"), a number of analysts have downgraded its stock.

There's been some news on the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle, the company's electronic substitute for real paper books. According to this source, everything is coming along fine for the product from a statistical point of view. An estimate of Kindle sales from Citigroup Global Markets puts the number of units sold last year at 500,000. By 2010, it's said that the Kindle may lead to $1.2 billion of derivative sales. I was surprised to learn that this sales number would possibly represent 4% of Amazon's top line.

Internet search titan Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is apparently closing in on its goal to produce renewable energy at a price point cheaper than coal. In an interview with Reuters Tuesday, Google's green energy czar, Bill Weihl, said that the odds of success have improved during the past year, and predicted, "In three years, we could have multiple megawatts of plants out there."

After announcing in late 2007 its quest for "green" energy, the company's Google.org division began investing in solar thermal, geothermal, and wind technologies. The tech firm's keen interest in alternative energy sources was a contributing factor last year when President Obama named Google CEO Eric Schmidt as one of his advisers.

Rajeev Motwani, who died this week at 47, was one of the most versatile tech veterans in Silicon Valley. From New Delhi, he came to this country in the 1980s and certainly realized the American dream.

Motwani earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley, and from there he went over to Stanford. Interestingly enough, he taught Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- the co-founders of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). In fact, they wrote a key paper that was the harbinger of PageRank.

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Lloyds Banking (NYSE: LYG) to Buy from Sell as it believes shares are attractively valued based on the company's earnings potential post recession.
• Susquehanna upgraded MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) to Positive from Neutral based on valuation and improving macro trends. The firm has a $29 target on the stock.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM) to Buy from Neutral on valuation following the recent pullback.
• MetLife (NYSE: MET) and Torchmark (NYSE: TMK) were upgraded to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James.
• Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.

"Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) remains the dominant search engine on the web," notes Paul Tracy. In his StreetAuthority Market Advisor, he views the stock as a solid buy for growth investors.

"In economic downturns, one of the first costs most companies cut is advertising. Not surprisingly, over the past year, most companies have slashed their advertising budgets in response to the severe economic downturn.

"But online ad spending has remained remarkably resilient. GOOG's system targets specific ads based on what users type into their search box, geographic location and other factors.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) lowered its 2009 earnings guidance, initially sending the share price lower.
• Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) reported a bigger-than-expected Q2 net loss as revenues sank.
• Collective Brands Inc. (NYSE: PSS) saw Q1 earnings and sales decline, but beat Wall Street estimates.
• Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) earnings prospects led Goldman Sachs analysts to increase its forecasts.
• Guess? Inc. (NYSE: GES) weak Q1 results topped estimates and it offered guidance that pleased investors.

Goldman Sachs has upped its share price estimate on Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) to $486, an increase of 17%. The analysts cite both search query growth and improvements in emerging markets coverage as the reasons for giving a nod to the dominant player in the online search business. The higher estimate implies that Google still has plenty of room to grow, which leaves plenty of upside for investors.

On a per-share basis, Goldman Sachs pushed its earnings forecast for the search giant 2% higher for this year – to $21.30. Per-share earnings estimates for 2010 were increased to by 8% to $23.36, and the 2011 estimate is now $27.02 (up 12%).