Google upped the ante in its challenge to Facebook Thursday by introducing games into its nascent social network Google+.

Just as in Facebook, Google+ users will now be able to play games such as Angry Birds, Zynga Poker, and Crime City — and bug their friends with notices of their latest achievements and high scores.

But Google promised Thursday there’s a difference between its network and Facebook’s — those notifications won’t show up in the general “stream” of updates users see. So you’ll only run across your friends’ gaming-centered notifications when you go to play a game yourself.

Google...

The on-again, off-again story of the super-sexy Cadillac Converj is on again.

So says John Voelcker of Green Car Reports, who cites an “inside source, a person close to the project” saying the plug-in hybrid — essentially a tarted-up Chevrolet Volt — is a go.

We’ve heard this a couple of times since General Motors unveiled the Cadillac Converj at the Detroit auto show two years ago. No less than an authority than then-GM vice chairman and vociferous Volt proponent Bob Lutz said early last year that the brass had approved it. Three months later, however, came word that GM had shelved the project...