Google to Create iTunes Rival

The war between Google and Apple continues to heat up: The Wall Street Journal reports that Google will launch a music service tied to its search engine later this year and that it will follow this with a subscription music service in 2011. Details are vague, and Google has not yet announced deals with any record labels, but the Journal says the first step will be an online store that will show up when users search Google for a song or artist. The long-term goal is a cloud-based subscription service that will work with Google’s Android mobile phones; such a service would allow users to play music on their phones without storing it there.