Like Napoleon marching into an abandoned Moscow, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have led Google’s advance into traditional advertising only to find nothing to loot. Now begins Google’s long imperial retreat, starting with 40 layoffs.

Susan Wojcicki, the millionaire sister-in-law of Brin who also holds a management role in the company, announced the job cuts in a blog post, as she laid out plans for Google (GOOG) to exit the business of brokering radio ads, a business it entered in 2006 when it bought dMarc Broadcasting for $102 million.

Up to 40 Googlers will lose their jobs, a small percentage of the 20,000 remaining employees at the search giant. But the real cut here is to Google’s ambitions.

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Has solar demand–and the slide in solar shares–finally hit bottom?

The solar analysts at Merrill Lynch think so. In a piece authored by analysts Lu Yeung, Vincent Chow, Matthew Yates and Steve Millunovich, Merrill this morning asserts that “improving second derivative trends” suggest the industry is headed for a cyclical bottom.

The Merrill analysts assert that, while there is not likely to be a recovery in demand until early 2010, Q4 2008 and Q1 2009 “will mark the shipment bottom,” with modest sequential increases in subsequent quarters. “Our research suggests that some Asian vendors may forecast flat-to-rising shipments, suggesting inventory is peaking and depletion is underway, thanks to swift production cutbacks, signs of easing in solar project financing and solar ASP declines,” they write.

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Yes, this may be the worst recession America has seen since World War II. But the people who are bringing us the Consumer Electronics Show would like to point out that sales of tech products are actually faring pretty well when compared to what happened during previous recessions.

The evidence suggest that people’s views on devices such as televisions, notebook computers and mobile phones are changing, says Shawn DuBravac, economist for the Consumer Electronics Association. Through November of 2008, 17.22 percent of total durable good purchases were tech goods, the highest share in 50 years, he says.

“While these are typically discretionary purchases, consumers are treating them like nondiscretionary purchases,” says Mr. DuBravac.

That doesn’t mean that consumers aren’t making cutbacks. In fact, in many categories, consumers seem to be gravitating toward lower-priced items for varying reasons. For example, coming out of the 2007 holiday season, nearly 50 percent of all flat panel sales were over 40 inches. Today, Mr. DuBravac says, that numbers stands closer to 35 percent.

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