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Google Cell Phone (GPhone) and Its Prospects

Om Malik has an interesting post and speculation about mobile carrier Orange, mobile device maker HTC and Google teaming up for a Google-branded phone. Here’s the original source (the UK’s Observer): Their plans centre on a branded Google phone, which would probably also carry Orange’s logo. The device would not be revolutionary: manufactured by HTC, a Taiwanese firm specialising in smart phones and Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), it might have a screen similar to...

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Google & Expanding Beyond the PC

There’s a long article today by Kevin Delaney in the WSJ (sub req’d) about Google’s efforts to woo advertisers into its print and audio ads tests: There have been some hiccups. Mr. Schmidt said in October that in tests of print-ad sales, “the first iteration didn’t work.” Google executives have given the system a major overhaul since then, giving publications more control than in the initial version and focusing on those that publish frequently, such...

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Google’s Patent Search

Google announced patent search, built on the USPTO’s database. There’s a series of questions that accompany every Google product launch: Why are they doing this? Do they intend to monetize this? How will this affect the competition? (Not really relevant here.) This is basically a more user friendly version of the USPTO site.

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Microsoft’s Live Local / Virtual Earth Upgrades

Here’s the Windows Live Local blog on the upgrades to Bird’s Eye.

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MySpace.com The Biggest?

There’s no offical comScore release out yet, but several sources are reporting (this is the TechCrunch post) that MySpace has become “the biggest site on the Internet” in terms of total page views (vs reach).

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Google Earth Meets Wikipedia & Geographic Web Layering

Google has aggregated what it’s calling a “Geographic Web Layer” in Google Earth. It’s a collection of photos and informational content from Wikipedia, Panoramio and user-generated content from the Google Earth user community. Here’s more from the Official Google Blog. We've taken the rich data of Wikipedia, Panoramio, and the Google Earth Community and made a browsable layer in Google Earth. Now you can fly anywhere in the world and see what people have...

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Google Traffic Distribution Dominated By Search

Hitwise’s Bill Tancer recently posted about the distribution of Google’s traffic across its many properties. As you might expect and has been historically true, that distribution is dominated by search.

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AskCity vs. Citysearch : IAC Local Search Properties

There’s something of a dance going on between the new AskCity, which got huge amounts of coverage since launch a week or so ago, and IAC’s stalwart local brand Citysearch. Here’s a press release out this morning, which points to the fact that Citysearch is supplying much of the content on Ask City. It’s a little bit of: “Hey, don’t forget about us . . .” Most interesting is this paragraph: Citysearch provides deep...

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Search Keyword Prices & Branding

SEM firm Fathom Online has been reporting flat (or declining) average keyword prices for the past several quarters. But that doesn’t entirely make sense. Paid search revenues keep going up, driven in part by an influx of new advertisers. If you have more advertisers and more revenues in search it would suggest more competition over keywords. That’s especially true if you recognize that 75% - 80% of search queries are for “generic” or “category” terms. And...

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Zillow Free Listings & Other Features

Plugging a hole that has existed since launch earlier this year, real estate valuation site Zillow is going to start allowing local realtors to post listings for free. I would expect this to be quite popular given Zillow’s profile and the fact that it’s free advertising for agents. Zillow sees this as a way to obtain valuable content for users, however, and does not intend to sell placement amid the listings. Zillow is also making...

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