If you visit Google.com today, you will see that they are showing a promotion for the Nexus One. The promotion is found under the search box and reads, "Experience Nexus One, the new Android phone from Google." As we saw in Danny's live blogging of the event, yesterday - Google said they would use Google.com to push this device. They did so for the Verizon/Motorola Droid, so of course they will do it for their own device. The link takes you to google.com/phone, as you would expect. Here are some past ads/promotions on the Google home page: Postscript from Greg [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Marketing | Google: Mobile | Google: Partnerships | Top News

Google really wants you to buy a Motorola Droid, the hot new phone that just hit stores today. In fact, Google is so enamored that it's advertising the Droid on its homepage: "The Droid is on sale now. Learn more." Clicking the "learn more" link leads to this "mobile partners" page that touts the Google search capabilities available on the Droid. The two links in the upper right -- the "Get" button and the "Learn more" text link below it -- point to verizonwireless.com and droiddoes.com, respectively. It's hard to make the case that this isn't an ad on Google's home page, and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Marketing | Google: Mobile | Google: Partnerships | Top News

Following hot on the heels of the Bing / Twitter partnership announced earlier today, Google has now also announced that it, too, has struck a deal with Twitter to include real-time tweets in Google's search results. "We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Partnerships | Google: Web Search | Twitter

Google is reportedly about to launch a new music service in partnership with LaLa and iLike (MySpace). --- Update, October 28, 2009: This is now live. See our story, Google Music Search 2.0 Launches With Musical "OneBox" for more. --- According to TechCrunch, users will access the Google music service through search: Users will be able to stream songs directly from Google via partners iLike and LaLa. Additional information around the music query will be provided to users as well (presumably any relevant results from YouTube as well as information already available in Google’s exist [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Music | Google: Partnerships | Top News

Google and Verizon have announced a sweeping deal to cooperate around the development of services and devices that use the Android mobile OS (maybe Chrome too) on the Verizon network. What this actually turns out to mean in practice remains to be seen -- sweeping and "groundbreaking" deals with limited outcomes have been announced before -- but it certainly means that in the US Verizon will be selling Android handsets. What's striking about this announcement is that Google and Verizon at one time were trading relatively bitter accusations about the openness of mobile networks in the US, and Go [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Features: Analysis | Google: Mobile | Google: Partnerships

The Rimm-Kaufman Group reports eBay has quietly dropped Yahoo in place of Google to power the paid search ads on eBay. Mark explained that over the past several months, eBay has been testing Google ads on about 1% of the ads shown on eBay. On August 26th, he said, eBay "flipped the switch" and began showing Google ads as the bulk of the ads displayed on eBay. About 90% of the ads are now Google powered, whereas the remainder are now Yahoo. I have not seen this reported elsewhere, and to many, this may come as a surprise. Why? Well, eBay and Google have an interesting relationship [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Partnerships

The previously rumored Google news site "Flipper" is in fact launching today as "Fast Flip" in Google Labs. But maybe it should be called Google Skimmer because it permits people to move very quickly through lots of visually rich news pages from dozens of partner publications. According to the Google Blog Post: Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | Google: Checkout | Google: DoubleClick | Google: News | Google: Partnerships | Top News

Those with BT broadband in the UK have noticed that the Yahoo/BT portal at bt.yahoo.com has a new search technology provider. You would guess that if Yahoo would replace their own search technology, it would be in exchange for Bing, in light of the recent news about the Bing & Yahoo deal. You would be wrong to think that because Google is now powering the search technology Yahoo/BT portal. Here is a screen capture of the search box that now says, "Powered by Google," taken from ConnectedInternet.co.uk, which tipped us to this: I know the Yahoo and Microsoft deal has not been s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: Partnerships | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: Partnerships | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Partnerships

The NY Times blogs about an interesting lawsuit between online mortgage lead generator LendingTree and one of its partners Mortech, Inc., which is allegedly about to help Google launch a LendingTree-like loan aggregation or mortgage lead-gen service. According to a press release issued yesterday about the litigation by LendingTree:  Mortech, whose technology helps automate lender offer pricing, violated its contractual covenants by partnering with Google to launch an online mortgage loan aggregator service similar to LendingTree. Despite repeated efforts, LendingTree was unsuccessful in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Google: Partnerships

Google's TV Ads platform is getting some help from a company called Visible World, which offers demographic and geotargeted advertising across different media types. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning: Google Inc. is teaming up with Visible World Inc., a well-known New York technology company that uses software to create multiple versions of a given ad, in its push to offer TV advertisers more targeting options. Google will combine the technology with its Google TV Ads, an automated auction-based system for buying TV ads by choosing which shows best fit the adv [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: AdSense | Google: AdWords | Google: Partnerships | Google: TV

In anticipation of a spin off/IPO for AOL, TimeWarner bought back Google's 5 percent interest in the company for $283 million dollars. Google originally purchased the equity stake in AOL in 2005 to preserve its search relationship with its largest partner and fend of Microsoft, which was seeking a potential deal with or acquisition of AOL. The original Google investment was $1 billion, which valued the TimeWarner AOL unit at $20 billion. The current valuation of AOL, based on the share buy back, would be roughly $5.6 billion. Here's what Google said, before it wrote down most of the va [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: Legal | Google: Partnerships

It's been roughly 100 days since Tim Armstrong was named CEO of AOL in anticipation of a spin-off/IPO of the company from corporate parent TimeWarner later this year. There are a slew of interviews out this morning in which Armstrong assesses his first 100 days, the state of the business and gives some indications of where AOL is headed. Among the highlights: AOL sees content and its display ad network reach as its primary strengths It will have many brands built on more unified platforms that simplify the back end The new AOL will be divided into the following areas (per AdAge): co [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | AOL: MapQuest | AOL: Search Marketplace | Channel: Local | Google: Partnerships

Late yesterday Google announced (or finally admitted) that it had developed an operating system, called Chrome OS, not to be confused, exactly, with the related Chrome browser. Everyone and their grandmother seems to have an opinion about it. Here's a sampling of the reaction, positive, negative and in-between: The fans, boosters and generally positive takes: TechCrunch, BetaNews, Computerworld, Mashable, BuzzMachine, Ars Technica, Bloomberg, ArsTechnica, Google Watch, MediaMemo, Linux-Watch.com, Google Operating System, The Register, TheNextWeb.com, Black Web 2.0, BloggingStocks, Gadge [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Features: General | Google: Chrome | Google: Content Central | Google: Other | Google: Partnerships | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: General | Top News

This had been reported before, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt acknowledged that Google had looked at investing in or buying a newspaper in an interview in London with the Financial Times: FT: Would you ever consider buying a newspaper; they’re cheap right now? ES: We’ve actually looked at this and we’re trying to avoid crossing the line between the infrastructure and technology that Google provides and the content that our partners provide. There is a line and we’re trying to stay on our side it. Schmidt thinks that charging for news won't work online. He cited a few exceptions for " [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Business Issues | Google: Partnerships

YouTube is clearly evolving before our eyes -- from a site that was largely about viral, user-generated content (UGC) to a premium content destination that may one day be a viable replacement for cable TV. First the news. Google/YouTube has signed deals with more studios to expand the range of full-length TV and movies content on the site. From the NY Times today: The agreements with the studios, which include Sony, Lions Gate, MGM and others, are significant because YouTube dominates online video. Nearly two-thirds of all video views in the United States occur on YouTube, according to the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Features: Analysis | Google: Partnerships | Google: TV | Google: YouTube & Video

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. That's what it must feel like right now at Twitter, which has become incredibly hot over the past several months. The pressure is building. Who will buy it? How will it be monetized? What sort of tool or service will it evolve into? These are subjects now of almost daily speculation. Today AllThingsD reports that Microsoft and Google are once again doing battle to become the exclusive paid search partner for Twitter: After last week’s explosive rumor that Google was in "late-stage" talks to acquire Twitter, which BoomTown reported was [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Partnerships | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Microsoft: Partnerships | Top News

TechCrunch reported late last night that Twitter was in late stage talks to be acquired by Google. That sent what used to be called the "blogosphere" into a frenzy. Kara Swisher, of AllThingsD, striking back against what she believes was sloppy journalism (and TechCrunch more generally), said no: In fact, Twitter and Google have simply been engaged in "some product-related discussions," according to one source, around real-time search and the search giant better crawling the microblogging service. Said a source close to Twitter: "There was a discussion with [Google executive Marissa Mayer' [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions | Google: General | Google: Partnerships | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: General | Microsoft: Other | Top News

As part of its efforts toward the creation of a so-called "smart grid," Google is testing out software that will help people better manage their home electricity use and reduce energy loss and inefficiency. This software would need to be tied in to new hardware devices dubbed "smart meters." The idea, represented in the graphic above, is that people would use the software to discover the energy inefficiencies or potential savings in their homes and would save power and money accordingly. Google says that this could result in savings of 5 percent to 15 percent for consumers and the sy [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: General | Google: Partnerships

(Sorry, couldn't resist the headline.) Overlooking the fact that Google advertises the wrong directions to get from Grand Central Station to Madison Square Garden, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg today announced a partnership with Google to use Google Maps on a new tourism web site and information center. The web site, nycgo.com, uses Google Maps to help tourists get information about the usual tourist interests -- hotels, restaurants, things to do, plus promotions and special offers. And the tourist information can be sent to your phone via Google Maps for mobile. (No word if it got the Gra [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Earth | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Partnerships

Wired offers a fascinating, if sensational, account of the "plot" by Microsoft, its allies and its operatives to sew discontent over Google's proposed paid search deal with Yahoo: The Plot to Kill Google. The article presents Microsoft as the driving force, along with other allies, behind an effort to stop Google's further dominance in search (via the Yahoo deal) after its own failed bid for Yahoo. Here's an excerpt: [John Kelly, Microsoft's head of strategic relations,] sprang into action, activating his company's vast Washington infrastructure.Microsoft's protracted antitrust battles had [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features: Analysis | Google & Yahoo Ad Deal | Google: Critics | Google: General | Google: Partnerships | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal