search giant

As in the real-estate market, a key factor in the browser wars has been location, location, location. In the virtual space that browsers inhabit, the most valuable location is to be preinstalled on the computer you buy -- and Google wants that choice location for its Chrome browser.

Google is painting its own portrait by adding canvas views to its iGoogle platform. The search giant rolled out the new design feature for U.S. users.

iGoogle, formerly Google Personalized Web Page and Google IG, is an AJAX-based service which brings together several Web feeds and Google Gadgets for users, including news, traffic and weather on one page designed and arranged by the users.

While the canvas feature is not available for all gadgets, it is for most, including Google Finance, Gmail and GasBuddy. Others include Soduku, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.

The Microsoft-Yahoo circus is open for business again. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Thursday said a Yahoo acquisition would still make sense for both companies. He spoke at the Gartner technology conference in Orlando, Fla.

While Ballmer insisted that Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo and is not currently holding any discussions with the search giant, he also said the companies could consider a partnership on search engines in the future.

As T-Mobile gears up to release the first Android-based smartphone, reports say it already has sold about 1.5 million T-Mobile G1s in preorders. According to the financial site fool.com, T-Mobile tripled its manufacturing directive to handset maker HTC for preorders after the first run sold out, and all of the 1.5 million units available for preorder have sold out.

The report also indicated that another two million units are being readied for sale through retail outlets.

Initial Estimate Was 400,000 Units

Building on the mobile mapping capabilities that Google rolled out last November, the search giant is launching a new location-awareness capability called Search with My Location.

Previously, when a Windows Mobile handset user went to Google.com from the phone's browser for a local search, the results were tailored to the last location entered, noted Google software engineers Terry Van Belle and Tim Cox in a new blog.

Google's Chrome browser has run into more privacy complaints and the search giant is moving to ease complaints about its Google Suggest feature used in Chrome and other products.

Launched in late August, Google Suggest helps users formulate more precise queries that yield more accurate results. So instead of just "hotels in Florida," the technology will ask a "Did you mean?" question that encourages you to select a more specific query, such as "hotels in Miami, Florida" or "hotels in the Florida Keys."

If you can't get enough news, Google is about to feed your habit by making the past searchable. On Monday, the search giant announced it will work with more newspapers to "bring history online" by digitizing news articles. The number of newspapers with which it will partner now numbers about 100.

Punit Soni, Google product manager, wrote on The Official Google Blog that "it's our goal to help readers find" articles that have run in newspapers around the world, "from the smallest local weekly paper to the largest national daily."

Google Chrome didn't even make it through 24 hours of downloads before stirring controversy. The search giant's new Web browser is in the privacy spotlight thanks to terms of service that give it rights some may not want to grant.

"There are some questions about exactly what the browser is capturing. The licensing agreement says it is sending everything you type back to Google so it can better find searches. But are folks going to be comfortable with that?" asked Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia.

Pushing Downloads Automatically

According to a report in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Verizon is on the verge of a deal with Google to provide Web-search services on its wireless network. The ubiquitous Google search bar is already on the iPhone and on a number of Sprint PCS phones.

The deal would give Verizon users a one-stop search screen rather than the layered searches they have today. The state of mobile search is chaotic, as each carrier has implemented its own structure and service. Many users already bypass the carrier search interfaces and log onto Google and Yahoo with phone browsers.

Google is catering to advertising agencies with a new product called Google Insights for Search. The search giant introduced the new product on Wednesday.

Insights for Search is a free tool that taps Google's database of search results to unearth information advertisers covet. Google said the product was designed with marketers in mind.