Sterling Market Intelligence

Despite the overwhelming market dominance of Google and the media hype surrounding the launch of Microsoft's snazzy new service, Bing, not everyone is convinced that Internet search has reached the end of its evolutionary path.

That's the theory, at least, of new search engines like Collecta and CrowdEye, which argue that, like prehistoric dinosaurs, Google, Bing and Yahoo are simply too slow to keep up with today's rapid-fire Internet. Instead, they argue, searchers can get better and more timely information from real-time search results.

Reports are surfacing that customers who ordered the new iPhone 3GS online may have delayed gratification. Consumers checking their package tracking status were shocked to discover that the delivery date, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was quietly shifted to Friday or even Monday.

A few unlucky souls were left with no shipping date but an ambiguous message: "the receiver requested a hold for a future delivery date" or "the package is being held for a future delivery date."

A counter on Apple's Web site is quietly ticking off the number of apps downloaded from the App Store. Late Tuesday afternoon, the number was approaching 990 million. Watching the digital numbers spin along is mesmerizing, and if you sit quietly enough you can almost feel the breeze.

According to calculations by U.K. research firm Mobile Squared, at the current rate of downloads, the one billionth app will be sent over the Web sometime on Thursday.

Is Google going to buy Twitter, or not? That's what social networkers are tweeting, commenting and otherwise buzzing about this Friday.

Twitter is a service that lets users stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one question: What are you doing? It's a real-time messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices, including PCs and smartphones. And Facebook would reportedly love to add it to its social-networking services.

For eager Apple fans, it's an excruciating seventy-three days until the much-anticipated Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) opens at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco. The wait won't be much easier for tech journalists, who face 10 weeks of stubborn silence from the Apple press office and a rumbling herd of rumors to track down.

Michael Dell may have been speaking from halfway around the world, but the voice of the CEO for a $20 billion company carries a long way. The topic was small-screen devices and specifically smartphones, a market with which Dell has flirted with but never quite taken the plunge. But Dell said that may change.

"It is true that we are exploring smaller-screen devices," he said. "We don't have any announcements to share today, but stay tuned, as when we have new news we will share that with you."

Crowded Market

Despite the daily barrage of bad news from Wall Street, there's one tech sector that's holding its own -- smartphones. In a recently released study, NPD Group reported that despite their generally higher price tag, sales of smartphones accounted for 23 percent of all cell-phone sales in the fourth quarter, nearly double the 12 percent figure of a year earlier.

On Wednesday, Yahoo launched a new twist in search advertising -- video. Unlike traditional search results that show just text and links, Yahoo's Rich Ads in Search let marketers display banners and boxes with images and videos.

Yahoo, known for its strength in display advertising, is showing its muscle with this hybrid model that combines the best of sponsored search ads with videos.

According to Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, Yahoo's Rich Ads in Search brings search and branding together in a potent way.

If the past week is any indication, Americans may soon enter the era of always-on, always-available Internet. While the full rollout of new broadband technologies may be two or three years away, the nation is closer to catching up with its access-rich Asian counterparts than ever before.

If Mae West were alive today, the blond bombshell might be asking her dates, "Is that a PC in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?" With each new generation of smartphones, that question is getting harder to answer.