Microsoft and Yahoo Merge to Double Team Google

This agreement ends years of negotiations and gives Microsoft access to the internet’s second-largest search engine audience, in a bid to crush Googles total world dominance. It adds a potentially potent weapon to Microsoft’s Internet arsenal as the software maker girds for an online assault against Google. After years of dwindling Yahoo financial success this link is being hailed as crucual in preventing Google’s market share from reaching record levels around the world.

In the process, Yahoo hopes to recover some of the money that was squandered in 2008 when it turned down a chance to sell the entire company to Microsoft for £29bn.

Microsoft wants to process more search requests because the inquiries have become a critical lever for selling Internet ads.

Tim Beyers, Senior Analyst at The Motley Fool, said: “You feel like this is something they had to do. … I mean, independently, they’re bit players. Together, they might offer a combination that might be appealing to an advertiser.”

Following recent Techcruch leaks involving Twitter documents in which they say they want to be the “pulse of the planet”,  I wonder how all these big hitters are going to survive in the market together without someone going under?

Archos to partner with Google to produce Android OS media tablet

Archos (http://www.archos.com/) has established a reputation in the market for making portable media players or PMPs. The increasingly popular brand has made such an impact on the niche sector of PMPs that it already enjoys the respect of consumers and is now considered as a manufacturer of some of the best PMPs in the market.

Just like any company that has already conquered a market, it is hungry to go into another new untapped market to continue its expansion, and with the help of Google, Archos is setting its sights on the mobile phone marketplace.

Archos is teaming up with Google to create a new voice-enabled Internet Media Tablet using Google’s Android OS. The goal is to actually make a smart phone that has multimedia entertainment capabilities.

Among the features and capabilities we can look forward to for the new device are: A high resolution 5 inch screen, Adobe Flash and Flash Video support, access to movies, photos, music, games and TV, TV recording and HD playback, storage of up to 500GB, up to 7 hours of playback, 3.5G HSUPA support. The Archos Android OS device will also have the brains of a laptop because it will use the OMAP3440 processor based on the ARM Cortex- A8 superscalar microprocessor.

Although things about the actual product are still a bit hush – hush (we don’t even have an idea of how much it will cost!), you can expect to see the product by the third quarter of this year. That’s something to look forward to going into Christmas!

T-Mobile G1: First Look!

Google’s Android phone operating system sees its first outing on the T-Mobile G1 this Thursday.

The G1’s packaging is slick. Not as fancy as that of the iPhone, admittedly, but with all accessories bundled in an inner box, it’s a neat affair. What’s more, there’s more on offer than with Apple’s phone, with a case included, as well as a charger and separate USB cable.

The bundled headphones come packed with a remote capable of answering calls, pausing and playing music, as well as adjusting the volume.

Check out all the un-boxing pictures over at ElectricPig.co.uk!

Google Earth in Your Pocket

Google have released their Earth application for the iPhone platform as afree download from the Apple App Store.

Google Earth has been available on the desktop for three years, and has been downloaded more than 400 million times, but the iPhone deployment marks its first mobile version.

Included in the iPhone version of Google Earth is the ‘My Location’ feature, which takes the user to their current location, and the geo-located Panoramio photos that desktop users can already see when they use Google Earth.

I found the app to be a little slow even on Wi-Fi (20Mb internet connection) to load up all the tile data as fast as it does in the video above.

When asked whether a version of Google Earth for the Android operating system would be appearing soon, Google said “keep an eye on the blog”.

The Google Earth iPhone app is available as a free download now.

UK Traffic now on Google Maps

Google has teamed up with the Highways Agency to include live traffic updates to Google Maps.

In future, users online will have the option of a traffic function that overlays a coloured-coded layer onto England’s motorways to indicate average speed and congestion to help motorists plan their journey.

“I’m delighted that we are the first country in Europe to work with Google and use our information for the benefit of road users across the country,” said Denise Plumpton, head mouthpiece at the Highways Agency.

The data, provided by the Agency’s National Traffic Control Centre in Birmingham, is also used to populate the Highways Agency’s own Traffic England website (http://www.highways.gov.uk/traffic). Using this site, drivers can see current and predicted driving conditions, view what is currently being displayed on electronic motorway signs and even tell the average speed between any two junctions on the motorway network.

Traffic England is just one of the information services available from the Highways Agency, who also have a 24 hour traffic phone line 08700 660 115 and a digital radio station, Traffic Radio, which is available on both DAB digital radio and via the internet at http://www.trafficradio.org.uk.