BUSINESSWEEK - Techbeat on August 19

Short answer: No. Not even close. Not for a long time, anyway.

Posted by: Rob Hof

Short answer: No. Not even close. Not for a long time, anyway.

But it’s sure trying hard, and it would be dangerous for anyone to write off Microsoft. Its determination was on display today at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s senior VP of search, portal, and advertising platform group, told the crowd that he sees searchers moving from merely typing keywords into Google to getting tasks done.

Not coincidentally, getting tasks done is essentially Microsoft’s main business, so that sounds a little too convenient. But in fact, searchers are already doing that to varying degrees. Nardella cited an interesting figure: About half the queries on Microsoft’s Live Search site are part of search sessions that extend over 30 minutes.

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Sillicon Alley Insider - Michael Learmonth | August 19, 2008 5:50 PM

Tough to be anyone but Google (GOOG) in search. Google gained a share point from June to July, moving from 59% to 60% of all search queries, according to Nielsen Online.

It came at the expense of MSN, which lost more than two percentage points of market share from month to month, going from 14.1% of searches to 11.9%. So if Microsoft’s “Cashback” search engine shopping gimmick actually helped boost search share in May and June, its impact seems to be dropping.

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CNNMoney - Environment + Technology, August 19, 2008, 2:42 pm

By Todd Woody

Google on Tuesday took the drilling debate in a different direction - announcing that Google.org is investing nearly $11 million in technology to expand the nation’s geothermal reserves. That’s more than the U.S. government is spending on geothermal projects this year.

Traditional geothermal power plants, like those built by Calpine (CPN) in Northern California, sit atop reserves of naturally occurring steam or hot water that can be tapped to drive electricity-generating turbines. So-called Enhanced Geothermal Systems, or EGS,  hope to tap geothermal energy in any location by drilling deep underground to fracture “hot rocks” and then pump them with water to create steam that can be used in a power plant. The great potential, of course, would be to liberate the Midwest and South from their dependence on coal-fired power plants.

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InformationWeek , Aug 18, 2008 12:12 PM

Posted by Eric Zeman

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has been working hard to get a mobile version of YouTube onto as many handsets as possible over the past year or so. If you thought you were going to be able to watch those videos on your phone without having to watch advertisements, think again.

Today in the Official Google Mobile Blog, Google laid it all on the line:
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International Herald Tribune - Published: August 15, 2008

By Laura M. Holson and Miguel Helft

T-Mobile will be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone powered by Google’s Android software, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. The phone will be made by HTC, one of the largest makers of mobile phones in the world, and is expected to go on sale in the United States before Christmas, perhaps as early as October.

The high-end phone is expected to match many of the capabilities of Apple’s iPhone and other so-called smartphones that run software from Palm, Research in Motion, Microsoft and Nokia to access the Internet and perform computerlike functions.

The HTC phone, which many gadget sites are calling the “dream,” will have a touch screen, like the iPhone. But the screen also slides out to expose a full five-row keyboard. A video of the phone has been posted recently on YouTube. A person who has seen the HTC device said it matched the one in the video.

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Silicon Alley Insider -  Michael Learmonth | August 15, 2008 11:22 AM

ComScore (SCOR) is making a case against Google (GOOG) that will no doubt get traction among cash-starved Web publishers: the search giant’s new AdPlanner measurement tool consistently undercounts Web traffic. In other words: Google is going to take your precious advertising dollars from you. Don’t work with them!

Google introduced AdPlanner, a free analytics tool for agencies and media planners aimed squarely at comScore’s costly “Plan Metrix” service in June. Since then, comScore has been on a mission to discredit the service using two arguments:
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