Smartphone Sales Up 27%

Global mobile phone sales reached 286.1 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 6.1 percent decrease from the second quarter of 2008, according to a new report from Gartner. Smartphone sales were a bright spot for the industry, surpassing 40 million units, a 27 percent increase from the same period last year, representing the fastest growing segment of the mobile devices market.

Google Reader Gets Much Needed Social Features

Google has added a number of new features to Google Reader. The biggest one, which is long overdue, is the ability to share content on other social networks. This seems like it should have been available for ages, but it has been MIA until now.

Google Talks Future of Search Advertising

Google AdWords Business Product Management Director Nicholas Fox gave a keynote speech at Search Engine Strategies. He talked about where the search industry is going, and where it's been. On the history of AdWords, he says Google quickly realized that banner ads didn't make sense with search, sow they tried the text ad, and it has worked pretty well. Google is now running over a…

Facebook Just Became More Important to Search

Facebook has begun rolling out a new version of its search feature, which it began testing with a select few last month. Of course, this would be real-time search, in the company's latest effort to move into Twitter territory.