Tanner Hobin

According to a recent article from Rediff.com, Google is nearly two weeks away from a concurrent launch across India, the US and Europe of their new Google branded mobile phone.

An un-named source at Google had this to say, “We don’t comment on market rumor or speculation. However, Google is committed to providing users with access to the world’s information, and mobile becomes more important to those efforts every day. We’re collaborating with partners worldwide to bring Google search and applications to mobile users everywhere. However, we have nothing to announce at this time.”

Read the full story here: Forget iPhone, the Gphone is here

At the recent Book Expo America conference in New York, the CEO of Macmillan Publishers Richard Charkin stole two of Google’s laptops from their booth. The stunt was to raise awareness regarding the method in which Google is using to acquire copyright protected content from books. Google Book Search is currently working towards digitizing books from various libraries around the nation. Their method is to gather the information, and then publishers would be responsible for telling Google if they do not want their content in Google Book Search through their Partner Program. Charkin argues that this method is a blatant copyright infringement.

Though I do not agree with the way in which Google is handling the acquisition of information in this case, I’m not sure why a publisher would NOT want their content on Google. It’s essentially free advertising. Plus, if Macmillan’s internet marketing strategy is advanced enough to include PPC advertising, the company could leverage the power of targeted ads for their publications. I’m not familiar with the publishing process, so I may be wrong in assuming that promotion falls in the hands of the publisher. However, I’m certain that Macmillan would eventually benefit financially from having the exposure through Google Book Search.

Regardless, interesting tactic! It may even get Google’s attention towards the issue.

Google has officially acquired FeedBurner, the most comprehensive feed syndication platform on the web.

What a great pair they will surely make. Barry Schwartz over at Search Engine Land had an exclusive conference call this afternoon with Susan Wojcicki from Google, and Dick Costolo from FeedBurner. Here is his notes regarding the conversation: Google Confirms Acquisition Of FeedBurner

So how close is Google to officially ruling the world…wide web?