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Google has unveiled software it hopes will power a variety of future mobile phones and boost the web on the move.

The software could lead to cheaper phones as it is designed to speed up the process of making mobile services.

Google is working with four mobile manufacturers - Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG - but a Google branded phone was not announced. The first phones using the so-called Google “software stack” will be available in the second half of 2008.

Click for more on Google pushes into mobile phones, codename Android »

Google has confirmed that the recent update to its “visible PageRank” system is an effort to crackdown on sites trying to rig this closely-watched web popularity contest.

Over the weekend, Google search engine guru Matt Cutts told Search Engine Journal that the company is intent on punishing web publishers that attempt to sell their PageRank currency to other sites.

A site with a high PageRank can often boost the rank of a less-popular site simply by linking to it. As a result, popular sites will often provide such links in exchange for cash. And Google doesn’t like that.

Click for more on Google explains PageRank tweak »

Google will unveil its long-anticipated plan to bring its software to cell phones within the next two weeks, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday

The “Google-powered” phones are expected to make it to market by mid-2008, possibly from Taiwan’s HTC, South Korea’s LG Electronics, Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA, France Telecom’s Orange SA and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.’s 3 U.K., the report says. In addition to the ad-supported phone services bundling Google Maps, YouTube and Gmail, the operating system would be open to developers to build additional features.

Click for more on More Google Phone rumor »

Microsoft beat out Google on Wednesday in a battle to invest in socializing Web site Facebook, agreeing to pay $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in the Web phenomenon.

Microsoft also clinched exclusive rights to sell ads on Facebook outside of the United States as part of the investment that valued Facebook at $15 billion — on par with the market capitalizations of retailer Gap Inc and hotel chain Marriott International Inc.

Analysts said Microsoft paid a steep price on a bet that the three-year-old company would be able to transform itself into a hub for all sorts of Web activity.

Click for more on Microsoft beats Google to Facebook stake »

Mozilla, the group behind the open-source Firefox Web browser, disclosed its 2006 revenue Monday night: $66,840,850.

That’s a 26 percent bump up from the $52.9 million that Mozilla garnered in 2005. And with 2006 expenses slicing off only $19.8 million, Mozilla has a tidy sum left at its disposal, even if it’s no Microsoft.

“The highlight is that Mozilla remains financially healthy: we’re able to hire more people, build more products, help other projects, and bring more possibilities for participation in the Internet to millions of people,” foundation Chairman Mitchell Baker said in a blog posting. The foundation released the results in conjunction with its 2006 tax form.

Click for more on Mozilla’s 2006 revenue: $66.8 million »

It appears that Google is working on integrating IMAP into Gmail, but it is only appearing in select few Gmail and Google Apps for domains accounts at the moment.

When we checked Gmail Help database this evening, Gmail had said that they support POP, but not IMAP. Then a few minutes later, that doc was gone, and a stack of IMAP related help docs were up. The new pages explain how to integrate the new mail feature. It’s as easy as setting up POP, but with huge benefits.

Click for more on Gmail gets IMAP, finally »

Google reported a 46 percent rise in profit that topped Wall Street expectations, fueled by accelerating market share gains and tighter cost controls.

Third-quarter net income rose to $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per diluted share, compared with the year-earlier quarter’s $733.3 million, or $2.36 per diluted share. Excluding one-time items, profit was $3.91 per share in the latest quarter.

Gross revenue rose 57 percent to $4.23 billion.

Click for more on Google quarterly profit swells 46 percent »

Google has released a new version of its Gmail for mobile application, which works on most phones that are Java ME enabled as well as BlackBerry devices.

The new version is faster than before (30% faster overall and 80% faster for some tasks), consumes a lot less data and boasts a fair bit of new features. The latter includes a contacts viewer, an outgoing mail footer, click-to-call phone numbers, emails that are saved for later re-editing and Gmail keyboard shortcuts to perform tasks faster (on phones with full keyboards). The list sure sounds like a lot of useful features have been added without slowing down the program; has anyone tried the new version and begs to differ?

Google plans to offer online personal health records to help patients tote and store their own x-rays and other health data.

Less than two weeks after Microsoft announced plans to offer personal health records, Google unveiled plans to follow suit.

Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience, said Wednesday here at the Web 2.0 Summit that Google plans to support the “storage and movement” of people’s health records.

Click for more on Google to Offer Online Personal Health Records »

Google said on Friday it is speeding up the rate at which it adds storage space for its Gmail Web-based e-mail service due to the increased storage requirements for attachments such as photos.

People using Google Inc.’s Gmail service are sucking up storage space faster than the company can add it.

“A few of you are using Gmail so much that you’re running out of space, so to make good on our promise, today we’re announcing we are speeding up our counter and giving out more free storage,” wrote Rob Siemborski, a Google engineer on the Gmail blog.

Click for more on Google vows to increase Gmail storage limit »