Google starts a search trends Vlog

The Google Beat brings you news from the world of search trends in a format a little more entertaining than a series of graphs.

Did you want to catch up with the latest Google Trends in a format that appeals to web video savvy audience?  Great news. Google has started a Vlog called The Google Beat which will broadcast unique search trends for the week.

Using data from Google Trends, Google Insights for MORE

Apple App Store: 250,000 and counting

A nice round number, just in time for Steve Jobs to trot out at next week's special event

Click to enlarge. Source: 148Apps.biz

According to 148Apps.biz, Apple's (AAPL) U.S. App Store passed the quarter million milestone on Friday, two years and 49 days after it opened.

As of Saturday morning, by this count (which doesn't include apps available only overseas), there were 251,007 applications from 50,304 publishers available for download for the MORE

Microsoft founder Paul Allen sues Apple, Google and others

Patent infringement claims cover  suggestions to consumers for items related to what they're currently viewing on websites and social networks.

Paul Allen, CC license

According to the WSJ, Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen has taken a shotgun approach to patent litigation, suing a large portion of the technology industry, at least those outside of Seattle.

Named in Mr. Allen's suit, along with Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), are AOL Inc (AOL)., eBay (EBAY) Inc., Facebook Inc., Netflix Inc., Office MORE

Google Friday buys: Angstro Social

The tools and personell pickup is yet another one in its Social buying frenzy.

Angstro's Khare

I don't think a Friday has gone by this summer without Google (GOOG) announcing a pickup of some sort, mostly related to social networking.

Today's haul is Angstro, a startup founded by Rohit Khare, a social and search expert.  The move was announced on Angstro's website and confirmed by Google today.  Khare laid out the company's MORE

Android 2.2 starts hitting Verizon Incredible

After some false starts, Verizon's popular Droid phone users get Flash, Hotspot and a faster phone.

If you are a Verizon Incredible user, you have a big update coming any day now.  Verizon (VZ) has officially started updating those phones  to Android 2.2 Froyo according to an earlier tweet from the VZWSupport account and now on Verizon's Incredible page.

What does this mean for Incredible owners?  Their Incredibles now have:

A much faster MORE

Florida tourism saved by social media. Really.

The state mounted a PR blitz to show beachgoers that Florida's surf had been spared an oily disaster. Presidential visits aside, it seems social media helped save summer tourism on the Gulf of Mexico

By Shelley DuBois, reporter

The BP (BP) Deepwater Horizon spill happened in the middle of nowhere in the Gulf of Mexico, but it also took place, as every event of global import now does, in the realm of MORE

The case for a touchscreen iPod nano

Is the device that was once Apple's best-selling iPod about to join the iPhone family?

Images: iLounge, MacRumors

There's been a lot of speculation about what a re-designed iPod nano might look like in the wake of a note issued Thursday by Kaufman Bros.' Shaw Wu, but what about the software that runs it?

Wu's sources in Apple's (AAPL) supply chain turned up plans to buy components for a smaller-size nano MORE

Google Realtime gets real

The search engine now searches the social web for the latest news, tweets, buzz, feeds...

Google announced Google realtime search today which aims to be a clearinghouse of stream feeds from the past up until the a few seconds ago.  Google (GOOG) also let's you search by particular geographical area down to country, state or even city.

While mostly comprising Twitter feeds (by volume), Google says it is also searching its own MORE

MySpace: A place for… what, again?

With declining ad sales, a stagnant user base, and a creaky interface, the once-mighty social network has a redesign on deck, but is it enough to save the site?

Visit the MySpace offices in the News Corp. complex in Beverly Hills, and you won't see a company in crisis. Underneath the company sign, a dry-erase board reads "A place for..." with scribbled Mad Lib-esque responses like, "Soy Milk Ecstasy" and MORE

Logitech #Fails first GoogleTV ad campaign

While we're very much looking forward to the Revue GoogleTV from Logitech, we're not looking forward to the rest of Logitech's ad campaign.

Here's Logitech's latest stab at advertising for the GoogleTV.  Yes, a naked Man-TV secretly enters a young girl's room, jumps on her bed and scares her.

When taken into context with the other ads already playing on Logitech's site, the campaign makes a little more sense.  TV is lonely MORE