Earlier today, reports indicated that Google Maps Navigation (an Internet-connected GPS nav system) would become available on the iPhone, and while some people viewed this a nice peace offering, others thought Google was damaging its mobile business.  Only it turns out even more cynicism was appropriate, as no such move is guaranteed to occur.

Yes, sorry iPhone owners, but Google hasn’t decided to forfeit one of Android’s advantages.  The company’s instead asserting that a corporate representative was misquoted, and although it might allow Apple devices to use Google Maps Navigation at some point, no promises were made.

"We did not say we would bring it to iPhone, we said to date we’ve had it on Android and that in the future it may come to other platforms but did not confirm this will be coming to iPhone at all," a spokesperson told Daniel Ionescu.

So it looks like the introduction of Google Maps Navigation in the UK and Ireland that occurred on Wednesday will be about the only big news on this front this week.

We’ll definitely keep an ear out with regards to what those "other platforms" are, though, since that issue still hasn’t been clarified.

Google has launched a very interesting new search option, with its Twitter archive. What this does is let users search for a topic, and look at all available tweets about that topic in chronological order. If you want to see tweets about President Obama for example, you can do so by going to any year, month, or day and seeing what was said about him on Twitter. Google can do this since it has access to Twitter’s info, which allows Google to index its real-time Twitter results. A Google spokesperson tells WebProNews it would be possible to do something similar with other sites through PuSH.

To me, while this is an interesting way of searching Twitter (in fact, I called it what Twtiter search should be), it gets even more interesting if you consider that Google is developing a system for sites to push content to Google in real-time, via PubSubHubbub (or PuSH). Google’s Matt Cutts spoke with WebProNews about potential PuSH integration recently (read about it more here):

Will Google make it an option to browse entire archives of sites in a similar fashion to what it is doing with Twitter? This could be a quite useful feature, and it would certainly fall along the lines of "organizing the world’s information." Let’s say I remember reading a New York Times article several months back that I’d like to reference in one of my own articles, but I can’t remember what it was called exactly, and I have a hard time finding it through a traditional web search. Being able to drill down into the archives in this way could make the search process much more helpful – a better user experience.

Of course most content sites have their own search features (sometimes even provided by Google), and you could try using that, but quite frankly these site search features aren’t always that great. In fact, they’re very often terrible. Google knows search, and it is still the most dominant search destination. It would make a ton of sense for such an option to be available.

I reached out to Google to see if this was a potential option. "The scenario described is indeed possible but we don’t have anything to announce today," a Google spokesperson tells me. To be clear, when he says "possible," he’s referring to the technology making such a scenario possible. As he said, there’s no announcement, and this may not even be on Google’s list of things to do. But, you never know. 

Google Labs already has a timeline feature for news.

Would you like to see Google offer timeline-like archives of site updates? Tell us what you think.

Last night, Opera announced that its mobile browser, Opera Mini, had been accepted into the iTunes AppStore after being submitted just under three weeks ago. So, now that the iPhone finally has a browser alternative, how does it fare in comparison? Is it worth running out and getting or should we just stick with the safe old Safari and move on with our day?

If you’ve used Opera Mini for other mobile platforms, such as Blackberry or Android, then its pretty much the same. But, for those of you like myself that haven’t, here’s what we have to say about it.

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Opera Mini is a full-featured browser that brings some things to the table but falls short on others. While we enjoy the tabbed browsing in comparison to Safari, the zoom feature is not our favorite. We’re not quite sure if you actually have to do the pinch gesture to zoom or if a double finger tab does it – the mechanics of it are a bit off. And if, like myself, you have some stubby nubs for fingers then the inability to zoom in as much as you want can be a problem for tightly packed UIs.

A main hitch in using Opera on the iPhone, however, is the inability to set it as your default browser. Opening up links in your Twitter client will still bring you back to Safari, as will opening up PDF files in Opera. You’re constantly reminded that Opera is number two in line and, even if you place it in the dock at the bottom of your screen, Safari is never far behind.

We asked Opera if the iPhone version would be able to take advantage of HTML5 and Javascript and were told that, while Javascript works “surprisingly well”, a spokesperson could not say that Opera Mini “takes full advantage of HTML5″. Opera also told us that the iPhone version will generally work with bookmarklets for services like InstaPaper and ReadItLater.

In all, Opera seems like a viable alternative to Safari on the iPhone, but we’re not sure that it can take over the number one spot. It has some bells and whistles, like the frequently-visited page startup page, but without being able to set it as the default browser, it will likely remain a second class citizen.

What do you think? Will you be switching over to Opera for the iPhone, to whatever extent that you can?

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Vietnam shares a border with China, and it’s possible that Vietnamese authorities are starting to share the Chinese government’s low opinion of Google, too.  Today, a spokesperson dismissed Google’s claim that Vietnamese computer users were infected by politically motivated malware.

As you may remember, Google said last week that "infected machines have been used both to spy on their owners as well as participate in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against blogs containing messages of political dissent."  Which seemed to imply that supporters of the Vietnamese government might have performed a little hacking.

But Google’s entirely incorrect, according to Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga.  As reported by Jason Folkmanis, she said in a statement, "The comments are groundless.  Vietnam law puts in place specific anti-virus and malware regulations and information security and confidentiality."

Those remarks appear to express an unusual degree of certainty and a certain measure of annoyance.  Much like China’s statements regarding Google’s decision to break Chinese laws/not censor search results, perhaps.

It should be interesting to see if Google pursues the matter and makes a habit of aggravating Asian governments.  In this latest dispute, neither side’s threatened any sort of action yet, at least.

Vietnam shares a border with China, and it’s possible that Vietnamese authorities are starting to share the Chinese government’s low opinion of Google, too.  Today, a spokesperson dismissed Google’s claim that Vietnamese computer users were infected by politically motivated malware.

As you may remember, Google said last week that "infected machines have been used both to spy on their owners as well as participate in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against blogs containing messages of political dissent."  Which seemed to imply that supporters of the Vietnamese government might have performed a little hacking.

But Google’s entirely incorrect, according to Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga.  As reported by Jason Folkmanis, she said in a statement, "The comments are groundless.  Vietnam law puts in place specific anti-virus and malware regulations and information security and confidentiality."

Those remarks appear to express an unusual degree of certainty and a certain measure of annoyance.  Much like China’s statements regarding Google’s decision to break Chinese laws/not censor search results, perhaps.

It should be interesting to see if Google pursues the matter and makes a habit of aggravating Asian governments.  In this latest dispute, neither side’s threatened any sort of action yet, at least.

Update: Anytime interest-based advertising is mentioned, privacy concerns usually follow, based on its use of browser history.  A Google spokesperson tells WebProNews, "An advertiser can only remarket to users who have visited their site (or who have interacted with their YouTube homepage ad or brand channel)."

Users can opt-out of seeing remarketing ads using Google’s  Ads Preferences Manager,as mentioned in Google’s announcement, but in case users haven’t seen that particular link, "Clicking on ‘Ads by google’ or ‘i’ (in rich media ads) alongside all ads we serve takes you to this page which explains our ad practices and leads to the Ads Preferences Manager," she says.

Original Article: Google is rolling out a new AdWords feature called Remarketing. What this does is allow advertisers to reach users on sites within the Google Content Network, as they browse the web. The feature was originally introduced as a trial a year ago as part of Google’s interest based advertising beta, but the company  is now making it widely available.

"We’ve received a tremendous response from the hundreds of advertisers who’ve been using it in recent months, across all industries – including automotive, retail, local and finance," says Product Manager Aitan Weinberg. "We’ve seen that remarketing has worked well for many different kinds of advertisers – whether they’re looking to boost brand awareness, or drive clicks and sales, and whether they use display or text ads. For example, if you’re a search advertiser, you can use remarketing to create an integrated campaign strategy. After driving traffic to your site with search ads, you can then remarket to those users who reach your site by showing them tailored ads on sites throughout the Google Content Network."

Google says remarketing is a great way to reach users who are likely to be "highly receptive" to special offers.

"Let’s say you’re a basketball team with tickets that you want to sell. You can put a piece of code on the tickets page of your website, which will let you later show relevant ticket ads (such as last minute discounts) to everyone who has visited that page, as they subsequently browse sites in the Google Content Network," explains Weinberg. "In addition to your own site, you can also remarket to users who visited your YouTube brand channel or clicked your YouTube homepage ad."

Advertisers can run multiple remarketing campaigns at once. "For example, you could offer discount game tickets to users who’ve previously visited your tickets page, advertise VIP hospitality packages to users who clicked on your ‘How to get to the arena’ page, and advertise a sale on team merchandise to users who previously visited your YouTube brand channel," says Weinberg.

Advertisers who want to use remarketing can set up and create their campaigns in the "audience" tab in AdWords.

Something fishy is going on. If you search for "Google executives" on an English-language version of Google, you may get a link to http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html, which would be Google’s page where it has profiles for its executives (go figure). However, you may also notice that the text appears in Chinese characters.

As you probably know by now, this week, Google began redirecting its Chinese search engine to its Hong Kong site, where it remains uncensored. Reports indicate that the Chinese government is not too fond of this decision.

Guardian, who appears to be the first to have reported on the issue of the exec page, asks, "Has Google Been Hacked?" They also say they’ve informed Google of the issue, and a spokesperson for the company confirmed the issue’s existence, saying they are "now investigating" it.

That’s not exactly coming out and saying they’ve been hacked, but there is certainly plenty of room for speculation, as their has been around the Google/China situation at large since Google’s original announcement about the attacks in January.

It’s worth noting that if you go to Google.com, and follow the links: About Google > Corporate Info > Management, you will get to a similar page that is all in English. The URL, however, is slightly different: http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/execs.html.

The clash between Google and the Chinese government appears to be coming to a head.  Various sources have reported that Google ignored a cut-off date to reregister as an Internet content provider in China, and more importantly, that the company has stopped censoring search results.

Let’s get the paperwork-related story out of the way first.  Charles Arthur wrote this morning, "Google missed a deadline to re-register as an ‘internet content provider’ (ICP) in China last night, which observers say is a sign that it is preparing to shut down its search engine there."

As for the news related to Google.cn and a lack of censorship, something has definitely occurred.  Following some tests, Adrienne Mong wrote, "Web sites dealing with subjects such as the Tiananmen Square democracy protests, Tibet and regional independence movements could all be accessed through Google’s Chinese search engine Tuesday . . ."

Other people have seen uncensored results, too, although filters apparently kick in on occasion.

Google’s stayed pretty tight-lipped during all of this.  One spokesperson told Arthur that the company actually has until the end of March to reregister.  Another told Mong that nothing’s changed.  So it’s possible that we’re just seeing a case of deadline confusion strike at the same time as some technical problems.

Google may have finally taken a stand with regards to censorship in China, though, and is just daring the Chinese government to challenge its position.

We’ll be sure to stay on top of this situation as it develops.

Last night at Campfire One, Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace, where developers can create apps that integrate with Google Apps and sell them to users. According to Google, they can reach over 2 million businesses and 25 million users.

Right off the bat, the Google Apps Marketplace launched with over 50 applications from companies like Intuit and Atlassian, with more coming soon from companies like NetSuite and SuccessFactors, a Google spokesperson tells WebProNews.

"Once installed to a company’s domain, these third-party applications work like native Google applications," explains Google Apps Marketplace Product Manager Chris Vander Mey. "With administrator approval, they may interact with calendar, email, document and/or contact data to increase productivity. Administrators can manage the applications from the familiar Google Apps control panel, and employees can open them from within Google Apps. With OpenID integration, Google Apps users can access the other applications without signing in separately to each. The Google Apps Marketplace eliminates the worry about software updates, keeping track of different passwords and manual syncing and sharing of data, thereby increasing business productivity and lessening frustrations for users and IT administrators alike. That’s the power of the cloud."

This is the 2nd big move by Google regarding the cloud and Google Apps in less than a week. Late last week, the company acquired DocVerse, which "makes Word, PowerPoint and Excel Work like Google Docs," as the DocVerse title tag explains.

Developers can get more info about the Google Apps Marketplace at Google’s Developer Programs site. The company will also be talking about developing apps for the enterprise at Google I/O in May.

Last night at Campfire One, Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace, where developers can create apps that integrate with Google Apps and sell them to users. According to Google, they can reach over 2 million businesses and 25 million users.

Right off the bat, the Google Apps Marketplace launched with over 50 applications from companies like Intuit and Atlassian, with more coming soon from companies like NetSuite and SuccessFactors, a Google spokesperson tells WebProNews.

"Once installed to a company’s domain, these third-party applications work like native Google applications," explains Google Apps Marketplace Product Manager Chris Vander Mey. "With administrator approval, they may interact with calendar, email, document and/or contact data to increase productivity. Administrators can manage the applications from the familiar Google Apps control panel, and employees can open them from within Google Apps. With OpenID integration, Google Apps users can access the other applications without signing in separately to each. The Google Apps Marketplace eliminates the worry about software updates, keeping track of different passwords and manual syncing and sharing of data, thereby increasing business productivity and lessening frustrations for users and IT administrators alike. That’s the power of the cloud."

This is the 2nd big move by Google regarding the cloud and Google Apps in less than a week. Late last week, the company acquired DocVerse, which "makes Word, PowerPoint and Excel Work like Google Docs," as the DocVerse title tag explains.

Developers can get more info about the Google Apps Marketplace at Google’s Developer Programs site. The company will also be talking about developing apps for the enterprise at Google I/O in May.

In the late 90’s, a spokesperson for the Coca Cola corporation said, “Our primary competition isn’t Pepsi. Our real competition is water, tea, nimbupani and Pepsi… in that order.”

While it’s a gruesome thought to see water considered competition to the top cola manufacturer, I didn’t include the quote to make a commentary on public health or privatization. I did it to remind startups that competition includes all products that solve the same problem, in this case – thirst. When a startup claims they have no competitors, it makes me wonder if there’s a need for their product in the first place. You have competitors. Below are a few ways you can find them, research them and then beat them.

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It’s About Solving A Problem: Whether you are connecting friends online, providing a reference resource or building a better mousetrap, your product is one approach to a problem and you need to find others who claim to take on the same challenge. Your obvious competitors are those with similar products but your less obvious ones are those with vastly different products who still compete for market’s attention.

Know Your Competitors: Think about your problem statement and the problem-related keywords and categories that drive users to your site. Now take those same keywords, type them into your favorite search engine and look at who dominates those pages. This is a good indicator of your competition. You can also search your keywords and categories through sites like KillerStartups, YouNoodle and LinkedIn to determine others in your space. Conversation tracking services like Echo and UberVu also allow you to track your perceived direct competitors through public conversations, blog posts and traditional media sources.

Reach Out Early and Make A Better Case: Often when ReadWriteWeb writes an article about a company, we get a pitch about a similar product the next day. Unless you prove that your product solves the problem much better than the last guy, we are not going to write about you. Similarly, investors don’t want to hear a pitch about an exact replica of a product they’ve already funded. It is your job to reach out to stakeholders early, explain the problem, give an accurate description of the competitive environment, and then blow our minds. You need to prove that you are the best solution to the problem bar none.

Photo Credit: Dan Bennett

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While none of us here at ReadWriteWeb have yet to see it in our Google News, a tip this morning from blogger Joe Hobot tells us that trending topics may be coming to the search engine’s news aggregator.

We got in touch with Google this morning and a spokesman confirmed that the feature is indeed part of a series of experiments the company has been running since early this month.

Image thanks to Joe Hobot.

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According to Chris Gaither, a spokesperson for Google, Search Engine Rountable first reported the potential feature’s appearence last Friday. Gaither said that trending topics are one of many experiments Google is conducting in their redesign of the news homepage.

At Google, we run anywhere from 50 to 200 experiments at any given time on our websites all over the world. Right now, we are running a small test of a new Google News homepage design. More information about how Google runs experiments can be found [here].

Google last redesigned its news page last May, adding more visual content to the layout. This time around, we expect to see more in the way of real-time content, including features such as the trending topics seen here.

If you keep a close watch, it is possible you will see other new features that Google is testing, but as the company’s blog post points out, often these features will show up and go completely unnoticed. In Hobot’s case, the trending topics showed up for a brief period before disappearing again.

We asked about the specifics of the new feature, but Gaither said that statement included above is all the company is saying about it at this time.

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Google users in the UK may be unusually well-informed with regards to their government’s healthcare policies.  The Department of Health revealed this week that it spent about 2.72 million (or $4.25 million at the current exchange rate) on AdWords over the past year.

To be exact: the department spent 2,720,457.11 between February 1 of last year and January 31 of this one, according to official records.  And a whopping 21,939 keywords (including ones like "health information" and "stop smoking") were covered by its campaign.

As reported in a Smart Healthcare article, a Department of Health spokesperson explained this huge endeavor by stating, "The Department of Health’s campaigns are designed to deliver better health, whether they be to help people change their behaviours to protect their long term health, to signpost people to NHS services, or to encourage healthier lifestyles."

The spokesperson then further justified the AdWords campaign by adding, "The campaigns are evaluated using a combination of robust techniques that help us identify exactly what works, so we know that these campaigns are saving lives."

That acts as a nice sort of pat on the back for Google.  The search giant no doubt appreciates the UK government’s money, too.

Related Articles:

> Google Narrows Down Mobile Ad Targeting

> Report Suggests More Revenue, But Fewer Advertisers For Google

> Google Now Rejecting AdWords Ads Without Proper Display

<a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-apps-adds-enterprise-The Google Enterprise blog has a post tonight about some new features being unveiled that should assuage some of the critics who discount the security of using Google Apps on a mobile device.

The new features permit corporate IT policies to be enforced from the customer’s Google Apps console across different mobile devices with the exception of Android smartphones, which will eventually have similar features.

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It seems ironic not to include the Nexus One and other Android devices. But we have our own speculation why the Nexus One and other Android devices are not a part of this feature upgrade. Google has made it clear that the next version of the Nexus One will be an enterprise smartphone. We expect these features and more to be a part of this upcoming Nexus One device.

We sought clarification on the matter this evening but have not yet heard back from a Google spokesperson.

According to the post, Google Apps Premier and Education Edition administrators may manage iPhones, Nokia E series and Windows Mobile devices from the Google Apps administrative control panel.

The service allows administrators to:

• Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices.
• Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity.
• Require a device password on each phone.
• Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords.
• Require passwords to include letters, numbers and punctuation.

These are all security features that are cited as necessary for acceptance in the enterprise.

The new features follow enhancements made last year, including the Google Apps Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Server. On Android devices, Google announced new Web versions of GMail and Google Calendar. Google Docs was also updated.

Last year, the company also released Google Sync for iPhone, Nokia E Series and Windows Mobile devices. enabling Google Apps users to access and sync mail, calendar, and contacts from their mobile device to the Google cloud.

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