I feel bad now for getting people all pumped for naught. I published a post Thursday night on Google's new SMS feature in Gmail chat, which allows users to send SMS messages from their desktop or laptop computers to contacts' cell phones. Now, the company shelved it for the time being to work out some enabling quirks. :) Google posted this blog on Halloween explaining the issue . Apparently,

Google has repeatedly assured us that the recession hasn't burst its search advertising bubble, and the company's third-quarter earnings seem to bear this out . That doesn't mean Google isn't taking steps to make sure it maintains its ad sales. The company last night announced two changes to enhance how its algorithm calculates ad quality score and ranks ads. Google will soon update the portion of the quality score algorithm ,

Google late yesterday revealed that it has successfully implemented Optical Character Recognition technology to scan and convert a picture in a document created by Adobe's PDF format into words. This renders these files searchable via the Web. Google Product Manager Evin Levey noted in a blog post that prior to this development, scanned documents were rarely included in search results because Google couldn't be sure of their content.

Because we can't get enough new Gmail features : Google today rolled out a new Gmail Labs feature that lets you send text messages from your Gmail chat window. I got a hands on demo of this simple, but useful feature from Gmail Product Manager Keith Coleman a half hour ago, when he had me send a text message to his iPhone from my Gmail account. I simply entered his 10-digit area code and phone number in the chat window and it offered me the option to send an SMS.

Several bloggers breathlessly yesterday rushed to note that Google is supporting OpenID without reading the fine print in the OpenID developer documentation. It turns out that Google isn't technically using OpenID, but has actually created its own flavor of the standard, according to The NeoSmart Files blog . The blog is published by Mahmoud H. Al-Qudsi for NeoSmart Technologies, anon-profit organization specializing in tech research and development.

Google's Book Search agreement, in which Google agreed to pay $125 million to settle claims from authors and publishers for its earlier digital-scanning and establish a Book Rights Registry to make sure the right parties get compensated, is a great play for all involved. I tried to find some negatives and failed, so obviously I couldn't disagree more with those who say Google caved and portray it as a loss for publishing.

It's getting hard to keep up with Google's Gmail engineers these days. Every week, the team seems to pump out two announcements worthy of blog posts. The latest, from Gmail Labs, lets users add Google Calendar and Docs gadgets, or small applications also known as widgets to the left-navigation bar, next to Chat and Labels. Users can now view their Google Calendar agenda and get alerts, and see recently accessed Google Docs that let you search your documents from within Gmail.

Google today hurdled a significant stumbling block with regard to its multi-billion-dollar Book Search project, agreeing to pay $125 million to put millions of books online. The search engine settled a class-action lawsuit with book authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by five large publishers as representatives of the AAP's membership. I'm on the conference call now and will be updating.

Google's enterprise team, which needs to work harder to garner attention in the mammoth shadow of the company's search engine and advertising machines, continues to remind people that it's alive and well. Nitin Mangtani, lead product manager for Google Enterprise Search, has written an editorial for Forbes.com. Sponsored by SAP, the piece details , published Friday, Google's quest to make search as efficient for business users as it is for consumers.

It's been quite the busy month for Google's Gmail team. Mail Goggles left Google Labs to light up the blogosphere, saving people from e-mailing under the influence. Two days ago, Google Labs launched its Canned Responses feature for people tired of responding to the same old questions. Yesterday, the Gmail team launched a faster version of Gmail for J2ME and Blackberry phones . Now Google has created and launched emoticons for Gmail. Unlike Mail Goggles and Canned Responses,

What's the most heavily used application on your mobile phone? Is it search? Maybe it's YouTube or some cool game you can't keep from playing. For some, it's Gmail, for work and play. Google's mobile team today took big steps to improve the speed and performance of Gmail on RIM Blackberry and any phone whose operating system is Java Micro Edition. Go to m.google.com/mail in your mobile browser to download it Gmail for mobile 2.0, as the refresh is called. Derek Phillips,

Google is reminding users to go to its 2008 U.S. Voter Info site . Google unveiled the site Oct. 1 but it didn't get a lot of coverage. I originally noted it here for eWEEK . The site is very useful. I can remember at 18 having to ask my parents, somewhat ashamedly, how to go about voting and where. Those newly of voting age, or even adults in a new town, needn't worry anymore. The site helps citizens find where to cast their ballots from now until Election Day,

Google launched its Android Market store today to coincide with the launch of T-Mobile's G1 smart phone, the first gadget based on the Android mobile OS. Android Market is a place where users can download apps to their G1 and future Android phones, and even rate or comment on apps they liked or hated. Android Mobile Platform Product Manager Eric Chu said in a blog post that t here are already over 50 apps available in Android Market today,

Google continued to help make its Gmail users even lazier with the introduction of a "Canned Response" feature for its Web mail application. It's not as cute as Mail Goggles , but could be every bit as useful. The feature, which you can turn on in Gmail Labs, allows users to compose a reply and save it with canned response button, a boon for users tired of typing the same reply every time someone emails them. Once turned on,

Last week, blogs were abuzz with the discovery that the terms of service for Google's Android Market application Web site has a "kill switch" to squash malicious applications. This enables Google to turn off an app that you may have downloaded to a phone based on Android, Google's mobile operating system software. Google's language is: "Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement... in such an instance,

An interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal Oct. 20 notes that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is campaigning for U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, appearing with him Tuesday in Florida to moderate a panel on the economy. The WSJ paints Schmidt's move as a "push for a greater voice in politics," and at the conclusion, cites unnamed sources who suggest that Schmidt might covet the CTO role Obama has talked about creating. This notion is absurd.

Yesterday I published this short post on the new canvas view and left navigation changes Google made to its iGoogle homepage application. I couldn't say much then because Google hadn't yet pinged one of its illustrious data centers to switch my new iGoogle page on. Of course, an hour after I posted Google did flip that switch and I've been accessing the new iGoogle for the last 18 hours or so. I'm comfortable with the changes.

Slow news day at Google ahead of third quarter earnings. How do I know? In a press release and four )4!( blog posts today, Google trumpeted the launch of a redesigned iGoogle home page, which includes full canvas views to let users expand a gadget to access more content. Google also moved the top, horizontal navigation tabs to the left and made them run down the page vertically, which should help users move from one canvas to another with one click.

Google Chief Economist Hal Varian continues to enlighten the public on what makes Google's search moneymaker tick, explaining the value of quality scores for the company's search engine ad auction. Call it Google's latest plank of defense for its pending deal with Yahoo, which would let Yahoo run Google search ads alongside its own results . The Association of National Advertisers , U.S.

Tomorrow could be a telling day for Internet stocks, with Google slated to report third quarter earnings. It could also tell us nothing, if, as some reports suggest, Google's search advertising sales may not be severely impacted by the recession. As I noted last week, Citi Investment Group expects Google to announce $4.47 billion in net revenue and $4.77 in non-GAAP earnings per share, compared with consensus expectations of $4.76 billion and an EPS of $4.81.