Windows Phone 7 is out , or at least the mobile-watching world has seen the devices and is largely impressed by them, if not overwhelmed with excitement. Good for Microsoft, bad for Google. Many bloggers are already opining about how Windows Phone 7 will shred Android in the market. Pick your reason. Microsoft's strong quality control reputation, which is already in evidence, according to Wired . GigaOM has a short and sweet list of 5 ways Windows Phone 7 could ding Android,

One of the interesting tidbits of news teased from Google out of Logitech's Oct. 6 launch of the Revue companion box and controller for Google TV , was that Google has created a specialized flavor of search technology for the service, which weds channel surfing and Web surfing. Are you sitting down? Good. It's called Google TV Search. Google rarely strays far from its say-what-you-mean roots, does it? When asked at the event how search on the Google TV service works,

The Street this week reported that Google and PayPal are set to announce that long-rumored deal to make eBay's e-commerce platform a payment option on Google's Android Market. The Street said "sources familiar with the situation say the deal is all but sealed, with an announcement coming as early as Oct. 26 during the PayPal developers' conference in San Francisco." If this is true, this is a huge play for Android Market and confirms a rumor rekindled this summer.

File this under, the backwards compatibility file. Google Latitude, the search engine's friend-finding location service, is used by millions of Google users from their mobile phones. For some reason, Google now thinks that people want to follow friends and share their location from their desktops.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt wowed the crowd at TechCrunch Disrupt Sept. 28 with talk of autonomous search and serendipity engines that deliver search content to users' mobile phones without the user having to do anything but walk down the street. What Schmidt didn't say was how Google would build its serendipity engine. Given Google's penchant for leveraging algorithmic search, we can logically assume these results will be auto-generated by the sprawling Google search engine,

We in the media have spilled a fair share of digital ink over defections of Google employees, also known as Googlers, to its cross-town rival Facebook. The New York Times noted in its feature on what Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has meant for the young company that Facebook has poached some 200 workers from Google. Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, says he considers Ms. Sandberg to be a "superstar." But there is growing tension between the two companies,

Early reviews of Google TV have started rolling in from applications makers who have customized apps for the emerging TV service, which aims to combine TV channel surfing and Web surfing. So far, so very, very good, according to Blip.tv CEO Mike Hudack, who wrote Oct. 4 after testing Google TV in his New York office for a few months: It's good. Very good. The main reason why it's so good is that it, once and for all, seamlessly combines traditional broadcast,

Google continued to refine its mobile ad technologies Sept. 29 with the introduction of a new hyperlocal advertising feature geared to help consumers in a pinch and businesses gain, well, more business. Hyperlocation means Google Mobile Ads will show users searching their mobile phones for a business service locally relevant ad, which are marked with the distance from that business. The Hyperlocal distance feature is built atop Google AdWords location extensions ,

Google CEO Eric Schmidt wowed )and scared( the crowd at TechCrunch Disrupt Sept. 28 when he talked about autonomous search and serendipity engines , but he also piqued curiosity by framing Google as open and Apple as closed. If you really think about it, Google's open strategy can be limited by companies taking open source platforms and adapting them for their own benefit. Schmidt noted at the event: "Google's core strategy is openness. Other companies, notably Apple,

Hewing to its pledge to provide choice for its 180 million or so e-mail users, Google has backed off its adherence to its beloved "conversation view" by allowing users to receive e-mail messages in chronological order. The chronological order is the traditional method of viewing messages and is employed by Microsoft Outlook, the leading on-premise e-mail client used by more than 500 million people.

Google has notified developers that it will extend support for paid applications to more countries all over the world, according to ReadWriteWeb. RWW said registered Android apps developers received an e-mail a few days ago that said: Over the next few weeks, we'll be adding paid apps support for additional countries.

Has there been a high-tech company whose birthday has been more celebrated than Google's? I doubt it, at least not each year. Apple and Microsoft and maybe Amazon and others may celebrate 5 and 10 year milestones but Google lives it up every year, paying homage to, well, itself with special logos. Here is the latest, rather nondescript cake logo to celebrate its 12th birthday today, Sept. 27. Note the credit as you mouse over the birthday cake. Google clearly recognizes Sept.

The launch of Google's Chrome Web Store is almost nigh, with the team behind it prepping the application market for launch by adding Google Checkout support. That means developers will be able to get paid for their applications when the shop formally opens in October. Google unveiled Chrome Web Store at Google I/O in May as a market for programmers to help consumers find Web apps and create shortcuts in the Chrome Web browser to access them easier. So far,

One year after releasing a developer preview of Google Chrome Frame , an open-source plug-in that enables Google's Chrome browser rendering engine to run in Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Google has deemed it stable. Chrome Frame's raison d'être is that IE did not adequately support newer Web technologies such as HTML5 or offer the performance boost associated with JavaScript.

Two interesting piece came to light regarding Google's torrid acquisition spree. CBI Insights put together these charts on the subject Sept. 19, while Reuters snagged a rare interview with Google M&A head David Lawee. How fast has Google's shopping spree been this year? Since I published this piece about Google's gluttony Sept. 1, the company has grabbed QuikSee , just two weeks after grabbing SocialDeck. At the current pace of one purchase every two weeks,

Not long after Google revolted against China after a Gmail hack, Google launched a service report Web page for mainland China . Reporters, including myself here and for eWEEK, ran reports about how this search or mobile Web service was blocked by China's curtain of censorship. Unfortunately, because China is such a black box when it comes to getting information,

Lost in the news bite about Google adding two-factor authentication was the statistic that Google Apps now has 3 million business customers of various sizes. Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard made the announcement in a blog post Sept. 20 time for the Google Atmosphere cloud computing event in Paris. Girouard wrote: "As of today, more than 3 million businesses have gone Google, and over 30 million users within businesses,

Google is hurdling toward its fall release for its Google TV service, which aims to blend Web and television consumption in a tidy package that includes a Logitech Revue set-top box with remote control or an Android-enabled TV from Sony. Both the Revue and Sony TVs will be sold by Best Buy. However, reports on Google TV's launch date are coming fast and furious out of Engadget. First, the blog said Sept. 13 that the service was launching Oct. 17,

There's been a growing feeling among Google watchers that Google's Health initiative is not well. And that's the last health-related pun you'll read from me in this post. Google Health launched more than two years ago and not much seems to be happening on that front. Or rather, it's happening very slowly. John Moore, founder of health care technology analyst company Chilmark Research,

I had a dream, a dream that Google would build a super social network to defend its turf versus Facebook, the feisty upstart looking to supplant Google has the place to be online. Instead, I'll have to settle for threads of social woven into to the fabric that comprises Google's Web services. In a Vulcan-like, somewhat boring but completely logical move, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at Google's Zeitgeist event Sept. 14.