Just in time for the shopping craziness that is Black Friday, Google's made it easier for companies to get coupons to consumers who are on the move. Google Local Business Center users can now make their coupons accessible to people through mobile devices.
Yes, assuming that shoppers don't lose the use of their fingers due to standing outside in the cold since 3 AM - or having them crushed during a stampede - getting discounts through their cell phones will be a relatively simple matter.
Opera is reporting that usage of its Opera Mini mobile browser has jumped 11% in just a month, around the world. In addition, they say data transfers have gained 16%.
In this day and age, you pretty much can't ignore mobile users. The rate at which consumers are accessing the web via mobile devices is growing rapidly, largely thanks to the increasing popularity and production of smartphones.
Just having a mobile site isn't even enough. Sure, it's a great start, but you have to start thinking about a mobile site just as you would a regular site. Can people find it? Just because you have a good ranking in Google does not mean that your mobile site has a good ranking in Google's mobile search engine, or is even indexed at all.
Update: Google has now announced that it is expanding availability of Google Maps Navigation to devices running Android 1.6 (Donut) and higher, such as the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and the G1.
Google's Android is growing like a weed. Perhaps even a weed that's been fertilized and watered as if it was a desirable flower. A new report from AdMob lays out some impressive usage statistics and hints that there's much more to come.
Here are two eye-opening stats of a somewhat broad-spectrum nature: "Worldwide requests from Android devices increased 5.8 times since April 2009." Also, "In the US, Android has 20% share of smartphone traffic, up from 7% six months before . . ."
Back in the summer, Twitter announced that it was working on an API to give developers the ability to geotag tweets. The company has now made that available.
There is no geotagging on Twitter.com yet, but Twitter apps will now be able to support it. So potentially, you will be able to geotag tweets and show the location from where you tweeted.
Google has announced a new Google News for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre users. The company already offers one for other devices like Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and S60, although they say more improvements to those versions will be coming soon, as well.
Today's new version includes a new Google News homepage, which shows more stories, sources, and images, but keeps the same basic look and feel.
Yahoo Go, a mobile application that links users to a number of different services (including mail, news, and weather), is going to cease doing much of anything in the near future. Yahoo has decided to concentrate its mobile efforts elsewhere.
In an email sent to Yahoo Go users, the company announced, "Yahoo! Go will be discontinued on January 12, 2010, at 12:00 a.m. PST, so that we may focus on simplifying and enhancing your future mobile Web experiences. After this date, you will no longer be able to use Yahoo! Go 2.0 or 3.0 from your mobile phone."
AdMob, which is being purchased by Google, has unveiled a new interactive video ad unit for the iPhone today. Upon the announcement of Google's acquisition, the highlights of the purchase included SMS, search, web display, and app display ads. Now, video is part of the mix.
Global mobile phone sales reached 308.9 million units in the third quarter of 2009, a slight increase of 0.1 percent from the third quarter of 2008, according to a new report from Gartner.
Smartphone sales showed solid growth with more than 41 million units sold for a 12.8 percent increase from the same period last year.
iEntry 10th Anniversary
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