Such a deal would be a little surprising (more on that in a minute) and very significant.  At the same time, it’s far from unimaginable, because one arrangement already made Yahoo Vodafone’s exclusive display advertising partner in the UK, and last month, Yahoo and Vodafone both struck partnerships with Opera.

Here’s the exact rumor, then, as written in a Bloomberg article: "Yahoo . . . is in talks with Vodafone Group Plc about the distribution of its mobile search product in Europe, people familiar with the talks said. . . .  Vodafone has a distribution deal with Google Inc. that expires this year, and Yahoo isn’t the only party the carrier is talking to, the people said."

So Yahoo is in the running, but will have to either make a financially compelling bid or convince Vodafone that it offers users the best experience.  Or both.  Not an easy task, regardless.

We’ve yet to see what Carol Bartz can accomplish at a negotiating table, though, and since the mobile market will only become more important as time goes by, Yahoo’s new CEO could make sealing this deal a high priority.

While AT&T locked up the rights to sell Apple’s iPhone and tie it to AT&T’s network, T-Mobile may have some problems making the same sweet deal in Germany.

Vodafone requested a temporary injunction against T-Mobile to prevent it from selling the iPhone. T-Mobile had been selling Apple’s hot gadget since early in November.

But a Bloomberg report said, in Vodafone’s interpretation of local laws, T-Mobile cannot sell a locked device to German consumers. A Vodafone spokesperson said in the report they want a court to "clarify whether it’s legal to sell a device that is linked exclusively to one phone company."

A court in Hamburg issued the injunction as Vodafone requested, CNNMoney said.

Apple has been engaged in a running battle with hackers who have attempted to unlock the iPhone in the US for use on T-Mobile’s network. Developers also want to be able to write applications for the closed iPhone platform, something Apple plans to permit when it issues a software development kit for iPhone early next year.

follow me on Twitter

All five are hugely important entities, yet many shrugs may still be justified – the development has taken place in Ireland and will only affect mobile users.  MobileCrunch’s Peter Suciu describes it as “an effort to provide a more enhanced and robust service with those sites.”

He then continues, “Vodafone mobile Internet users will access compressed and rearranged content of these and other Web sites to make it more mobile-friendly.  The debate continues to wage on what is the best method for displaying Web sites on a mobile phone, but Vodafone is taking the route of compressing the content for its specific phones.”

Another interesting point is Vodafone’s selection of MySpace over competing social networks; as proven by Hitwise’s Heather Hopkins, Bebo is more popular (in the UK), and Facebook is growing faster.

In any event, the cost of these improvements isn’t too high.  Marie Boran of SiliconRepublic.com reports, “With a new pricing system of 99c per-day web surfing, or a monthly plan of €9.99, any Vodafone customer with a 2.5G or 3G handset can avail of this.”

“First Direct, Vodafone, Virgin Media, the AA, Halifax and the Prudential have all withdrawn ads,” according to the BBC.  And according to Wikipedia (I don’t feel like giving the official BNP site any traffic), the BNP is “committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration . . .”  I’m not sure what to say to that – perhaps a scream would be appropriate?

Anyway, considering that this is still fresh news, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if other companies also pull their advertisements.  That would leave Facebook in a precarious situation; those organizations aren’t going to come back unless some assurances are made, and the social network will lose money for every day that passes in the meantime.

Oh, and here’s one last BNP-related tidbit that should make you think better of humanity: as noted by The Register’s Chris Williams, “Two Facebook groups representing the crypto-racist organisation have clocked up 150 and 31 members respectively.  By comparison, the non-aligned group ‘A Chief Export of Chuck Norris Is Pain’ has 12,550 members.”

But that won’t happen if those rebel shareholders have their way about it, reports Paul Murphy:

News of Vodafone’s ambitions — with its stubborn commitment to continued growth by acquisition — is likely to flummox critics who have pressed chief executive Arun Sarin to scale back expansion plans and focus instead on cash generation.

Most recently, a growing group of rebel shareholders, including former Marconi boss John Mayo, has pressed for the sale of Vodafone’s 45 per cent holding in Verizon Wireless and the return of cash to investors.

But rest easy all you conspiracy theorists out there, the World Corporate Governance is put off for now. According to Reuters, Vodafone has denied that it has an interest buying Verizon.

Cerf effectively outranks Isabel Aguilera, Google’s chief executive in Spain and Portugal; it was Aguilera who made a proclamation about the GPhone six days ago.  But if Cerf’s word isn’t enough for you, Richard Kimber, Google’s managing director of sales and operations in Southeast Asia, confirmed the handset’s nonexistence.

“At this point in time, we are very focused on the software, not the phone,” said Kimber, as quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald.  And while his statement, in combination with Cerf’s, effectively stomps out any hopes on the hardware front, it does leave other doors open.

Indeed, Cerf described his employer as “quite eager to be part of the mobile revolution,” and said that Google is “very interested in the platforms that other people are building.”  The company’s recent deals with Vodafone and Orange serve as evidence of this focus (although those deals were also considered evidence of the GPhone’s existence).

At any rate, it appears that Google has issued a new party line in regards to one of its best-known mythical products.  The blogosphere is reacting to the news with some disappointment – and some suspicion – and yet Cerf is one of the most credible people within the company (and, given his background in the communications industry, Cerf is perhaps the most credible person on this subject).

So Cerf’s proclamation should stand: there will be no Google phone.  At least not yet.

It’s that technology which is really stealing the spotlight.  “Vodafone showed the application, code-named Starfish, in the future zone of its booth at the world’s biggest technology trade show, CeBIT,” according to a Reuters article.  “It has yet to decide whether it will start offering consumers the service,” however, because the service “could eat into its traditional mobile voice telephone business.”

Still, the technology represents an important forward step forward for the relationship between Vodafone and VoIP.  And if the project’s life is extended, it could also impact heavily upon Vonage.  As Ed Oswald of BetaNews reported, “In America, VoIP provider Vonage recently surpassed two million subscribers, and Skype claims to have about 171 million registered users worldwide.”

If nothing else, the exploration of VoIP technology (i.e., consumer-friendly, low-cost stuff) could provide a PR boost – read Jason Lee Miller’s article to find out why Skype might need one.

Yet as the Reuters article points out, what Skype and Vodafone are doing isn’t exactly a new line of thought.  “The Starfish software on the mobile phone is essentially the same Skype software which is used by Vodafone’s much smaller rival 3 . . . which it launched last year in an attempt to find new customers to boost network traffic.”