On the heels of Bing announcing that it will be powering Facebook Places, Google has come out unveiling that it has more monthly users than many countries have citizens!

Almost five years ago, we launched Google Maps for mobile to help you get where you needed to go from your phone instead of a paper map. Today, more than 100 million people a month are now using Google Maps for mobile to get from point A to point B, find nearby places, and more. [...]

With recent additions such as Place Pages, you can now pick a nearby place by browsing information such as opening hours and review snippets for the places around you. It’s easier than ever to find those places with Search by voice or the new Places icon on Android. With this latest Android version, we’re happy to see that you’re now searching for places almost three times as often, doubling how many Place Pages are seen a day. (Google Mobile Blog)

Its currently unclear how many users Bing! (or even Mapquest) have in the mobile sphere, although it would be safe to bet that their combined numbers do not even approach Google Map’s latest stats (at least on a monthly basis).

Although Facebook Places could help Bing overthrow Google’s mobile crown (by utilizing the social networks 500 million plus users), Bing will have to embrace the rest of the planet as their “America only” policy will guarantee Google’s success at Microsoft’s expense.

As every iLover knows, Facebook recently added Facebook Places to their iPhone. However instead of choosing to partner with their frenemy Google, Facebook instead is allowing Bing to power its location feature.

And, while location-based services like this are certainly interesting to me I’m writing this for you because Facebook is using Bing Maps to pinpoint everyone’s location-based experiences on Facebook.com. [...]

Select the Places button, find the location where you are and check-in. Just like that, the check-in will flow to your profile on Facebook.com complete with a Bing Map, a pin of your location and any commentary you’ve added to your check-in. Places also includes the ability to see where your friends have checked in, a link to get directions to a place (via Bing Maps) and a Like button for the respective place page. (Bing Community Blog)

While it’s no surprise Facebook chose Bing over Google (due to the latter’s upcoming social network), doing so may have handicapped the service as Bing via iPhone is only available for users within the US, despite the fact that Facebook has a large international audience.

Unless Bing plans on expanding their mobile feature beyond the US borders soon, Facebook’s places will probably fail to be as powerful as Twitter Places (the latter which choose Google Maps for their service).

Although Facebook places has the potential of making location statuses popular among the masses on a scale yet to be seen by any social network, its America only limitation may keep Facebook from being adopted globally (which may benefit rivals like Twitter and the upcoming Google Me).

The rumor mill is in full swing again, and this time it does not involve the iPhone 4, PalmPad, Windows 7 Phone or even the Android tablet.

What could it be you say? How about a dirt cheap tablet running Chrome OS by Google.

As for the launch date of November 26th, well, that’s all kinds of brilliant. It’s Black Friday 2010 and the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S. — so what better day to have a shiny new tablet in the cabinet at Verizon kiosks and stores all over the country? You can bet Google’s Chrome OS tablet will be heavily subsidized, and I’d go so far as to say it will be substantially cheaper than the iPad – if not totally free — with a Verizon data contract. (Download Squad)

Note: Emphasis theirs. More →

Whether you love them or hate them, you have to admit that Google has done an impressive job cultivating a free market Android app system that is second only to Cupertino’s curated iOS app store.

Unfortunately for Google’s beloved Android , fake, illegal or unethical Android apps are appearing in greater frequency, a trend that will only increase when (not if) Android surpasses Apple in the number of available apps.

After the wall paper scare, Google can not afford to risk the reputation of its mobile OS, especially with the media already shooting down the search engine giant every time something evil happens.

In order to ease the fears of users downloading apps, Google may want to establish a review team to verify Android apps that are safe to use for the end consumer. More →

After responding to previous crisis’s in Haiti as well as Chile in South America, the search engine giant is once again displaying its charitable side by helping out the flood victims in Pakistan beyond a simple (yet always helpful) donation. More →

Another day another Google lawsuit, although this time its an actual tech company instead of an entertainment corporation.

One one side is Google, whose Android platform represents the new world order for mobile devices while on the other side is Oracle, a company that has seen better days and now sees Android as their personal ATM machine.

Oracle has filed a lawsuit against Google, charging that its Android phone software infringes Oracle patents and copyrights related to Java, Oracle said Thursday.

“In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement,” Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman said in a statement.

The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and seeks a jury trial. (Computer World) More →

After rumors of a Verizon iPhone surfaced, the geek world went crazy over the possibility that Apple would finally give US users carrier freedom without having to jailbreak their iDevices.

While an expansion of the iEmpire would benefit Cupertino tremendously (if not help thwart the rise of Android), Apple may choose to release a CDMA iPad instead of an iPhone to the disappointment of millions everywhere.

For those wondering why Apple would even consider such a move (which would create a river from millions of iTears), here are five (5!) reasons we will probably see a Verizon (or CDMA) iPad instead of an iPhone 4 in January of 2011. More →

After announcing their Google TV initiative, it looks like the search engine giant has struck a deal with DirectTV that may help boost Google’s revenue beyond its digital domain.

Today, we’re announcing a strategic partnership with DIRECTV through which Google TV Ads will offer inventory on a broad selection of television networks available on DIRECTV.

DIRECTV’s national satellite inventory on Bloomberg Television, Centric, Chiller, Current TV, Fit TV, Fox Business, Fuel, G4, Ovation, Sleuth and TV Guide will be available through the Google TV Ads platform across all dayparts, including primetime. DIRECTV is the largest satellite provider in the U.S. and the second largest television distributor by household reach. This partnership, combined with our existing relationship with DISH Network, means that you’ll be able to reach up to 30 million satellite households with Google TV Ads.  (Inside Adwords)

This move should help diversify Google’s revenue stream which mostly relies upon its search engine in order to pay the bills.

It should also help keep the search engine fiscally afloat in the chance that digital advertisers begin to flock towards Facebook due to the social networks enormous growth.

It will be interesting to see if cable companies follow their satellite brethren and court Google TV ads as well (although many may refrain due to Google’s entrance into the world of fiber).

After facing criticism for their backwards stance regarding net neutrality, it looks like the search engine giant is facing another fiasco half way around the world, this time in South Korea.

The South Korean police raided the offices of Google Korea on Tuesday as part of an investigation into whether the company had illegally collected and stored personal wireless data. [...]

“We intend to find out what kinds of data they have collected and how much,” the response center said. “We will try to retrieve all the original data illegally collected and stored through domestic Wi-Fi networks from the Google headquarters.” (New York Times)

Google’s street view cars accidentally collected personal WiFi data which sparked international outrage from local, state and national governments.

Thus far a few nations have cleared the search engine giant of any wrong doing, although it’s unclear whether the Korean government will eventually charge Google of any wrong doing.

Google is fully cooperating with South Korea’s investigation, although this latest scandal might delay the search engine giants attempt to compete with local rivals (especially Duam which is the Baidu of the Korean peninsula).

(via Daring Fireball)

After converting the FCC to the faith known as net neutrality, it looks like Google has given up its former faith in order to appease their new best friend Verizon.

It is imperative that we find ways to protect the future openness of the Internet and encourage the rapid deployment of broadband. Verizon and Google are pleased to discuss the principled compromise our companies have developed over the last year concerning the thorny issue of “network neutrality.” [...]

[W]e both recognize that wireless broadband is different from the traditional wireline world, in part because the mobile marketplace is more competitive and changing rapidly. In recognition of the still-nascent nature of the wireless broadband marketplace, under this proposal we would not now apply most of the wireline principles to wireless, except for the transparency requirement. (Google Public Policy Blog)

While both Google and Verizon are demanding that net neutrality be enforceable for wired connections, apparently the search engine giant has no plans on encouraging the enforcement of wireless connections. More →