Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

Is Mobile World Congress still relevant? The conference was discernibly quieter this year, and its legacy of being dominated by the ‘traditional’ heavyweights of the carrier and handset world leads some of the newer players in the industry to see it as all a bit Jurassic Park.

How the battle between Silicon Valley’s superstars will shape the future of mobile computing

Google has been testing the inclusion of click-to-call phone numbers in search ads on high-end mobile phones, a spokesperson confirmed. It’s a feature that fits in nicely with Nexus One, Google’s mobile phone announced earlier this week.

A century after it first revolutionised the car industry, Ford plans to make its vehicles more hi-tech – by letting drivers listen to internet radio, conduct web searches and even send Twitter messages straight from the dashboard.

In November, Google surprised many when it announced that it was buying mobile ad network AdMob for a massive $750 million in stock, bringing mobile advertising suddenly into the consciousness of people who’d simply not paid attention before: “Hey, maybe this thing IS for real.”

Now Apple is reportedly buying another tier one mobile ad network, Quattro Wireless, for $275 million. That immediately raises the question: What will Yahoo and Microsoft Do?

Google plans to acquire Teracent, a startup that allows display ads to be customized for specific deliveries. Teracent’s Intelligent Display Advertising relies on machine-learning algorithms to select the optimal creative elements for each ad impression. The technology from Teracent can also be valuable for delivering Google’s mobile ads.