Search engine juggernaut Google on Thursday released a new feature that significantly broadens publishers' ability to modify the look of their blogs. Available through Blogger in Draft (Blogger's testing ground/sandbox site), the Blogger Template Designer tool offers 15 brand-new, highly customizable professional templates which divided into four categories: Simple, Picture Windows, Awesome Inc, and Watermark. Users can also choose from among of hundreds of background images and patterns from iStockphoto and tweak color schemes in an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. One pretty useful feature of the new tool is the ability to select the size and arrangement of the columns. For example, publishers can easily adjust the size of the entire blog or sidebar by either moving the slider bar or entering the desired value in pixels.

Asaf Hanuka's two-mouthed Google Books monster, which was featured in this month's issue of California Lawyer, paints a grim picture of how the search juggernaut is actually trying to demolish physical libraries, and groups are protesting Google's plan to scan millions of books and build the biggest digital library store. This graphic you see below, however seems to contradict Google's famous slogan -- Don't Be Evil. The controversy over Google Books Search goes all the way back to 2005 when Google decided to to carry out an ambitious plan to make digital copies of 10 million volumes by 2015 and create a vast library of electronic books.

In a shocking move, AT&T's new Motorola Backflip, which runs on Google's Android OS, will feature Yahoo as the smartphone's default search provider instead of Google. This is the first time I've heard of a Google Android handset not using the Google Search by itself. Yahoo will be set up to handle mobile Internet searches, though users can still choose Google if they desire to. David Katz, a vice president at Yahoo, said in an e-mailed statement, "We have a long-standing relationship with AT&T and more than 80 carrier partnerships around the world for our award- winning mobile-search experience. Mobile search continues to be a focus for investment and innovation." Meanwhile, Google declined to comment on the Backflip, saying "This is not a Google-branded product and, therefore, product inquiries should be directed to AT&T and Motorola."

Ever since the Nexus One was launched in January, it has only been on TMobile's network. Google has had listed on their website that the Nexus One will be launched to Verizon (US) and Vodafone (Europe) this spring. The web has gotten rumors on when the release date might be. Neowin reports the phone will be on Verizon March 23. The CDMA version of the Nexus One just passed the FCC. All of this coming from a Google employee. The New York Times reports that sources have told them that the Nexus One will be coming in April. If I lived in Europe I would wait until the release of the Desire.

A recent survey found out that a significant number of Chinese scientists think their research would be largely hampered if they lost access to Google, after the search engine juggernaut threatened to cease its operations in mainland China earlier this year. Of the 784 Chinese scientists interviewed by Nature, 76 per cent said that Google is their primary search engine, followed by China's most popular search engine Baidu (16.5 per cent), and then Yahoo (2.6 per cent). Meanwhile, 84 per cent revealed that losing Google would “somewhat or significantly” hamper their research; ; 78% say that international collaborations would be affected to the same degree.

The Nexus One was the best Android phone yet, but now there is something way better. The greatest thing about the Nexus One is the speed. The Nexus One runs a 1GHZ Snapdragon processor, the fastest processor in a phone to date. What happens when you mix the Android 2.1, HTC Sense UI, and the 1GHZ Snapdragon processor in one? The HTC Desire.

Google could be earning close to half a billion dollars annually from advertisements placed on typo domains, according to a new study. For example, should a user accidentally enter an incorrect website address like twittter.com, he may be led to an alternative website owned by a cybersquatter. And if he clicks on a Google Adsense ad, the publisher makes money, and so does Google. Although Harvard University researchers Tyler Moore and Benjamin Edelman claim that "it is difficult to know exactly how many people visit typosquatting domains", but that doesn't hinder them from figuring out the estimated number of visitors reaching typo sites, as well as the fees advertisers pay to Google.

Phil Newton, of Samsung, recently stated that a 10-inch Chrome OS netbook is on its way, later this year. You're probably thinking, these specs are awful for a computer. For a Windows netbook, yes they are, but for Chrome OS the specs will work fine. Chrome OS is for speed. It is an OS that runs in a browser that allows you to connect with the cloud. Since it is a browser the specs listed above, will be really fast, for a cheap price.