Android, Search Engine | featured news

Microsoft, Oracle, Kayak and other technology and search companies in the FairSearch.org coalition have filed a complaint with the European Union over Google’s Android mobile operating system, saying that the platform gives the tech giant an unfair advantage in mobile search.

Google has launched Google Now, a new search interface which improves the search results based on the time and location of the search. It is available as part of Android Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of its mobile OS, and works by using the time, search history and location data to provide better search results.

Google has beefed up security on its Android mobile-device software to better prevent "malicious" software from residing in its app store.

To recap, Google’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, sent a shot across the bow of Apple, Microsoft and Oracle, accusing them of participating in an “organized campaign” to take Google’s Android platform down through patent lawsuits.

The search-engine giant is facing complaints in South Korea as mobile phones using its Android software gain dominance.

A major software attack that distributed malicious programs to around 260,000 Android phones has put pressure on Google to do more to secure its market for smartphone apps.

Google and a number of other companies have finally won an ongoing legal battle over the Android trademark. The judge sided with the companies using Google's mobile OS and dismissed the infringement suit, which was originally filed by Illinois entrepreneur Erich Specht.

The tech giant's become a puzzle to regulators as it expands its ecosystem - a spread that includes e-mail, a digital bookstore and cell phone software.

Google Mobile Platform VP Andy Rubin literally arrived with a bag full of tricks at the D: Get Into Mobile Conference, showing publicly for the very first time an Android "Honeycomb" tablet. The roughly 10-inch, Motorola device was sleek, black, thin and sported an Android interface unlike any we've seen before. There was a very clean homepage, but the app page looked almost Apple iPad-like. Plus, when Rubin brought up the Gmail app, it looked almost exactly like Gmail on the iPad.

Google is apparently planning on launching its own tablet device, but instead of relying on its already popular Android OS, this tablet will run Chrome OS. The rumor mill pegs Google's tablet launch date as November 26, which also happens to be “Black Friday" ...