Claire Brewster Blog

In a bit of a shocker, the U.K.'s five biggest mobile operators have formed a working group to collaborate on a common mobile advertising system. This endeavor could, of course, go absolutely nowhere, but the fact that it's even being considered is an exceptional move for an industry not known for collaboration.

Of course, the operators aren't holding hands for the sake of friendship. It's all about the money. From the Guardian :

Now the international operations of Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange and 3 have formed a working group to define a common mobile advertising audience measurement system, similar to what already exists for other mediums such as TV and press.

"This initiative represents a great opportunity to reach out to the media buying world in order to secure more mobile budget from big brand spenders," said Neil Andrews, head of portal at 3.

Funny, that. Sometimes cooperation is necessary to individually make more money. That's the story of open source. Nice to see the mobile world using its collective brain in a similar fashion.

The folks at Google would like to remind people, again, that Google is a noun , not a verb.

A posting on the company's blog reiterates a point that trademark lawyers can recite in their sleep--namely, if you don't protect a trademark, you'll lose it. They bring up the textbook examples of zipper, baby oil, brassiere and trampolines as words that once referred to brand names, but are now generic terms.

"While we're pleased that so many people think of us when they think of searching the web, let's face it, we do have a brand to protect, so we'd like to make clear that you should please only use 'Google' when you're actually referring to Google Inc. and our services," the blog says.

While the company is completely correct from a legal standpoint, the posting, which follows some more serious legal motions , earned it little but scorn from bloggers.

Blog community response:

"'Do you "Google?"' has to be one of the most patronizing blog posts ever to have originated from the Googleplex. " -- Ben Metcalfe blog

"Last I checked Google and I both live in a free country. So if I want to google from Yahoo, I actually can via Yahoo Shortcuts. Or, I can google using Yubnub or on AOL. In addition, technically, using Google's own new CSE program, I can google from anywhere." -- Micro Persuasion

"Does Moron really think that Google is so invincible that they will never be eclipsed? Lecturing to the best .00001% of your customers, the ones that like you so much that they read your blog, is just stupid you Moron. Your trademark doesn't pay your bills. The time and attention of your users that come to your search engine and click on your advertisements does. So let them talk how they will and tell your lawyers to go back into the hole they crawled out of and leave them alone." -- The End of the Long Tail

Garmin has a really small idea for making smart phones a whole lot smarter.

The GPS device maker announced Wednesday GPS software called Garmin Mobile XT. Embedded on a microSD card, the software gives the handset access to a slew of location-based services, such as maps, driving directions, real-time traffic and weather information, local gas prices and friend-finding tools.

The card is $99, a steal compared with the average Garmin device, which will run you anywhere from $200 to $1,000. And, of course, you don't need to ferry around a separate navigation device.

Mobile XT comes loaded with maps of the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico or Europe. It takes advantage of phones connected to the Web by routing to the location of a contact in the phone's address book or to a calendar appointment and can broadcast your location to any other phone or pinpoint the whereabouts of other Garmin Mobile XT users.

All of this map data is provided by Navteq, which was enticed into joining Nokia's ranks Monday in exchange for $8.1 billion. The acquisition by Nokia demonstrates the appeal and strategic importance of offering location-based services. What Garmin is trying to do by offering the Mobile XT hardware/software combination is along the lines of what Nokia is aspiring to do --namely, incorporate the convenience of navigation services into a single device that most everyone carries.

Though both are hardware makers that depend on software to make this happen, they are coming from opposite sides: Nokia is the world's No. 1 producer of cell phones, and Garmin is a stalwart of the personal-navigation industry. Though GPS devices won't fade away completely, Nokia's position in the handset business and control of Navteq give it an obvious advantage in this competition for consumers.