Yahoo Lands Exclusive Mobile Deal With Telefonica

Here are a few facts about Telefonica: it's a huge telecommunications company.  It's based in Spain.  And it's a good friend of Yahoo's, considering that Telefonica has named Yahoo the exclusive search and search advertising provider on its mobile portal in Spain.

The Telefonica-Yahoo relationship actually goes back a couple of years, since in late 2007, Telefonica made Yahoo oneSearch the main search service on 15 other mobile portals.  This is just a big step forward in terms of people affected and money at stake.

Scott Ellison, IDC's Vice President of Mobile and Wireless, explained in a statement, "The expansion of Yahoo!'s mobile search partnership with Telefonica into Spain continues to demonstrate Yahoo!'s ability to provide highly personalized and localized mobile search experiences and further establishes its position as a leading mobile customer experience provider.  Building a significant European market presence is essential toward executing a successful mobile strategy."

Strengthening its relationship with Telefonica might be essential to keeping Yahoo out of court, too.  Telefonica's CEO has expressed an interest in getting money from Google - "search engines use our network, without paying anything for it," he said about a month ago - but the expansion of this partnership increases the odds that he'll leave Yahoo alone.

Unfortunately, the terms of this deal haven't been disclosed.

Droid Beats iPhone In Sales Comparison

There's good and bad news for Google this morning with respect to Android and the mobile market.  In terms of how many units were sold during their first 74 days of availability, it seems the Droid beat the iPhone to the million-unit mark, but the Nexus One is lagging far behind.

That's the state of things according to Flurry, which claims that applications using its analytics tools have been embedded in more than 80 percent of iPhones and Android devices.  And anyone who's suspicious of the firm's stats should know that Goldman Sachs has used them as the basis for some forecasts, too.

So on to the comparison.  You can see the results below.  FYI: Flurry picked a 74-day period because that's how long Apple said it took for one million iPhones to sell.

Flurry noted that the Droid enjoyed several advantages here.  First, the iPhone had already taught consumers about the benefits of smartphones.  Verizon also boasted more subscribers than AT&T, and the Droid launched towards the start of the holiday shopping season.

Android can definitely compete with the iPhone, then.  The Nexus One's lack of success just makes it hard to judge what sort of circumstances are needed to even the odds.

Google Launches AdSense Product Ideas Page

AdSense is an important fixture in a lot of people's lives; it can represent anything from spending money (hey, little splurges do the heart good) to what pays the mortgage.  And now, individuals have a chance to shape it more to their liking, as a new Product Ideas for AdSense page has launched.

Try not to get your hopes up; as word spreads and more people contribute ideas, the odds of any one suggestion making it in front of an important Googler will decrease.  Also, there's no guarantee that any of the recommendations will be implemented.

Still, a post on the Inside AdSense blog stated, "[W]e can guarantee that we'll take the top ideas (as voted by you), and bring them to the AdSense Product Management team for review.  By submitting an idea, you agree that Google may use the idea to develop and enhance Google's products and services."

So sign into the Product Ideas for AdSense page with your Google account, make a suggestion, or vote for an existing one that you like before the end of December 15th.  Just about everything's fair game, from simple tweaks to entirely new features.

Then just maybe, as a result of participating, you'll be able to upgrade "spending money" to "mortgage payments" or "mortgage payments" to "retirement package."

Have You Read This?

> Google Ignoring Its Own Policy On Desktop AdSense?

> YouTube Videos In AdSense Could Drive Clicks

> Google Tests New AdSense Interface

Baidu Readying Mobile App

All sorts of corporations and individuals have agreed that the mobile market is key in China; many more people can afford Internet-enabled phones than PCs.  Baidu may be onto something, then, as it intends to have an app loaded onto phones before they're made available for sale.

If Baidu can get a solid mobile app in front of a lot of people right from the start, it'll decrease the odds of them ever turning to Google.  Given how Baidu's doing so well in terms of desktop market share, it might even win converts.

And Baidu Palm, as the application's known, should be plenty useful.  Owen Fletcher reported that, even in beta, it "hooks users into its search, message board and question-and-answer online services.  It also has a new quick-upload feature for pictures taken with a phone."

Another point in Baidu's favor: things are looking pretty good on the distribution side.  Although no deals have been announced, Baidu's already known to have relationships with a number of communications companies, including China Telecom and China Unicom.

It seems that we'll soon see another big salvo in the Google-Baidu war, then.  Don't count on Google taking too long to respond.

Have You Read This?

> Google's Music Service In China Attracting Advertisers

> Google Search By Voice Learns Chinese (In Limited Fashion)

> Baidu Pummeled Following Low Forecast

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