Business Issues Blog

A couple of the mysteries surrounding the forthcoming Nexus One/Google phone may have been solved.

The cat has at least started to come out of the bag with regards to the long-rumored “Google phone”; details about the Nexus One have been leaking for weeks.

The mobile version of Firefox – also known as Fennec – is almost ready to launch.

Google’s Custom Search turned three in 2009, and it had arguably its biggest year to date. The technology is powering “many tens of millions” of queries a day on millions of sites, according to the company. As many others are doing, Google is reminiscing about the year that is almost over, and reflecting upon some of its accomplishments. The Custom Search Team specifically is reflecting on some of its highlights for 3009. Google lists the following as key developments for the year in custom search: integration with several hosters to bring Custom Search to your doorstep enabled support for rich snippets , giving you more control over presentation of results it’s now easier for you to promote specific content to the top of your search results we deployed contextual search within Blogger , Google Sites and Wikipedia automatic transliteration is now integrated into the search box improved results rendering flexibility with the Custom Search Element plug-n-play with themes for enhanced customizability of results look and feel added support for structured metadata and the ability to restrict results by specific attributes we got you ready for the growing population of users searching your websites with mobile devices , such as Android phones, iPhone, iPod Touch, Palm Pre, etc. Google promises additional metadata support in the new year, with more results customization and other features for Custom Search. With that in mind, it may be a good time to give Google you feedback , if you are a user of Custom Search. They’re openly requesting it.

Ask’s Dictionary.com has appointed a new President – Shravan Goli. He replaces Doug Leeds, who was named President of Ask.com-U.S., in October .

Amazon.com said today it would start offering electronic versions of books by business author Stephen Covey exclusively in its Kindle Store. Electronic versions of Stephen Covey’s best-selling books, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “Principle-Centered Leadership” are available in the Kindle Store for $7.99. The e-books are being published through RosettaBooks. Previously the print editions of the books were published through Simon & Schuster. The new deal with Amazon will give Covey more than half of the net proceeds from sales of the e-books. Covey also has plans to release an upcoming book “Great Work, Great Career” exclusively in the Kindle Store. “This is the first time these books have been available in a digital format, and I’m happy to be able to offer them exclusively on Kindle,” said Covey. “With so many readers using Kindle, this is a very effective way to reach people who want to easily download the books and begin reading them instantly.” Amazon said the books could be downloaded on Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone and Kindle for PC. Covey is the 13th best selling author of all time on Amazon.

AOL’s MapQuest has announced the launch of “360 View,” a feature that may remind Google users of Google Maps Street view. For now, it’s available for 30 cities and 15 suburbs in the United States, with more on the way. “We have studied our industry, gleaning tidbits here and there, and polled our customer base in creating a simple, easy-to-use interface that fits seamlessly into the MapQuest mapping experience you have come to know and understand,” says MapQuest. You can tell when an area has 360 View coverage when you are zoomed out. It looks something like this: When searching for specific places, the coverage is presented in a format very similar to Google’s. There is a button for it alongside the the other buttons like “Gas