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"One shining year -- that's how long the iPhone-optimized iGoogle search page hung around, and now we must tell it goodbye."

Guess it was a matter of time for Google to standardize the display over all mobile browsers, especially since they are now in the phone business. I guess it seems logical to me to have the same page show on all mobile browsers, especially when you consider the Android coming into the mix. Google wouldn't want one phone to have an advantage over their own phone now would they? I didn't use the iPhone iGoogle interface all that often so it doesn't matter too much to me. Any power iGoogle users out there upset over this change?

"Brian Rakowski, Chrome's product manager, said the company wants to release Chrome for Mac and Linux before the first half of 2009 is up," Stephen Shankland reports for CNET."

My use of Google products is slowly increasing, but I really like the interoperability of Safari with my iPhone (the main reason I don't use Firefox). This will probably keep me from using Chrome much, but I'm sure I'll check it out to see if I like it. How about you? Is Safari your browser of choice or do you experiment?

"Last year we had a blast at Macworld demonstrating all our Mac products, but as Mac users, we also know that the best part of Macworld is new product announcements. This year, we're getting in the spirit by making a little announcement of our own: we're happy to say that Picasa, Google's photo management software, will be joining the ranks of the free Mac OS X applications from Google!"

I, for one, am glad that Picasa will finally be available for the Mac. It's a great program. Some of the features are currently not available in the Mac version, and the Mac version is currently tagged as a beta. You can download Picasa at Google Labs. What do you guys think? Are you as excited about Picasa for Mac as I am?

Product Category: iPhone App
Developer: Google
Where to Buy: iTunes App Store
Price: Free
System Requirements: iPhone 2G or 3G
Specifications: Google Earth requires 9 megabytes of free space for the application. You should also have some extra space available for caching.

Pros:

• The information overlays are informative and interesting;
  
• Very responsive over WiFi and 3G;
  
• Fun and easy to use

Cons:

• Slow under the EDGE network;
  
• Information Overlay icons are too small for thick fingers

Summary:
Google Earth for the iPhone is a fun and mildly addictive application. Its incredibly intuitive interface makes it a joy to use. Read more...