Google Inc, the Internet search giant, stated that its engineers are developing new software for handheld devices and the company further has no plans to build mobile phones.

“We’re not doing any mobile phone,” Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research, said on Thursday at Google’s office in Atlanta.

Google, Yahoo! Inc and Microsoft Corp are now on race to build up mobile products such as e-mail, online maps and other search engines to tap consumers that desire to surf the Web on the move. Mobile devices outperformed personal computers by more than four to one previous year, according to market research.

World Cup fever is back again and if one could not be part of the actual thing, get online or on the mobile with it, only on MSN India. Straight from the Caribbean, MSN India brings full fledge coverage on the ICC Cricket World Cup ’07 on its very own personal cricket channel – that is not only reachable on the Internet but also on WAP-supported mobile phones.

“We are giving our users all the action of the World Cup on their fingertips with a World Cup Cricket WAP portal,” said Krishna Prasad, executive producer, MSN India.

Yahoo had recently introduced on a new Internet search system for mobile phone users, which delivers locally applicable answers, a move that jumps it ahead of what rival Google now offers.

“We are now putting search on every mobile phone that has a browser,” said Marco Boerries, senior vice president of Yahoo’s Connected Life business unit. “We are delivering the results consumer’s desire with just one search, not a list of Web links.”

Yahoo that has been playing to catch up to Google in computer Web search, has been creating strides these days to go beyond its rival in the fast emerging mobile Web market.

Google Inc. is growing its own mobile phone, according to industry insiders and market analysts, while a Google official in Spain acknowledged recently that the company is investigating such a project.

A spokeswoman said Friday stated that Google is focusing on growing mobile services, but the company declined to speak further.

Gadget fans that only two months ago were gripped with the possible revolutionary impact on the phone industry of Apple Inc.’s iPhone — due in June at prices starting approximately around $500 — have shifted their interest to whether Google is growing an even lower-cost phone.

Since indie singers have a difficult time getting noticed, online powerhouse Yahoo! Canada and Universal Music are working jointly to offer unfamiliar musicians the chance make some waves.

The two companies have created the Up Yours competition that has started on March 7 and runs ’til April 10. Bands could play their music on Yahoo’s website by uploading a presentation of their choice. Viewers could start voting on March 20, but the champion won’t be announced until May 10.

Google’s blogger.com has now been hijacked to extend malware through fake blogs, a security vendor has warned.

The fake blog scam is an example of many social networking sites- the Internet’s big developing area- being ruined for gain. Currently, MySpace and YouTube have all been used to host and to redirect to malware. Last October, MySpace was used as the attraction for phishing, as earlier in the year its users were tainted with adware from the site.

As world cup fever is up, Google India explored a Cricket World Cup Campaign recently, assuring cricket fans an exclusively interactive experience through Internet. This campaign would help users to write, share and debate about and enjoy the Cricket World Cup through an incorporated platform of Google products like Google homepage, Google Desktop, Blogger and Orkut by way of special landing page www.google.co.on/cricket.

Google is further hosting a blogging cricket contest, entries for which one can submit it at www.google.co.in/cricket/contest. This would include posts on anything from cricket ground West Indies to viewer’s opinions on the progress of the various teams at the World Cup. Both existing and new users would can avail the opportunity to take part in this amazing contest.

MSN India has recently launched www.msncricket.com, available on the internet and on WAP mobile phones. Users could catch the action direct from the Caribbean, with MSN’s Top World Cup Stories, limited columns from Ricky Ponting, Stephen Fleming, Graeme Smith, Mahela Jayawardene between many others members, World Cup schedule, group profiles, pitch reports, photo galleries, discussions, match previews, live scorecards, elite slideshows and an audio update of all the action that would happens in West Indies and lots more.

Google now take steps to boost up consumer privacy protections in up coming months, the company announced. The search giant stated that it is taking steps to incomprehensible detail, after about 18 to 24 months on the surfing habits of millions of web surfer, which an possibly be used to identify individuals.

The company would collect information on web users like keyword queries, internet addresses and “cookies” that are used by websites and advertisers, to track web surfing habits. The company stores data in huge computer data centers in different locations around the world.

Yahoo Inc.’s difficulty with Indian bloggers over illegal reproduction of their content on its Indian portals might be just beginning.

Bloggers claim they have recognized more cases of their content being reproduced without their permission on Yahoo’s Indian portals. Yahoo’s Indian supplementary has yet to come up with any suitable response, which satisfies the bloggers.