In the world of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), each passing day brings more news about some added feature, idea, business partnership or gadget, and today it is no exception. Despite much hype that Google would be announcing the "gPhone" today, instead: "Google along with 33 other companies are announcing Android, the first truly integrated mobile operating system." What's particularly notable is that it's available under a mobile open source license.

This is becoming very Google-esque -- a major partnership announcement! Google watchers (and shareholders) can appreciate that Google does not want to be in the hardware business, at least not right now. The company is in the partnering business. It has made the very wise decision to create as many partnerships as it can, attractive to both parties given that partners will make money by working with Google, without a new cost. Its selling point to Internet users: we are the nice guys and we bring you so many features that make your life easier and fun (sounds like Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL)). How can someone resist that?

Google hopes to create not 'a' new platform for cell phones, but 'the' new platform for cell phones. In doing so the company will be expanding the Google universe.

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and Cargill have come up with a new calorie free sweetener. And, it is "all natural" so that consumers do not have to worry that they will get lead poisoning or worse.

The product is called rebiana and it comes from the South American herb called stevia, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Its appeal may end up being that it is simply different from most of the synthetic products on currently on the market.

Unfortunately, one study done on the herb used in the new product found that it caused mutations in rat livers. Since rats are almost impossible to kill, the results would seem to be a drawback. In humans, at least, the liver is still a fairly important organ. The herb is much sweeter than sugar, so much smaller amounts work as an additive.

With rats dropping like flies, it would seem that the new product will not be much of a threat. Ask the Vioxx people.

The synthetic sweetener crowd can sleep safe in their beds.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

New Apple products are almost always launched with massive fanfare. With Steve Jobs, the consummate pitch-man, dressed sharp and on top of his game pulling back the curtain on the future as Apple sees it. The Apple product launch cycle has become more of a tradition than an event, with speculation running wild right up to the wire and bloggers everywhere digging up every little scrap of evidence, then spinning out product visions of their own.

The gadget obsessed gurus at Engadget (sister blog to Blogging Stocks) are no exception, and they've been diligently rounding up all the rumor and conjecture about new Apple products in the lead up to WWDC. All that rumor can be hard to keep track of, so today Ryan Block put it all in perspective.

Notable speculation includes the iPhone (iCall?), a hybrid iPod/Cell phone to compete with scores of mp3 enabled phones hitting the market. Also among the wide-flung rumors, things like Intel Xeon based Xserves, 1:1000 contrast ratio Studio Displays, Core 2 Duo mobile MacBook Pros, and loads of new stuff for Leopard.

Remember to keep it all in perspective. Rumor usually contains a grain of truthiness at its core, but that truth is often obscured so that the end result looks very different, or never materializes at all.

[via Engadget]

As our site certainly reflects, everything new Google product launch seems to be associated with its ability to "kill" the competition. Putting a "G" in front of anything seems to strike fear in the hearts of investors in competitors, from eBay to Microsoft to AOL. But does Google actually succeed in slaying the knights of Yahoo! with its quiver of wildly-aimed product arrows? An analysis by BusinessWeek suggests, not so much.

Google Talk, for instance, was widely acclaimed as a fearsome challenger to MSN Messenger, AIM, and Yahoo! Messenger. But today, a little less than a year after its launch, the messaging program ranks #10 according to comScore Media Metrix. Social networking site Orkut, hugely popular at launch, is now at less than 1% share in that space (and much though I drooled for an invite, I visited the site once in the past year, although I've frequented many other social networking spots). Google Finance, Google Spreadsheets, and Google blog search have definitely not yet made their home in the "win" column.

The Google new product development process is described by Marissa Mayer as "try a bunch of ideas, refine them, and see what survives." And those that "survive" don't just live, but thrive; Google Maps is now #2 only to Mapquest, and Google News is (in my opinion) the best news search tool available, anywhere.

The big question BusinessWeek asks (and one that no one else is asking right now): does Google even know how to develop a product? The magazine says many of its new services lack "stickiness" and aren't really those that "people want to use." For a company whose product announcements are widely feared and its investors, them's fighting words. Will Google prove to be a conquistador or a schoolyard bully, great at making threats, but quivering inside for fear some competitor might actually stand its ground?