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Google mobile hype reaches new heights as digital domain shivers

It's a month best known for its resolutions and good intentions, but so far January is proving a tricky one for many of our best loved online players. Find out who is losing a few pounds after the festive period and which heavy hitters are feeling bloated in the perfectly sized bigmouthmedia newsletter.

The mobile buzz of last week continued into this one with the launch of Google's Nexus One and the subsequent rumours of Nexus Two. The ever-popular search engine capitalised by also revealing its new localised search offerings for mobile users. However, the hype took on a slightly sour note with the news that the Mountain View giant may face a legal battle over the name from the family of Philip K Dick. The search engine's suggest function recently got Google in hot water with the Parisian courts too, with Google Suggest losing a defamation case against it.

The bad news didn't stop there. French President Nicolas Sarkozy also announced plans to investigate the possibility of taxing international search engines - something we're sure none of our search favourites are thrilled about. Elsewhere, the Newspaper Licensing Agency stirred opposition with changes to its charging model and Chinese search engine Baidu fell foul to hackers.

On the other hand, Bebo has extended its ad contract with Yahoo! despite cutbacks and Google took another step towards world domination with the news that it awaits a decision over whether the search seraph is allowed a license for energy procurement. With the war between Apple and Microsoft hotting up too, we can certainly expect to see some sparks fly in the coming months.

This week also saw the bigmouth office start as it meant to go on, and one keen reporter took up the challenge to delve into the search questions confronting him, including the potential of real time reviews, the chance Google's anti-smoking ads could boost New Year's resolutions and an investigation into the way that Googlebot is crawling fictional URLs in JavaScript. Make sure you chase away the January blues too and fly into the new year by getting up to speed with all of the tasty news packed into the bigmouthmedia newsletter.

China's leading search engine hacked
Baidu.com was targeted by the Iranian Cyber Army, the same group responsible for December's Twitter attack.

Bebo renews Yahoo! ad contract despite cutbacks
AOL's troubled administration of social networking site Bebo has taken another turn, with the company extending its advertising contract with search engine Yahoo!

Google 'Nexus Two' will rival BlackBerry
Google has already discussed plans for the successor to the Nexus One, which looks to be aimed at the enterprise smartphone market and feature a physical keyboard.

Where do we go from here? Google reveals localised mobile search
Google integrates geo-positioning into its mobile searches.

Google: Generating energy offline?
Could Google be considering a foray into the energy business?

French President Sarkozy plans to tax Google
The French President unveiled plans to investigate the possibility of taxing international search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo! that dominate online advertising in France.

Googlebot crawling fictional URLs in JavaScript
Googlebot is reported to be crawling fictional URLs held within JavaScript.

NLA suspends link charges
The Newspaper Licensing Agency has met with opposition to its 2010 charging model from news aggregators such as NewsNow and the Norwegian Meltwater monitoring firm.

Google could face legal battle over Nexus One name
The search giant may be facing legal action as the family of cult sci-fi author Philip K Dick claims the company has lifted the name of its new superphone from one of his books.

Microsoft and HP hope to clash horns with Apple
Microsoft and HP have launched a slate computer ahead of the much anticipated and rumoured unveiling of a similar device by Apple.

Google anti-smoking ads: the perfect New Year’s resolution?
A bigmouth thinks about the way Google's influence could help people quit smoking.

Google 'scam' suggestion condemned by high court
Google Suggest in trouble as a Paris court of appeal has rules against the search giant in a defamation case lodged by the Centre National Privé de Formation a Distance.

Real-Time Reviews: the next user-generated content (UGC)
A bigmouth explores the ways in which real-time reviews could greatly improve user generated content.

Google launches Nexus One superphone
Google's first mobile handset, the 'superphone' Nexus One, is launched in the United States.