When the dot-mobi domain was launched in 2006, the idea was to create the mobile equivalent of the dot-com -- a standard signifier doing business on the mobile Web. But the dot-com domain wound up extending its hegemony to the mobile sphere as businesses and other entities simply dropped an "m-dot" in front of their Web names and kept the dot-com at the end to maintain the connection to their main sites. Dot-mobi, meanwhile, has been left to wither, despite the backing of tech industry heavyweights like Google, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung.

Yahoo's been eerily quiet on the mobile front lately, especially in comparison with the moves made by Google and Apple in recent months, buying mobile ad networks, launching mobile devices, and in Google's case, introducing as series of new mobile apps and services.

With the launch of its Buzz social networking initiative Tuesday, Google underlined its lofty ambitions for mobile expansion. The new social platform is deeply integrated on the mobile side, across Google's mobile home page, Gmail, Google Maps, and Place Pages as well as Buzz apps for Android phones and the iPhone.

With the announcement the Nook will hit most Barnes & Noble stores by midweek, the bookselling giant is finally pressing its advantage in the e-reader market. Now the world will get to see what happens when a national book chain puts its brick-and-mortar muscle behind an e-reader.

Motorola's Droid got a big boost from the reportedly $100 million anti-iPhone campaign Verizon Wireless put behind the manufacturer's comeback device. With its Megan Fox-starring commercial, Motorola jumped back into the Super Bowl ad fray for the first time in four years to push its proprietary Motoblur software for centralizing social networking data and sending out messages and content. The ad also debuted as Motorola gets set to launch the Devour, its follow-up to the Droid, next month.

A warning from Apple it will ban iPhone applications with advertising linked to a user's location is rippling through the tech blogosphere in light of the company's recent acquisition of mobile ad network Quattro Wireless.

The Haitian relief effort has attracted a well-document outpouring of donations via text message. But an recent poll suggests people don't necessarily trust texting as a means of charitable giving.

A new report by telecom services provider Allot Communications should give U.S. wireless carriers fresh ammunition to push for usage-based mobile broadband fees. The study found mobile bandwidth use during just the second half of 2009 increased 72% globally.

When Apple announced a blowout first quarter last week, with a 50% surge in profit on strong iPhone and Mac sales, there was only one small cloud diminishing the radiance of its earnings: iPhone sales had actually fallen just shy of analysts' expectations, at 8.7 million versus 8.8 million. Some analysts had forecast as many as 10 million of Apple's signature device would be sold in the quarter.

Foursquare has struck a savvy deal with Bravo TV to broaden its audience among the urban hipsters that both the mobile social game and the cable network attract. Through a partnership launching today, Bravo will offer players check-in "badges" and special prizes to viewers who go to more than 500 Bravo-tagged locations, according to the Times' Bits blog.