Google may be trailing Chinese search leader Baidu.com by a wide margin, but the worldwide search leader is redoubling its efforts to compete in both China and Asia by focusing on the nascent mobile search market. Google expects to process more local Web search queries from mobile phone than computers in Asia by 2011. It's a fast-growing and potentially huge market, said Google's China President Lee Kai-Fu. "In some quarters, our mobile traffic will double, whereas it will take perhaps a year to double on the PC side," he said. After gaining exclusive rights to process queries from China Mobile …

Facing what was perhaps the most important earnings call in company history, Google on Thursday met the Street's challenge, posting stronger than expected first quarter earnings thanks to robust growth from its international operations. Gross revenue of $5.2 billion, up 42%, was in line with expectations, while net revenue (not including commissions paid to AdSense and other partners) was slightly above, at $3.7 billion. Profit, excluding stock options, was a hefty $0.32 higher than consensus estimates, at $4.84 a share. The good news sent Google shares-which had fallen 35% since the beginning of the year-surging $75 in after hours trading. …

EBay CEO John Donahoe on Thursday revealed that the online auctioneer would sell Skype if it fails to integrate the voice over IP provider with its other businesses by the end of the year. EBay originally bought Skype with the intention of facilitating communication between buyers and sellers, who would pay a premium for leads generated through Skype phone numbers. However, three years after paying $2.6 billion for the company, eBay failed to prove that Skype could help its other businesses, and last year was forced to write down its value by $1.4 billion. Meanwhile, Skype continues to grow nicely …

In an interview with Wired, MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe talks up MySpace Music, claiming that the forthcoming music venture from MySpace and (almost all) the major record labels will be the music industry's answer to online piracy. Why, because DeWolfe says the new MySpace Music offers so many ways for its music industry partners (who will have equity in the joint venture) to make money. Thus far, the venture partners are Universal Music Group, Warner Music and Sony BMG. MySpace is still in negotiations about adding the last music giant, EMI Group, as well as several independent labels. …

MySpace isn't the only company that sees unlimited access to music as the wave of the future: handset maker Nokia is partnering with Universal Music Group (also a MySpace Music stake holder) for a new initiative called "Comes with Music," in which consumers pay an added flat fee for access to Universal's catalog of music. The plan has been in the pipe for sometime, but what hasn't been known is how big Universal's cut would be. According to separate reports, the record label is set to take $35 per phone, "a big number" says Ars Technica, because the other …