The Financial Times' Richard Waters is already calling Google's Android a dud, saying that when the mobile operating system hits stores next month, "they will land with a fizzle rather than a bang." Waters points to a number of early reviews by analysts, critics, and - crucially -- developers, who have closely monitored Android's progress and in many cases, worked directly with early versions of the mobile OS. As John Jackson, an analyst at Yankee Group, says, "(Android) ain't no iPhone." Indeed, analysts and developers have been griping about everything from the lack of stability in the software to …

A single Twitter message sent by a person with thousands of followers can hold tremendous sway, says BusinessWeek. As such, brands are increasingly following influential users of the microblogging service. Think about it: A negative tweet about a product or service can be read nearly instantly by hundreds of thousands of people. But a positive interaction with a representative of the brand or service provider can also help change the influential person's perspective. The likes of JetBlue, Comcast, and H&R Block have all recognized Twitter's potential in providing customer service, the report says, adding that tools like Tweetscan and …

We've been hearing for some time from Microsoft that its future is Web advertising, yet the tech giant has failed to replace former digital advertising chief Kevin Johnson, who departed in July. Advertising Age takes a look at the logical replacement candidates, and handicaps their likelihood of succeeding Johnson. At 2-1 odds, former aQuantive CEO Brian McAndrews seems like the logical frontrunner, having led the successful integration of aQuantive units Atlas and DrivePM with Microsoft's advertising system. However, as paidContent.org's David Kaplan points out, McAndrews is now a very rich man following aQuantive's $5.9 billion purchase by Microsoft, so …

To mark the search giant's 10-year anniversary, the Los Angeles Times' Jessica Gyunn interviews Google's Marissa Mayer, the search giant's vice president of search products and user experience. Mayer says the company's biggest achievements over the past 10 years have without a doubt been search and search advertising: "Google has changed the monetization of content online through AdSense and our advertising network. It's also notable in terms of the economic benefits Google has had for small businesses and the opportunities created as a result of that." Over the next 10 years, Mayer says the company will continue to improve search, …

After Microsoft walked away from the Yahoo deal, many analysts and critics projected that the software giant would wait for Yahoo's share price to fall back below $19 per share and then swoop in to buy the company for less than it originally offered. Late last week, Bloomberg News asked Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell if the company had plans to do this. His response: "You never say never, I can never say that, but it's so close to negligible.'' Why, because "we continue to value Yahoo as a declining asset,'' Liddell said. "At some stage it just makes no …