Google today is launching a major promotional campaign to get the word out about Google Web-based apps and services. Called "Going Google", the promotion features a series of ads touting why 3,000 organizations sign up to use Google every day. It also has a very clear target, says TechCrunch's MG Siegler: Microsoft Office. Siegler says the "crown jewels" of the campaign will be a series of billboards on four major U.S. highways presenting a new message about Google apps everyday for a month. They will be placed on the 101 in San Francisco, the West Side Hwy …

Industry critics and angry investors have been all over Yahoo for its recently announced search deal with Microsoft, suggesting that the confusing integration of the companies' search assets coupled with the probable delays of months of lobbying and antitrust scrutiny, make it a particularly bad deal for Yahoo. As Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay said in a research note last week, the deal is "rather like valuing a Picasso on the cost of the canvas and the paint." Well, activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns 5% of Yahoo, couldn't disagree more. "I think it is an …

Apple's rejection of Google's Voice application from its App Store has made some of the technorati, including TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, so angry that they've vowed to ditch the iPhone altogether. The editors at Fast Company were so moved by the decision, that they decided to publish seven reasons why iPhone users should make AT&T and Apple "suffer for their sins. Reason one: as evidenced by the FCC inquiry, AT&T and Apple have become anticompetitive. Reason two: "Heavy lies the crown, just ask Microsoft." The exploding popularity of the iPhone means that Apple and AT&T are becoming …

In a move that was long expected, Google CEO Eric Schmidt finally stepped down from Apple's Board of Directors, after nearly 3 years. The resignation comes only a few days after the FCC launched an inquiry into Apple's rejection of Google's Voice application for the iPhone. In a statement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said: "Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful. Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple's core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric's effectiveness as an Apple Board …