People -- or, at least, readers of NYTimes.com -- prefer emailing articles with positive rather than negative themes, and they like to send long articles on intellectually challenging topics. Go figure. That's according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania, which was based on the New York Times' own list of most-emailed articles over a six month period. "Perhaps most of all, readers wanted to share articles that inspired awe, an emotion that the researchers investigated after noticing how many science articles made the list," the Times says of the study. In general, the study found that …

Windows Mobile was present in about 18% of domestic smartphones at the end of December, according to new data from comScore. That number is 1% lower that the one it registered at the end of the third quarter, according to Softpedia. Meanwhile, Google's mobile client managed to double its market share in the country during the last three months of the last year, growing from 2.5% at the end of September to 5.2% at the end of December, according to comScore. What's more, Windows Mobile's U.S. market share is significantly higher than that of its worldwide presence. …

Foursquare's partnership with Bravo Media is yesterday's news amid reports that Zagat, Warner Bros., HBO, the History Channel and ExploreChicago have all been added to the location-based social network roster of media clients. The Times is reporting that Foursquare has signed a deal with Zagat, and the restaurant reviewer's official Foursquare page is already live and includes official Zagat-rated tips and recommendations that users can add as to-dos to their Foursquare experience. "Foursquare's relationship with Zagat is clearly an answer to Yelp's introduction of check-ins, especially given the trusted and prestigious nature of Zagat content," Mashable notes. …

The futures of Facebook and Twitter lie in the balance as Google readies a new Gmail feature to compete against both networks' real-time communication tools. Similar to Twitter and Facebook, the new feature will "allow Gmail users to view a stream of status updates from people they choose to connect with," reports The Wall Street Journal. The move signals that, "Google is feeling the heat from red-hot social network Facebook," according to USAToday.com. "Many former Google executives now work at Facebook, including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who at Google …

Despite working industry followers into a ravenous frenzy, Apple's iPad unveiling failed to capture the imaginations of potential consumers -- or at least according to a follow-up study by electronics site Retrevo. "Not only did Apple fail to convince new buyers, it may have lost many potential buyers who now say they don't think they need an Apple tablet computer," the study notes. Retrevo's study asked consumers whether or not they had heard about the tablet before the tablet was introduced, and again after the announcement. The word definitely got out, as the number of respondents saying …

Sources tell BoomTown that AOL is close to selling off its ICQ instant messaging service, having trimmed down a list of seven suitors to four. The price for the service is rumored to be just under $200 million. The negotiations are part of a broader effort by AOL to deleverage non-core units in the wake of its separation from Time Warner. Sources say that the solicitation of bids is now over, and that there are four "serious" ones, which one source calls a "'U.N. of buyers.'" "Translation: The bidders are likelier to be one of many international …

Chinese state media is reporting that government authorities have closed a training popular Web site for hackers, and arrested three of its managers. The so-called Black Hawk Safety Net site taught thousands of people how to launch cyber attacks and supplied malware, according to the China Daily. Meanwhile, officials in Hubei province said the hacking site was the largest in the country. The reports come less than a month after Google said it was no longer willing to censor search results on its Chinese service, citing a cyber attack targeting the emails of human rights activists along …

Display ads are likely to contribute a little more than $1 billion, or about 4% of Google's total sales this year -- an increase of as much 40% over last year -- analysts, including Doug Anmuth at Barclays Capital, tell BusinessWeek. Last July, Google CEO Eric Schmidt hinted that display advertising would likely be the next of his company's businesses to generate $1 billion in sales. Meanwhile, eMarketer suggests that demand for display ads, which include videos and banners, may rise faster this year than for search-related ads. Google still makes most of its sales from ads …

According to the Times (UK), Google is working on developing software for a mobile phone that could translate the words of two speakers -- speaking different languages -- having a conversation in real-time. The field of translation isn't entirely foreign to the search giant. Its Google Translate service presently translates over 50 languages, some of which have completely different alphabets. Google also has a voice recognition system that enables phone users to conduct web searches by speaking commands into their phones rather than typing them in. Franz Och, head of Google's translation services, says to expect the …

Despite itself, and without any premeditation, Google ran a 52-second spot during the Super Bowl on Sunday night. Yes, this most expensive and highly-scrutinized of ad placements occurred quite serendipitously, according to CEO Eric Schmidt. "We didn't set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search," wrote a bashful-seeming Schmidt in a company blog post. "Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact ... But we liked this video so much, and it's had such a …