Say 'So long' to Google Wave. The search giant said Wednesday that it plans to stop developing the much-hyped collaboration tool as a standalone product, and its site will likely be shut down next year. Yes, despite having "numerous loyal fans, Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked," Urs H"lzle, SVP of operations at Google, wrote in a company blog post Wednesday. "Unmentioned in the official product obituary: Google's impatience," remarks Gawker. "Google Wave was released to the world just this past May, barely two months ago. A fundamentally new communication …

Everyone's gaming! Amid a slew of game-related acquisitions, Apple is rumored to be eying a Chinese mobile Internet service provider and game developer for $148 million. A final agreement is said to be "close," according to Apple Insider, citing a Thursday report from Chinese business news organization SinoCast. Apple's target is Handseeing Information Technology Co, a company that specializes in rich Internet applications, with a primary business model focused on mobile online gaming. As Apple Insider notes, the original report most likely incorrectly stated Apple's offer at $150 billion. The Global Times pinned the price at a …

Google has agreed to buy social game-maker Slide for $182 million, TechCrunch is reporting. What's more, "Sources also tell us that this is not the last move Google is going to be making to cobble together a serious social gaming and apps strategy to counter Facebook," the blog reports. Meanwhile, sources of The New York Times said the purchase price is closer to $228 million. Either way, "The acquisition is one of the clearest signals yet that Google is planning moves into social networking. Google has also invested some $150 million in Zynga, the biggest online …

Google and Verizon are close to signing an agreement that could let Verizon speed up online content to certain Web users and give their content priority over that of other Web users -- for a price. As The New York Times, the would-be deal would likely have far reaching implications, and fundamentally alter net neutrality. "Such an agreement could overthrow a once-sacred tenet of Internet policy known as net neutrality, in which no form of content is favored over another," reports The Times. "In its place, consumers could soon see a new, tiered system, which, like cable …

Having recently crossed the half-billion member mark and increasingly seen as the gateway to the Web, Facebook continues to command ever greater shares of ad dollars. Over the past year, the social network's top advertisers have increased spending by at least 10-fold, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg tells Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Some advertisers, she added, have increased their Facebook budgets by as much as 20-fold or more. The site's ad prices, meanwhile have held steady even as user growth fueled a surge in inventory, said Sandberg. "Two years ago the big brands were experimenting with …

Perhaps marking the end of an era for Yahoo, the company just lost two top search veterans: VP and editor-in-chief Srinija Srinivasan, who is leaving to devote more time to his family; and VP of Search Marketing Tim Mayer. "Perhaps Tim's greatest claim to fame was causing major panic and disruption at Google, when he stealthily manuevered [sic] Yahoo into having an index larger than Google's, for a short period," notes Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan. In August 2005, Yahoo claimed to have indexed 19 billion documents, almost twice what Google was claiming on the figure it …

Marking its first acquisition, LinkedIn on Wednesday said it bought a start-up called Mspoke. According to Forbes, Mspoke "has some valuable software and engineering talent in the field of real-time pattern spotting." LinkedIn officials, meanwhile, said the technology would be used to recommend content, such as news, messages and what executives in similar jobs are reading and doing. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but LinkedIn probably paid well under $5 million, reports Fortune. Based in Pittsburgh and associated with engineers from Carnegie Mellon University, Mspoke tried to offer real-time analysis for both news and Internet …

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has lost its lead in U.S. smartphone sales for the first time since late 2007, reports the NPD Group research firm. Who or what's to blame? None other than Google's Android mobile operating system. Android accounted for 33% of smartphone sales in the second quarter of the year, while RIM dropped to second place with 28%, according to NPD. Apple, meanwhile, remained in third place with 22%. VentureBeat recently reported on data from the Nielsen Company which put Android in second place for the second quarter -- "but even there, Google's platform …

Motorola and Verizon Wireless are building a TV-focused tablet computer that runs on Google's Android operating system, the Financial Times is reporting. The iPad challenger is expected to rely on Verizon's FiOS digital pay-television service. Driven by the success of Apple's iPad, "The tablet market is seen as the next battle ground in the mobile devices war that has pit myriad device makers and Microsoft, Google and Research in Motion against Apple," Financial Times reports.According to FT.com, The Motorola tablet's integration with TV is seen as a key competitive advantage against rival developers. By contrast, ahead of …

Sources tell TechCrunch that Google has chosen VP Engineering Vic Gundotra to serve as "general in their war with Facebook." Gundotra "is the person who will control overall product strategy and execution around their new efforts to find relevance in a quickly changing Internet landscape that is increasingly dominated by Facebook," according to TechCrunch. Gundotra has previously been involved in various product efforts at Google, but is best known for his work on Android and Google's mobile phone applications. "Google hasn't officially revealed any of its plans in social, but we've heard to expect them to be …