As part of a larger strategy shift, Google is reportedly planning to debut five Android-supported Nexus devices by Thanksgiving. What’s more -- in what The Wall Street Journal calls “a bid to create a united front with smartphone and tablet makers to take on rivals like Apple and prevent wireless carriers from controlling the devices” -- Google is expected to give multiple mobile-device makers early access to new releases of Android, and to sell those devices directly to consumers. Previously, Google would join with only one hardware maker at a time to produce "lead devices" before releasing the software to …

Ahead of Facebook’s IPO, analysts are taking issue with the company’s ad strategy, or lack thereof. “The world’s biggest social network will complete its initial public offering in a few days, with a valuation based largely on its strong history of innovation,” Forrester’s Nate Elliot writes in a blog post, this week. “But,” on behalf fellow Forrester analyst Melissa Parrish, Elliot adds: “We have to wonder: Will Facebook ever focus any of that innovation on helping marketers?” Not that the social network hasn’t experimented in advertising. It’s done everything from charge marketers to host branded pages to blanket pages with …

Surprising to some, Groupon just posted its first quarterly profit. The good news follows a bad year for the public company, during which it lost half its value on concern about waning demand for its daily deals and persistent accounting problems. At the end of March, the company revised fourth-quarter results, admitting to "material weakness" in its financial statements and triggering a stock price slide. How did Groupon do it? “By reining in marketing spending and signing up more customers and merchants,” according to Reuters. "Revenue growth was impressive and they also had material margin expansion," The Benchmark Company analyst …

Set to debut in a matter of weeks, Twitter is working on a new email digest feature, which summarizes top stories and tweets. The feature is said to be similar to Twitter's "Discover" tab found on the top bar, which the social network redesigned earlier this month. “The feature comes just four months after Twitter acquired Canadian start-up Summify, which is a service that sends users emails summarizing the top stories from their Twitter and Facebook networks as well as other services, such as Google Reader,” The Los Angeles Times notes. Regarding to launch, Othman Laraki, Twitter's growth and international …

Eying female consumes, Zynga has hired team behind Wild Needle, a lady-focused casual games company that was backed by Playdom co-founder Rick Thompson. Word is that this was a talent-sized deal, which is in line with most Zynga acquisitions. “Zynga usually does smaller deals in the $5 million to 20 million range for teams of game developers,” TechCrunch reports. “But it has bumped up spending over the last year and a half, as the value of Zynga’s equity has become priced in and even declined over the last year.” OMGPOP, for one, took all cash in its $180 million acquisition. …

Meet SceneTap -- a Chicago-based startup trying to usher in another level of real-work demographic targeting. How? With cameras that pick up on facial characteristics to determine a person’s approximate age and gender, which it installs in social venues with the cooperation of owners. “Imagine this,” VentureBeat writes. “You and your girlfriend walk into a neighborhood bar, order a cocktail, and, unbeknownst to you both, a camera above is scanning your faces to determine your age and gender. … Your deets are combined with data on other bar patrons and then spit out to looky-loo mobile application users trolling for …

In other Thompson news, reports suggest that Yahoo is claiming “cause” in parting of ways with the former CEO. “Such a determination will mean the company is not obligated to pay him the large severance that would have been due to him otherwise,” AllThingsD reports. In Thompson’s offer letter, Yahoo spelled out the terms of the employment agreement, noting what would happen if he left the company under more positive “without cause” terms. “If Mr. Thompson’s employment is terminated by the Company without cause or by Mr. Thompson for good reason, the Company will offer him severance benefits similar to …

Casting off the “interim” qualifier, Curtis Brown has been named AOL’s official, full-time Chief Technology Officer. Brown, who joined AOL in 2010, has been the company’s acting chief technology officer since March. “Curtis joined AOL as senior vice president of Engineering in November 2010,” DigitalMediaWire reports. “Previously he served as chief technology officer at Skymall, Oxygen Media, The Princeton Review, CTB/McGraw-Hill and Kaplan Test Prep.” Tim Armstrong, AOL chairman and CEO, said Brown’s appointment is enthusiastically endorsed by the entire executive team. “Curtis brings to the CTO role both deep technical experience and an authentic and engaging leadership style that …

As part of a unique media strategy, Microsoft has always offered certain Web services through its Xbox gaming console. Going ever further, the software giant is reportedly testing a modified version of Internet Explorer 9 on Xbox 360, which would expand existing functionalities. “We are told that the browser will let Xbox users surf all parts of the web straight from their living rooms,” The Verge reports, citing sources. That’s right, if the Xbox 360 were to get the Internet Explorer browser, users would be able to search the entire Web straight from their gaming consoles. The Xbox 360 currently …

In the next version of iOS, more reports are suggesting that Apple plans to replace Google Maps with its own in-house map application. “Apple will drop the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007 in favor for a new Maps app with an Apple backend,” writes 9to5Mac, citing sources. “The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.” Google and its popular mapping service has recently lost some big name partners, which many …