Google announces Search by Image and Voice Search for desktop, revamped mobile search

Google's done a ton of talking about search at its Inside Search event today, and two of the biggest new developments are on the desktop. It's just announced that Android-style Voice Search is headed to Chrome (with support for English only, initially), and that it will be joined by a new Search by Image feature (also available in Chrome, or Firefox with an extension). To use that latter feature, you simply drag and drop an image or cut and paste an image URL in the search box, and then Google tries its best to recognize it and deliver relevant results -- including identifying the location in an old vacation photo, for instance (though Google notes it isn't doing face recognition). Both features will be rolling out over the next few days, but you can get a glimpse of them now in the demo videos after the break.

Norton says Android security threats are only going to get worse

First off, let's be honest: security threats to Android are in Norton's best interest. After all, they recently released an anti-virus solution for the Android operating system, so spreading fear will help their bottom line. But that doesn't mean they don't have some good points.

According to Norton, the increasing malware problem on the Android OS is only going to get worse. They explain that Android has three key features that make it a target: it's an open platform, it's monetizable, and it is increasingly ubiquitous.

What's more, it's scarily easy to make an Android app into a Trojan horse. So it doesn't take a technical mastermind to make spyware, adware, and other malicious apps. And, while we're not blaming Google, the Android Market isn't exactly Fort Knox. Google will remove apps if they are reported, but they don't vet them in the same way that Apple does.

And we're really not blaming Google. The problem with fame and success, as any pro athlete will tell you, is that the world will come after you for all you've got. The real problem is that mobile malware is a young threat, so we haven't fully built solutions to combat it, as we have with traditional computers. Not to freak you out too much, but we imagine hackers are drooling over the potential for an NFC revolution, which would put more than our Facebook passwords at risk.

Google Maps Navigation to go offline this summer?

Dutch tech site All About Phones claims that Google Maps Navigation will get a true offline mode later this summer. In December the Android app received an update that cached routes and the surrounding areas, but without a data connection you still couldn't enter a new destination. A source inside the Dutch telco industry said that Goog would removing the requirement for coverage -- an obvious next step for the nav tool, especially with Ovi Maps bringing its turn-by-turn prowess to WP7. The move is also bound to be another thorn in the side of standalone GPS makers like Garmin and TomTom. After all, it's tough to compete with free.

Google Apps is moving on, you'll need an HTML5 browser to go with it

HTML5 beckons the world with its dashing logo and also, we suppose, all the clever little things it can do. Desktop notifications in Gmail and folder-dragging in Docs already refuse to work with anything less -- and before long that will apply to the entirety of Google Apps. Come August 1st, you will find that Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites are all unsupported unless you're using either the current or last major release of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. An older browser won't suddenly stop working with Google Apps, but it will begin a steady descent into oblivion. Hey, being popular means you don't have to be nice.

Apps selling in App Store and Android Market

iOS and the App Store have been in the forefront of monetizing from applications, but is the gap between the Android Market and Apple’s storefront closing? The latest report from market researchers Distimo suggests the contrary. Developers on iOS are enjoying a much more active ecosystem with regularly updated lists of apps by Apple and thus a higher chance to be noticed, while slow updates of app listings are in the core of Android remaining a place where users pick the free apps. To back up those claims, stats show that nearly 80% of paid Android applications can’t reach 100 downloads.

To worsen things further, there were only five games on the Market that have passed the 250,000 download threshold, while in the last two months alone, the App Store has registered ten games with over 250,000 downloads in the States alone.

“It is more challenging for developers in the Google Android Market than in the Apple App Store to monetize using a one-off fee monetization model. We found that only two paid applications have been downloaded more than half a million times in the Google Android Market worldwide to date, while six paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPhone generate the same number of downloads within a two month timeframe in the United States alone,” Distimo summarizes. What's your personal experience with iOS or Android, do you use many paid apps?

Microsoft gets $5 from every Android device sold by HTC

Microsoft has five times more income from Android for its patent fee than it has registered from its own Windows Phone platform. Some 30 million HTC Androids sold so far make for a total of $150 million solely from licenses for Microsoft.

In addition, another Citi analyst, Kevin Chiang, shared his estimate on Android device producers operating margins standing at 10% to 15% for handsets, while for tablets the number stood at the mere 2% to 3%.

To put it all in perspective, the average selling price of HTC-made phones hovers around the $360 mark, so that translates into a 1.39% share Microsoft snatches from the cost of the smartphone. If the software giant manages to force all phone makers to pay the patent fee, it would certainly swing the scales towards Windows Phone as Android would turn to be considerably less profitable.