Taptu , a mobile search engine that specializes in indexing mobile-friendly websites, just launched a new version of its iPhone app. The new app now includes real-time search results, which are powered by OneRiot . In addition to including these real-time search results, Taptu also worked hard on improving the speed of the app and on providing more relevant search results. Taptu offers apps for the iPhone, iPod touch ( iTunes link ) and Android, as well as a mobile optimized website. Sponsor Taptu first integrated real-time search results from OneRiot in its mobile web interface and in its Android app last month . The mobile apps definitely provide a far superior way of using the service than the mobile site, however. There are two ways to access real-time search results in the app. The homepage now displays the hottest trending topics and a single click on one of these opens up OneRiot search results. In addition, you can also do a normal search and then select 'latest buzz' from the options menu right next to the search box. This same menu also allows you to restrict search to images, videos, blog or Wikipedia articles, as well as to sites and blogs about sports, news or apps. For a closer look at Taptu's feature set, also have a look at our review of the service's web app . Discuss

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Taptu Adds Real-Time Search to Its Mobile Apps

Ribbit Mobile , which offers a set of VoIP services that is very similar to Google Voice , just launched its first iPhone app ( iTunes link ). The app allows users to check their voicemail, read voicemail transcriptions, forward voicemails by email and create a to-call list based on these messages. It uses the iPhone's native phone app to make calls and the default SMS app to send text messages. Ribbit also gave us 500 invites to hand out to our readers. If you would like to get one, just read on to find out how to claim it. Sponsor In terms of features, Ribbit Mobile, which launched in November, compares very well to Google Voice. While the interface takes some getting used to, the ability to make and receive calls from Ribbit's website through the Flash-based interface is extremely useful while traveling, for example. For a more detailed look at Ribbit Mobile, have a look at our in-depth review from November . Focus on Voicemail Your voicemail inbox is the central focus of the app, and the way the app handles these is exemplary. Once you click on a message in the inbox, the app switches to a new view that displays details about the call: name of caller, number, date and time. Here you can also listen to the message and read the transcript. (Ribbit offers both automatic and manual transcriptions.) From here, a small bar at the bottom of the app also allows you to respond to the message by phone, SMS or recorded voicemail. In addition, you can add the caller to your to-call list and forward transcripts and audio by email. Playing it Safe Given that Apple didn't allow the Google Voice app into the store, Ribbit clearly played it safe with this app. While it provides access to all the service's voicemail features, the app doesn't replicate any of the phone's calling or SMS features. The app also doesn't allow you to access your Ribbit Mobile address book. Sadly, this also means that you can't use your Ribbit phone number to make calls, and that the caller ID will always show your iPhone's number. In the current version it's also not possible to see a list of missed calls that didn't result in a voicemail. You can, however, choose to receive alerts for missed calls and new voicemails by SMS, email and instant message. You can set your alert preferences in the app and through the service's web interface. We understand that Ribbit probably had to remove quite a few features to stay on Apple's good side, but the result of this is that the app misses quite a few essential features. Hopefully - now that Ribbit managed to get this castrated version of the app approved - the Ribbit team will soon be able add more of the missing features into the app. Invites Ribbit Mobile is still an invite-only service. If you would like to give it a try, just head over to Ribbit's sign-up page and use the following invite code: RWW09 Discuss

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Google Voice Competitor Ribbit Mobile Launches iPhone App (500 Invites)

With Apple, you never know who is going to be evil next. Microsoft usually gets the grand prize, but as of late it appears that Google may be getting the cold shoulder for its forays into the mobile word. Apple and Google have historically been very friendly. But in recent months, the tenor of that relationship has changed. Apple rejected Google Voice for the iPhone. And now it appears that the relationship may get a bit cooler with all the talk of a Google phone. As that relationship becomes more distant, it appears that Apple and Microsoft may be warming up a bit, which may prove fruitful for the future of the iPhone in the enterprise. It may also prove beneficial for Microsoft, too, as it is also fighting off Google's efforts to win over the enterprise with its Google Apps productivity applications. Sponsor As PCWorld points out, Microsoft may be smart to team up with Apple. The iPhone is a solid, smart phone. Microsoft could do well by developing applications for the iPhone that serve its customers. Its Exchange Server and Office products still dominate the enterprise. As it is platform agnostic, Microsoft can develop applications for the iPhone that support its customers and protects its market base. Apple needs a good partner like Microsoft to make any significant dent in the enterprise. It does not have the enterprise infrastructure like Research in Motion does with the Blackberry Server. Without an enterprise management service, Apple will find it tough for the iPhone to make any deep play into the corporate world. Further, Google is showing signs that its plans to dominate the Internet is dependent on having hardware to go with its enterprise services and cloud-based operating systems. Google is reaching out to handset and netbook manufacturers. This suits Google's designs on the enterprise. Google Apps are gaining acceptance as a enterprise suite. The Android OS finally seems to be gaining some momentum. And the Chrome OS is a strong contender for the netbook market, especially as Windows 7 shows yet more signs of delays. We expect the enterprise will serve as the place where the battles intensify between Apple and Google. Microsoft has nothing to lose in teaming with Apple to fend off Google, a common rival and current evil force du jour. Discuss

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Will Apple and Microsoft Join Forces To Fight Google?

Demand for cloud-based storage and backup is creating some lucrative opportunities for companies servicing large telecommunications providers. We are seeing a number of carriers offering cloud-based services. Orange Business Services announced today that it will be offering cloud storage and other cloud-based services for its customers. Verizon announced earlier this month that it is offering a number of cloud-related services. Telecommunications companies are partnering with services like Nomadesk to give customers the ability to do their own cloud-based online backups. Sponsor Belgium-based Nomadesk is an online backup and syncing service for small business owners and personal users. It provides unlimited storage and sharing. The company announced this week a partnership with Bell Canada to provide its millions of customers with online back up for their mobile devices. Nomadesk is a virtual hard drive on your desktop. It's very simple. We downloaded the application, made some simple configurations and immediately had the ability to drag and drop files into the virtual hard drive that sits on the desktop.The hard drive is connected to the cloud and syncs when updates are made. Your data is secured and encrypted. It can be shared with any number of users and synced across the community. Applications can be backed up. Access to documents are available online or offline. Nomadesk CEO Filip Tack is touting the service as a better alternative to Box.net and Mozy . We agree that Nomadesk is easy to use, but as a collaboration platform it has some way to go. For example, Nomadesk does not have an advanced search capability like Box.net. We view enterprise search as a key feature for collaboration services. Tack said the company will offer search as a feature in the first part of 2010. Companies in this space are showing big market gains as larger providers seek revenues from the petabytes of data being produced every day. Mozy, for instance, just announced a partnership with Cox Business. Mozy is also partnering with China Telecom, McAfee and Vodafone to deliver cloud-based backup to customers. What is the amount of data that is produced every day in the enterprise? We know this can vary wildly but even small businesses are starting to produce exponential amounts of information compared to just a year ago. As this amount of information continues to grow, services like Nomadesk should stand to do very well as providers for large telecommunications companies. Nomadesk service for small businesses starts at $15 per user, per month. Discuss

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Nomadesk: Cloud-Based Backup Providers Doing Quite Well

In one of ReadWriteWeb's longest-running traditions, every year we review the top Internet companies and their impact over the past 12 months. Today we're announcing the 6th annual Best BigCo , a.k.a. big Internet company. Next week we'll announce Best LittleCo and Most Promising Company . In 2008 the Best BigCo went to Apple , due largely to the iPhone and App Store. Facebook won in 2007 , Google in 2006 and 2004 , and Yahoo! in 2005 . Who will be Best BigCo of 2009? Will Apple be the first company to win it two years running? Will Google win the honor for a 3rd year? How about Facebook, which grew significantly this year. Let's find out... Sponsor Best BigCo of 2009 The ReadWriteWeb team has chosen Google as our Best BigCo of 2009! Google last won it in 2006 and this is the third time we've honored the Mountain View company. Google is without question the predominant Internet company of our time; in large part because it continues to innovate and stay one step ahead of its competition. In our Top 100 Products List for 2009, seven Google products made the cut: Android platform Google App Engine Google Apps Google Chrome Google Maps Google Search Options and Rich Snippets Google Voice And we didn't even include Google Wave , its biggest launch of the year . We think Wave has a lot of potential, but it's clearly at the experimental stage still. The web browser Chrome was probably the Google product that had the biggest impact this year. Launched in late 2008 , Chrome still only holds a small share of the browser market and doesn't offer a stable version for OSX or Linux yet. However it has already changed the browser market. As we wrote in our Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2009 review, Chrome's relentless focus on speed helped to reignite the browser wars , and is changing the way developers and Google's competitors think about browsers. Chrome is also the basis for Google's upcoming Chrome OS , designed for netbooks - a growing fad in computers. So expect to see a lot more of Chrome in 2010. Runners-Up: Apple, Facebook It's been another good year for Apple and its iPhone platform. The iPhone is the leading smartphone in the market and the App Store now features over 100,000 applications . This year, as we mentioned in our Top 10 Web Platforms of 2009 review, Apple extended the SDK with version 3.0 of the iPhone OS . The updates included better support for 3D gaming, augmented reality apps, easier access to maps, in-app purchases and support for push notifications. With these kinds of improvements, we expect Apple to continue its success on the mobile Web in 2010 - despite increasing competition from Google's Android platform. Facebook had a stellar year too, passing the 300 million active user mark in September. It also continued to add features to the site, ranging from vanity URLs to a new sharing widget and a focus on real-time updates of its users' news streams. Facebook's user base is increasingly diverse , and it is now clearly the number one social network in the world, leaving MySpace in its dust. What's more, Facebook's user base is now bigger than the population of all but three countries in the world. Next Page: Honorable Mentions & Also Rans Honorable Mentions: Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe While Microsoft continued to struggle with its Windows Live brand , it did come out with at least one compelling new product in 2009. Until earlier this year, Google didn't have any serious competition in the search market. But with the launch of Microsoft's Bing in July, users suddenly had a new choice of search engine. Bing bills itself as a "decision engine" and its market share has climbed steadily over the last few months. Microsoft keeps adding interesting new features like visual search , hover previews, integrated Twitter search and a smart integration of some of Wolfram Alpha's most compelling features. We also recognized Windows Azure , Microsoft's cloud computing platform, among our Top Products of 2009 . Amazon had another good year in 2009. Its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) was one of our top 100 products this year. However Amazon had the most impact this year with a piece of hardware: its e-book reader, the Kindle. In May, Amazon unveiled the Kindle DX , featuring a 9.7-inch display that is about two-and-a-half-times larger than the Kindle 2. November was Amazon's best month ever for Kindle sales, and, according to the company, the Kindle is the "most wished for, the most gifted, and the #1 bestselling product across all product categories on Amazon." Very few Web platforms have the cross-platform reach of Adobe AIR . It allows developers to create one application and run it on all of the major operating systems. This year Adobe launched AIR 2 , which now allows developers to access mass storage devices, drag-and-drop support for remote files and rudimentary support for P2P networking. In addition, AIR 2 enables developers to use the multi-touch capabilities of modern screens. Also Rans Unfortunately, the less said about Yahoo!, AOL, Mozilla, eBay - the better. It hasn't been a great year for any of them. Yahoo! struggled gamely and impressed us with its YQL (Yahoo Query Language) and SearchMonkey. But it is far from the Internet force it was in 2005, when we named it our Best BigCo. Yahoo still has a wide reach and is very popular amongst mainstream audiences, but it just isn't the force it once was. AOL has resorted to becoming a content farm in order to compete, eBay has squandered a valuable asset in Skype , and Mozilla - while continuing to innovate - has been hurt by Google's Chrome browser entering the market. Now let us know your thoughts. Do you think that Google deserves the Best BigCo of 2009? Ed: Thanks Frederic Lardinois , one of our writers whose year-end posts I liberally quoted from to create this article! Discuss

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Best BigCo of 2009

Morgan Stanley has released a couple of bulky documents about the mobile internet: 'The Mobile Internet Report,' a 424 page report which explores 8 major themes; and 'The Mobile Internet Report Key Themes,' a 659-slide presentation that drills down on thoughts covered in the report. We've embedded both documents below. Perhaps the most remarkable statement in the report is that the Mobile Internet market will be "at least 2x size of Desktop Internet," which Morgan Stanley bases on math comparing Internet Users with Mobile Subscribers. Sponsor The report starts out by saying that Apple's iPhone / iTouch / iTunes ecosystem "may prove to be the fastest ramping and most disruptive technology product / service launch the world has ever seen." It goes on to state that "a handful of incumbents (like Apple, Google, Amazon.com and Skype) appear especially well positioned for mobile changes." Growth in the Mobile Internet is being driven by 3G adoption and the increasing popularity of smartphones, of which the iPhone is the leader. Morgan Stanley predicts that smartphones "will out-ship the global notebook + netbook market in 2010E and out-ship the global PC market (notebook + netbook + desktop) by 2012E." The firm has always been bullish on mobile internet, as Mary Meeker's Web 2.0 conference presentations over the years show. See also our analysis of Meeker's 2009 Web 2.0 presentation . The reports are far too big to summarize here, so we recommend you read them below - or download from Morgan Stanley's website. Via Scribd Via Scribd Discuss

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Morgan Stanley: Mobile Internet Market Will Be Twice The Size of Desktop Internet

There were a ton of great products launched in 2009 by big companies and startups alike, but in this post we focus on the best products released by startups. The easiest way to become a leading product in your industry is to meet a need better than anyone else. The following ten have proven themselves with great features, substantial marketplace momentum and, most importantly, a game-changing approach to solving a problem. Sponsor ReadWriteWeb's Best Products of 2009: Real-Time Reference - Aardvark : Reinventing Q&A, ReadWriteWeb covered Aardvark's launch in March 2009 . The service allows users to ask and answer questions through a network of friends via IM, iPhone application, Twitter, email or web interface. Because the system automatically routes questions to people with the right expertise, answers are fairly accurate and there is little need to use the service's flagging system. The company claims that 90% of questions get answered in five minutes or less. Location-based Apps - Foursquare : Launched at SXSW, Foursquare is a location-based social application where users check in on their iPhone at various businesses and compete against their friend network for points. ReadWriteWeb first covered the company's launch in March . Since then they've partnered with Bay Area Rapid Transit and a number of businesses to offer location-based deals to users. iPhone App Recommendation - Appsfire : In a world where iPhones seemed to saturate the earth, Appsfire offers a great way for users to share their favorites. Launched in August, ReadWriteWeb praised the convenience of the iPhone app . Four months after downloading it, many of our RWW teammates are still sharing their apps via the embeddable Appsfire widget and the iPhone application. Real-Time Search - Collecta : If you're interested in finding out the latest info on a particular product, Collecta offers real-time search with a variety of results including blog posts, photos and Twitter and Identi.ca posts. Launched in June, ReadWriteWeb covered the company's release . In September the company released its API to developers . Twitter App Discovery - OneForty : Dubbed the "unofficial Twitter app store" OneForty is a marketplace where Twitter developers add their applications for discovery. End-users can add their reviews and recommendation to be featured on the service's front page. Launched in September, Oneforty breaks down the applications into easy to understand categories and features the most popular apps and recently uploaded apps on the homepage. Next Page: Top 10 Startup Products of 2009 6-10 All-You-Can-Eat Music - MOG All Access : Although MOG has been around as a blogging network for a few years, earlier this month the company launched it's much-anticipated $5 dollar per month streaming music service. The product's unique features include a discovery bar slider where users can play streaming radio and tweak the flow of recommendations to their liking. Coupled with an iPhone app that is promised to encompass offline caching, MOG All Access is a great service rivaled only by close competitor Spotify . Web TV - Clicker : Launched in mid November Clicker is considered the TV Guide for internet television . The company indexes 400,000 full episodes from 7,000 shows and features a DVR-like playlist (including Netflix Instant Streaming and Amazon VOD) and integration with Facebook connect. Clicker also has a Boxee app that pulls in metadata for shows, channels and actors. Semantic Search - Evri : Evri is a semantic search engine with a matching algorithm that creates connections between people, products and concepts. Launched in mid-June, ReadWriteWeb first reported the product's ability to distinguish between subjects, verbs and objects to make connections . Conversation Aggregation - JS-Kit's Echo : While JS-Kit has been around for three years, the company' latest product Echo is a better iteration of blog comments. ReadWriteWeb first wrote about the product launch in July . The service allows users to embed a simple line of javascript in their blogs in order to gather a real-time stream of Diggs, Tweets, comments and reactions. Augmented Reality - Layar : ReadWriteWeb readers first got a glimpse of Layar in June . Created by SPRXmobile , the service places images and data on the mobile browser for a new form of location-based augmented reality discovery. In July SPRX released the company's first developer keys for the API and by August it had celebrated an Android release with an iPhone app to follow. The company currently has a gallery with several cool 3rd party applications. Discuss

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Top 10 Startup Products of 2009