Everyone and their grandma is jumping on the iPhone bandwagon these days. Well, actually, they’ve been jumping on the bandwagon, and they still are. Not that we’re complaining or anything.

Google has decided to bring their mobile interface offering up to speed with the iPhone. The search giant has optimized a version of their customizable iGoogle homepage for iPhone users. RSS feeds, weather, stocks, email, news - it’s all available in a convenient, single-column format that fits your iPhone’s display perfectly.

Point your iPhone Safari browser to google.com/ig/i to check out the iPhone optimized iGoogle homepage. It’s fully customizable through your Gmail account, so just keep that in mind.

intomobile.com

A cellphone operating system designed to encourage web surfing on the go could trigger a fresh assault on privacy. New Scientist reports.

“On 5 November, Google and 30 partners unveiled a joint venture called the Open Handset Alliance that aims to develop a Linux-based open-source cellphone operating system to be called Android. Anyone will be able to write applications for Android, and Google hopes this will lead to applications that free users from today’s clunky handset browsers and web portals.

“They are trying to take the ‘mobile’ out of the mobile internet, making it as close to the experience on a PC as possible,” says Ben Wood of telecoms consultancy CCS Insight in Solihull, UK.

What worries some privacy experts, though, is the combination of Google’s policy of retaining users’ search histories and a cellphone’s ability to reveal your location and store the numbers you have called. ”

textually.org

Google Inc will unveil its mobile strategy on Monday, including a phone operating system and a broad alliance with multiple wireless service providers and handset vendors, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. [via I4U]

“Sources said the Google mobile operating system would be based on open-source Linux code, which will support applications from different software developers in addition to Google’s own services, which include e-mail and mapping.

Its partners include Sprint Nextel Corp , Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA, Motorola Inc and Samsung Electronics , sources said.

The phones are expected to come on the market around the middle of 2008, said one person who was briefed on the plans.”

iPhone just might be the best thing that has ever happened to Google Maps -– it has made them popular like never before and has driven the usage substantially. This information comes courtesy of Marissa Mayer, Google’s (GOOG) vice president of search products & user experience.

She was a fellow judge at the TechCrunch 40 conference in San Francisco and came on The GigaOM Show as a guest for one of our future episodes.

She said that Google Maps usage shot up sharply after the release of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone back in July. “Maps usage hasn’t stopped rising,” she said during our conversation. Steve Jobs had bragged about Google Maps for iPhone as the best map application, and the usage patterns bear that out.

How about YouTube, which is getting heavy promotion on television as part of Apple’s ad campaign? Meyer said YouTube on iPhone has not caused any major upsurge in video viewing. No surprise there. I’ve watched YouTube on my iPhone maybe once or twice. Most of the time when you want to watch videos you are stuck with a pokey EDGE connection –- and who needs that?

The lesson for other video aspirants: Make sure your applications run on 3G networks, otherwise people won’t care two bits.

gigaom.com

Google has just launched AdSense for mobile, a program that contextually targets ads to mobile website content. If you have a website optimized for mobile browsers, or are interested in creating one, you can start monetizing your mobile site by accessing a growing number of our mobile advertisers.

When you add the new AdSense for mobile code to your site, we’ll display relevant ads using the same targeting technology that you are familiar with for existing AdSense products.

To get started:
1) Sign in to your account.
2) Select the AdSense Setup tab and click on AdSense for mobile.
3) Follow the instructions to customize your ad unit for AdSense for mobile.

For the time being, publishers are welcome to add one ad unit to any mobile website that complies with our program policies. For more information, including technical requirements, visit the AdSense Help Center.

adsense.blogspot.com