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Google has added the ability to search by a user’s location to mobile search on select Windows Mobile devices. The feature, dubbed “My Location” uses the Google Gears Geolocation API, which employs Cell ID Technology aka cellular triangulation.

“My Location” will be available in the U.S. and U.K. initially and on the following devices:

• HP IPAQ hw6900
• HTC 4350
• HTC 8525
• HTC Atlas
• HTC MTeoR
• HTC P3300
• HTC P3450
• HTC P3600
• HTC P3650
• HTC Touch (not supported on some devices)
• HTC Touch Dual
• HTC Touch Diamond (only works in IE Mobile)
• HTC TyTN
• HTC TyTN II
• o2 XDA Orbit
• Palm Treo 750
• Samsung Blackjack II
• Samsung i780
• Samsung SCH i760

Two devices can also use “My Location” via GPS:

• HTC Mogul on Sprint (users can enable GPS with a firmware upgrade*)
• Motorola Q9

Related Reading:

Google’s Sergey Brin on Local Mobile Search
MapQuest, Google Launch Blackberry Mobile Apps
Has Mobile Local Search Finally Arrived?

In accordance with the terms of the settlement with Carl Icahn, Yahoo has added two more board members to complete the expansion to 11. Frank Biondi and John Chapple, who previously were members of Icahn’s proxy board, have been appointed just two weeks after Icahn’s appointment was made official. 8 of Yahoo’s previous board stayed on for the deal.

Here’s the lowdown on the new dudes:

Frank Biondi has served as senior managing director of WaterView Advisors LLC, a private equity limited partnership focused on media and entertainment, since 1999. From April 1996 to November 1998, Mr. Biondi served as chairman and chief executive officer of Universal Studios, Inc. From July 1987 to January 1996, Mr. Biondi served as president and chief executive officer of Viacom, Inc. Mr. Biondi is a director of Amgen, Inc., Cablevision Systems Corporation, Hasbro, Inc., The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and Seagate Technology.

John Chapple has served as president of Hawkeye Investments LLC, a privately-owned equity firm investing primarily in telecommunications and real estate ventures, since October 2006. Prior to forming Hawkeye, Mr. Chapple served as president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Nextel Partners from January 1998 to June 2006, when the company was purchased by Sprint Communications. From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Chapple was the president and chief operating officer for Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment in Vancouver, B.C., which at the time owned and operated Vancouver’s National Basketball Association and National Hockey League sports franchises in addition to the General Motors Place sports arena. From 1988 to 1995, he served as executive vice president of operations for McCaw Cellular Communications and subsequently AT&T Wireless Services following the merger of those companies. Mr. Chapple serves on the board of directors of several telecommunications companies: Cbeyond, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBEY) an integrated service telephone company, and privately held companies Seamobile Enterprises, which provides integrated wireless services at sea, and Telesphere Networks, Inc., a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) company providing service in 44 states. In addition, he has served as a member of Syracuse University’s board of trustees since 2005 and as chairman since 2008.

Location-based social networking is projected to generate worldwide revenues of $3.3 billion by 2013, according to ABI Research. But the business model may not be advertising driven.

“Location-based mobile social networking revenues will reach $3.3 billion by 2013, but successful business models may differ from what many observers expect,” says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte. “While location-based advertising integrated with sophisticated algorithms holds a lot of promise, the current reality rather points to licensing and revenue-sharing models as the way forward for social networking start-ups to grow their customer base and reach profitability. Recent evidence: the agreements between GyPSii and both Garmin and Samsung. Similarly, Loopt has established partnerships with all major US cellular carriers.”

This brand of social media has already started to take off with the recent release of the new iPhone platform. Users are now allowed to download applications designed specifically for the device. This has generated a slew of location-based social networks (as well as search apps).

Related Reading:
Local.com Gets Location-based Search Patent
Apartment Guide Launches Mobile GPS Search Application

Clearwire isn’t the latest Google acquisition. The Internet search giant, though, has joined a group of blue-chip corporate investors in the new Sprint-Nextel bailout of Clearwire — a move that will save WiMax and further Google’s innovations in mobile search.

Clearwire and Sprint Nextel said today they plan to merge their wireless broadband units to create a $14.55 billion communications company. Sprint Nextel will own a majority equity stake (51 percent) in the new joint venture.

Clearwire, will receive a $3.2 billion cash infusion from Google Inc., Intel, Comcast., Bright House Networks and newly spun-off Time Warner Cable. The investment is based on a target price of $20 per Clearwire share and will give the companies a 22 percent stake in the new venture.

The new Clearwire JV will be headed by Ben Wolff, Clearwire’s current CEO , who said in a statement that the merger’s “expanded relationships with Intel (INTC) and Google (GOOG) will expand our vision of an open network.” He added that the partners will enables Clearwire “to tap into some of the greatest innovators of our time.”

Clearwire, a startup founded by cellular pioneer Craig McCaw, is shooting for a U.S. W9Max network of 120 million to 140 million people by the end of 2010.

So here’s what we want to know: “How fast will WiMax be?”

Clearwire’s first mobile WiMax network (being built in Portland) boasts speeds of 5 to 6 mbps on the downlink and 2 to 3 mbps on the uplink while going down the freeway.

Wow. That’s not your father’s Internet Highway.

That’s the frackin’ Internet Autobahn.

Opening Keynote this afternoon: Don E. Schultz, Professor (Emeritus-in-Service), Integrated Marketing Communications, Northwestern University & President of Agora, Inc.
Some quick hits from a conversation I had with the Don (not The Donald). If not yet the godfather of search marketing, he’s definitely our HL Mencken. Brilliant, funny, brutally honest. His quotes: audience food for thought [...]

Open vs. Walled - let the best win.
Recently in Boston, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, was pushing a theme that is dear to many of us. The Mobile Web should grow with open standards. The Walled Garden approach should be abandoned.
The mobile Internet needs to be fully and completely the [...]

Yahoo is now offering its mobile search product in Chinese and has added nine new partners in the Asian market according to a press release today.
Yahoo is claiming they now lead the mobile search sector and with US, European and Asian markets being covered this could be accurate.
The release stated:
Since the introduction of Yahoo! oneSearch [...]

The percentage of Americans in cell phone- only households has surpassed the percentage of people living in landline only households, according to a Mediamark Research report "The Birth of a Cellular Nation."  The landline- only population has been larger than the cell-only population since Mediamark began tracking cell phone use in 2000. This was true [...]

If you can’t be home from work for five minutes without checking your email, you may have a problem, and it may be worse than you think, says a Tel Aviv psychiatrist. You could be suffering from Internet addiction disorder, or you may just have nothing better to do. I added the last part.
Dr. [...]

Last week, we learned that (in terms of search queries) YouTube has become synonymous with “funny videos.”  Now Aniboom.com, which describes itself as “the home of animation,” will launch a channel on Google’s video-sharing site.
Seems like a good fit, no?  The move should draw even more fans and users within Aniboom’s reach, though the [...]