Many textbook companies are lining up to take advantage of these new devices. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson and McGraw-Hill signed with the software company ScrollMotion to adapt textbooks specifically for the iPad. It will be interesting to see how Apple’s bookstore fares as well as the introductory price of $499 for the base model of the iPad.

In my opinion, Yahoo’s search relevancy has plummeted in the recent years giving up massive market share to Google. Although still a relatively small player in search, Bing could potentially make a huge leap if their decision engine concept catches on.

In order to comply with the European Commission, Microsoft is close to finishing their famed browser choice screen. As part of their antitrust settlement, users will be prompted and directed to make a decision on which browser to use. The top five browsers, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE and Opera will be randomized in order to not give any browser an unfair placement advantage. Users in the UK, Belgium and France will get to try it out this week.

Last Thursday at TED, Microsoft wowed the crowd with their latest update to their search engine Bing.  Blaise Aguera y Arcas, who is the architect of Bing maps, demonstrated a live video mapping feature.  During the demo, he zoomed into 3-D images of the streets of Seattle which also has integrated live video.

This add-in to Bing could be a very useful feature letting you check traffic levels, crowds waiting outside of stores and restaurants, etc.

Todd Jackson from Google stated that a PageRank like ranking algorithm would be applied to social content.  Stay posted to Google’s Buzz site as the roll-out takes place.

With Super Bowl 44 over with, it is now time to look at each of commercials.  Like most years, the game was dominated by cars, beer and food…and Betty White getting tackled.

For a complete roundup, AdAge.com has put together a page on their website.

Nike recently ran an advertisement in SI with a slogan of “Prepare for Combat”.  In it Bryant says, “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games. I don’t leave anything in the chamber.”  Lebron James of the Cleveland Cav’s states “Opposing teams don’t realize I was a football player first. I can take those hits and give a few back too.”

An LA Times blogger decided it was time to get a bit over-sensitive with an “oops, bad timing” as this comes on the heels of the Gilbert Arenas suspension for a gun violation.  Although sports stars commonly make associations between the games they play and war, I find this a bit of a stretch.  After all, Kobe does play the position of Shooting Guard.  Should the position be renamed?

If you really want something ridiculous, here is a snippet of a KG interview before Game 7 of their 2004 series with the Kings. “It’s for all the marbles. I’m sitting in the house loading up the pump, I’m loading up the Uzis, I’ve got a couple of M-16s, couple of nines, couple of joints with some silencers on them, couple of grenades, got a missile launcher. I’m ready for war.”

Intellectual property rights during the agency pitch process is a growing problem, so much that the American Association of Advertising Agencies is taking a harder stance on the issue.  They are putting pressure on agency search consultants to add language in contracts which allows an agency to keep any intellectual property during a review process if they are not hired.

The 4A has seen an increase in agencies complaining about a potential client’s desire to own any work or ideas during the new biz process.  Most search companies dispute the rise, however they will be sure to comply with any guidelines.

I think this is a great move as clients and agencies alike are struggling as the economy slowly picks up.  It is not right for a client to have 4 or 5 agencies come in and pitch in order to get a pool of new ideas which they now have ownership of.  The letter that was sent out by the 4A’s was already endorsed by nearly 50 Madison Avenue agencies.