MySpace bids for socializing on Google phone

MySpace is the first to unveil an app for owners of the just-released G1 phone powered by Google Inc.'s Android operating system.

News Corp. owned MySpace announced a mobile application for the G1 that can be downloaded wirelessly to the device through the Google-run Android Market. The Market is stocked with add-on programs and games built by third-party developers.

The T-Mobile G1 (made by HTC) costs $179 with a two-year contract in the US.

MySpace's Android application lets G1 users do many of the same things they can do from a desktop computer, like look at profiles and photos on MySpace. In addition, the application lets G1 users quickly upload photos from the phone to their MySpace profiles.

There's no mobile Facebook program for the Android Market yet, but both MySpace and Facebook have already courted iPhone users with programs that let people stay connected.

Google to dump user data faster

Google is to halve the amount of time it stores users' personal search data. The search provider said it will anonymize identifiable IP addresses on its server logs after 9 months.

Google currently collects and stores information from each search query, holding information about the search query itself, the unique IP address and details about how a user makes their searches, such as the web browser that is being used.

The company says it needs this information to improve its various services and to help fight threats such as fraud, spam and malicious attacks, and to aid "valid legal orders" from law enforcement agencies.

In June last year, Google announced it was cutting the amount of time such data was stored from 24 to 18 months.