For all the whiz-bang graphics and nifty apps appearing on smart phones these days, there are still few things that feel more futuristic than pulling out your phone, uttering the words, “find directions to the Exploratorium”, and having Google immediately do your bidding. The technology is becoming widely available via apps on the iPhone and deep integration into Android, and this is really only the beginning.

When it comes to Instagram , there are generally two complaints: 1) there’s no Android app yet. 2) the web experience is severely lacking. Today they’ve finally taken a stab at the latter

Editor’s note: This post was written by Alex Rampell , the CEO of TrialPay .

It’s interesting that TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington kicked off a debate today about the current problems with search. Because it’s clear that while few players feel able to take on the might of Google, there remain a few startups out there trying to attack the problem from different angles. One of them is Israeli startup SortFix , who I met on a recent trip to Tel Aviv in Israel (more on that soon).

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has been on stage tonight at a Mobile World Congress press conference talking about Nokia’s future relationship with Microsoft. Various blogs have been live blogging (here’s a post from Engadget). But sitting back and listening to Elop’s explanation about how Symbian devices will still be shipped and a Meego device, due to ship this year, will be used for experimentation and “disruption”, one has to ask the simple question: Where are the apps?

We’ve made it. 16 hours, 7,000 miles, and 1 exploded MacBook Pro power adapter later, we’ve made it. We’ve trekked halfway around the world to Barcelona to bring you the latest and greatest from the biggest mobile show in Europe: Mobile World Congress.

There’s something about the time we’re in right now that reminds me of the brief period before FriendFeed went realtime. Bret Taylor and Paul Buchheit were experimenting with realtime updates, a conversational format where comments paged in as they occurred.

The world is quaking. Egypt and Tunisia are overthrown; Algeria, Gabon, Jordan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are rocking. Some say this is thanks to Twitter and Facebook

While you can debate about the exact role of social media , specifically Twitter and Facebook, in Egypt’s revolution, there is no question about its role as a new global media channel. Where once people tuned into CNN to watch governments collapse, this time around they tuned into Al Jazeera on the Web (at least in English speaking countries lie the U.S. where Al Jazeera English is not widely carried on cable systems).

Editor’s note: Guest author Bindu Reddy is the CEO of MyLikes , a word-of-mouth ad network funded by former Googlers . Previously at Google she managed a team of product managers in charge of various Google apps including Google Docs, Google Sites, and Blogger