SAN FRANCISCO - The Internet on Saturday buzzed with renewed rumours of Google making its own smartphone, after the Internet powerhouse said it is internally dabbling with a mobile device.

Google workers are trying out a device that "combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities," vice president of product management Mario Queiroz said in a blog post.

Dogfooding

Google is seeking feedback in a process it refers to as "dogfooding" in which innovations are tested internally before being offered to the public on the basis that employees should be willing to "eat our own dogfood."

"This holiday season, we are taking dogfooding to a new level," Queiroz wrote.

"Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet."

The Android-based mobile devices are being shared with Google workers worldwide, said Queiroz.

Twitter-sourcing

The blog post came a morning after Google workers evidently excited about getting "Google phones" exchanged comments on wildly popular microblogging service Twitter.

"ZOMG we had fireworks and we got the new Google phone," one Google worker said in a tweet. "It's beautiful."

ZOMG is texting slang that originated as a typo of an acronym for "Oh My God" but has come to be used when the phrase is meant a bit sarcastically or while stating the obvious, according to the online Urban Dictionary.

A growing number of US telecom carriers and manufacturers have been adopting Google's open-source Android software in bids to challenge the Apple iPhone and Blackberry from Research in Motion.

Technology industry tracker Gartner predicts that Android-based smartphones will capture 14% of the global market by the year 2012, as compared with a mere 2% today, according to a report in Computerworld.

HTC a key player

According to the Wall Street Journal, the phone will be called the Nexus One and will be made by smartphone maker HTC.
 
It will be sold online but cellular service will have to be bought separately, it quoted persons familiar with the matter as saying. - AFP