My spy network has returned with pix of these Chevy Cobalt cars in the Google parking lot, which are preparing to take pictures of the environs with their cool 360° cameras. A field operative followed a Google camera van as it returned to the mother ship in Mountain View, California yesterday after a photography excursion.

The fleet pictured seems outfitted for spying with those metal structures on the roofs.

So watch it. Big Google is out there.

Yahoo has launched a “suggest search” feature that brings up a list with suggested search terms.It is not entirely new since it has been available on the Firefox Yahoo toolbar, but it will be new to Yahoo.com.

Google offers the same service with its Google Suggest.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian Government’s consumer watchdog, is suing Google Inc, Google Australia and Google Ireland for misleading and deceptive conduct because of deceptive Adwords ads presented next to Google search results.

The ACCC says that car ads on Google took users to the website of The Trading Post, a weekly classifieds newspaper owned by Australia’s largest telecommunications company Telstra.

This isn’t the first case worldwide where Google has had to defend itself against allegations such as these. So far Google has been successful in its defense against individual actions in the United States, however, this would likely be the first case where Google has been challenged at this level by a Government body. Trade practices laws in Australia are stronger than similar laws in the United States, so this isn’t a case in which Google will be assured a win.

Use others’ map mashups to create your own custom map by using MyMaps and Mapplets. Click on MyMaps in Google Maps, then click on "Add Content" to start adding layers. Look through Google’s library of user-created mashups, plot them on a custom map, and layer different sets on data on top of one another to create new combinations. Save your creations. Repeat as necessary.

One of the main selling points for Apple’s iPhone was the YouTube application and it made other cell phone companys quiver.  Well, Samsung is up for the battle and the war over easy accessibility has just begun.  Samsung is introducing the SGH-L760, a 3G phone that allows you to record video from the phone itself and upload it directly to YouTube, uBlog and Buzznet.  It should be decent enough for all you YouTube fanatics to upload random videos throughout the day. 

The phone is a slider, featuring a 2 megapixel camera, FM radio, Bluetooth, MP3 Player, web browser, and an expandable memory card slot for your microSD card.  The bad news, it’s being released to the European market first. 

By the way, LG just announced a partnership with Google for YouTube enabled phones. These two companies are tag teaming against Apple, putting them against the ropes.