Google is supporting the EU’s Safer Internet Day by promoting its own Tips For Online Safety for web users looking for details about the event.

Google is listing its advice page above search listings for Safer Internet Day to remind parents and families of the steps they can take to stay safe online.

Details of how to customise Google Safe Search including activation of the Safe Search Lock, which enables parent to check at a glance that it is in force due to the highly visible coloured Google balls, are included on the page.

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Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica is considering plans to charge search engines including Google and Yahoo for the bandwith they consume across the network.

Speaking in Bilbao, Telefonica President Cesar Alierta suggested that major search organisations were benefitting from significant amounts of free bandwidth to the cost of telecoms providers.

Telefonica operates across Spain as well as much of Latin America.  The organisation considers that its investment in in the network and its ongoing maintenance is benefitting the search engines which are profiting as a result.

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Myriad, Europe’s largest mobile software company, aims to radically transform Android and the way applications run on the OS.

Today it announces Dalvik Turbo, a virtual machine that replaces the standard Dalvik engine currently powering apps on Android.

The company says Dalvik Turbo increases application execution speed by up to three times – allowing OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and operators to bring smoother delivery and more complex applications to Android phones, while also providing substantial battery life improvements when running resource intensive tasks.

Games developers are also reported to benefit from the virtual machine, by developing games for Android with improvement greatly improved graphics and gameplay.

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Innovative mobile podcasting start-up AudioBoo has now added vanity URLs and profiles to its service and hints at more surprises to come as the team gets ready to join the UK’s Digital Mission to this year’s SXSW Interactive event in Texas.

AudioBoo initially launched its audio-blogging software as an iPhone app, followed by a similar app for Android users.  For those wanting to share their thoughts from any phone, the UK-based start-up introduced PhoneBoo and, late in 2009, added browser-based recording.

Last week, AudioBoo enabled users to add profile information their accounts and even register their own vanity URLs, but the team has also been making some even bigger changes behind the scenes.

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Editors Note: This is a guest post by Duncan Riley, Australian entrepreneur,respected blogger and editor of The Inquistr . We are delighted to have someone of his calibre and experience share his thoughts on the potential consequences on Australia’s Internet censorship plans.

The spectre of broadscale Internet censorship in Australia has been covered previously here on The Next Web before, but many outside Australia may wonder: why should you care if you don’t live in Australia.

If you’re not aware of what’s proposed, the short version is that Australia is proposing to introduce a compulsory firewall that filters content based on a blacklist of banned sites.

What’s going to be on that list is even now still somewhat confused. The Censorship Minister Stephen Conroy has stated that all Refused Classification content will be banned,

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Google yesterday announced investment in a number of university research projects across the US. The University of Cambridge however is set to become the only university outside of the US to receive a grant in this round of funding.

The investment will go to Cambridge University’s green technology initiative, part of its University Computer Lab project ‘Computing for the Future of the Planet’.

Google’s funding will be spread over over three years. but exactly how much will be invested is not clear. Individual grants will range between $100,000 and $1.5 million, substantially higher than previously grants of only around $50,000 – and Cambridge will reportedly receive a “six figure” sum.

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Classified ads service Gumtree has today unveiled some new features on the beta version of its site that should make it easier to use and navigate.

The new design, honing the beta design launched two months ago, allows users to browse listing not only by city, but by individual areas of the city.

In London, you can now look for ads specific to individual areas like Shoreditch or Dalston rather than having the scan through a listings for the whole city. This makes certain uses for the site, searching for a flat to rent for example, much easier.

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It’s likely you’ve heard of Appsfire, a service that tracks the iPhone apps you use and in doing so, recommends other apps you should try.

Today, Appsfire becomes a legitimate business with the announcement of angel funding from some of Europe’s leading entrepreneurs including the likes of Marc Simoncini (meetic CEO) and Jean-David Blanc (recently investor in Twitter founders new company, Square).

Based in France, the service launched on June 30, 2009 and is founded by Ouriel Ohayon and Yann Lechelle, two very respected entrepreneurs in their own right.

With thriving recommendation figures (10 Million reportedly apps shared and recommended), new funding and a new site, Appsfire is setting its sights on revamping its iPhone app, improving methods of app discovering, and exploring other mobile platforms, iPhone aside.

Funding figures were unfortunately not disclosed.

Following the US advertising industry’s efforts to introduce a privacy icon to notify web-users that they are viewing advertisements placed using behavioural targetting techniques, there are calls for the UK industry to follow suit.

New Media Age reports that, in the USA, there are plans for the privacy icon to become as familiar as widely recognised symbols used both on and off-line for recycling and other high-profile campaigns, going on to suggest that UK’s online advertising community could benefit by coming together under a similar scheme.

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Nokia has confirmed over 1.4 million  downloads of its Ovi Maps mobile navigation software since its launch on 21st January 2010, with four European countries amongst the top five countries rushing to use the software.

The UK, Italy, Germany and Spain represent Europe alongside China in the top five countries downloading the app, which offers free walk and drive navigation to users of  Nokia GPS-enabled handsets.

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