Google has always been about creating the best user experience on mobile devices and has taken broad steps to encourage publishers to optimize effectively for mobile users as well.

For AdWords advertisers wanting to reach mobile screens, how you optimize your site or landing page plays a huge role in how and where your ads are displayed.  Last year, for example, Google started limiting ad serving on high-end mobile devices if they pointed to landing pages with Flash-heavy content.  Likewise, the search giant announced today via its “GoogleMobileAds” blog that it will introducing the mobile optimization of a Website as a new “ad-quality” factor for AdWords campaigns that are driving mobile search traffic.

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It was announced today that Google will begin adding +1 buttons to their Web and mobile display ads in early October, adding user photos and recommendations to the ads themselves.  The buttons were recently added in the same way to Google search results.

On its “Inside AdWords” blog today, Google said that +1 buttons have been installed on over a million Websites across the Web with more than 4 billion daily impressions.  By adding the buttons to display ads across both the Web and mobile, advertisers have the ability to run social-enabled ad campaigns that work across millions of sites on over 40 countries around the world.  The new feature is being added to display ads by default, though users can opt-out manually via their AdWords account.

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While Google may be winning the battle in terms of getting the most devices out in the wild, it looks as though Apple’s iOS is still winning the war.

As part of the Senate Judiciary hearings today, former FTC official and new Google employee, Suzanne Michel, said that a full two-thirds of Google’s mobile search traffic comes from iOS devices, even though recent Android trends suggest otherwise.  She also detailed the fact that Microsoft, Yahoo and Google all bid to become the default search engine on future iOS devices — with Google obviously submitting the winning bid.

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According to the findings of a new Pew Internet research study, 28% of American adults now actively use some form of mobile location services.

This user base primarily turns to mobile location services for help with directions, locating a particular destination, or to engage with social media platforms.

The results of the survey are based on a national telephone survey of 2,277 adults conducted April 26-May 22, 2011.

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‘Tis the season for mobile searches. That’s what Google apparently thinks ahead of the rapidly approaching holiday shopping season.

“44 percent of total searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms will be from mobile devices this holiday season based on historical growth rates,” Google says, based on established patterns of mobile query growth in recent years.

Since 2009, mobile shopping “patterns” have seen two consistent and profound spikes. The first comes during Black Friday – the shopping bonanza that follows Thanksgiving – and the second is the weekend before the Christmas holiday.

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Baidu, the Chinese search engine that has significantly more market share than Google in China and other Asian countries, has announced plans for a new mobile OS.

Dubbed “Baidu Yi,” the new OS looks to mimic the same go-to-market strategy as Google’s Android, integrating the company’s cloud service along with other embedded apps such as Baidu search, maps, email, video and many others.  Not surprisingly, the new OS will center around third-party apps as well, and the company said it will share earnings with the device manufacturers it partners with to run the new OS.

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It was reported Wednesday that US regulators are poised to announce a $500 million settlement with Google pertaining to longstanding charges related to advertisements for illegal online pharmacies.

According to published reports dating back to spring, the pharmacies that participated in Google ads “were operating outside the law, leading to a Department of Justice investigation into Google’s advertising practices.”

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