Opera, the little browser that could, reports users of Opera Mini have surfed 1B Web pages since its official launch seven months ago. So what are mobile device users checking out? Not surprisingly, Google.com leads the pack, followed by Gmail, Friendster (must be a lot of Mini users in Asia), MySpace, Yahoo Messenger and hi5.com. Opera said other popular sites included USA Today, BBC, Mapquest and eBay.

If you're interested in what a large telecom carrier looks like as an income trust, check out my investment feature on Bell Aliant in today's Financial Post. It's an entity with more than 10,000 employees, 3.5 million customers and an enterprise value of $10-billion. Bell Aliant could be a sign of things to come in the slow-growing carrier market in North America.

There's no lack of reaction to Google's three-year, $900-million deal to provide search and keyword advertising on News Corp. Web sites such as MySpace.com but maybe one of the biggest eye-openers is how MySpace's growth is starting to translate into business momentum. According to TechCrunch, MySpace has annual sales of about $350-million, which makes its $580-million acquisition by News Corp. last year look more like a bargain every day. For advertisers such as Google, the big challenge doing business with MySpace is determining how to effectively go after an audience that's not only young but fickle, not terribly loyal and prone to indulge in mini-fads. Google is clearly confident it can crack this marketing nut, and you have to think MySpace's advertising folks will likely have a much easier time closing deals these days. For the deal's details, check out Google's press release. For other thoughts, Jeff Clavier has a post as does Clickety Clack.
Addendum: Given the success of MySpace, among the rumoured buyers for YouTube (it will never do an IPO) is News Corp. GigaOm, however, offerss its take on why it won't happen.