A new study shows that using Google, Yahoo, and other online search engines is actually quite good for your brain.  Who knew?

They basically tested search-savvy people versus folks who aren’t all that Internet-inclined, and found that the savvier users had twice as much “neural activation.”  That’s a fancy way of saying their brain was more stimulated.

So, presumably, the more you use search engines… the more that use will trigger brain activity.  If you’re scared of search engines and the Internet in general, then using them doesn’t do much for your mind.

And here I thought they were going to say that Googling makes you smarter because of all the great information you can access via search engines.  Shows you what I know.  Guess I need to Google more.

A new study claims that most of you are using your phones more for texting than for talking.  Texting is quite popular with the teenage crowd, but this data suggests that popularity crosses generational boundaries.

And I don’t completely understand it.  It takes far longer for me to type/text something than it would take me to say it.

However, the person you’re trying to communicate isn’t always able to talk on the phone.  Nor are you.  If you’re at your child’s school play, for instance, it’s far more discrete to text your buddy that “man this is boring” than it would be to actually speak those words–especially if you’re sitting near the lead actor’s parents!

Anyway, from the article:

For the second quarter of 2008, U.S. mobile subscribers sent and received on average 357 text messages per month, compared with making and receiving 204 phone calls a month, according to Nielsen. The new statistic is a clear indication that Americans have jumped onto the SMS text bandwagon.

This is just part of the reason you should be paying attention to mobile phones.  People love the instantaneous nature of using their phone, and more and more businesses are beginning to make mobile versions of their websites so the on-the-go consumer can connect with them more easily.  The iPhone has made mobile browsing mainstream, and the recent announcement of the so-called Google Phone is simply more evidence of the merging of mobile devices and the PC.

Text-speak may be difficult to understand sometimes, but it’s a language that isn’t going away anytime soon… not by a long shot.