Fiat, the large European car maker that struggles to make a profit, has teamed up with Microsoft, which doesn’t, to launch a thing called Blue&Me.

According to the mismatched pair, Blue&Me is “the ultimate in-car communications and entertainment system”. Which, taken literally, means that Sneak can look forward to never hearing from this pair again, as there is no point in them developing their modular Bluetooth and USB-based system any further if it’s already “the ultimate”.

Meanwhile Volkswagen is working with Google and graphics hardware firm Nvidia on in-car navigation based on Google Earth - software from the search firm that maps out the entire globe. Which presumably means that users can look forward to their GPS system hopping randomly from London to New York when its loses satellite lock, rather than simply mixing up The Embankment with The Strand.

And can it be co-incidence that in the same week as Google and VW cuddled up together, Google bumped VW’s arch rival BMW down to zero in its German search rankings, claiming that BMW’s site had broken its rules on search engine optimisation? Sneak feels we should be told.

07 Feb 2006