Not only has it set the blogosphere buzzing with its post-Labor Day Google Doodle Mystery and the Wednesday news event announcing Google Instant, but now tech research company Gartner reports that Google's Android will be in striking distance of Nokia's Symbian system for world champion in mobile operating systems, leaping past Research in Motion's Blackberry and Apple's iPhone iOS.

Gartner predicts that Android and Symbian together will account for nearly 60 percent of mobile OS used by consumers by 2014. (Symbian's 2010 expected market share is 40.1 percent.) Gartner had earlier foreseen the rise of Android to second place would take another two years. ...