At least that’s the suggestion from consumer research service YouGov, which measures “brand perception” via an online panel. YouGov’s BrandIndex survey, which interviews 5,000 people a day and rates brand scores on a scale from 100 to minus-100, shows a big spike over the last couple months for BlackBerry. Adults 35-49 gave the brand a value score of 7.5 on July 21, but by August 4, that number increased to 18.

The BrandIndex people figure that jump stems from the introduction of the Tour, and particularly from the push that Verizon (VZ) has given it–Sprint (S) is also selling the handset, but is keeping that news to itself for the most part. Go to a Sprint store and try to find a Tour. It’s not easy!

But! Even while the oldsters thought more favorably about the BlackBerry, young folks seem to have turned on it: Adults 18-34 gave the brand a value score of 21.5 on July 7, but that number tumbled to 7.9 by August 4. Here’s the chart (click to enlarge):

What gives? One suggestion: Verizon’s decision to drop the prices for almost all of its smartphones (but not the Tour) to $99, which presumably makes the BlackBerry product look…I don’t know…more expensive? I’m not buying it.

Anyway, I’ve been in the old fogey demo for several years now, and I will say, the Tour appeals to me. But then again, that’s mostly because the noisy complaints I hear about the iPhone–primarily AT&T’s (T) lousy coverage and the machine’s puny battery–have kept me from making the leap to Apple (AAPL).

Still, for now I’m hemming and hawing, Hamlet style, on my big purchase. Perhaps I’ll write a post when I make a decision!

Confused? Don’t worry–the world’s search pros are trying to figure out the difference between plain-vanilla Google and the new version, which Google (GOOG) is previewing via a blog post.

Google engineers tell us that Caffeine is a “a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search,” but don’t expect to see any obvious differences in the new approach, even though Google says it will “push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”

Or so the company says. Put the two engines up in a head-to-head test and you will see slightly different results, but only if you squint at them closely: My vanity search replaces my personal blog with my work site as the top result and doesn’t include image results on the first page, which is probably a good thing.

And sometimes new Google gives you more results, or fewer results, than old Google. But since the vast majority of searchers never get past the first page of results, this doesn’t seem relevant. Same with the supposed speed differences: Google tells me that this search for “BlackBerry Tour” came back in 0.14 seconds, compared to this one, which took a whopping 0.19 seconds. But I’m going to have to take its word on this.

If today was April 1, I’d be wary that Google was pulling our leg here and trying to pull off some meta-prank. Maybe one that involved getting lots of bloggers–or more importantly, engineers from Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO)–to spend time deciphering the differences between two search engines that weren’t actually different at all. But you don’t do that sort of thing in mid-August, right?

The site is the work of Peter Rojas, who helped build Gizmodo and Engadget, and Ryan Block, who took the torch from Rojas after he moved on. Gizmodo and Engadget are the best known and most powerful of the new generation of gadget sites, which makes Rojas and Block revered by the gadget gang. That’s why we’ve been hearing about gdgt, in dribs and drabs, for many many months.

But as well known as Rojas and Block are, they’re still going to have to work hard to make a dent in the crowded field. In addition to the two blogs they created, the gadget spectrum includes everyone from staid players like CBS’s (CBS) CNET to rumor sites for Apple (APPL) obsessives, like MacRumors, to sites for real obsessives, like the handful of people who still own Palm (PALM) Treos. (And, of course, there’s All Things Digital’s Walt Mossberg, who bestrides all of this like the colossus he is, and is also my boss. Hi, Walt!)

Rojas and Block argue that their site is different because it’s not going to be driven by editors but by the site’s users, who will gather there to swap info, stories, rumors, opinions, etc. In other words, Facebook for gadgets, though I gather they’d recoil if they heard that. The other pitch, though they won’t spell this out, either: Their site takes a bunch of features and content that you can find other places and presents them in a better way.

There’s a bunch of nifty features, like a gadget-finder that lets you find products via specs instead of brands, and the site seems to be pretty slick. But it’s better if you have a look yourself instead of having me describe it. And gdgt.com won’t really hit its stride until actual users start using it. I look forward to hearing what they have to say about my upcoming phone dilemma: iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre or Blackberry Tour?

But as much as Rojas and Block argue that this is a community site, it’s their names and reps that have people interested in the project. And that’s what has convinced investors to plow money into an ad-supported Web site in an era when the economy sucks and there are way too many ad-supported Web sites.

The duo won’t discuss funding, but I’m told that last fall they were discussing investments of up to $1 million, but ended up taking less than that via a group of VCs and angel investors. I don’t have a complete list of investors, but people familiar with the company tell me that early-stage investor True Ventures led the round, which also included New York-based incubator Betaworks and Mahalo’s Jason Calacanis.

Calacanis’s name will resonate with longtime followers of the tech blog world: He was one of the founders of Weblogs Inc., which created Engadget as a rival to Gawker Media’s Gizmodo, and hired Rojas away from Gizmodo. Calacanis eventually sold Weblogs Inc. to Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL for a decent pile of cash, some of which I believe ended up in Rojas’s lap.

Click the image below to see a screenshot of what gdgt’s homepage ought to look like.