Google Searches Go Mobile

Google Searches Go Mobile
Google's short message service (SMS) is accessible immediately to beta testers. The service will enable users of mobile phones and other handheld devices to send text message queries and receive phone book listings, dictionary definitions, prices and other information.

The move is a bold push beyond Google's traditional business base and answers critics who say the company is too reliant on an increasingly competitive sector.

The service, called Google SMS , allows users to retrieve business and residential listings, product prices and even includes a dictionary.The service, called Google SMS , allows users to retrieve business and residential listings, product prices and even includes a dictionary.

But the SMS service will not make Google any money -- at least to begin with -- although mobile carriers will reap a five- to-ten cent fee per message.

"In all of these cases (of businesses included in the search) you do not pay to be included," Georges Harik, director of Google's start-up unit, Googlettes, said.

Nor will consumers pay Google.

"We're not charging anything for the service and we have no plans to do so in the near future.

"We're trying to see if this is compelling enough to get people to use it," he said.