Google Seeks Staying Power on Windows Mobile

[Kalyan]

Google Seeks Staying Power on Windows Mobile

BlackBerry and Symbian smart-phone users conducted 20 percent more searches with Google's shortcut, so why not try it on Windows

Google has a long way to go before its Android platform even catches a whiff of Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system share. However, there are other ways to make Google search and applications more ubiquitous at Microsoft's expense.

Just weeks after rolling out a software plug-in to speed Google search on Nokia's Symbian-based N series or E series, the search giant has created a similar module for Windows Mobile devices.

The tool, which Google calls a "shortcut," is a tab on a mobile device screen that brings users straight to Google's search box, rather than requiring the user to open a Web browser and navigate to Google.com to make a search query.

These utilities are having profound effects on Google's mobile search queries, Robert Hamilton, a product manager on Google's mobile team, said in a blog post.

"When we look at the combined usage numbers for BlackBerry and Symbian versions of this plug-in, we see that users are able to get Google search results up to 40 percent faster," Hamilton said. "And BlackBerry and Symbian users with the plug-in installed search 20 percent more than those without it."

Hamilton added that Google saw similar improvements after updating its interface for Gmail on the iPhone at MacWorld earlier in 2008.

He said iPhone users tried the new interface but didn't stick around. When Google improved the speed of the product, Gmail page views on the iPhone rose.

Source : eweek