Mobile phone operators mull creating rival to Google
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Some of Europe's biggest telecoms groups are to hold talks next week about creating a mobile phone search engine which could challenge US giants Google and Yahoo!.
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Google has come to cellphones -- the cheap ones, not just the fancy color-screen models with Web access.
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Desperately seeking revenue A consortium of network operators are banding together to back their own mobile internet search, according to The Telegraph.â¦
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InfoWorld - A little-known search engine has optimized its offering for mobile devices, joining an increasingly crowded market of services targeting cell phone users.
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AT&amp;T and Verizon Wireless want to go up against other current mobile operators and some possible future competitors, including Google, in next month&#39;s&#160;auction for 700MHz wireless spectrum&#160;around the U.S.The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday released lists of accepted and incomplete applications for the auction, in which it will sell licenses to frequencies that are set to be vacated by analog TV stations. It has accepted 96 applications and reported 170 as incomplete. The latter need to be completed by Jan. 4.AT&amp;T and Verizon are not surprise entrants but are the country&#39;s biggest mobile operators. If either carrier won a portion of the spectrum that has been designated for use by any device and any service, it would have to open up its network more than any big U.S. operator ever has. Verizon has already unveiled part of a plan to further open its network.They were on the list of incomplete applications, along with smaller mobile operators Alltel and MetroPCS. Cable operator Cox Communications, an archrival of the telecommunications giants, is also preparing an application. And cellular technology giant Qualcomm, which is already building a mobile entertainment network on vacated TV channels, is also gearing up to bid. Would-be bidders with incomplete applications have until Jan. 4 to complete their paperwork.Google earlier this year&#160;offered to participate in the auction&#160;in return for the FCC imposing open-network requirements. The booming Internet company&#39;s involvement could drive up bids all around, helping the government reap its hoped-for $10 billion payday for the spectrum.&#160;Google&#39;s application&#160;has already been accepted, the FCC said Tuesday. So has that of Towerstream, a wireless broadband provider to businesses.One surprise applicant yet to complete its papers is oil giant Chevron.Participation by Chevron in the auction comes &#8220;out of the blue,&#8221; said analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates. However, oil companies and utilities are big wireless users, so he can see why Chevron might be interested.Chevron, like Google, is unlikely to actually build a network, though, he said. &#8220;I can see them potentially winning but then becoming landlords, renting it out,&#8221; he said. For both companies, that decision wouldn&#8217;t be based on the cost of building a network but on the experience required: Neither company has any history of constructing and operating a wireless network, a complicated undertaking.Also Tuesday, the agency extended the Dec. 28 deadline for upfront payments in the auction to Jan. 4 and pushed back a mock auction until Jan. 22. The auction itself is set to begin Jan. 24.Nancy Gohring, in Seattle, contributed to this report.
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By SIMON FLUENDY  VODAFONE will put the Google search engine on the front page of its internet-enabled handsets within weeks.   This will mean that the Vodafone Live! business model is dead, as users will no longer be led straight to Vodafone-branded content.
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The search juggernaut's thirst for ad dollars could rebuild the mobile-phone industry from the bottom up.
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Nokia, Motorola are set to offer their own navigation services, which could put them in competition with mobile operators.Photos: Nokia, Motorola navigators
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Google will come out in mid-2008 with a mobile phone platform that incorporates a variety of Google online services and lets outside developers create applications, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.The goal is to make Google applications and services as easily accessible on mobile phones as PCs, so that the company can extend its advertising business to cell phones and other wireless devices. Google may announce its mobile platform within weeks, according to the Journal.The Journal&#39;s article, based on anonymous sources, is the latest of multiple reports over the past six months or so about Google&#39;s plans for the mobile market.Although at some point it was speculated that Google might be involved in the actual&#160;manufacturing of phone hardware, that rumor is now discredited, as Google is expected to focus on developing mobile software.For Google, it&#39;s critical to replicate on mobile phones the success it has had on PC-based online advertising. After years of unfulfilled promises, mobile advertising will boom in coming years, as people spend more time using the Internet via their cell phones.The Kelsey Group recently forecast that mobile search and display advertising in the U.S. will hit $33.2 million this year and grow at a compound annual rate of 112 percent through 2012, when it will total $1.4 billion.Kelsey Group also expects the number of mobile Internet users to grow at a 20 percent compound annual clip in the U.S. through 2012, when there will be almost 92 million people going online via their cell phones.Worldwide, mobile ad spending is expected to reach $1.5 billion this year and grow to $11.3 billion by 2011, according to market researcher Informa Telecoms &amp; Media.Google is far from alone in its interest at pursuing this emerging opportunity in the mobile market, where all major telecom, online publishing and Internet players are jockeying for position.Of course, delivering online services and applications via mobile phones isn&#39;t as straightforward as doing it via PCs. In the mobile market, providers of online applications often have to strike up deals and partnerships with handset makers and wireless carriers.In a recent interview with the IDG News Service, Marissa Mayer, Google&#39;s vice president of Search Products &amp; User Experience,&#160;acknowledged there are specific challenges&#160;to bringing Google services to cell-phone subscribers.&quot;The mobile space is very complicated,&quot; she said.Google has pursued various avenues for making its search engines and other services available via cell phones. It has adapted Google Web sites for mobile browsers, developed mobile applications people can download themselves, as well as preloaded Google software in handsets via formal partnerships with mobile industry players.&#160;
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A new service promises cheaper mobile calls by exploiting VOIP, but it's not going to be easy. The big carriers must be considered, plus customers will have to punch lots of extra numbers. By Rachel Metz.
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With mobile phones soon expected to push PCs aside as the most popular tool to access the Internet, the company has given mobility a top priority and is taking steps to establish its mobile search engine as the technology of choice for mobile operators.
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InfoWorld - Leading search companies Google and Yahoo didn't appear to have a presence at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment conference in San Francisco this week, but their startup competitors and smaller rival AOL were all angling for influence over mobile search.
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All the rumors about a Google phone may be just slightly off. Rather than sell a mobile handset, Google Inc. might instead offer wireless service.
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Software giant makes bid in an attempt to challenge growing might of Google
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BBC Click investigates the new ways phone companies are trying to get us to access the net through our mobiles.
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Startups in the mobile search market explained why operators might not want to partner with Google or Yahoo.
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NTT DoCoMo, Japan's biggest mobile carrier, may offer a cell phone based on Google's Android platform.