Searching the web using a mobile phone is not always a pleasant experience. You have to open a browser, go to a search engine, wait for the page to load and type your query. Google tried to eliminate two of these steps by providing small applications that add Google's search box on the phone's home screen. This way, the search box is always at your fingertips and you won't have visit Google's homepage to type your query.
For Blackberry, the search application is included in the Google Mobile Updater, which is available at mobile.google.com. Google offers a similar search shortcut for N-series and E-series Nokia phones and for Windows Mobile phones at the same address. Google will probably expand the availability of this app to other mobile phones, although not all of them allow search boxes on the home screen. For feature phones, Opera Mini is probably the best fastest way to access Google search.
Because the search box is more accessible and it's so easy to enter your query, people search more. "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. And, BlackBerry and Symbian users with the plug-in installed search 20 percent more than those without it," concludes Google.
"We have very much hit a watershed moment in terms of mobile Internet usage. We are seeing that mobile Internet use is in fact accelerating. The growing availability of flat-rate data plans from phone carriers instead of per-minute charges that previously discouraged Internet use, along with improved Web browsers on mobile phones as well as better-designed services from companies like Google are fueling the growth", said Google's Matt Waddell. iPhone was a great testbed for trying new interfaces and testing their impact as the Internet will slowly move to mobile phones.
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