China Mobile, the world's biggest operator, has confirmed that Google will provide search services from its portal home page.
The first-phase service was partially put into trial in December 2006 and will be launched broadly in the early part of this year.Google's technology will now be used to help China Mobile's 210 million subscribers find content including sports and entertainment news, ringtones, games, images, videos and more on the Monternet WAP portal. In addition to a search box on the home page, there will be pages dedicated solely to search.
Google has slowly tightened its grip on mobile search over the last 18 months. There have been landmark deals with T-Mobile, Vodafone, KDDI and others. However, the subscriber numbers involved in a China Mobile deal make this announcement very significant.
Wang Jianzhou, chairman of China Mobile, said: "This is an important move for China Mobile's transformation into a mobile information expert. China Mobile will unite the industry chain, rapidly enhancing the whole industry's value."
Eric Schmidt, CEO of of Google, said: "Creating an enhanced mobile experience is a very important focus for Google. Our goal, when working with key industry leaders like China Mobile, is to continue to develop compelling services that provide users worldwide with access to information directly from their mobile device. The cooperation between China Mobile and Google further enhances the strong innovative attributes of both companies, creating a richer mobile user experience."
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Elsewhere the mobile search scene is being divied up between major Net brands like Yahoo along with mobile pureplays like Jumptap, Medio, Mobile Commerce and Sesam who are working with brands and operators to provide while label solutions.
