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Google Embraces Mobile

Network Computing Mobile Observer, December 20, 2006

By Peter Rysavy

Until now, accessing the Internet with mobile devices has been an exercise in frustration. Sure, using the Internet to get to e-mail has worked fine, with a lot of different solutions available. But browsing the Net with pages formatted for large displays, or using various Internet-hosted applications, has not been practical. Luckily, things are changing.

In a series of moves this year, including last month’s J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) client of GMail, Google has shown its commitment to the mobile space and what can be achieved by well-designed mobile applications. The J2ME client provides fast and convenient access to free GMail accounts; it also offers a much better user experience than using the Web-based approaches available from competing services such as Yahoo.

Another application Google has adapted for mobile use is Google Maps. I’ve already found Google Maps on a desktop to be a super application, especially with its satellite photo integration and the ability to provide directions. Mobile client code is currently available as either a Java application or a native application for the Treo. I’ve been using the mobile maps applications for a couple of months, and find it an extremely useful mobile application. You can drag the stylus to move the map, and easily zoom in and out. In an unprecedented acknowledgement to the needs of wireless computing, the application shows in real time how much data is being consumed. This feedback not only gives you a sense of why the screen may be updating at the rate it is, but for anybody on a usage-based plan, it tells you how quickly you are consuming your bucket of bits. It’s easy to go through hundreds of kilobytes per minute, and any prolonged use goes into the megabytes. Anybody using the application on a regular basis may want to consider an unlimited data plan, which fortunately is less expensive for phone than laptop usage. The application also provides real-time traffic information. Once the expected integration with mobile handset location information occurs, the application will be even more useful.

Google also offers a customizable mobile homepage featuring a search box and items such as weather and personalized news. I’m particularly impressed by the mobile search capability, in which you can specify searches across the Web at large or on just mobile sites. For general Web searches, if you click on a search result, Google then works as a proxy for the response, rendering it in a format more suitable for a mobile screen.

Finally, Google allows you to use SMS messages to obtain specific types of information, including local TV listings, weather, sports, movies, driving directions, area codes, calculations and more.

Clearly, Google has seen the potential of mobile computing and intends to be a driving force in delivering personalized, localized and efficient content and applications. The general quality of results is far higher than most of the operator-hosted portals, which I’ve generally given up on. To give appropriate credit, other Internet players are also targeting the mobile environment, among them AOL, MSN and Yahoo. But so far, I’ve been most impressed by the scope and execution of Google’s efforts.

What does this mean for an average enterprise application of wireless? Well, it’s hard to predict all the consequences. In general, however, the broad applicability of mobile and wireless technology for both business and consumer markets has driven down costs and made the technology universally available and affordable. Well-designed consumer-oriented applications will no doubt drive business-oriented applications, and some of the applications I’ve described here--such as mobile-optimized searches and maps--can be used in work scenarios today.

It’s good to see a company like Google take such sensible steps to target the mobile market opportunity. Granted, these are just initial and somewhat exploratory steps, much like Google’s metro Wi-Fi network in Mountain View, Calif. Also, the Mobile Web still only offers a small fraction of the richness of the Web at large. However, they point to a future of diverse and compelling mobile applications. With companies like Google taking the opportunity seriously, that future will arrive just that much faster.

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