Google launches handy new mobile search for Australians

Google has unveiled a new search service for mobile phones that eliminates the often burdensome task of sifting through both mobile and regular web results.

The new mobile search service combines search results from different bodies of information so users don't need to specify their search type. Instead, Google searches through the whole web, mobile web, news articles, local business listings, and image index to get the information needed and then provides the most relevant results.

The new search service also remembers a user's recent search locations to ensure relevant local results appear in subsequent searches.

"We're excited to introduce Google's new mobile search service, which will make it easier and faster for people to find what they're looking for anytime, anywhere," said Google group product manager Carl Sjogreen. "With millions of mobile phones in use in Australia, our goal is to make the Google search experience even more useful and relevant for users on the go."

Google has partnerships with a number of mobile operators including Hutchison, Optus and Vodafone to make Google search available in their specific mobile environments.

Google's new mobile search service can be found at www.google.com.au/m. It joins Google's suite of other products available to mobile users in Australia: Google Maps with My Location (beta), GMail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google News and Picasa.