Searching Google on Your Web-Enabled Mobile Phone

Most of Google's mobile search services require the use of a web-enabled mobile phonethat is, a mobile phone with a built-in web browser and access to the Internet. (If you have a non-web phone that offers text messaging, you can use the Google SMS service for some of these functions; read on to the "Searching Google via Text Messaging" section, later in this chapter.)

Using Google Web Search

Google's known for its web search engine, so Google Web Search is the first Google Mobile function we'll talk about. You access the main Google Mobile search page by pointing your cell phone browser to www.google.com.

Google's web interface will look a little different from phone to phone, but in general should resemble the screen shown in Figure 30.1. To conduct a web search, follow these steps:

Search results should now appear on your phone's screen, as shown in Figure 30.2. Ten results are displayed on each screen; scroll down the screen to view additional results.

Conducting Specialized Web Searches

Google Mobile's Web Search lets you conduct a variety of specialized searches, direct from the main search box. These specialized searches include the following:

• Weather conditions and forecastsenter the word weather followed by city, state or zipcode

• Local business listingsenter the business name followed by city state or zipcode

• Stock quotesenter the stock symbol

• Sports scores and schedulesenter the school or team name

• Movie showtimesenter the name of the movie or (for all showtimes) the word movies or showtimes, followed by city state or zipcode

• Definitionsenter the word define followed by the word you want defined

Using Google Mobile Web Search

The unfortunate thing about Google Mobile's default web search is that it searches the entire weband not all web pages are optimized for display on mobile devices. If you want to limit your search to sites designed for display on small mobile screens, use Google's Mobile Web Search. This search is activated when you check the Mobile Web option on the main Google Mobile screen.

Using Google Image Search

Google also lets you conduct image searches from your mobile phone. This is a good way to find wallpapers and screensavers for your mobile phone.

To access Google's mobile Image Search, check the Images option on the main Google Mobile screen. Each search results page displays three images, which you can scroll through on your phone display. (Figure 30.3 shows what a typical image looks like displayed on your mobile phone.)

Using Google Local Search

When you check the Local Listings option on the main Google Mobile screen, you can now search for local businesses. Enter the type of business you're searching for, click the Google Search button, and your screen now changes to that shown in Figure 30.4. From here, enter the location into the second search box (city,state or zipcode), click the Google Search button, and your phone displays matching businesses on a small map, as shown in Figure 30.5.

From here, you can do a few neat things. To call a specific business, just highlight its phone number and click Enter. To display more information about a given business, click the business name. And to display driving directions to or from this location, click the business name and then click the Driving Directions link.