Nokia to offer Google search results
Published by Steve Litchfield at 8:13 GMT, February 12th 2008
Ah yes, good to see Nokia and Google talking to each other at last. It seems that they've inked a deal to include Google search results in Nokia's on-device Mobile Search utility. The rollout will start with the new devices announced yesterday and will then come in firmware updates and downloads to existing devices in various markets in due course. The press release is below, if you want the full details.
Nokia and Google to 0ffer Google Search to Nokia customers worldwide
Industry leaders collaborate to provide mobile users fast and easy access to relevant information
Mobile
World Congress 2008, Barcelona, Spain/Espoo, Finland - Nokia and Google
today announced that Google's popular search engine will be integrated
with the Nokia Search application. The integration will begin in
select markets with the Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6210 Navigator and
Nokia 6220 classic. Google search will be extended to additional Nokia
handset models in the future. Ultimately, Nokia will make Google search
available to its customers in over 100 countries around the world,
serving mobile owners speaking more than 40 languages.
Nokia
Search, now with Google, offers fast and easy access to web information
from the handset. In addition, Nokia Search also makes it possible for
users to search content on their device and use local search engines
for a complete search experience. Nokia Search is available on many
devices and provides direct access with one click from the active
standby screen, saving users time and steps in their searching. Once
users have found the information they are seeking, Nokia Search enables
users to act on that information by engaging device assets such as
maps, messaging or the browser with just one click.
"Providing
choices for our consumers is an important driver in Nokia's Internet
service strategy," said Ilkka Raiskinen, vice-president, software and
services at Nokia. "This integration allows our consumers the ability
to use the innovative search technologies, which have made Google
almost synonymous with Internet search.
"Adding
Google to Nokia Search provides mobile users with fast, relevant and
comprehensive search experience that will be familiar to the people who
use Google to search the web from their desktop," said Google's VP of
Engineering and Products for Mobile Vic Gundotra. "Google search
combined with the high quality applications on Nokia devices help make
information available to Nokia device users wherever they are and
provide an excellent overall experience."
The
collaboration announced today builds on previous cooperation between
Nokia and Google. Google search has previously been available on Nokia
Internet tablets, and last year the Nokia N95 8GB became the first
mobile device to fully support YouTube, the video-sharing platform
owned by Google.
Nokia
Search is available on more than 40 Nokia devices in over 40 languages
and in more than 100 countries. For the latest list of compatible Nokia
devices, please visit www.mobilesearch.nokia.com.
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Categories: Software
Platforms: S60 3rd Edition
News Discussion
Nick17
Is it me or can some of the business-search-result already be found in Maps 2.0 (in the "Google-way")..?
Unregistered
Maybe it's me being paranoid, but I am beginning to think that too much Google can be a bad thing. They are pervasive in all aspects of your life. Those of us that fill in Google forms are providing them info into our personal lives which in turn goes to the government, contrary to what Google says.
Just a though. Removing tin-foil hat.
Nick17
Big Google is watching us..!
icebox
I begin to start feeling that I'm left out.
I always liked nokia that they kept supporting older devices. But more and more (like e.g. maps 2.0) it seems that nokia only thinks about n95 and up.
No more updates for e series? Already. I still want to see demand paging coming to my e61. I mean it is a perfectly good phone, powerful enough for almost any new application (i.e. I can run the new nokia internet radio even if they didn't bothered to make a e series version, i can run youtube and so forth) and still new features don't come to older phones. I always thought that buying a business oriented device assures a longer product lifespan. It seems today the trend is to forget business users and concentrate on "convergence devices" :)
Unregistered
Great and interesting comments. A few clarifications:
- Nokia has been talking with google for quite some time. As an example Google Talk and other Google assets have been prominently featured in the great Linux-based tablets (sorry AAS, but had to write that) ;-)
- The agreement with Google does not mean that Google gets exclusive ownership of the Web search channel in Nokia Search: Also Baidu (largest in China), Yandex (Russian ruler), Yahoo! and Windows Live are viable options to choose from.
- About backporting onto existing devices: More challenging for maps 2.0 and Nokia Search with Google plug-in.
For Maps 2.0, it is possible to install to 3.1 devices, and for it to work on 3.0 devices, additional testing would be needed: I am not sure if this is going to happen, but I presume that the priority is to get this testing completed for the most recently launched devices (of which more and more are based on S60 3.1 - N95 and N95 8GB, N82, N81 SD and 8GB, E90, just to mention a few.
For Nokia Search, the Google plug-in features new implementations that utilise the device platform in a bit different way than previously. This makes the backporting challenging.
-thanks.
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