Google just announced that Product Search listings are now available on iPhones and smartphones that use Google's Android mobile operating system. I guess lowly Blackberry users like myself will have to wait a bit to take advantage of this.
There is an feeling of deja vu around this announcement since back in 2005, Google rolled out Froogle mobile. Updated technology for sure, but with pretty much the same impact.
There are other comparison shopping services with a mobile focus, such as Frugalytics, Frucall, and Pongr. Frugalytics is a pretty straight-foward CSE experience, but with pages designed for easy mobile browsing. Frucall has some interesting additional features for users, such as phone and SMS options, as well as price alert and "tell a friend" functions. Pongr has a downloadable app for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, as well as SMS and email communication options.
Despite the nice features of some of these sites, it's hard to think Google doesn't have an edge in terms of getting traction, even with the current limited support. Since BlackBerry has support for many Google mobile features and is a popular phone choice, it's seems likely that it will be long before the berry version becomes available.
Anyone want to place bets as to how long before we see a Cashback for Windows Mobile?
TheFind is a vertical search engine for shopping and we do have an iPhone app (TheFind: Where to Shop) that has online search and location aware local shopping results.
We also do have a mobile optimized CSS on our site at www.TheFind.com that you can indeed use with your Blackberry.
-Siva
Posted by: Siva Kumar | Apr 24, 2009 at 07:22 AM
I'm sure a CrackBerry Google Base App is in the works. This is a great move by Google; the future growth of shopping, information, and everything else really lies in mobile phones and hand-held devices.
It's good to see Google get a head start on this along with TheFind and other forward-thinking companies.
Posted by: Stefan | Apr 27, 2009 at 12:41 PM
Where can I find Google news like this? I want to measure any upticks from the feature....
Posted by: Krista | Apr 27, 2009 at 02:37 PM
Hi Krista:
For Google Product Search news, try the Google Base blog.
http://googlebase.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Mark | May 01, 2009 at 12:55 PM