Saturday, September 13, 2008
Google Introduces Its Mobile Search for Windows Mobile
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "Pocket PC Wireless and GPS" @ 06:00 AM
"Previously, when you went to google.com from your phone’s browser and performed a local search, the results were tailored to the last location you entered. Now, using the Gears Geolocation API, Search with My Location approximates your actual location using the same Cell ID technology used by Google maps for mobile. So if you want to find sushi nearby, just type "sushi" and Google will return local business listings around you. If you want to know the forecast, type "weather". If you want to search somewhere else, specify a location in the query like "pizza Kansas City."
- On your mobile device, go to www.google.com/m
- Click the Location link
- Tell it to install Gears. A Windows CE CAB will be downloaded that you need to install.
- Soft reset your device when the install is done.
- Launch PIE and allow Google Gears access to your browser
It isn't perfect. It thinks I am 13 miles northwest of my present location, which is odd. The tower locator system that the Google Maps tool uses can always get me to within half a mile of my real location, and usually under 1,000 yards. It also isn't on the iGoogle page yet on your device, so you either have to pick the iGoogle personalized page to search from, or the generic Google Mobile page, but not both.
Right now it is limited to the US and UK, and there are a list of unsupported devices, so check the blog post before installing.
