Google zeros in on wireless in London

Search for mobiles on the way

Google's next big push will be to develop mobile search technologies - and that effort will be based out of London, according to a report in The Times.

Google executives told the newspaper it expects products for mobile phones, laptops and PDAs to be its biggest area of growth in coming years. As part of this, Google is modifying its search results to work better on mobile phones and creating new search technologies just for mobiles and PDAs, according to Deep Nishar, Google's director of wireless products.

When the search giant opened its London GooglePlex last autumn, it made clear it had chosen the capital city because of its wireless know-how.

At the GooglePlex opening, Nikesh Arora, VP of European operations, said: "Europe is ahead of the US by light years when it comes to wireless technology."

Google's Nishar told The Times that mobile phone saturation in Europe - where mobile phones outnumber people - as well as the widespread mobile uptake in emerging markets such as China and India - where there are 3.6 million mobile phone users - have piqued the company's interest in this area.

Nishar added: "Looking at these numbers, it becomes very obvious that in the future people will want to access information on the web with a device they can carry with them."