Google Releases WAP Search Tool

ChrisUK writes "Google seem to have single-handedly brought html to WAP devices. WAP/Palm users can log on to www.google.com on their devices, and search through Google's web database. Furthermore, the pages that are linked to can be jumped to, and will be converted to wml on the fly. More details can be found here."

Comments

Actually, not really a new service

[DennisZeMenace]

Actually, Xift was first to provide that service, i.e. a WML search engine with automatic HTML rendering.

Google obviously thought it was a good idea when they saw the demo at Xift's launch party a month ago.

Funny thing they claim to be first.

Works well with Nokia 7110e

[Cederic]

I just connected, entered 'slashdot' as a search term, started reading articles.

On a mobile phone screen there's a LOT of scrolling. Each page also goes through the banner, header, sidebar (faq|code|awards|etc), Sections and (for articles) the login box. After all that though, you _do_ get the meat of the page. Nice!

Unfortunately the forms are not translated - so you can not log in, you can not enter searches, and you can not post/reply. This will limit its usefulness for the types of searches you'd use a mobile phone for - an example here: What's the number for a taxi? Google will take you to a taxi locator web page, but you wont be able to tell the web page where you are so that it can give you a local taxi firm's number.

Still, it's nice - better than most wap pages I've come across so far.

Cederic
ps: In trying to access the 'reply' page to respond to a comment through the phone it "crashed" and didn't reset until I received a text message (which by coincidence arrived as I was typing this sentence - I was planning to post then yank the battery - no need now!) The "crash" took the form of a message saying 'Connecting' and none of the phone's buttons responding.

google came up with this in a month? DAMN!

[Smack]

So Xift based their whole company's concept on something that google could get going in a month (from scratch)? Either this whole thing is nothing special or the Google guys are pretty damn smart/fast.

...Or maybe your insinuation that they stole the idea from Xift is just off-base and bitter on your part.

Not all Google news today is good

[Col. Klink (retired)]

In case you missed it (because it's not on the main page), there was also some troubling news about Google partnering with Surfwatch:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?s id=00/05/13/201252

Re:Google rocks!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of the time I find google more than sufficient, although for difficult searches I include &num=100 at the end of the URL. One place I consistantly find google fall down is when I search for something too specific. Google bases it search on a 1.4 million odd word dictionary, but when the "word" you are searching for is not in there, you have to go elsewhere. eg, if I know the exact name of a file I am looking for, 99.9% of the time I have to use another search engine (which btw, happily return what I am looking for).

I followed the YRO link to here, but this quote interests me:

``Many Google users prefer not to have mature-themed sites such as pornography included in their search results,'' said Sergey Brin, co-founder and president of Google. ``Our agreement with SurfWatch allows Google to continue to provide our users with the best possible search experience.''

How exactly are they going to do this without hindering the search experience for the rest of us? Does surfwatch software have some interface to google or something? Maybe a URL switch that their software adds that makes sure google (and its cache) is not used to bypass surfwatch?

Re:With HTML pushed to the limit...

[Thomas Charron]

(Pppst.. Buddy..)

WML *IS* XML. Unfortionatly, HTML != XML, hence, the 'translaction' to WML. There is also the fact that the WML namespace was written around the idea of high latency within communications, and the lack of many 'advanced' features available on a desktop machine..

Imagine the slashdot fron page with all data, etc, being rendered on a screen 5x20. ;-P Welcome to WAP.. Now, you *CAN* serve up this content, but you need to present it in an 'ENTIRELY' different way.

Anyway, I started ranting didn't I..

Short sided version.. WML *IS* perfectly valid XML.

Redistribution?

[Money__]

From the article: " Unlike other search engines that index only web pages that are available in WML, Google brings more than 500 million web pages to the palm of a user's hand. When a wireless user requests a traditional HTML page, Google's innovative technology translates the requested HTML document on the fly into WML."

Given the recent concerns about redistribution of copyright materials, how does this contrast with the MS concern?

Could it not be said that:

"Unlike other discussion groups that only index technical specifications, Slashdot.org brings more of the real spec into the palm of a programers hand. When a Slashdot user requests a traditional ZIP technical specification, Slashdots' innovative users translate the requested ZIP document on the fly into TXT."
___

WAP Emulator

[mischief]

If you want to see what Google's WAP service looks like, there's a really cool emulator at: http://www.yospace.com/.

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Converting HTML to WML is just silly..

[Thomas Charron]

This is quite simply the biggest waste I've ever seen. WAP devices where *NOT BUILT* to browse the web. WML is syntax specific for maximum usage on small screens. Attempting to convert typical HTML pages on the fly to WML is 'quaint' at best. Neat idea, but practical usage? Practically zilch. Better to build a WAP search engine to search for WAP content..