[30.04.2007 first posted on silicon republic]
Today, 3 Mobile announced the launch of its collaboration with Google to provide free internet searches for all 3 customers.

The Google search engine sits on 3’s mobile internet homepage and is free for use by both pay monthly and pay as you go customers with 3G handsets. The Google engine provides searches across three categories; the web, images and mobile web, which is in beta at the moment. The mobile web is still a relatively new area so most sites found through the Google web search on your mobile are designed for PCs and as such will not be fully viewable or functional on a mobile. Mobile-enabled sites, however, are becoming increasingly popular. The W3C Mobile Web Initiative www.w3.org/Mobile is an organisation designed to promote standards for mobile web pages, as distinct from traditional ones, which will make browsing the web from a mobile device a more seamless experience. This inclusion of Google to 3’s mobile services is intended to add to the company’s existing services, Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger.
Susan Branchflower, head of marketing for 3, said: “Only last week Google was voted the world’s biggest brand, underlining the power of Google as a search engine for the internet generation.” Google mobile news also comes with the search engine, with the ability for the user to customise by asking Google to aggregate stories with specific keywords to their personal news page. The traditional Google news categories, such as world news, science and technology and entertainment, are already included but can be deleted if wished. 3 Mobile users that want to click through to their searched website will need a mobile broadband add-on to view their chosen website when they navigate outside the free search area. By Marie Boran