Google search plug-in for Windows Mobile promises more of the same

Google yesterday announced the availability of a plug-in for Windows Mobile devices, which provides a shortcut on the home screen to Google's search.

The plug-in was first made available to BlackBerry devices last December, and then to Symbian-based phones more recently. Making it available on Microsoft's popular mobile operating system was only a logical step for Google.

The plug-in can be found at mobile.google.com, where Google offers its other mobile services. It comes as a 300KB file called "googlesearch.CAB," which upon installation makes a Google search field appear on the home screen of the phone.

By eliminating the need to open a browser and navigate to Google, the company claims that searches have increased 20% among those with the Symbian and BlackBerry versions of the software.

Google's dominance in mobile Web searches was the subject of debate at the Visiongain Mobile Web Search Conference in London. While some said the company is the last word in Web searches in both traditional and mobile settings, others accused Google of lacking innovation in its mobile search delivery, where more appropriate (e.g. location-based) results are required.