Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) ventured further into mobile advertising this past week with the introduction of display ads geared for mobile phones. From the smallest cellphone screen resolution to the iPhone, Google wants to ensure that it will be able to display ads on all those billions of tiny screens in the very near future. This should come as no surprise, as CEO Eric Schmidt seems to always promote Google's mobile efforts every single chance he gets. It's no surprise -- there are way more mobile users in the world than there are PC users.

Can Google become as successful on the mobile screen as it has been on the PC screen? That's a tough one to chew on, but the extremely limited real estate of a cellphone screen may make that effort quite difficult. Google just can't line up paid ads down the side of a cellphone screen like it can on that laptop screen or that 21" LCD monitor on the desk at home or in the office.

The iPhone changed the game a bit last year, giving customers a very large screen -- both physically and in resolution -- to play with. However, the number of iPhones pale in comparison with total cellphones with a smaller color screen. Google's Android cellphone operating system, which has a huge partnership following, may be able to increase available inventory on the mobile screen for Google's ads. In fact, that was probably a top priority. However, it will be quite a while before customers have that at their fingertips. Google's mobile ad efforts, until then, will be highly complementary to its regular advertising business on the PC screen, but nothing more.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is rolling out another serious swipe at advertising in a relatively new category: mobile phone screens. Although mobile advertising is nothing new, Google's intense focus on this new platform for display ads is ramping up excitement in some circles. After all, there are many more cellphones with mobile web capability than there are PCs worldwide. The trick is to get consumers and businesses using the mobile web. The iPhone has helped kickstart interest in this that had been pretty much dormant before last year for a range of reasons.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin even said at Google's recent quarterly results conference call that "The mobile ads work very well ... there's nothing to dissuade me it would be any worse than traditional desktop search." If that holds true -- and we all know how desktop search has panned out -- mobile search may be a huge blockbuster.

Faster data connections are available with many wireless carriers now, smartphone shipments are increasing, and attention to the mobile web has gained a huge amount of steam due to the iPhone and its full web browsing capabilities. Once Google's Android operating system begins shipping and the mobile web is a single button press away, Google's next frontier to attack will be the mobile search market. And, of course, selling display ads along with all those searches.

Japan's largest wireless operator, NTT DoCoMo, Inc. (NYSE: DCM), will be joining with the world's leading internet search company to provide advanced services to its customers. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) will help NTT customers find what they want on the web through a promotional effort that aims to boost mobile search as well as generate revenue with search-related advertising.

In a country where much of the mobile subscriber population regularly accesses the internet through millions of cellphone handsets, this is a significant development. But it's not just because Google has partnered with a global wireless carrier -- it's because the partnership referred to search-related advertising explicitly.

One area that Google must treat carefully with new wireless partnerships is its ability to monetize its search service within the confines of a smaller screen. The company made its fortune supplying relevant but relatively simple text ads to web surfers, so it already knows how to reach customers successfully in another medium: supply relevancy and quality without taking away from the search experience.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s addition of GrandCentral (an awesome service!) last week kept the batting average of the internet search company at a steady 1.00. Google keeps on making acquisitions that add to its already-impressive arsenal of products and services that, for now, overshadows just about every other internet brand. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) have made some large-scale buys too in recent months (Right Media for Yahoo!, aQuantive for Microsoft), but Google keeps stealing the thunder.

But going back almost a year now, Google's acquisition of online video company YouTube still gets a lot of attention due to the way the website is stealing eyeballs from traditional media like network and cable television (and movies), among other venues. YouTube's video quality and medium (computer monitor viewing) is hugely subpar when compared to a standard home television experience, but that does not seem to matter; instead, it's the content that matters. Viewers may be getting increasingly fed up with the hi-def broadcasts of boring, staid shows and prefer the grainy reality of 'television' made by the public. Why? It's real.

YouTube's greatest potential, though, is not even on the computer screen -- it's on the cellphone screen. Visit mobile.youtube.com on your cellphone's web browser and you can get a taste of what may be coming. Not all YouTube content is available yet, but with these videos being converted on the fly to the format most modern cellphones can play, is YouTube's vast video library about to be opened to over a billion cellphones worldwide? With YouTube being bundled by Apple on the new iPhone and with a partnership with Korean cellphone giant LG on tap, Google's plans for YouTube may expand way beyond the computer screen. There are about four times as many cellphones in use in the world as PCs -- and we can all do the math, right?

When you think of Internet usage these days, the standard PC or laptop usually comes to mind. Hooking up to wireless Internet networks in hotels, that neighborhood McDonald's or a Starbucks lounge is now the norm for many of us who like to have Internet access almost everywhere. And for email addicts, the BlackBerry is a must, at least based on how many I see being used by everyone from businesspeople to soccer moms.

But wireless access to email is not everything. A growing number of folks want mobile and personal access to the web and to Internet search as well. As such, both Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) have really beefed up their mobile web offerings in recent years to make sure all the services from both companies are accessible to just about anyone with a modern cellphone, BlackBerry or Pocket PC. As for Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone -- due this Friday -- it will have access to Google and Yahoo! built in and easy to find right out of the box.

Looking at recent data from mobile research firm M:Metrics, Google's power over eyeballs on the 'mobile web' seems to be just as strong as it is on that new LCD monitor at home or work. Google's share of the "smartphone" market for mobile web usage topped 62%, compared to 33% for Yahoo! Although this data only counts smartphone users (Windows Mobile, Symbian and others), the segment of everyday wireless users who are turning to miniature, mobile computers instead of normal, do-everything cellphones is expected to continue to increase. Google's brand is already dominating a market that will continue to grow, and I'm quite sure that Google's presence on the PC screen has translated nicely to market share on that smaller -- but just as important -- advanced cellphone and smartphone screen.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) just recently launched its Google Calendar for mobile phone usage (as of last week). Sounds pretty boring, right? Well, to most of us, it is. Google, however, sees the future of where people will be getting information from, and it's not the PC. You see, there are quite a few more mobile phones on the planet these days than PCs, and in more markets (except the U.S., yet), customers are using those nice, color mobile screens and higher-speed cellular networks to check e-mail and browse information (not necessarily websites). As such, Google knows that getting its brand in front of customers in that arena is a key move to its future.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has not sat still either. "Yahoo! Go" is now being downloaded to cellphones, Treos and BlackBerrys in large amounts, putting the entire Yahoo! portal in front of millions of wireless phone subscribers who still need Yahoo!'s services when away from a laptop or other PC. Similarly, Google Calendar for mobile phones is yet another example of the company making many of its products available for cellphone use.

This is significant because as Google customers begin using its services on those hundreds of millions of phones, Google's advertising finesse could, at some point, reap even more revenue from mobile customers. Google already is playing with mobile advertising and if it can recreate (even partially) the success of its online advertising in the mobile phone space, another mold will be broken. In fact, it will be interesting to see if the same kind of battle will shape up between Google and Yahoo! on the mobile phone screen as has happened on the PC screen.

Leading internet companies like Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) realize that there are more mobile phones in use on the planet than personal computers. As such, both companies have started beefing up mobile phone offerings to ensure they have the latest and greatest tools out there for customers who access the web more from their phones (like much of Japan). In addition to that contingent, there are increasing amounts of customers who are constantly on the go but need to be connected at the same time (a void the BlackBerry has filled quite nicely).

So, Google and Yahoo! (and Microsoft Corp.-- NASDAQ: MSFT) have full information portals ready for your cellphone. Google Maps even emulates the successful Google Earth software by providing driving directions and satellite maps right on your cellphone screen. Enter Ask.com, which has announced that it will integrate GPS (global positioning system) capabilities into its mobile search product, which puts the company in direct and increasing competition with the likes of Google and Yahoo! No surprise there, since the company, owned by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI), has been competing with both companies for quite some time in internet search.

This may sound insignificant now, but as more computing horsepower makes its way to mobile handsets, and as wireless networks evolve to ensure broadband internet speeds are available to customers, the mobile front will be one of the new frontiers that internet companies will tackle in order to create business models to monetize that space. Right now, Google, Yahoo! and Ask.com are really into the space, and if all three are successful, the hundreds of millions of mobile phones in the U.S. and globally will hopefully become cash cows for those companies that see the vision of what lies ahead.

Admittedly, I'm a Google-holic -- Gmail, alerts, web pages, RSS reader, the works. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) seems to have a knack for releasing a new product just at the moment I realize I need such a product. The latest? Free voice-interactive 411 service.

I tried it for the first time last weekend, looking for the number of a local pizza joint. Sure, the phone book was in the next room, and my laptop was on the floor next to my recliner, but my cell phone was right there in my pocket. I called 1-800-GOOG411, and asked the computer to find the number of Iacono's Restaurant. It took a couple of seconds of computer muttering that sounded like an LP played backwards (Paul is dead?) for it to offer me a list of potential matches, none of which hit. After a few more tries at deciphering my steel-belt accent, though, it recognized my request, and connected me. For free.

Very cool. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), you can stick your 411 charges!

Another service I've become addicted to is Google's SMS search. For example, I was in the burg of St. Paris recently, looking for a particular church. I texted "Churches St. Paris OH" to GOOGLE (466453). In ten seconds, I received back a text message with the names and addresses of all the churches in town.

I so love living in a future where a company has billions of dollars to spend on making my life easier.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is planting its mobile device and access strategy quite quietly, but with the force of its PC web-enabled products. Now the company's Google Search, Google Maps, and GMail -- in their mobile versions -- will start to become pre-installed on Samsung wireless handsets based on statements from both companies this week at the CES trade show in Las Vegas.

Ever time I hear an announcement like this, it seems to me that Google is entrenching itself incredibly far in the everyday lives of computer (web) users and mobile phone users. Put those two customer segments together and you have billions of potential customers available. But, Google, already have billions of users it feeds every single day.

This move is just the latest in Google's attempt to ensure it is the web product of choice -- for search, email or maps/directions -- for as many global customers as possible. With Samsung being the third-largest manufacturer of handsets in the world (at this time), a partnership of this magnitude is no small matter.

GOOG shares are sitting at roughly $498 as I type this.

Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) pervasiveness in this day and age is unmistakable. In several conferences last year, I repeatedly heard CEO Eric Schmidt say that one of Google's top priorities is the mobile sector -- the cellphone screen to be blunt.

With that said, Google has scored a major hit. The world's leading Internet search engine has signed a deal with the world's largest mobile carrier -- China Mobile -- to have Google's mobile website featured prominently for China Mobile customers.

China Mobile -- with over 200 million paying customers -- will now have Google's mobile presence sitting on it as customers in that country use high-speed cellular handsets to do Internet-related tasks. Unlike here in the U.S., much of the Pacific Rim uses mobile technology for Internet access (instead of PCs), so this is quite the deal for Google.

If you haven't checked out Google's website for your mobile, point your handset's browser to www.google.com/xhtml and you can see what it looks like. Will Google reign supreme over the coming mobile Internet access explosion (that is already happening in some parts of the world)?

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is once again trying to get more customers using its venerable email service -- dubbed Gmail -- as the search giant has released a new mobile version of its Gmail client as a Java download for mobile phones as of today.

Although Google's Gmail service has been available for almost a year through the wireless web browser built into most cellphones these days, this is the company's first attempt at an actual downloadable and installable application (the app is a J2ME download) that is installable by visiting www.gmail.com/app on your mobile phone's wireless web browser.

Google execs have said many, many times in the last year that it believes the mobile phone has more potential than the PC for internet access in global markets. It's not hard to see why, since mobile phones are much more numerous than PCs in most countries these days.

Well, now it's got the goods and the masses have their cellphones. It's a marriage waiting to happen -- but the two first have to meet. The company's next challenge is getting the message out to the people. I've said many times that Google fails to properly market newer services as best it can -- only to see uptake falter after initial hype.

As Melly wrote yesterday, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) announced it would be introducing a new advertising platform to U.S. mobile Yahoo! customers. No, this one isn't for the web at large, but the web "at small."

In addition to Google's announcement that it would be selling advertising space through its AdWords program so that targeted ads would show up next to Google searches performed using the Google wireless portal for mobile devices and cellphones (www.google.com/xhtml), Yahoo! (wap.yahoo.com) appears to be getting in that same game now for U.S. customers -- furthering its previous introduction of mobile ads in Japan and the U.K.

Most U.S. users cannot imagine searching the mobile web on their cellphones on a regular basis yet, but that doesn't mean it's not happening. In fact, U.S. wireless users are way behind most of the world in terms of wireless technology and fast data streams to our cellular phones. Europe's been the perennial leader here, but Japan and South Korea have had fast wireless phones with larger color screens years before we even had the first sign of these technologies here in the U.S.

In yet another innovative product, it looks like Google has made live traffic maps available for viewing directly on a mobile phone screen, according to this Reuters story. Google appears to be trying to release a product almost every single week these days. With Google's mobile live traffic maps being offered in 30 major U.S. cities right at launch, this is further evidence that Google is trying to make itself indispensable to the customer from every modern information angle -- personal computer and mobile phones are the top two, yes?

By visiting www.google.com/gmm on a mobile phone with a built-in browser (almost any cellphone these days), the application can be downloaded and immediately used. Even if you don't live in one of the 30 major cities listed as available right now, there is partial information available on many other cities as well. With Yahoo! and Google battling it out on every front -- including the mobile space which will only heat up further -- the battle lines are already being drawn.

By contract, mobile phones in Japan are used more than computers for Internet access (and have been for a while). As wireless data networks become more prevalent here in the U.S., expect more innovative mobile offerings from Google -- a fact that CEO Eric Schmidt has hinted at several times recently.

Google Mobile, long available in the U.S., has now made many Google services available to British customers via mobile phones. Gmail, Google News and even the Google Personalized Homepage are now available to wireless subscribers in the UK using just their handsets: no computer needed. Google appears to want to own your cellphone screen time just like it does with your Internet search time -- and GOOG investors would be wise to pay attention to the Internet search's giant's moves in this area.

Google has taken the bold design step of trying to duplicate the experience (and presentation) of its online services like Gmail and News into the tiny, two-inch screen real estate that most wireless phones now have. After having checked out Google Mobile -- available by just visiting www.google.com on your phone's browser -- I think the company has it down pretty well. Google's infamous easy-to-use and uncluttered interface on a computer's web browser is pretty much the modus operandi it's taken with porting its web services to fit on a mobile phone screen.

With Google launching its mobile offerings in full force in Britain, what else is left? The hard markets, that's what. It's pretty easy to port English-language web-based services to a mobile platform (I guess, since Google sure makes it look easy), but porting its services to Chinese, French, Italian, and other languages may prove a tad harsher -- and who knows if Google is preparing to do this. But, with billions of wireless customers around the globe speaking languages other than English, perhaps the larger markets are truly ahead for Google Mobile.

With wireless phones becoming globally more used than personal computers, how are the web's leading internet players dealing with adding their services to the phone screens of the billions of wireless users in the world? There are literally hundreds of millions more phones in use in the world today than computers -- and in the pacific rim area, mobile phones are probably used more than PCs to access internet content, seeing as though wireless networks are faster and much more advanced than they are here in the U.S.

With this incredible market opportunity, who is leading the pack? Google, Inc.'s CEO, Eric Schmidt, has repeated said in investor meetings and press releases that Google continues to concentrate on mobile offering as a priority area. The sheer amount of mobile devices (phones) should make any CEO of any internet service or product attentive to the burgeoning marketplace of mobile internet access and content.

With Google having a pretty large offering of almost universally-accessible mobile content, it seems to be taking the lead -- although competitor Yahoo! is not standing still and has an equally-beefy mobile content offering, albeit more device-constrained than Google. Google's mobile strategy appears to follow its corporate mantra: Make the content easy to use, navigate and universally accessible. That means Google Maps, Google News, Google Gmail, Google.com and even the Google Personalized Homepage are accessible from any recent mobile phone -- on any global wireless network -- with the standard xTHML miniature web browser.