Google mobile content site being built

Still don’t think Google has its sights set on the telecom space?

The Internet search king is developing a site that will allow cell phone junkies to find ringtones, games and all sorts of other good cell phone things they may want to add to their phones, according to the Wall St. Journal.

Once the unnamed site is launched, Google will effectively become a payment and processing gateway for mobile content.
The story, conveniently published in Tuesday’s WSJ, says Google has been working with mobile content providers (e.g. monolithic media companies) for months. The companies are still working out the kinks and a launch date “isn’t clear,” the paper stated.

Google will now be watched even more closely by the world’s wireless service providers, as the operators have had a stranglehold on all mobile content to date - presumably, such a service will help to loosen the vice grip carriers have on mobile applications.

News of the mobile content site comes a week after Google announced its acquisition of GrandCentral, a really clever provider of unified messaging services.

Google has more or less admitted it’s going to launch a Google Phone, which may be a cheap internet access device for people in developing countries. We’ll see.

ADDENDUM - Funny how the Wall St. Journal always seems to break these types of stories! While I’m sure the paper has many talented reporters and no end of resources, the brand name and reach of the paper is probably what leads companies to “leak” stories it wants published to the Journal.

But I digress.

July 18, 2007 | Filed Under News Items and Commentary