Freeing Google From the Desktop New Mobile Applications Put Popular Web Features
On Your Portable Device
Google has been branching out from its search-engine roots to offer a variety of Web-based applications. Some of these, especially Gmail and Google Maps, have been well received and are quite popular on computers. Now the company wants us to use these and other applications away from the computer, too -- on mobile devices.
This week, we put Google's suite of mobile programs through the ringer to see if we might let it infiltrate our on-the-go lifestyle as easily as we've let Google search become an everyday part of our computer's browser. Google offers five Web applications for downloading onto your mobile device including Maps, Gmail, SMS, Search and News.
We focused on the first three programs to see how they would fare on a tiny device with a smaller screen that demands more scrolling to view information that is normally contained in a single screen on a computer.
Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by Google Maps for mobile, Gmail for mobile, and Google SMS (Short Messaging Service), a system that uses text messaging to find answers about certain topics. The programs are visually attractive on smaller screens, and didn't require much practice, catering to people who want quick assistance without much fuss.
And Gmail for mobile lets you open attachments containing photos, Microsoft Word documents and PDFs -- a capability typically only found on Treos, BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile smart phones, not cellphones.
Google Inc. isn't alone in this field. Many companies, including its rival, Yahoo Inc., make mobile applications for cellphones, and this category is likely to keep growing.
We used three mobile devices for our Google tests: the $80 Samsung A900M cellphone from Sprint, the $225 Samsung Drift cellphone, from a new phone carrier called Helio and the $400 Palm Treo 700p with Verizon service (all prices include two-year contracts). Your cellphone carrier must use Java programming language to work with Maps and Gmail for mobile; Verizon does not. The Treo works with Google Maps for mobile but not with this new Gmail version. Any phone with text messaging capability can use Google SMS.
These Google mobile applications are free to download, but your cellphone carrier may charge you for Web browsing or text messaging, depending on your plan.
To download any of these applications, you can go to
www.google.com/mobile and enter your cellphone number, triggering the site to send a text message to your device with a URL link for the program you want to download. Or you can enter the URL (found on the Web site) into your cellphone's browser. We tried both methods with success, downloading Google Maps for mobile in 10 seconds during one test.
Our Sprint Samsung A900M came preloaded with Gmail for mobile, so we quickly entered our Gmail username and password to get started. In seconds, our screen was filled with up to six emails at a time, each clearly divided by lines. Each email's subject, sender and date were visible on our tiny screen, written in a legible font that didn't seem squeezed. New emails were listed in bold type.
We used the phone's directional buttons to scroll up or down, highlighting and selecting emails to read them. Each email read much like on a computer screen, but (thankfully) without the advertisements that Gmail usually lists along the right side of a computer screen.
Email attachments were easy to open and read; we opened a Microsoft Word document and a digital photo in JPG format, the photo was shrunk to fit onto our phone's screen so we didn't have to scroll. Attachments can't be edited.
You can perform every action in Gmail for mobile that you can in regular Gmail, including replying to and starring emails, searching through messages, reporting spam and archiving. We searched through emails for the word "Walt" and quickly got a list of relevant emails, and an email that we sent from the phone was received on the other end in seconds. Tasks performed in Gmail for mobile automatically synched with our Gmail account.
Google Maps for mobile was familiar and simple. After downloading it and opening it on our cellphone, we entered our ZIP Code and a map of Washington, D.C., appeared on the entire screen. A list with Find Business, Find Location and Directions options helped us narrow our search.
The select button on each of our devices zoomed in on the map, and scrolling around with directional buttons moved the map accordingly. We quickly switched between map view and satellite view, the latter showing us detailed aerial shots of our tree-filled neighborhoods. A Show Traffic option color-codes highways in 30 major cities to show how fast the cars in that area are moving.
We searched for our local Four Seasons hotel by typing "Four Seasons" into the Find Business section of Google Maps for mobile. Nine results were returned, the second was the hotel. The hotel's address, phone number, parking fees, room rates and acceptable credit cards were also listed.
The Helio Samsung Drift cellphone comes preloaded with Google's Maps for mobile, and also has built-in GPS capability. This feature lets you press "0" when using Google's mapping program on your phone; a tiny circle marks where you are on the map.
The Google SMS mobile tool is fun to use, and doesn't require a download. We just sent questions via text message to GOOGL, or 46645 on the numeric keypad. Various data can be retrieved including local listings, weather, sports scores, trivia, movie times and translations.
We asked for George Bush's age and got the 41st president's birthday sent back in a text message a second after our question was sent (June 12, 1924, if you're curious). While on the way to an Irish pub for dinner, we typed in the slightly odd name of the place and its ZIP Code (RiRa 22201) and got a local listing response, including the address and phone number for the two RiRa Irish Pubs in the area.
Sometimes we had to rephrase our inquiry to receive a helpful Google response, and if you don't have text messaging included in your phone's plan, this could get costly. But as we used Google SMS more, we got better at asking questions the right way.
If you use a computer every day, chances are good that you're spoiled by being able to retrieve helpful data within seconds, thanks to the Internet. Google's mobile applications give you that convenience on the go, in a way that doesn't leave you missing your computer.
让谷歌与你形影不离
谷歌(Google Inc.)已经将自己的业务范围从搜索引擎扩展到一系列基于网络的应用服务。有些服务项目，特别是免费邮件服务Gmail和电子地图服务Google Maps，已经获得了良好社会反响并被电脑用户广泛使用。现在，该公司又打算让我们通过移动通讯装置享受它诸如此类的应用服务。
本周我们将检验一下谷歌的一系列移动应用服务，看它们能否轻松成为我们出门就离不了的东西，就像谷歌的搜索服务不经意间就成了我们上网时绕不开的东西那样。谷歌目前允许用户通过移动装置享受地图、Gmail、短信息、搜索和新闻这五种它的互联网应用服务。
我们重点测试了前三种服务，看它们在显示屏狭小的移动设备上使用效果如何。一则在电脑屏幕上可以一目了然的信息在移动设备上往往需要多次翻页才能看全。
实验效果总的来说令我们相当满意。在移动设备的狭小屏幕上这些服务的视觉效果依然良好，使用也不复杂，很合那些图快又怕费事者的心意。
移动Gmail服务可以让你打开包含照片、Word和PDF文档的附件，这一功能通常只有Treo、黑莓(BlackBerry)和Windows Mobile智能电话才会具备，一般手机是没有的。
提供这类移动服务的并非只有谷歌一家。包括其竞争对手雅虎(Yahoo Inc.)在内的许多公司都推出了针对手机用户的移动应用服务，这类服务项目预计会不断增多。
我们用了三款移动装置来测试谷歌的这些服务，它们是：斯普林特公司(Sprint)公司提供的三星A900M手机（售价80美元），电信运营商Helio提供的三星Drift手机（售价225美元）以及Verizon提供的Palm Treo 700p（售价400美元），这些售价中都包含两年服务费。要使用谷歌的移动地图和Gmail服务，你入网的那家移动电话运营商必须用Java编程语言与之衔接才行；Verizon没有这样做。我们选用的那款Treo支持谷歌的移动地图服务，但不支持移动Gmail服务。任何具备收发短信息功能的电话都支持谷歌的短信息服务。
谷歌的这些移动应用服务都可免费下载，但你入网的那家移动电话运营商可能会向你收取网络浏览费和短信息费，具体收费多少要视你选择了哪一种移动通讯服务而定。
要下载谷歌的的这些应用服务，你可登录网站
www.google.com/mobile，然后键入你的移动电话号码，这样该网址就会向你的移动通讯装置发送一条短信息，告知你想下载那项服务的网络链接。你也可以在自己手机的网络浏览器内输入这项服务的网络链接（它可在上述网站内找到）。这两种方式我们都测试成功了，每次测试中谷歌地图的下载速度都不超过10秒钟。
由于我们那款斯普林特提供的三星A900M手机已经预先下载了移动Gmail服务，所以我们迅速输入自己的Gmail用户名和密码就开始使用这项服务了。几秒钟内，我们的手机屏幕上就显示了多达6份电子邮件，这些邮件分行排列得很清楚。每份邮件的主题、发送人和发送日期都可在手机的狭小屏幕上显示出来，且字型清晰易读。新邮件则用粗体字列出。
我们用手机的方向键上推和下拉页面，选择邮件并点开阅读。在手机上读邮件与在电脑上读没什么不同，还可以避开在电脑上读Gmail邮件时常常会出现在屏幕右侧的广告。
电子邮件的附件也可以轻松打开和阅读；我们试着打来了一个Word文件和一幅JPG格式的数码照片，这幅照片会自动缩小以适应手机的屏幕尺寸，因此我们不必上下移动画面。附件的内容无法编辑。
移动Gmail服务具备常规Gmail的所有功能，包括回复电子邮件和给邮件标星号、通过关键词搜索邮件、举报垃圾邮件以及将邮件归档等。我们输入“Walt”这个关键词后迅速搜索出了一系列与之相关的邮件，我们通过手机发送的电子邮件几秒钟后就被收件人收到了。我们通过移动Gmail完成的工作会自动计入我们的Gmail帐户。
谷歌的移动地图服务与其常规地图服务很相似且易于使用。当把这项服务下载到我们的手机并打开后，我们输入了自己的邮政编码，一幅哥伦比亚特区的地图立即充斥了整个手机屏幕。在“企业类别”(Find Business)、“位置”(Find Location)和“方向”(Directions)等选项下分别输入更详细的搜寻要求可以帮助我们缩小搜索范围。
我们移动装置上的选择键可以用来放大地图，而方向键则可以拖动地图在屏幕上移动。我们可以在地图显示和卫星实拍显示间快速转换，后者向人展示了我们所在街区的航拍实景。点击“路况显示”(Show Traffic)选项，我们能看到用不同色彩标示出的全美30个大城市的高速公路图，可以据此得知各条高速公路上的车流移动速度。
我们在“企业类别”选项下键入“Four Seasons”这个词组以寻找我们所在的“四季酒店”(Four Seasons hotel)。屏幕上显示了9条搜索结果，第二条就是这家酒店。该酒店的地址、电话号码、停车费用、房价以及可接受哪种信用卡等信息都被罗列了出来。
Helio提供的三星Drift已经预先下载了谷歌移动地图服务，该手机还预装了“导航星”全球定位系统(GPS)。用这款手机享用谷歌的地图服务时只需按下“0”键，你所处的位置就会被一个小圈在地图上标明。
使用谷歌的移动短信息服务很有意思，而且不必下载就能使用。我们只需把要查询的问题以短信息方式发给GOOGL（或在数字键盘上输入46645）就能得到答案。股票报价、天期情况、赛事结果、电影放映时间以及其他各种琐碎的问题都可以问，还可以请谷歌帮我们翻译单词。
我们向谷歌询问了乔治?布什(George Bush)的年龄，短信息发出后立刻就有了回音，回复的短信息中列出了这位美国第41任总统的生日（1924年6月12日）。在去一家爱尔兰餐馆用餐的途中，我们在手机中输入了这家餐馆的名字以及它的邮政编码(RiRa 22201)，手机屏幕上随即显示了一系列搜寻结果，包括本地两家RiRa爱尔兰餐馆的地址和电话。
有时我们为了能从谷歌得到有用的答案而不得不变换方式将同一问题多输入几次，如果你的手机没有开通短信息包月服务，你可能就要多花些钱了。但随着我们对谷歌短信息服务的日渐熟悉，我们的提问技巧也会提高。
如果你每天使用电脑，拜互联网之赐，你能在几秒钟内就查到自己所需的各种数据。而谷歌的移动应用服务现在可以使你随时随地享受这种便利。
Walter S. Mossberg / Katherine Boehret
