Google’s mobile team today unveiled an upgraded version of Google News for the Apple iPhone, Palm’s Pre and Pixi and for smartphones running its own Android operating system.
The optimized news for mobile offers “the same richness and personalization on your phone as Google News provides on desktop,” with a homepage that displays more stories, sources and images, according to the Google Mobile blog.
“Also, you can now reach your favorite sections, discover new ones, find articles and play videos in fewer clicks,” Google Mobile News team members Ankit Gupta and Alok Goel said in the post. They added that personalization changes made in the desktop version of Google News would be carried over to the mobile version as well.
Additionally, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) plans to roll our more upgrades to Google News for the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Nokia S60 operating systems “in the near future.”
While handset owners may be happy about Google News becoming optimized for mobile, others do not always see Google’s role as a news aggregator in a positive light — there has been ongoing conflicts between Google and news outlets over the best way for the newspaper industry to move forward in the digital era.
Meanwhile, the upgraded, mobile-optimized Google News comes at a time when the Internet giant is simultaneously introducing mobile versions of its services on all handset operating systems as it pushes its own open-source mobile platform Android.
Google is also serious about the future impact of the mobile sector beyond software, as evidenced by the recent purchase of mobile ad firm AdMob for $750 million.
Mobile advertising spending is expected to grow to $7.5 billion in 2012, up from $530 million in 2008, according to research firm Gartner.
