MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.-Google Inc. continued its charge into wireless, launching a personalized home page for mobile Internet users.
The company brought its Personalized Home to handsets, allowing registered Google users to view their customized home page from a mobile phone. Members can personalize the page with Gmail account information, news, weather, stock quotes and RSS feeds.
Information is tailored for the smaller screens and slower bandwidth of wireless, Google said, and streamlined to minimize the number of clicks needed to access information. The service is free, aside from carrier data charges, and is available to U.S. consumers using any XHTML-capable Web browser.
Yahoo Inc. offers similar wireless access to its My Yahoo offering.
Google’s announcement caps a busy week for the Internet giant, which is competing with Yahoo and other portals to gain a foothold in the wireless Web. Google recently announced a deal to add a Google-branded button on handsets from Motorola Inc. for one-touch mobile Internet access, and is seeking to patent a wireless marketing method that would allow users to dial an advertiser’s phone number with a single click.
