Google reports increased mobile traffic, mum on GPhone, 700MHz

Mobile users are increasingly turning to Google Inc., but on-the-go searches remain dwarfed by PC queries, the Internet giant said in an earnings call yesterday.
Google, which saw its quarterly net income soar 46% from the same period last year, saw increased traffic during the quarter for both its mobile search services and mobile applications, executives said.
“On the mobile search side, our mobile searches are increasing rapidly compared to a year ago,” according to CEO Eric Schmidt. “They are growing more quickly than non-mobile searches. They are still a very small percentage of total searches, which is of great frustration to us and we are working very, very hard with some mobile operators to get Google Search to be as standard as possible on every phone-very quick and very responsive.”
The Mountain View, Calif.-based firm is having “strong revenue growth” with its mobile advertising business in Japan, Schmidt said, and recently began delivering wireless ads in Korea. Google last month began extending its two flagship products, AdSense and AdWords in a free trial for customers. The company will begin charging for the two mobile services next month.
Google has been rumored to be developing a mobile operating system and perhaps a Google-branded phone, and the company’s interest in the upcoming auction of 700 MHz spectrum is well documented. But executives again declined to discuss specific plans.
“I don’t think there’s a requirement to do any things like that,” said Google President Larry Page when asked about the rumors. “I think Google, obviously, we’ve grown a lot since we entered the search business and the opportunities that are available to us are different, and there are opportunities for us available in those kinds of spaces. So I think it is more of an opportunity for us than a cost.”