Director of PlayStation Network Operations, Eric Lempel today announced that the newest PSP firmware update will include Google Search.

According to Lempel the upgrade, to be included in v.4.00 and released in the near future, replicates the Google Internet search experience, delivering the same search results that you’d get from searching with Google.com. Googling with the PSP will also give you the last 20 search results to make it easier to find past searches and results.

In addition to adding Google to the PSP, v4.00 will also allow users to alter viewing speeds (fastforward, slow motion) stored on the Memory Stick PRO Duo while clips are playing.

Google Searching will be available via the PSP XMB (XrossMediaBar) Network but to use the search engine, users must have their PSPs connected to the internet.

In general PSP fans seem pretty pleased with the announcement however, comments on the official Sony PSP blog (click here to read the announcement for yourself) suggest that while a lot of users think the Google search feature is a great addition to the PSP, there’s an awful lot of them who are still desperately holding out for in game XMB for the PS3 with a lot of people asking about the next update for the console. There’s also seems to be a fair few people disappointed that this is all v4.00 has to offer and a few fans who say the PSP browser needs some attention with regard to problems with page loading.