1. Introduction

When you’re on the move, do you want to search the Web the way you would on a PC, or rather look for what’s around you? Sometimes you’ll want to look up a Web page and read it, but often you want to know more where a movie is playing rather than who was in it, where to get good sushi rather than how to make it, and how long it will take to get to the theater after you’ve eaten.

Search Engines Mobile Style

Go to the main search engines on a smartphone and you may or may not get a version that’s tweaked for users on the move. On a BlackBerry, Google offers you the classic interface with a link to the mobile interface, while on a Windows Mobile device you get the mobile page and no other choice.

Google mobile gives you businesses from Google Local first and normal results afterwards, even if you didn’t change the selection from Web to Local. The local results give you a list of results with the addresses and phone numbers, and the Web results come after that. Pick a Local result and you get the address again, plus a link to get directions and another link to get a tiny map that shows the street and nearest intersection - but not where in the city the address is, unless you zoom out. That’s one more click to get the map that you really want.

Microsoft’s Live gives you a cut-down interface; results include photos, maps, MSN spaces, news stories and local information (when they’re available or relevant) with only the top results rather than every matching Web page. If you search for something specific, Live takes that as your location, and if you search for something generic (like "gas" or "post office") you get the Local results first, with a link to the business’s phone number and address (followed by photos and web links and the rest). Click though and you get the address and phone details, plus a good-sized map that makes it much clearer where the business actually is without any extra clicks.

On a Pocket PC phone, Yahoo suggests that you get a more recent browser (which is hard when you’re already running Windows Mobile 6). Other smartphones get directed to the OneSearch interface, which is again a simpler screen: search for a business in a particular place and again you get a list of names and addresses, with links to call if a number is available. After that you’ll see either photos, Web results and mobile Web results (seldom relevant to your search) on the same page, or links to those results, depending on which phone you’re using. Click on a result and you get the address - with the nearest cross street - and links to call, get directions, or visit the business’s own Web site if Yahoo can work out what it is. You also get reviews of the business - obviously more useful for a restaurant than a gas station - but no map, not even if you go through and fill in your current location and ask for driving directions.

On a BlackBerry, you have to scroll past a banner ad at the top of the Yahoo OneSearch results page, but not on other smartphones. Google sometimes puts text ads in the results page, but we haven’t seen ads popping up on Live Search.

The big three search engines also have specific software clients for mobile devices that show you maps and directions, search specifically for places and services rather than Web pages, and even work with GPS if you have that in your phone. We tried these out traveling in California, Nevada, Florida and Ohio on several Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices, with and without GPS connections, on 3G and GPRS. All three applications will help you find and reach places, but one of them is easier to use and particularly well suited to working on the move on a small screen.