Rumours of a Google phone have been swirling around for some time now, but its details have been shrouded in secrecy, and not a little confusion, as Google appeared at first to admit they were working on such a phone, before denying it.

The truth of what they're actually working, though, may be very different, according to ComputerWorld. Rather than a phone, Google could be working on a new mobile phone browser. Not just any browser, either - blog hype is normally pretty sensationalist, but the type of browser Google is working on really could change the way we live.

Read on to find out how the Google browser could change not only your life but the entire make-up of your town.

The Google Phone Rumours...

In ComputerWorld's article, they list a comprehensive review of the rumours that have been swirling through the Web for the past few months. Some of the rumours include:

• A secret lab with 100 engineers, led by ex-Apple executive Andy Rubin
• Talks with Orange involving a 'multi-billion' deal
• Google working on either a Blackberry-like device called the Google Switch that's possibly based on a Samsung phone, or a low-end phone aimed at "bringing Google to users who don't have a PC."

...and Denials!

However, they then provide an equally-comprehensive review of the statements issued by Google refuting any idea that they're working on a mobile phone - but they are working on something to do with mobile technologies.

All this has led CompterWorld to speculate that Google aren't working on a mobile phone - rather, they're working on a mobile phone browser. Not just any browser, though - they're working on the mother of all browser that could potentially change not only the way we use our phones, but the way we interact with our local shops and services, and ultimately, the whole nature of advertising. In short, in typical Google fashion, they're working on changing the way we run our lives.

The Google Mobile Browser

So how can a mobile browser shake things up so radically? Well, to begin with, it'll be unlike any browser you've used before. Rather than being designed to show web pages on a tiny screen, it'll be designed to present local information that's relevant both to your personal needs and to your current location.

Remember, Google's sole focus isn't on presenting content: it's on organizing information that's as relevant to a user's needs as possible. From a mobile perspective, this means providing you, the user, with whatever you want when you need it, and wherever you're located.

On the Web, this means retrieving web pages that are relevant to you, with the results tweaked based on your previous searches and browsing behaviour (if you use Google's Personal search and its toolbar). From a mobile perspective, however, the information you want isn't a Web page - it's the location, price, phone number, etc., of a variety of services that happen to be close to your current location.

ComputerWorld cite the example of a user looking for information on taxis:

"if you land in a city and search for "taxi," it won't give you the Wikipedia entry on "taxi," nor will it give you high-ranking taxi companies in other cities. It will give you contact information for local taxi companies - just what you're looking for."

Equally, searches for restaurants, hotels, car hire, cinemas, bookshops, and every conceivable shop and service that might advertise in your local Yellow Pages would all be there for you in an instant in your Google browser. All relevant to your current location, no matter where you are in the world.

Better still, the Google browser will learn from your personal tastes:

"A search for the world "Pearl," for example, might bring up different results for different people. A 25-year-old in West Hollywood on a Saturday night might get contact information for the Pearl nightclub topping the list of search results. A 50-year-old searching for "Pearl" in Honolulu might get results that lead with a link to the Pearl Harbor memorial."

Why Google's browser will work

Of course, similar ideas have been proposed before. I remember going to an Orange Developer's Conference back in 2000, where amongst the flashy presentations was an idea of the direction Orange saw mobile phones going in, with "location-based services" (i.e. services that depended as much on your current location as what you wanted from the service, with a mobile Yellow Pages being the obvious example).

The problem with existing location-based services

Clearly, such services haven't taken off. It's not that the technology doesn't exist. Mobile phone location can be identified by a phone's built-in GPS receiver if it has one (and although these are limited to a few models at the moment, more and more of them are starting to emerge, and within a year or two, a phone without GPS will be seen as antiquated as a phone without a camera does now); by triangulation from the mobile phone base-stations; or even by the user simply entering in their current location.

What's stopped such services taking off has been the appalling Internet user experience that's on most mobile phones. It's not that you can't access the Internet on your phone - it's just that you wouldn't want to, either because of the hideous 'walled garden' approach adopted by most of the network operators (you see the Internet through a portal they control, preventing you from gaining simple and direct access to the sites of your choice), the high cost of data transfer, or the fact that Web sites are simply unreadable on a 2" screen.

Worse still is the quality of the results returned. Location-based services are only any use if you have a large enough database of services and shops who want to be found by such a service, and only if you have algorithms capable of presenting the right results to you for your exact circumstances when you use the service.

The Google browser solution

This is where Google comes in. It has the brand, the global reach, and, through its Web-based advertising service, the contacts and experience to sign up all manner of shops and services from all across the world. It's also got the algorithms to present the information to you in as relevant a way as possible. In other words, it's got the clout to create the database in the first place, and the brains to organize it.

Finally, the Google browser will overcome the limitations of handsets by providing you not with web sites, but with the textual information you need there and then. Want a taxi service? The Google browser will provide you with the local taxi service's phone number and address, not its flashy web site. Want to call the taxi service? A simple push of a button will make the call for you.

This last feature will be loved by the operators, always keen on getting you to make more calls through their networks, and will have them clamouring to install the Google browser on their phones as soon as it's released. It also by-passes the walled garden, as it's not a Web-site you're browsing to, it's an integrated application that becomes another part of the phone's user interface, in the same way that text messaging is now.

So it's win-win, both for mobile uses and the network operators...and of course for Google!

How the Google Browser will change the world

So how can the Google browser change the world? Well, imagine the scenario, a few years from now, when the Google browser is ubiquitous on all phones. As more and more people use it, your mobile phone suddenly becomes the sole point of information for nearly any shop or service you need.

The Google Browser's impact on local businesses

Type in pizza, for example, and it gives you the list of the nearest Italian restaurants. In order to do this, the Google browser would need a list of Italian restaurants close to you. How does it get that list? From the shops and services who pay Google to advertise their listing on the browser. Yes, this is all about super-contextual advertising that's set to make Google an absolute mint that could dwarf their current multi-billion dollar earnings from their AdWords Web-based contextual advertising service.

From the perspective of our local Italian restaurants, though, imagine that you own such a restaurant, and choose not to advertise on the Google browser. With more and more people selecting their shops and services from the Google browser, your trade will steadily decline, as your restaurant becomes increasingly invisible to the vast majority of the population. If you're not advertising on the Google browser, you might as well not be in business (and pretty soon, you won't be!).

Not convinced? Think of what Google's done to the Web. Currently, if your Web site isn't listed in Google's index, you might as well not be on the Web. The same thing will happen to local businesses if they're not listed on the Google browser. In a Borg-like way, it will very quickly become irresistible, and resistance really will be futile!

The Google Browser's impact on local directories and advertising

Just as the Google browser could have a huge impact on local businesses, it will also have an impact on current local advertising services. Why use Yellow Pages, or any of the phone-based directory enquiry services, when all you need is the Google browser? You don't need to tell an operator what you want and where: the browser knows where you are, and has a pretty good idea of what you're looking for based on your previous information enquiries.

The Google Browser's impact on you

And what of we users? Well, as we start to get used to this service, we'll rely on it more and more, just as we've gotten used to texting as a completely different means of communication that we now can't do without. Think of how you use texting now - then think of how much more difficult your life was before it. From finding people, telling them you're going to be late (or early), even dating and dumping them, texting has opened up a whole new way of communicating that simply didn't exist before - it really has changed our lives.

So too will it be with the Google browser. Not only will the browser serve up shops and services offering the thing that you need, it will also serve up contextually-relevant similar services that you might not have thought about, but which is still of interest to you. Think of "Amazon Recommends", where Amazon recommends similar books to the one you're looking at, based on what other users have bought. With the Google browser, you'll get a list of other services that Google will recommend to you that you might not have thought about, but which will be just a block or two from your current location.

People love to buy things, and they love to buy things now - there ain't nothing like instant gratification! Showing somebody where they can buy something they hadn't thought about and take it home with them now is far more powerful than the current Web-based model of showing people related products that will be delivered in a few days time (if they're lucky!)

In this way, the Google browser is completely different from Yellow Pages and directory enquiries. These services do not link the information together in any way. Want your local Pizza store? Look under restaurants and try to find one near you. Want Pizza ingredients? Look under food stores and try to find one near you. This is ok if you know that you want pizza ingredients, but what if it had never occurred to you? What if you didn't know there was such a shop just 5 minutes from where you live or catch the train?

The Yellow Pages doesn't link its information up, so it remains fragmented. The Google browser, in contrast, contextually relates all its information in a way that only Google can, fundamentally changing the way we shop and the types of products we buy.

So as we use the Google browser to find different services in our location, we'll serendipitously stumble upon other services we might not have thought about. Restaurants we didn't know existed, or shops offering products we didn't know were on sale in our town. Type in Pizza, for example, and you'll get not only a list of Italian restaurants, but a list of Pizza-making kitchen gadgets, speciality food shops selling a host of Pizza-related ingredients not available in your supermarket, complete with the nearest store where you can walk in and actually buy it.

The Google Browser's impact on the high-street

As this service becomes more popular, more specialist stores can open up in whatever location they choose. Currently, shops have to go where the people are, as out-of-the-way shops are not visible enough to attract enough traffic. This has led to exorbitant prices in the high streets (where the people are), and dominance by the major brands who are the only ones who can afford such prices, leading to bland, homogeneous high streets.

But if it no longer matters where you locate your store because Google will find it for you, you can get as much traffic as you would have on the high street, simply by the product you sell and not because you happen to be located next to your local Gap. Not only will this lead to a greater diversity of products on offer, it could completely reshape the high street as we know it.

Conclusion

So, can a Google browser really change the world as we know it? Well, with a much-improved mobile Internet experience, a completely new way of finding whatever information we want whenever we need it, the complete overhaul of traditional business directories and local advertising listings, plus a fundamental shift in the products we buy, the places we buy them from, and even in the make-up of the high street itself, then yes...it really will!

[ComputerWorld]