AT&T Wireless Gets Googled

The wireless arm of AT&T secures its latest in a string of content deals with Google. Gives users access to more than 1.6 billion search results over handheld devices.

by Michael Singer of siliconvalley.internet.com [October 16, 2001]

Everybody's favorite search engine Google this week says it would start to supply some AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE) customers with access to its Web searches.

Neither company provided financial details of the partnership.

According to the plan, subscribers to AT&T's Digital PocketNet Service Premium Plan can now access more than 1.6 billion Web pages and 5 million WAP-ready pages on their mobile phones.

If you are familiar with AT&T Internet-ready phones, the Google search engine will be under the "Other Sites" menu screen. AT&T has its own cache of pre-installed sites.

"AT&T Wireless users now have access to the world's information from the palm of their hands," says Google co-founder and president of Products Larry Page. "Our intelligent, easy-to-use search technology quickly returns the information users are looking for."

Wireless Web content
Special software from the Mountain View, California-based search engine automatically converts HTML Web pages and optimizes content for WAP devices.

"By providing easy access to even more Internet sites, the Google search engine broadens our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customers," says AT&T Wireless vice president of business and content development Andy Willett.

Google says this is just the latest in a string of deals with phone carriers and wireless providers. The company also has content partnerships with Sprint PCS, Cingular, Handspring, Palm, Vodafone, Yahoo! Everywhere and Malaysia-based E-Chilipadi. In addition, Google has developed wireless search technologies for use on Japanese i-mode, J-Sky, and EZWeb mobile phones.

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