Google, China Mobile Mull Cell Phone Search

Google, the world’s leading search engine, is in discussions with China Mobile, the country’s largest cell provider by market share, to launch a service that would enable Chinese customers to access a search engine for cell phones, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A China Mobile spokesperson told the Journal that the company is very interested in pursuing opportunities related to cell data services because they could help make up for shrinking revenue from voice offerings.

Google has been building its presence in China over the past year, and in January it launched a Chinese language search site, on which specific words and phrases that the Chinese government finds offensive are filtered out.  Under fire from critics and activists alike, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt later defended the decision to comply with the Chinese government as a cost of doing business in the foreign nation.

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