Credit: Paweł Czerwiński Google has signed a deal to provide mobile search services for China’s biggest mobile phone operator, China Mobile, the company announced Thursday.Google will initially provide the search service for China Mobile’s Monternet wireless access protocol (WAP) portal, where subscribers can search for news, videos and other content from their mobile phone. That service has been in testing since December and should go live early this year, said D-J Collins, a Google spokesman in Europe.The companies are also exploring other ways to combine their services, although Google won’t say yet what they are. A likely candidate is for Google to provide the default search engine that China Mobile subscribers use to search the Web at large, as opposed to just its WAP portal. The company provides a similar service for T-Mobile International.While still in its early stages, mobile Web search is seen as an important market because of the increasing capabilities of mobile phones and their widespread use. The deal in China is good news for Google, which once led the country’s Internet search market but now trails behind local search provider Baidu.com. “Twice as many people in the world own a mobile phone as own a fixed-line PC, and if people want to search for information on a handheld device then that’s important to us,” Collins said.Google has signed similar deals with other mobile operators, but China Mobile is its biggest catch. The operator had 287 million subscribers at the end of September and was on track to reach 300 million by the end of last year. Search rivals Microsoft and Yahoo offer similar services and have also been signing deals with operators.Google wouldn’t disclose specific terms of the deal, and China Mobile couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday. The operator said last May that it was in talks with Google over a possible partnership.-James Niccolai, IDG News Service (Paris Bureau) Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe