Google Optimizes Product Search For iPhones, Android

Apr 23, 2009 at 12:41pm ET by Greg Sterling

Google has upgraded product search for mobile, on Android and iPhone devices, to allow users to get price, product specs and reviews information on their handsets. Google posted about it here.

Users can either navigate directly to Google Shopping on their smartphone handsets (under the “more” pull-down) and enter a query or do the same in the main mobile search box and then scroll to the “Shopping Results” on the main SERP. Either way you are sent into a new, optimized mobile shopping experience. Under an “options” pull-down in the upper right of the mobile screen, you can sort by price, ratings, brands and stores (online only for now).

Here’s the associated Google video demo:

Many people are using their handsets in stores to check price and product reviews to validate that the item they’re standing in front of is worthy and/or not substantially cheaper online. There are a growing number of mobile shopping apps and sites contemplating this use case. Among Android apps, the best known is ShopSavvy, which features a bar code scanner that takes advantage of the phone’s camera to deliver price, reviews and local inventory data.

Yahoo Mobile also offers price and product information similar to what Google is doing. Recognizing the growing importance of mobile product search and price comparisons, every shopping engine and product reviews site will soon offer a mobile-optimized version of itself and/or an app.

Postscript: I neglected to mention that Live Search has offered comparable functionality since last year.

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land, and writes a personal blog Screenwerk, examining the broader world of media and advertising. He also posts at a Local Mobile Search, which is focused on the mobile Internet.

See more articles by Greg Sterling >

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