Nokia to add Google Search to Handsets

Google search will be added first to new Nokia multimedia phones, then roll out to other handsets.

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Nokia will add Google's search engine to its handsets, starting with selected phones and markets and ultimately extending to some mass-market models in over 100 countries, the companies said.

Google search will initially be integrated into Nokia's own search application on four new multimedia phones Nokia announced on Monday, Nokia and Google said on Tuesday. Nokia currently has search applications on 40 handset models.

"Providing choices for our consumers is an important driver in Nokia's Internet service strategy," Ilkka Raiskinen, Nokia's vice-president of software and services, said in a statement issued at the Mobile World Congress wireless fair in Barcelona.

The joining forces of the world leaders in cellphones and Internet search will pose a new challenge to Yahoo, which has been trying to make up for the fact that it lags Google in PC search by tie-ups with carriers for mobile search.

By 3:26 a.m. EST, Nokia shares were up 1.5 percent in Helsinki, broadly in line with the European technology index .

Nokia and Google already collaborate in a limited way, with Google search available on Nokia's Internet tablets. Some of the Nokia's top models also support the popular Google-owned video-sharing site YouTube.

Google search will be part of the Nokia search application that is accessed by one click from Nokia's standby screen. Nokia search then offers related maps, messaging or access to the Internet browser with one further click.

"Adding Google to Nokia Search provides mobile users with fast, relevant and comprehensive search experience that will be familiar to the people who use Google to search the Web from their desktop," said Google's VP of Engineering and Products for Mobile, Vic Gundotra.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Erica Billingham)

Copyright 2008 Reuters.

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