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Monday, November 07, 2005

Google Local Mobile and Yahoo Mobile

After much suffering using Sprint's email as the forwarding mechanism to my mobile I discovered Yahoo Mail for Mobile, directions, weather, etc... It's just Yahoo mail accessible from your mobile's browser. Incredibly easy set up to my Sprint phone. Clear excellence in user interface: very easy to set up, larger type, consistent easy access (unlike Sprint's own mobile mail), plenty of storage (Sprint had me emptying the inbox via my computer as frequently as weekly), and most importantly my forwarded mail is always accessible on the go.

Today, I downloaded Google Local Mobile to my Sprint phone.

Note that not all phones will work with Google Local Mobile as unlike Yahoo it is a downloaded application to the phone. You must have BREW but the easy set up at the Google web site will help you determine if your phone will accept the application. Note that you also need an Internet data plan as part of your service.

Very similar to the Yahoo Mobile with the added benefit of not only directions but the now almost ubiquitous Google maps and even satellite views. Again a very simple and easy to use interface.

You can locate yourself on the map by using your phone's joystick button. You can click through the turn points on the map with a bubble indicating the turns popping up on the phone screen. No more printing directions before a trip. And if your phone has GPS capabilities an MSNBC article states that according to Google the software will know where you are so you can find local addresses all that much easier. I guess it also means Google will know where you are...a bit scary but in my book a worthy tradeoff for the convenience of on the go maps and directions. They do promise they will not use this info to push ads at you.

Much as the iPod's success is due to elegantly focusing on the mission at hand both of these services finally make reading email and finding addresses and following directions a practical feasibility on mobile phones. Consumers will benefit from the battle between these two for the small screens on the go.

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