Google Inc. will have to create a new verb for wireless Web searching if it is to keep its role as the internet trendsetter.
  
Google, a search engine so widely used on personal computers that its name became a verb, has a chance to trounce rivals by making Web searching more practical on gadgets like mobile phones, analysts say.
  
"The mobile game is wide open," Gartner analyst Michael King said. " ... It's one of the last frontiers."
  
No internet company has yet emerged as a big brand in wireless, he added.
  
Relatively few people use phones to view the Web, but market researcher Yankee Group said internet access will be available on most of the 552 million mobile phones it expects to be sold worldwide this year.
  
As the wireless internet grows, Google and rivals Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc hope to benefit.
  
Google itself said in April that if it doesn't launch products that improve Web searches on handheld devices, it will fail to win a significant share of an increasingly important part of the online market.
  
"My gut feeling is it could be a competitive necessity for select internet companies" to adapt their services for mobile, said IDC analyst Keith Wayras. He expects 30 million people, or 17% of US mobile subscribers, to use the Web on phones in 2006, up from about 7% in 2003.
  
In Japan, where wireless networks are roughly two years ahead of those in the United States, about 44.8 million people, or 58% of internet users, access the Web on mobile phones.
  
It is already possible to run a Google search on phones, but it is not always easy. Most Web sites were built for desktop computers, not small-screened gadgets. And mobile networks are slower at transmitting data than the wired Web.
  
But Google has already developed technology that changes the formatting of Web pages to make them easier to view on mobile phones. If the company gets it right, it could give people compelling reasons to use the Web when they are on the go.
  
Froogle Wireless, a comparison-shopping service that Google is testing, could be the model for its future mobile efforts.
  
"They scale it down to make sense on your phone," said Chris Sherman, author of The Invisible Web, a book on the limitations of search engines.
  
In the PC version, Froogle shows product details, pictures and the prices different online retailers charge for an item. For mobile phones, Froogle shows just the product name, the price and the vendor. This lets people quickly check online prices on their phone while out shopping, Sherman said.
  
If Google uses this economical method to display other types of information on the tiny phone screens, it will help the company make its name in wireless, he said.
  
Google is also testing location-based searching, which narrows results to specific cities or zip codes. For example, this could help people find the nearest coffee shop as they stand on a street corner.
  
The company is also building searches on personal preferences so that a search for nightclubs could be narrowed to jazz clubs.
  
In time, Google could exploit the growing popularity of phones with cameras by letting people search for data based on photographs they take. It already has a large searchable index of online pictures.
  
And voice-activated search commands could eventually help mobile surfers, Sherman added.
  
But as Microsoft and Yahoo clamour for a piece of the Web search market and make their own moves into wireless, Google's future leadership on the desktop or on mobile gadgets is not assured, according to analysts.
  
Microsoft, whose software dominates personal computers and is increasingly used in wireless gadgets such as phones and organisers, says it is beefing up its search technology.
  
Yahoo has invested in its own technology with acquisitions of search provider Inktomi, search-linked ad specialist Overture and comparison-shopping service Kelkoo SA. The world's No 1 mobile company, Vodafone, is now testing Overture services for phones.
  
Yahoo also helps users of camera-equipped mobile phones organise their photographs with a digital album service it offers through carriers like AT&T Wireless Services Inc.
  
Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, the leader in internet instant messaging, offers these services on mobile phones, as do Microsoft and Yahoo. Mobile instant messaging is not widely used on phones yet, but it has led these companies to develop relationships with mobile operators.
  
Gartner's King said Google has a relationship with Sprint in the United States but it needs to develop more partnerships to ensure its place in the mobile market.
  
Developers of Web services designed specifically for phones should succeed, according to Yankee Group analyst Linda Barrabee. But Google could also use its search fame to its advantage.
  
"The big brands tend to lead," she said.