Google Announces Gmail Mobile

Google announced that its Gmail service will deliver quick e-mail access to cell phone owners whose handsets support java software. Separately, the leading supplier of ".mobi" domain names reported that it is registering users at a rapid pace.

Google said its mobile e-mail solution can be five times as fast as many existing mobile e-mail programs. Users of the Google product can synchronize it to operate with their PCs. Attachments can be read through Google Mobile.

Announcing the immediate availability of the Gmail product, cell phone provider Sprint Nextel noted that the Google service is available for Sprint data customers through a new Java application or from a WAP site. Sprint said the service is available now for its Java-enabled phones and the company promised the Google service will be available in coming weeks for phones that don't have Java technology.

On the .mobi front, Go Daddy reported that more than 220,000 users have signed up for mobile domain names to date. "It is important that so many have signed up considering that it took years for the Dot.com universe to reach 100,000," said a spokesman for Go Daddy, who noted that the PC domain world initially was also slow to take off.

Tim Ruiz, Go Daddy's vice president of corporate development, said Google Mobile e-mail will bring increased attention to mobile Web usage and help spur its development and growth. There are more than two billion cell phone users in the world today, about four times the number of PC users.

Ruiz said the initial surge in .mobi domain names came from firms that already had a .com domain name and wanted to protect the name in the mobile field. "We think the momentum for .mobi names will continue to grow," he said.