Google unveils ad for mobile phone sites

AdSense for Mobile lets Web site owners in 13 countries display ads sold by Google on their pages, the Mountain View, California-based company said Tuesday in an e-mail.

Selling ads on mobile devices may help Google, owner of the world’s most-popular search engine, bolster sales as revenue growth for search-related ads on personal computers slows. Google has added wireless e-mail, search and calendar services to attract users to its mobile sites.

“The mobile market as a whole is growing quite rapidly,” said Dilip Venkatachari, a product manager at Google, in an interview. “A good number of these people are using cell phones to access information and that’s where we come in.”

Web sites that use Mobile AdSense will display ads that are relevant to their content. Ads will generally take up three lines, or about a quarter of the screen, Venkatachari said. The program is an extension of AdSense, a similar service for Web sites displayed on personal computers that was introduced in 2003.

Google’s mobile services, which compete with offerings from Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp., include a voice-search directory that lets consumers find information on local businesses over the phone. To support its mobile expansion, the company said it may bid at least US$4.6 billion for wireless airwaves in a federal auction in January.

Google shares fell US$3.45 to US$525.30 at 4 p.m. on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has gained 14 percent this year.

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