HELP DESK
Mobile searching convenient
By Kim Komando
You're at the grocery store and need the recipe for a gourmet dish. Or perhaps you don't know where to find a dry cleaner. If you're carrying a cell phone, you can use it to search the Internet and find the answer.
You'll find lots of handy uses for mobile searches. You can check your stocks by punching in the stock symbol and hitting "enter" or you can type your ZIP code followed by "weather" for the forecast. You also can find numbers to make restaurant reservations.
Searches are not limited to Web-enabled cell phones. If your PDA has a Web browser, you can likely perform searches with it, too.
Searches should be as specific as possible. For example, "cookie recipe" yielded more than 160,000 results. It's hard enough to go through those results on a computer monitor. The chore is nearly impossible on a tiny cell phone or PDA screen.
Among the most popular mobile search sites are Google, Yahoo! and MSN.
After entering your search phrases in Google, specify a Web, local or image search. For local searches, be sure to include your ZIP code. Local results include maps and driving directions.
If your cell phone or PDA isn't Web-enabled, search Google using SMS text messaging. Simply send your search query via a text message to 46645 (GOOGL). Google will reply with one or more text messages containing search results in a minute or so.
With SMS, you can find business and residential listings, driving directions, movie times, weather forecasts, stock quotes and definitions, too. For a list of SMS services, visit the Google SMS page (www.google.com /sms). Google is free and works with any cell phone or mobile device that supports a Web browser.
To find out what Yahoo! features are compatible with your cell phone or PDA, enter your carrier, make and model at the search area (mobile.yahoo.com/search) or to test compatibility, Yahoo! will send a text message to your phone.
MSN requires a tedious sign-up process for its mobile services. You first register at mobile.msn.com using a computer. During the registration process, a text message will be sent to your phone or PDA with a confirmation code.
You must retrieve the message and enter that code into the registration forms to continue. Afterward, depending on the capabilities of your phone or PDA, you may be prompted to choose between the pay version ($29.99 per year) or the free version.
If all you need are quick searches, stick with Google or Yahoo!, but if mobile searches are important to you, MSN offers several features not offered by the others, including customized pages. More of these features are offered in the pay version.
Before you start using mobile searches, understand your wireless plan. Additional charges probably apply for Web access and text messaging. Also, Web access is measured by data transfer, which is particularly confusing.
If you're going to use mobile searches frequently, get unlimited data transfer. Moderate users should start out around 8 megabytes of data transfer per month. Adjust your plan to your usage. All major cellular providers offer Web access. Pricing varies widely.
