Another well reported article from the NY Times of interest to search engine marketers, this time about Google and cellphones and a 21st century version of the Great Game, with the prize in this case being access to cellphone screens around the world instead of the oil-rich hinterlands of Central Asia. The plot is thickened by a cast of software developers, open source practitioners and of course megacorps around the globe, and accelerated by untold billions in potential ad revenue.

Right off the bat, I’d like declare myself a skeptic on the notion that cellphone search advertising is going mass market anytime soon.

Smart phones do provide a great if unproven opportunity for paid search to find a new foothold within a potentially massive consumer market, allowing advertisers to connect to a certain demographic - which is great if and pretty much only if you’re selling something to the kind of people that are buying smart phones!

But I digress. This article gives us some insight into Google’s manuvering - either acknowledged or behind the scenes - to find a way to penetrate this (smart) cellphone market, perhaps by promoting open source operating systems, programming standards, and APIs or libraries of code that provide developers with this or that Google-driven function.

The impression one gets from a number of industry insiders and analysts interviewed in this piece is that Google will try to take advantage of the still-rising wave of demand for open source cell phone software which is building from a variety of corners, including consumer advocates, businesses that want to compete in a less carrier-controlled smartphone software market, and hackers.  There is meaningful overlap between these latter two groups especially.  Open source developers with enterprise level experience and ambitions want to write code for smart phones that could run on any standards-compliant phone.

If Google plays their hand wisely, they could release a clutch of their own open source programs - say an open source map program that puts everything else out there to shame - and not have to fight cell carriers directly over access to their networks & phones.

Cellphone carriers could be forced to allow Google code onto their smartphones if Google had the goods that smartphone users want.

It may come down to a question of whether Google has a sexy enough stand alone search widget to generate a lot of consumer demand - a free Google Maps + GPS program, for example - or if they are going to have to develop and release their own cellphone OS to get everyone’s attention … on their own proprietary hardware?

An exec from JumpTap, a “start-up that provides search and advertising services to several mobile phone operators”, claims that Google want to break the stranglehold that cell phone carriers have over the software that runs on their phones.

A trend in favor of open source apps and OSes on smartphones is underway, according to the article. Apple is also under pressure to open up the iPhone platform to 3rd part widgets and apps, so far to no avail.

I haven’t mentioned the mystery GPhone yet, primarily because this NYTimes piece downplays its importance as well. Many industry insiders that are quoted seem unconvinced that Google could engineer & manufacture their own phone.

At a minimum for this theoretical GPhone OS I would expect some enhanced local search dashboard with maps + GPS integration, web content - text, video, etc. - and somehow, PPC ads.