On your mark, get set, go! Follow the Summer Games on your phone.

It's that time again... time for the Summer Games to begin! It may still be August 7th here in Mountain View, but it's already August 8th in Beijing, and the Opening Ceremonies are getting ready to kick off another global celebration of athleticism. We marvel at the elegance of the swimmers, the power of the pole vaulters, and the artistry of the gymnasts. And of course, we cheer on our favorite athletes.

If you're like me you'll want quick updates for the Games all day long. (I'll be following Michael Phelps's gold medal quest, and I can't wait to see how the US swimming team does.) We've launched a new mobile search tool that gets you sport results, country medal count, and event schedules right at the top of your search results. Go to www.google.com on your phone and try a search for "swimming." You'll get something like this:

Once the events have begun, you'll be able to search for things like "gymnastics medals" or "Russia medal count" to get updated medal counts and rankings in your search results as well. Fast updates are now at your fingertips, and you don't even need to click through to an extra webpage.

Want to browse through all of the events? Go to www.google.com/m/summergames on your mobile phone. You can discover sports you may not have even known were part of the Games, such as the new Cycling BMX event. Since the Summer Games are a worldwide event, we made this new search tool available in 36 languages and over 60 countries. Alors, par exemple, if you were in France you could browse on the French domain, or get the same search tool when you search for "natation."

We're also excited to announce our first-ever worldwide mobile doodle in celebration of the Summer Games. Go to the Google homepage on your phone to see it.

And for all that we're excited here on Mobile, this is far from the only tool you'll have for the Summer Games. Check out what else Google has to offer on our post on the Official Google Blog. And now... let the games begin!


Posted by Effie Seiberg, Mobile Special Projects
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