Google is working on a service to let mobile-phone users find and buy items such as ring tones, the Wall Street Journal said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

The technology will allow consumers to use Mountain View-based Google to obtain lists of companies that provide the content they're seeking and links to where the products can be purchased, the Journal said on its Web site Monday.

Google and competitors such as Yahoo are bolstering their mobile offerings with services including maps and calendars after handsets outsold personal computers by more than 4-to-1 last year, according to researcher Gartner. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in May that the company's biggest growth opportunity is in mobile phones.

For the new services, Google is working with entertainment companies and smaller mobile-media providers to index material and make it available through searches, the Journal said.

The project has suffered delays and it's unclear when the services will be available, the newspaper reported.

Google spokeswoman Erin Fors declined to comment on the report.

- Bloomberg News

Google offering search service

Google is offering to run the search engines of small Web sites for as little as $100 a year, marking the company's latest attempt to make more money off technology that already steers much of the Internet's traffic.

The service scheduled to be unveiled today is aimed at

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