Google Local on Mobile (GLM) is a free Java application, downloadable by pointing your phone's WAP browser to the GLM home page. The application will run on most Sprint, Cingular and T-Mobile phones less than a year old, provided you have a data plan—that's MEdia for Cingular folks, Sprint Vision for Sprint users, and T-Zones for T-Mobile subscribers. Nextel and Verizon users are out of luck. Verizon doesn't use Java and Nextel doesn't let you install non-Nextel-provided applications on your phone.

Open the Google Local application and you get an interface that's just like Google Maps on the desktop. You can zoom in or out, and switch between satellite and map views (but there's no hybrid view). Your phone's cursor pad scrolls the map, and segments fill in as they roll onto the screen. Our map filled in pretty promptly on a Samsung MM-A880 on Sprint's network. Maps and satellite images are both gorgeously sharp on this phone.

Using a menu on your phone, you can search for keywords either within a map or by entering a location using a zip code. Just like on the desktop version, your keywords usually have to be within a business's name, "Ziff in 10016" works, but "movies in 90210" doesn't because movie theaters generally don't have "movie" in their business names. "Pizza in 11102" works but requests for "hotels" often come up with businesses that aren't hotels.

You'll get up to nine options you can jump to using the numbers on your phone keypad. The map centers on each business and you can check its address or call it immediately with your phone.

You can also call up driving directions between any two addresses in the US and Canada that are less than a few hundred miles apart. (There seems to be a problem plotting directions over larger distances.) Successful requests generate turn-by-turn directions illustrated with a thick blue line.

The system also appears to have difficulty with diacritical characters (marks on letters, such as accents, usually found in words of foreign origin), so getting directions involving Montréal, for example, can prove problematic. A bug in the directions engine tends to mangle such requests. For instance, you can get maps by typing Montréal as "Montreal," but there's no way to get directions to or from Montréal because the directions engine chokes on the é.

GLM generally works as promised, though it has one irritating usability bug: Google is very picky about address formats. You can't ask it for "hotels near Main & Charleston, Las Vegas, NV" or "Ziff near 28 E 28 St, New York, NY." You'll get zero results and no explanation. You have to ask for "S Main St & W Charleston Blvd" or "28 E 28th St"—yes, including the "th." On the Web using a PC, Google is much more forgiving, suggesting addresses that fit both your request and their format. The Mobile version, however, provides no suggestions. Google reps suggested instead searching by ZIP code, or zooming in the map view on your desired area and searching for your keyword within the visible map. Both approaches work better than entering addresses.

GLM can't find movie show times or link to in-phone GPS systems, like Handmark On Demand, and it can't call up restaurant reviews, like Vindigo, but it is free. We'd like to see the address-entry bug fixed, but and the truth is there's nothing we've tested that is nearly as slick. As such, it's a fun and useful application that every Cingular, Sprint, and T-Mobile subscriber with the right service plan should install.