Google Phone Gallery Compares Android Handsets

Google replaced its Google Nexus One Webstore on Sept. 29 with Google Phone Gallery, a Website where users can compare three Android handsets.

Google on Sept. 29 opened its Google Phone Gallery, a Website where users can compare three of nearly 40 Android phones side by side and navigate to purchase them from carriers.

For the Google Phone Gallery, Google's product search technology lets users slice and dice results by country (16 listed today), maker (Motorola, Samsung, HTC and LG) and carrier (currently 35).

All the devices listed in the Google Phone Gallery are pre-installed with Android Market application store, as well as Gmail, search and Google Maps.

Consumers may also search explicitly for devices optimized to use Google mobile services such as those advertised by carriers as "with Google," including search, voice search, Google Talk, Google Maps, YouTube and the Android Market application store.

These include Verizon Wireless' entire Motorola Droid line, the HTC Evo 4G from Sprint and T-Mobile's myTouch 3G. Search Engine Land provides screenshots here.

Perhaps the best part is the comparison engine Google offers to let users compare technical specifications and features of three phones side by side.

Users may then click the links Google provides to Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T to purchase phones online.

Google will continue adding phones and countries as new devices come to market, Android Product Manager Ben Serridge said.

This Android phone gallery, which essentially replaces the Google Nexus One Webstore, is something Andy Rubin, Google Android engineering head, promised to bring to fruition after Google ceased selling Nexus One to the public.

While the Google Phone Gallery is clearly limited to "phones," it will be interesting to see if the comparison engine evolves to include additional Android-based devices, such as tablets and TVs.

Smartphone makers are also building Android tablets. Why limit the Android device coverage to handsets? Only listing phones to compare impinges the goal to make Android more pervasive.