Is Google’s dominance on the mobile web a foregone conclusion? That was the question being raised time and time again at the Visiongain Mobile Search Conference yesterday in London. With the mobile web still in its infancy, the debate is on whether Google’s overwhelming dominance on the wired internet will translate to mobile devices or whether other players—including operators, handset manufacturers, and even small search startups—have a chance.

Google, of course, has the undeniable popularity of its brand going for it. Market researcher Millward Brown Optimor named the search giant the most powerful global brand of 2007, with a “brand value” worth $66.4 billion. As Martin Harris, SVP of worldwide sales at mobile content platform firm Bango (AIM: BGO) noted at the conference, “Once you see Google [on your mobile device] you don’t forget about it.” The simple fact is that for many consumers, search means Google (NSDQ: GOOG).

But on the nascent mobile web, search is currently a frustrating experience, even when using Google. Getting relevant results can often be a hit or miss experience. Plus, the dearth of mobile specific content means that many of the results are pulled from the wired internet that are transcoded to appear on mobile devices. The pages often appear cluttered and chopped up—not the ideal user experience. Indeed, while Google may have innovated the wired internet with its page ranking algorithm, some conference participants thought that the search giant was now acting the role of the “incumbent”, and resting on its prior success.

As Olivier Sichel, a partner at French VC firm Sofinnova, said, “They have an incumbent attitude that they’ve got this asset [the results from their page ranking algorithm] and are pushing it out without changing it.” Jussi-Pekka Partanen, Nokia’s head of mobile search, called Google a “prisoner of its page rank algorithm”. Farhad Divecha, MD of search engine marketing agency AccuraCast, added that rival Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), which saw its early web dominance decimated by Google, delivers a slightly better experience on the mobile web.

But Divecha also questioned who’s fault was it when irrelevant results popped up: Was it the fault of Google, or was Google simply the messenger? Or, did the fault lie with content providers who hadn’t built their pages specifically for the mobile web? Judging by the harrumphing in the audience, most believed Google was at fault.

Still, the strong consensus was that Google wasn’t making the same innovative strides in the mobile web as it did on the wired internet. Even Divecha, who believes that Google will end up dominating the mobile web because of its brand said that Google was missing an opportunity by simply putting what had worked on the wired internet onto the mobile web. “We need something better, but we don’t have it. But if innovation in mobile search is not addressed by the industry, Google will win in the end by default.” Of course, there’s always the “wild card” as Harris put it that Google will become a network operator, and then its dominance might just be a foregone conclusion.

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