The Korea Times reports that SK Telecom and Google will collaborate on mobile search for the operator’s Nate mobile portal. Details are sketchy at the moment, but the report says the mobile search engine will launch next month. The service will provide SK Telecom subscribers access to both on-portal content (accessible by clicking a hot key) as well as “information from the full Web.” To make sure content from the wider Web is suited for presentation on a mobile device SK Telecom will make use of Google’s transcoding technologies and capabilities. The news of a new convert to the Google fold comes just as some in the industry (and articles such as this one) have begun to question whether Google’s appeal to mobile operators could be waning. So far Google has been unable to crack the U.S. market and bring an American mobile operator on board. The addition of SK Telecom underlines Google’s growing clout in that region. In May, Google sealed a deal (similar to the one with SK Telecom) with Japan’s KDDI. Google is also reported to be in discussions with China Mobile.