Next Stop : The Cell Phone

From Seattle Time.com How searchis redefining the Web- and our lives .

So where does search go from here? Some experts say the technology will jump digital boundaries from the browser to other platforms. Its next stop is the cellphone; in the future, television.

Search will play a huge role in cellphones and mobile devices, said Jim Voelker, chief executive of InfoSpace, the Bellevue company that is launching a mobile search engine this year.

"It's going to become very easy to get any kind of information and data you want where you want it," he said. "The device increasingly knows where you are and what you like to do when you're there."

John Battelle, a co-founder of Wired magazine whose book on the search industry is due out Sept. 12, said he expects that search and TV eventually will merge. The things you search for, the Web sites you visit and the history of programs you watch could influence which ads come over your TV.