ARM, the British chipmaker, has unveiled the first mobile phone to use Google’s Android mobile operating system at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The unbranded prototype features an internet browser, map software, multimedia applications, text messaging, calendar functions and email as well as a phone.

Android is backed by an alliance of more than 30 mobile phone operators, handset makers, software firms and component manufacturers. It will be distributed free to phone makers, but users will have to put up with advertising messages during calls and browsing.

ARM’s prototype uses Google.com as its home page, Gmail as its email application, and Google Maps for navigation.

The early adopting companies believe that by developing phones that are easy to use as well as attractive to the eye, they will be able to challenge the Apple iPhone, currently the market leader in non-business smartphones.

Although the Android project is at a relatively early stage, the first Google-based mobile phones are expected to go on sale later this year. Strategy Analytics, a research firm, has estimated that Android will be installed on two per cent of smartphones by December.

Estimates of the mobile advertising market put it at more than $11 billion by 2011.

The web’s largest reference work, Wikipedia, is in danger of losing its predominance to a new Google kid on the block, named “knol”.

Google engineer, Udi Manber, said, knol will invite “people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it”.

The name knol derives from “knowledge” and the service will be free to read online. However, knol’s authors will be able to attach advertising to their work and take a share of revenues. “The goal is for knol to cover all topics, from scientific concepts to entertainment,” Udi Manber said.

The Times (London) reports, “The project is the latest to distance Google from its roots in internet search and pitch it against well-established rivals in a new sector. The company recently squared up to the mobile phone industry by unveiling its own operating system for hand-held devices. It is also set to bid for a portion of America’s airwaves that it could use to build a wireless broadband network.”

Knol is currently an invitation-only beta service but it’s likely to be open to the public within months.

“In October, Wikipedia, which relies on donations for funds, was visited by 107 million people, or a third of the “active global internet population”, according to Nielsen Online, the analyst. That made it the eighth most-visited online destination.”

Where is Google’s famed PageRank system going after the recent shakeout that has seen many top-ranked blogs fall off the PR cliff?

Many starry personal vehicles and big blogs are now on a PR of 3, down from 6s and 7s, although the quirky BoingBoing retains its 7. Techmeme has a PR of 4; the front page of Britain’s biggest selling newspaper, The Sun, is also on 4, as is The Blog Herald.

So why is this happening and, more to the point, what is it doing to Google’s business model?

John Evans has a go of making sense of this conundrum over on Syntagma.

Read it here.

As expected, Google has confirmed it will bid for the 700MHz wireless spectrum at auction in the United states.

The Sears Building on Google Earth

The bidding will place the company in competition with big telcos like AT&T and Verizon.

Investors have not taken the news with total delight, however, many worried about the projected cost of $10bn to build out a wireless network.

Google’s recent concentration on mobile telephony fits in with this latest move beyond its core business of search and online advertising.