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Google just announced that the mobile version of Google Product Search can now tell you if a certain product is in stock at nearby stores. Currently, Google is only working with a handful of retailers, including Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and West Elm, but the company is actively looking for more partners. To see these results, just browse to Google.com on your mobile phone (Android, WebOS or Android), click the "more" link and then "Shopping." The local inventory will be updated in real time and is currently only available for users in the U.S.

Is there any business Google doesn't want to be in? Despite the fact that there are already plenty of excellent mobile shopping applications for the Android smartphone operating system, Google has decided to launch their own. Via an announcement on the Google Mobile blog, we're introduced to the search giant's latest creation: Google Shopper. If you're at all familiar with mobile shopping applications, then you can probably guess what this app does. It scans barcodes and retrieves prices. It can also find product information using photos snapped with your phone's camera. You can do voice searches, too. Apparently, Google didn't want to make just another mobile shopping app, they wanted to make a better one. 

Google announced this morning that Google Product Search is now tightly integrated with mobile search results on the iPhone and Android. The new interface should make it easier to find price comparisons and customer reviews while on the go.

I'm not a big shopper but I have struggled while standing in stores to find product reviews on my phone for tennis racquets, vacuum cleaners and power tools within recent memory. Natural search results and Amazon listings only worked so well. Unfortunately, a lot of shopping searches I tried this morning didn't have Product Search results. When they are available, they are pretty good though.