I recently read that Google has launched an AJAX search platform specifically for the Apple iPhone. The mammoth search company has launched the traditional text based search, and an image search for the iPhone.

When thinking this over I thought, “So they want to keep iPhone users using Google? Fair enough.” But as time passed I remembered Alice’s blog post on the GooPhone.

In short, the proposed GooPhone handset and service (using VoiP technology) will be free to the public. However, users will be subject to a barrage of advertising (free lunch sold separately).

If we boil it down, it may get to the point where the consumer has the option of either buying the glitzy iPhone for an arm and a leg, or using the GooPhone for free but paying for it through the cunning use of ads.

Although the iPhone search engine may not be a massive breakthrough for the search giant, it seems to me that the Apple handset may just be a guinea-pig for Google’s mobile search ventures.