Internet search engine Google is set to follow Apple in to the lucrative mobile phone market.

Google is reported to be just weeks away from launching its own handset, detailing a blueprint which would lead to a launch at some point in mid-2008.

The search engine giant is believed to want to create its own mobile phone to harness all its various applications.

advertisementSo, in the same way that users of Apple's iPhone can use it as an iPod or as a junior iMac, so Google phone users would be able to use a number of its applications such as Google Earth and YouTube while on the move.