Google's new mobile version of Gmail, launched on Thursday, uses a downloadable Java application that allows U.S. users to significantly reduce the number of clicks needed to access their email. Google also launched a mobile version of its RSS reader.

Gmail for Mobile Devices is a free app that works on Java-enabled phones, and once installed it allows users to quickly launch Gmail instead of having to open a mobile browser, wait for it to load and sign in, writes CNET. The new service not only replicates Gmail functions, such as threading and search, but also adds mobile features, such as pressing a button to call someone who has sent an email.

The Java application can be downloaded by sending oneself a text message from the Google website, going to Gmail.com/app from one's mobile browser or downloading it from Sprint Nextel's homepage, according to a Google spokesman.

Google's RSS reader now has a mobile interface, and it's subtly different from the web version, according to a post by Rafe Needleman on a CNET blog. Users first see a "reading list" of the nine most recent stories to come via feeds.

Selecting one brings a "lightweight display of the story" instead of the full page, he writes, adding that Google realizes that users of mobile devices likely want not merely a different interface but also different content.