Mountain View-based Google announced today that the firm has launched an initiative in Africa to make its services easier to access, unsing a mobile phone and SMS, rather than the web. According to Google, the new services will allow users to use SMS to access information on the service using SMS queries, including health and agriculture tips, news, local weather, sports, and information, as well as a SMS-based marketplace for buyers and sellers. The firm said the new SMS service is a result of a higher penetration of mobile phones than Internet in African nations.