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Continued ...

The beta version of MSN mobile includes search features such as access to instant answers, points of interest (POI) and most of the regular search features with an interface similar to what is available on the PC. Currently available in the US, MSN mobile search can be accessed from Windows Mobile devices and phones with WAP 2.0 browsers (Microsoft does make a big deal of the fact that MSN Search works better with Windows Mobile devices than Google Search!). Microsoft also has a custom application that enables local search about maps and traffic information. In February last year, Microsoft acquired Paris-based MotionBridge, a specialist provider of mobile search engine technology. MotionBridge brings to the table its expertise in delivering clustered results, deep links to downloadable content from multiple providers and device filtering. It also arms the mobile operators with the ability to control content and maintain and analyze detailed usage statistics and logs. Consequently, Microsoft's most significant takeaway from the MotionBridge acquisition was its operator customers, which includes Orange, Sprint and O2.

The mobile version of Google search runs on J2ME. Google offers around 8 billion results for its mobile search application that works in both WML and XHTML formats. Google also offers a mobile optimized version of Google Maps. In October 2006, Google unveiled its Google Maps for Palm Treo devices and released the Windows Mobile version last week. Google is partnering with Helios to integrate GPS based mobile phone location identification technology to provide more precise search results for its subscribers.

Handset OEMs are not far behind search engine providers. Nokia has its own mobile search application. Last March, Nokia tied up with Baidu.com, the largest Chinese language Internet search portal (fourth largest worldwide) to include an icon that links users to Baidu's wireless search service. This icon, present in Nokia's mobile search application, is available on the N60 and N90 models along with S60 compatible devices. Motorola has also been busy, partnering with Yahoo to pre-load Yahoo! Go for mobile on certain handset models starting 1H 2007 (Go is an integrated suite of Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Address Book and Yahoo! Local). Google has similar arrangements with Motorola, Sony Ericsson and BenQ.

We end this story by drawing your attention to a disruptive possibility. In many markets, operators have a decisive say in handset pricing. Given the lucrative revenue prospect of paid-for mobile searches for operators, they may be able to offset the handset cost even further by cogent pricing of paid and ad-based mobile searches. Not surprisingly, Google has introduced ads on its mobile search results in Japan and some European markets. Yahoo has also launched mobile phone search engine advertising in September last year. Niche players also have advertised searches in their suites. Most crucially, 3, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telefonica, Telecom Italia and Cingular have set the ball rolling last week by planning to collaborate for an independent search engine. It remains to be seen whether they are able to increase the height of their walled gardens enough to keep the likes of Google and Yahoo out of their subscriber mobile phones!

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