Blogosphere buzzing on impending war. Google Vs Telecom Service Providers

Within hours of the Telegraph story, its all over internet.

" The talks, will detail how the networks can create a mobile phone search engine to rival Google and Yahoo! We understand that Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison Whampoa, Telecom Italia and Cingular are all involved in the talks. Call revenues are declining and most networks are trying to find ways to make more money without having to increase prices in the long term. Most make significant income from data services but with Google announcing increased revenue from mobile advertising the networks understandably want a cut from the traffic they are driving."

Last time, ISP's lost the war with application service providers. This time Telecom Service providers are arming themself ,well in advance.
It was because Application providers won the last battle, that we have a truly free internet. Hope this time Google Prevails !!!

Mobile Advertisement: Evolving Strategies

The MEX blog post "Can mobile advertising evolve beyond the mission?" has raised some good points.
I am capturing the key points. ( Read the full article here )

1) Location, time available and mission are three key elements of mobile advertisement.

2) Knowing the context in which user has sent a query, is a must. For this, service providers have to datamine into users history.

3) The advertisement should by itself should be part of the solution user is searching for. Else it would be a distraction,

4) Entertainment service could be one such form of advertisement.

I do not agree much with the point that datamining into users history, is the only way. It seems too costly and un-optimised approach. But, there is little to suggest, how else this could be then done ;(

Getting local search on the mobile

Finding the local content using a search engine is at the heart of Mobile search.



Intrestingly there are applications like 877-520-FIND.



This is like Yellow pages on your mobile

If you are searching for a shop in near vicinity, Just sms the name shop/biz you are looking for to 877-520-3463.

And service is free of charge and Ads. So how do they make money ?



"However surprisingly it's turning out to be much tougher to find a
local pizza restaurant than it is to search the globe. There's a lot of
effort going into Local Search and it's tough to stay on top of it and
see the wood for the trees"



That sums it up.