Fast launches mobile search tool

Posted on 16 Mar 2005 at 10:54

Norwegian search developer Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) has come up with what it claims is the world's first search product for mobile devices.

FAST says that mSearch will offer commonly searched for mobile content such as music, games, ring tones, and images as well as content from the mobile Web, providing users with more relevant personal search for their mobile devices such as localised search.

Ali I. Riaz, FAST's chief operating officer said, 'Ring tones, images, music and games are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the content mobile users will want to search for and download onto their mobile applications. Search has become the number one way of navigating the Internet, and now FAST mSearch will enable people to also find the content and information they are looking for on their mobile devices.'

Unlike searching Google on a WAP phone, FAST says that the mSearch solution will bring additional revenue to mobile carriers. FAST claims that the product can be customised so that a mobile telco can integrate 'their own content with relevant results from content providers and the Mobile Web'.

The company also holds out the promise of other revenue streams such as personalised local search, targeted mobile commerce and advertising services, and multimedia search all of which offer to raise the all-important average revenue per unit (ARPU) much sought after by telcos.

At the time of writing FAST was unable to release the names of any mobile telcos that may take up the service. However, the market for a successful search product for mobile devices is potentially huge. Now that 3G technology is finally establishing itself and the mobile phone market returning to healthy growth after stumbling for several years, telcos will want to see a return on their massive investments.

As with Internet search, mobile users need a tool that enables them to access relevant information. At the same time, telcos may be able to marry the demographic information they already hold on their contract customers along with behavioural marketing techniques to offer advertisers a highly targeted audience. If mSearch can do for the mobile what Google did for Internet search, the potential is almost limitless.

Author: Steve Malone