Newcomers Battle for Mobile Search Industry

Carriers hope to lure customers away from Google, Yahoo
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 26, 2007 5:19 PM CDT
Newcomers Battle for Mobile Search Industry
A woman reads a newspaper during the third day of the 3GSM congress.   (Getty Images)

Google and Yahoo would love part of the growing mobile search business, but phone carriers aren’t eager to have them. Carriers don’t want to be “the dumb pipe that the ISPs became,” one analyst explained. Instead they’re turning to startups like JumpTap and Medio, who provide carrier-branded mobile search. The problem, PC World explains, is that users can surf to Google themselves.

Carriers will need to use their control of the phone’s home screen to craft better mobile-specific tools. “If their experience is lackluster or sub par or comparable, then they're at a disadvantage,” the analyst said, because Google and Yahoo have stronger brands and other features. Carriers must also contend with Microsoft, which can push its mobile search offering through Windows Mobile. (More Microsoft stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X