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Powered by Microsoft Live Search, Vodafone and Microsoft have announced the launch of "SMS Search" for the customers of Vodafone, in India. The “SMS Search” is powered by Microsoft’s Live Search. The idea behind the launch is to provide the users a strong mobile internet experience which will further help the customers to always stay connected and well informed. During late 2006, Bharti Airtel had announced a similar business deal with Google, whereby Google search was to power the mobile WAP portal of Airtel. Similarly, Yahoo has been equally aggressive as far as the Indian mobile market is concerned.
All that a Vodafone subscriber needs to do to activate the "SMS Search" is to type in their query as a text message on their mobile phone and send it to 55060. The charges will be 30 paise for each query. This feature will offer a complete search experience for the user which will help the user to search on content like ring tones, images, articles, etc. Not only these, the subscriber can also find local or directory information like restaurants, and even search through mobile sites including WAP (Wireless Application Protocols) sites and even the World Wide Web.
At present, the search directory information is available in only the eight metros including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. However, more cities are expected to be added very soon. Vodafone asserted that they are offering certain radical features like searching based on the user's location and keeping track of the user's search session all the time. The search can even deliver results formatted properly to match the user's mobile phone capabilities.
