The New Battle for Mobile Search

By NewsFactor Network | February 20, 2007

When it comes to Web search engines, Google is the winner by a wide margin, handling nearly twice the requests of its closest competitor, Yahoo. After all, people use Google as a verb synonymous with Internet research. But while cell phone users may say they’re going to “Google” something on the Web, there’s a good chance the search engine giant may not even be involved.

The emergence of Internet-connected mobile phones, or what’s known as the Mobile Web, is turning the wireless search business into a horse race — one that’s too close to call. Unlike its dominant role in search on the computer, Google’s slim U.S. lead in search via mobile phones is far from secure.

Google is the early front-runner in the U.S., with Yahoo hot on its heels, according to M:Metrics, a researcher that focuses on the mobile market. The company estimates Google had about 4.75 million U.S. subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2006, roughly 1.1 million more than Yahoo.

Microsoft’s MSN Mobile was a distant third with slightly under a million subscribers. Google does have a lead worldwide thanks, in part, to deals with leading telecom companies in China, India, Japan, and Europe.

Still Wide Open

But Google and Yahoo may not even be the true leaders. Medio Systems, a four-year-old startup, is quietly powering the default search feature on many phones from Verizon, T-Mobile, and Amp’d Mobile services, among others.

Trouble is, M:Metrics and other researchers don’t track Medio because its search engine is bundled into other wireless carriers’ offerings. Medio chief executive and co-founder Brian Lent says his “white label” search engine actually has more users than Google’s mobile product. “What we see is that someone who goes to Google search will often switch and use our product,” says Lent.

Regardless of who is leading at the moment, the mobile…

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