Point-and-click search on the iPhone
A company called Proximic says it has developed an easier way for consumers to do complex searches from their cell phones.
While Apple's iPhone has helped make surfing the Web from a mobile device easier, it's still difficult to type in complex search queries. But Proximic has introduced a new application called Proximic Agents for the iPhone that will help. The new technology, which is language-independent, uses point-and-click technology to highlight bits of text. This means that users don't have to type in a long string of search terms.
Search results from a Proximic search.
(Credit: Proximic)Unlike other search engines, which rely on keywords to find results, the search technology from Proximic looks for patterns in the text to see where these patterns overlap. It then delivers relevant results based on these patterns.
Proximic co-founder and CEO Philipp Pieper believes that conducting searches in this manner provides more contextualized and relevant search results and also makes conducting complex searches much easier.
"Mobile phones today lack ease of use when it comes to complex searches," he said. "But with our technology users can click on a paragraph or a whole Web page and get other relevant stories or information."
The application is initially being offered on the iPhone through the Apple App Store. It's free to download. But Pieper said that the technology will eventually be available to other smartphones. Future releases of the software will also allow users to do much more, like find more relevant search results based on location. Other search companies such as Yahoo and Google are also using location-based technology to provide local search results for mobile devices.
Users can highlight an entire paragraph for a search query.
(Credit: Proximic)But Pieper believes that the Proximic technology will be able to take location-based search a step further. For example, in future releases of the software, users will be able to go into a store and take a picture of a product description and then be able to search for that product or a product with similar features. Users will then get reviews of that product or will even get results for where they can buy that particular product nearby.
"Imagine you're shopping for a TV in Best Buy," Pieper said. "You punch the product description or take a picture of the description, and you can get search results that show you the same TV is being offered for a lower price down the street at another store."
Pieper went on to say that these kinds of search results could be a boon for mobile advertising.
"Advertisers are looking for useful ad placements," he said. "Especially now in the current economy, advertising needs to be useful and relevant to users. It has to be something that users value and engage in to make it worthwhile to the advertisers."
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie. 
The payment gateway that the Company TreasureCom is offering is one based on a mobile platform tied to the online shopping cart.
The basic advantages for a Merchant:
? Payment are in real time
? Relatively very small cost to implement and for merchants that already uses online payment gateways such as PayPal the implementation may take as little as 1 hour.
? It will cost the merchant less, given that the interchange rate would be 1% instead of the current interchange rate most merchant pays (which I would be willing to guess is much more than 1%, I would guess between 2%-3.5%). This 1% interchange rate would no doubt provide the merchant with a lot of savings and in an economy like this and based on what is happening with credit cards at the moment this is an area where the merchants may save money and any savings today I am sure would be welcomed by the Merchant.
? The funds would be credited directly to Merchant?s bank account within 3 banking days by way of the ACH network very much the same as the current methods.
For the customers there are at least a few advantages.
? The customer will not need to provide either the payment processor (TreasureCom) or the Merchant his/her banking/credit/debit card information. The customer would ?push? funds directly from his her online banking facilities hence negating the need to provide banking/credit/debit card information. We are aware that a lot of customers are a bit concern about online security. This method would greatly address that concern.
? The payment transaction is generated by the customer from his/her mobile phone using text messaging and the member then may go online to complete the transaction not dissimilar to the experience of shopping with a credit/debit card.
? It would cost the customer approximately $0.55 ($0.30 by the company and approximately $0.25 by the mobile carrier to process).
Initially only customers that use AT&T or T-Mobile are be able to participate but within a three month period the company expect that all mobile carrier networks within the USA would be supported.