Local mobile search? Hold the phone

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wireless carriers--to send a text message to its information directory. A text message sent to the code 4Info (or 44636) with a search query will return results of up to 160 characters less than a minute later.

For example, subscribers can key in a text message with the terms "wine bar San Francisco" and receive a list of specialty watering holes, typically within 30 seconds. Think of it as a kind of instant chat with the yellow pages.

4Info will also serve up text messages of sport scores, weather and flight information, movie times and stock quotes to SMS-enabled cell phones. It works with all the major phone carriers, save Virgin Mobile and Metro PCS.

"The next killer app on the phone is going to be local search."

--Stephen Baker, head of emerging applications, Fast Search & Transfer

"When people realize they can get answers fast, cheap and accurately, they will," said Pankaj Shah, founder and CEO of 4Info.

4Info is free to cell phone customers, except for the data costs they pay to cell phone carriers. Data fees can range from zero to 10 cents for each message, depending on a subscriber's cellular package.

Because of its speed and low cost, SMS could prove a viable competitor to "411" directory assistance and to browser-enabled mobile Web search. People have not yet widely adopted browser-enabled search over mobile phones, in part because those services aren't available on all handsets. Ease of use is also a big factor, given that it can take awhile to boot up the Internet via a cell phone, and navigation can be awkward.

It can take seconds to initiate a search via text message, as opposed to more than 15 seconds to start up a mobile browser, for instance.

"The issue is, people haven't figured out how to make mobile information delivery work," said George Harik, director of Google's entrepreneurial division Googlettes.

"If you fix those issues, it makes the delivery of advertising possible," Harik said. "Monetization always follows use, and the stage we're in is perfecting usage."

Many companies in the industry, including Google, are working to perfect usage so they can define and capture a potentially lucrative new advertising business.

Late last year, Google introduced an SMS search service that delivers driving directions and business listings that supplant the need to dial "411." Google does not disclose usage numbers, but Harik said that the SMS product is getting favorable uptake from customers.

4Info initially plans to make money by reselling third-party services over the phone. For example, it has a deal with Fandango so that people who call up for movie times can hit "Reply 1" to immediately buy