Copenhagen / London, 12 March, 2008 – mobilePeople’s award winning liquidTM mobile search platform now supports the iPhone, extending new monetisation opportunities for directory publishers and directory assistance companies. This news comes swift on the heels of Apple’s announcement that the majority of mobile internet usage in the US is conducted on the iPhone and Google’s announcement that it monitors multiple searches from the iPhone compared to other mobile handsets.
mobilePeople provides a user interface optimised for the iPhone’s Safari browser to search Yellow Pages, White Pages and other content published using the liquid platform. Functionality includes a click to call option, the facility to get directions to a desired address, save any business search to contacts, the facility to send results to a friend and the function to see results on a map. The mapping experience on the iPhone Safari browser is superior to other browser based map solutions because mobilePeople’s solution allows the user to interact with the map. Raster maps in combination with layering technology allow for user touch interaction.
The local search experience on the iPhone is now fast and cheap. The search itself requires less data traffic, which means lower costs for the user. Thanks to AJAX technology which exchanges small packets of data with the server it is no longer necessary to reload the entire mobile pages at all times.
Jens Andersen, CEO and co-founder of mobilePeople commented: “The fact that so many US mobile users are using their iPhones to surf the web is a wake-up call to directory publishers who haven’t yet got to grips with the handset’s monetisation opportunities. With liquid now available on the iPhone, this is too good an opportunity to miss. The web is an integral part of the iPhone experience; mobilePeople is commited to ensuring that great local search functionality is a part of that iPhone experience.”
mobilePeople is also set to introduce a client based mobile local search for the iPhone based on Apple’s recently announced iPhone software development kit (SDK.)
mobilePeople’s mobile search solution has the largest footprint across all handsets, platforms and operating systems. liquidTM is platform agnostic and supported on: Java, Symbian, Windows mobile, Blackberry, iPhone, imode, mobile carrier specific markup languages and Brew. In addition, liquidTM runs on the following handset manufacturers: Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, Blackberry, iPhone, LG, NEC, HTC among others.
