Vodafone and Microsoft to offer SMS Search for customers in India

Mumbai: Vodafone will introduce SMS Search for its customers in India using Microsoft's Live Search. Vodafone subscribers can type in their query as a SMS text message on their mobile handset and send to 55060. The mobile originating SMS will be charged 30 paise per query.

''Vodafone customers will now have a complete search experience with this first of its kind service," said Harit Nagpal, marketing and new business director, Vodafone Essar. "After providing our GPRS users the ease and convenience of Windows Live Search, SMS Search was the natural next step forward.''

The development work to embellish the Live Search platform to deliver search service via SMS was done at Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC). ''Developing SMS search at MSIDC was a logical choice because SMS is the de facto protocol for information exchange for majority of the 225 million mobile users in India after voice,'' said Gurpreet S. Pall, Director of Live Search and Emerging Markets at MSIDC. 

''We are offering some very unique features like local results based on the user's city location, keeping track of user's search session for 24 hours and delivering results formatted to match the user's phone capabilities – seen in India for the first time,'' added Pall. This is one of the several Live Search services targeted at emerging markets currently being developed at MSIDC.

Live Search on Vodafone mobile offers users a complete search experience by enabling them search:

- On-portal/deck content like ringtones, images, articles, etc
-  Local / directory information like restaurants
-  Mobile sites (WAP sites)
-  World Wide Web (WWW)

Currently, the local search/directory information is available in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. In addition, 21 more cities are expected to go live soon.