Cellular Carriers Work To Outdo Google, Yahoo

CELLULAR CARRIERS WORK TO OUTDO GOOGLE, YAHOO
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amol Sharma amol.sharma@wsj.com]
Envisioning a lucrative wireless search and advertising market, U.S. cellphone companies are shying away from deals with Internet giants such as Google and Yahoo in favor of partnerships with small start-ups they can more easily control. Google, Yahoo and other Internet companies are targeting wireless search as a major new growth area as cellphone use proliferates globally. They see billions of dollars in potential revenue from selling advertising that is linked to searches for ringtones, games, local listings and mobile Web content. The search giants have had some success overseas, but they have still had difficulty penetrating the large U.S. carriers, which ultimately control access to the nation's nearly 217 million cellular subscribers. Large phone companies, including Verizon Communications and AT&T, never really profited from the explosion of search and advertising on the Internet. Now wireless operators like Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless, which are partly owned by those same phone giants, don't want to make the same mistake.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115396112635018586.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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