Interchange hops on the SMS bandwagon

[bakedjake]

[smslocal.com...]

SMS LOCAL (beta) is a text-message local-search and directory assistance service that enables you to search for products, services and businesses geographically via your wireless phone or device. For example, you might search for "parking near lax" to locate parking services near the Los Angeles International airport.

[JeremyL]

So who was first to the table? Yahoo or Interchange? Where are the patents to protect new inovations. Of all the cray ones I've seen, I can't believe the company with this idea first didn't patent it. OK, I'll stop trolling now :P

[MoneyMan]

Interesting find Jake. I suspect that Interchange is using the same data that they have for ePilot product. I wonder if they are already "distributing" their PPC advertisers via the smslocal to these phones and if they are charging the advertiser for this distribution. I'm not sure how they would monitor this other than just charging the advertiser for sending their information, thus charging for impression.

I tried it out, and it was took a bit to long and was too clumsy for my liking. It wasn't the fault of the smslocal tho, but the limits of text messaging on phones. As wireless technologies develop this will get better.

[GameMasterM]

"So who was first to the table? Yahoo or Interchange?"

Actually a similar deal was made between Looksmart and UpSnap months ago. I believe but not exactly sure that LookSmart has some sort of agreement with Bell South for local content. Perhaps someone here can fill in the unknowns.