The combination of offline, online and phone-based search applications for databases and listings products is a $65 billion market today

(PRWEB) September 4, 2004 -Research and Markets announces the addition of this new report entitled "The Search Media Opportunity for Telco" to its offerings.

The combination of offline, online and phone-based search applications for databases and listings products is a $65 billion market today. Both advertisers and subscribers foot the bill. New advances in search and related technologies are ramping up the volume, thus creating new forms of paid search. Rather than give up the battle in the face of Google, integrated service providers should capitalize on owning two of three converging accelerants -- location sentience and full-featured handsets (FFH) -- that when combined with search evolution create powerful new user experiences.

Key findings of this report include:

The aggregate U.S. market today is $53 billion.

- This includes offline advertising media such as classified advertising, print yellow pages (YP), as well as paid search in the online world and basic and enhanced DA.

'Triple-play opportunity combines online, wireless, and DA.

- Those carriers who have not divested their yellow pages publishing entities can add significant online YP revenues to this, but ISP units have a play as well, however diminished it may be.

Location-based services is classified as part of Mobile Content.

- The U.S. market for mobile content and applications will be $4.5 billion in 2009, the location-sentient component is located within Media and Utilities, itself a $2.5 billion space (2009); a conservative estimate of location-based search is $370 million, or about 15 percent of the Media and Utilities segment.

Search begins in the Mines.

- As in data mining, with entity extraction and linguistic tooling to create a deeper level of visibility into unstructured and/or legacy data. Solutions for mining heretofore-inaccessible flat YP graphics files, for example, can unlock value and level the playing field with Google.

New ecosystem emerging.

- Solutions providers such as FAST and Aptus are emerging as interesting weapons in the battle for rich local content generation, in addition, established players are repositioning, such as ISx in the DA platform space.

LBS makes it real.

- After traversing the hype/bust cycle, location-based services are starting to merge with rich local content -- which was the plan all along. The difference between 2000 and 2004 is the emergence of real search tools (powered by paid search on the Web) that validate the concept of monetizing merchant referrals in a compelling way that wireless could never accomplish on its own in the same timeframe. This is two prongs of a three-pronged convergence, the third being handset evolution.

EDA starting to come into its own.

- Some platform solutions providers in the DA space, including ISx and varetis along with Nortel/Volt, are starting to report meaningful results for enhanced DA, which has languished in the sub-10 percent level for years. With penetration for selected fixed-line carriers now breaking through the double-digit mark, the 2009 outlook for EDA could be in the 500-700 million call range, pulling EDA revenue towards the $900 million+ mark in the next five years.

Clients everywhere.

- Two powerful sea-changes in client technology are building up steam: wireless full-featured handsets, and online, Web Services. W3D is already using the latter to deliver listings information to any Microsoft Office desktop, and the emergence of handsets with internal operating systems capable of crunching search applications online and offline challenge agent-backed DA. Indeed, Agent-backed DA will be only 50 percent of listings search by 2008 (U.S.).

For a complete index of this report click on http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/223137

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