Indianomics

Airtel has tied up with local search engine Asklaila. Airtel has recently launched SMS2.0 for their search via SMS. This is in addition to that and partners with the local search engine specialist. Asklaila’s ground staff checks and re-checks the listings provided by various sources before they are listed on their site. This collaboration is a win-win for both Asklaila and Airtel.

Asklaila, I think is the better benefactor of the two. Sunil Mittal believes in collaboration with big guys to get ahead. That’s what he did his whole career as an entrepreneur. I guess, Asklaila took a leaf out of his book. With this free service, 30 mn Airtel subscribers in six cities (Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata) will be able to search via mobile, DTH and Internet  across 400 different categories.

Airtel is the first operator to use multiple modes for search.

1. PC  (nothing new here)
2. TV (via DTH: Infosys is providing the technology)
3. Mobile (see below for various ways)

Within the mobile mode itself there are several ways to search.

1. SMS (sms : locate pizza bangalore to 54321)
2. USSD (dial *321*99# and call to get a interactive menu)
3. WAP (airtellive.com, s.asklaila.com)
4. Airtel Live

USSD stands for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data. USSD is the older than SMS works on 99% of GSM phones. A phone might not be able to receive SMS but it will have USSD. This service is used for mobile banking services worldwide. This is faster than SMS.

I can foresee a flurry of tie-ups from the other mobile operators as well. Airtel has been and continues to be a innovative company.

Image Credit : hindubusinessline. Kiran Konduri (co-founder of AskLaila)