411 Tops Mobile Search Survey411 Tops Mobile Search Survey

What do mobile phone users search for?

According to a survey modeling 46 million mobile data users conducted by the Nielsen Company, searches for 411 (also known as directory assistance) were the most popular form of search, followed closely by text message (SMS)-based searching. Nielsen said 18.1 million users searched for 411 answers while SMS was used by 14.1 million.

Female searchers made up 61% of the 411 searches while male searchers accounted for 60% of mobile Web searches.

"As more mobile users turn to their phone for the answers they need, mobile search has quickly escalated as a critical part of the mobile media and advertising landscape," said Kanishka Agarwal, VP of Mobile Media for Nielsen Mobile, in a statement. "Knowing how mobile searchers find information -- and what they're looking for -- will help us intelligently engage with consumers through mobile search."

Citing the destinations of SMS searches, the market research firm singled out Yahoo, YellowPages SMS, and SuperPages SMS. SMS searchers under age 25 accounted for one-third of the searches in the survey. Nielsen, which released the report Wednesday, surveyed more than 5,700 mobile search users in the third quarter of 2007.

Local listings were the chief search target accounting for 27.1 million visits, followed by 14.8 million searches for information like sports scores, news or weather.

Search continues to push mobile usage year over year. Research firm Bango found the U.S. is now second only to the U.K. in terms of mobile Web use. The top five countries accessing the mobile Web via Bango in April 2007 were the UK at 27%, the US at 21%, South Africa at 11%, India at 9% and Indonesia at 3%.