• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 20, 2009

YellowSpaces hopes to feed information from businesses into the local search engine to offer data on mobile devices found far beyond blue links and brief descriptions. While the road map for services is far from ordinary, the company officially launches its mobile search engine by unveiling an iPhone app Wednesday.

Available as a free application in Apple's App Store, iLPS serves up maps and directions with one tap, quickly helping consumers get where they need to go. Mobile iLPS presents a map first, allowing you to decide on the location based on proximity. Once a selection is made, additional business details -- such as phone number, address and Web site -- are shown, along with driving, biking or walking directions. The business data comes through Localeze to guarantee accuracy.

The ability to serve up driving, biking and walking directions enables YellowSpaces principal Constantin S. Manta to market the mobile application under the "Navigation" category in the Apple Apps Store.

Advertising supports the free application. Today, YellowSpaces relies on AdMob to serve up ads on mobile search queries, but Manta says: "We're waiting for Google to get their act together because they haven't fully launched a decent local search product for mobile." iLPS is geared toward the iPhone and iPod Touch, but consumers have access to a YellowSpaces mobile Web site to search for local businesses at m.yellowspaces.com.

Manta calls mobile the best environment for local search and advertising because the engine can target location, search queries, time of day, and even weather. "A Dairy Queen on the Upper West Side can serve ads to someone in the area when it's over 85 degrees," he says. "That's a highly targeted ad."

On the product roadmap possibly sits the ability to check stock levels of merchandise in search query results. Manta has been talking with a few companies that offer product location. Not only will the mobile search engine provide information on the location of the business, but check inventory status and levels at local participating retail stores. This would provide information on how many Christopher Blue jeans in a size 6 are hung on the clothing rounder at Nordstrom in South Coast Plaza, for example.

Companies such as Nearby and Krillion have begun to work with retail stores to integrate inventory information into a central database, according to Manta. "We could latch onto their feed and give consumers information on local inventory levels in stores," he says. "I am the search utility for the consumer. Similar to linking into Localeze data, I could link into data from Nearby or Krillion."