• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 10, 2009

OneRiot and search engine Taptu plan to announce Tuesday that people have an option to browse the Web on mobile phones for trending topics and the most relevant results.

Taptu is the first mobile search engine to link into OneRiot's application programming interface (API) to develop a mobile app. The API allows companies to syndicate real-time search results. The service is available on the majority of mobile devices, including iPhone, iPod touch, G1, Nokia N 97 and 5800, and BlackBerry Storm 1.

People can search on their phone for real-time news. "You hear there's a hurricane and want to read the latest buzz on your mobile phone," says Tobias Peggs, general manager of OneRiot. "So, you do a search for 'hurricane,' but you don't want to see the Wikipedia page. You need quick access to real-time news."

When asked about the advertising opportunity for publishers, Peggs says OneRiot launched an application about a month ago aimed at consumers who consume tons of content through real-time search streams. The company built a real-time ad network that targets consumers searching real-time networks such as Twitter. Mobile content ad networks could adopt the application.

While 'real-time search' has become the latest buzzword on the Web, some want to know if targeted ads in real-time search on mobile networks will follow. Peggs says real-time search will present an opportunity to target consumers with ads, but the industry has not reached that level of sophistication. Not on the mobile phone, anyway.

By the end of 2009, 234 million U.S. consumers -- 76% of the population -- will have a mobile phone subscription, according to Forrester Research. The total number of phone subscriptions will reach nearly 270 million, representing 88% of the country's population. That number should reach 325 by 2014, the research firm estimates.

Peggs says the next step to serve up ads in real-time results means developing additional services through the company's API. The move to improve relevant ads will provide the ability to "quickly scale up" and support partners the size of Microsoft and Yahoo.

Last week, Yahoo said in a statement that it has been testing a new search shortcut that would include real-time results at the top of search results pages on the PC. Peggs confirmed the test, but says he's not authorized to speak about Yahoo's trials.

Google and Microsoft also announced deals recently to make Twitter messages retrievable by their search engines, but not on mobile phones.