Reports: Telecoms Joining to Challenge Google Mobile Search

In the search engine universe, Google is a superheavyweight and Yahoo is not far behind. The rest are … far behind.

Some news reports in the runup to 3GSM next week have a host of telecom providers joining hands to challenge the Google-Yahoo dominance in mobile search. It’s not entirely clear whether this will happen, but more than one source is saying that it will.

Some of the companies said to be part of this joint underdog effort are Cingular, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom,Telecom Italia, Telefonica, and Vodafone.

One thing that is certain: The mobile Internet market is on the way up. One research firm predicts that five years from now, Internet search capabilities will be available on every other mobile phone in the world. That’s certainly a lot of money that can be made by the search provider, whoever it might be. Whether anyone can break into the Top Two remains to be seen, perhaps as early as next week.