Mobile search services: is there any use for them?

A recent MobHappy entry received varied comments on the usability and usefulness of mobile search services. The main argument is that mobile search will not be about finding local info - we are all used to getting local info quite efficiently and effectively from the local social network - but it will be about "Need to Know Now". For example, I am out and about with friends without a plan and we think about going to watch a movie: what is on show in cinemas in our general whereabouts? This is a scenario that has happened to me several times. And I have tried using my mobile phone to find out. It's been too slow, too cumbersome, too frustrating. By the time I logged on, someone else had gone to the local kiosk, bought the equivalent of "What's On" magazine and found out all that we needed about movies, plus theaters and restaurants and you name it. You can replicate the same experience on a desktop or laptop but not on a mobile. The mobile interface is too handicapped for such a purpose, besides, it would cost a lot more in comparison to buying the mag. Not to mention that you can roll and fold and tear up and throw away the magazine but you'll never do such things to your expensive gadget!

Another consideration is the context of using the mobile phone. Professionals use their phones most in parallel with some other activity, such as driving, attending a meeting, walking down the street. In most such cases, you can't spare the other hand or the extra finger-clicks or the additional attention to the small screen to do a computer-like search. It's easier to plug your hands-free earpiece and call a telephone directory or yellow page service and ask the operator. It's usually also cheaper that the equivalent data service.