The MSN Search and MSN Mobile teams have recently collaborated and are excited to deliver the MSN Local Search Beta to your mobile device! Currently available in the US, Mobile Search is available on Windows Mobile devices, as well as new phones with WAP 2.0 browsers.  To try out the service, launch your phone’s web browser, and go to http://mobile.msn.com/ and select "Beta Services" from the main menu.

So what does it do? You can search for a restaurant, store, school, dentist, museum – basically, anything listed in the Yellow Pages and White Pages. Just enter your search term (i.e. “coffee” or “Victrola” ) and location (zip code, city/state or full street address) and hit the Search button. Your recently used locations are even stored and easily accessible the next time you use the service. We’ll return the first handful of results, including name, address, distance from your current location and phone number – which you can dial by clicking!  Select the result name and you’ll see a page with more detail, including a color map. Select “get directions” and we’ll provide turn-by-turn driving directions between your starting location and result address (both editable). All of these features have been specially designed to work on your phone, requiring minimal interaction and optimized for speed and ease of use.

We’ll be adding many more features like SMS and 'send to phone' in the coming months, so check back often.  We're very interested in your feedback, so tell us what you think.

Thanks,

Aron Holzman and the MSN Mobile Search team