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In brief: An exclusive interview with JumpTap CMO Paran Johar connects the dots in this week's announcement to support permission-based advertising with a new feature that lets consumers choose mobile display ads they will accept. PLUS a wider discussion of the value of

Yahoo finally and officially joins the group of search companies getting on the voice search bandwagon, and announces that it has launched voice-enabled oneSearch for the Yahoo! Mobile iPhone app. While Yahoo comes to the party more or less six months later than rivals such as Google, there is some indication that the wait was worth it if we consider that this service extends beyond allowing people to conduct keyword searches (for flight numbers, locations, Web site names, local restaurants - the works). People using the app can also use voice to customize the 'My Interests' tab. The procedure (according to the press release): "Simply click on 'add anything', speak the topic you're interested in, then select the relevant content and add it to your page." The Yahoo! oneSearch with voice application is currently available on more than 80 different devices and across platforms including Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Mobile, and now the iPhone - with support in eight languages. Various bloggers have tried out the voice app, which harnesses speech recognition technology from Vlingo, and reported mixed results. But it's difficult to judge the user experience based on random road tests. (This is why MSG has pooled its resources to produce mobile search research that, like my own mobile advertising white papers, offers readers a balanced assessment based on first-hand experience and solid methodology.) The Yahoo app, however, comes in too late to be included in Pump Up The Volume, MSG's own assessment of Web search on the iPhone. But that won't keep us from conducting our own road test of the Yahoo app soon. Regular readers and Twitter followers (@peggyanne) may recall I announced the project a while back (a teaser before we had further refined our methodology to account for fundamental differences between natural language and keyword search, an important improvement that makes the results all the more compelling). The white paper, researched and written in collaboration with Peggy Albright, MSG Associate and founder of Albright Communications, will be released next week. By way of background, our work assesses the overall performance of the voice-enabled search services offered by ChaCha, Google, and Vlingo in a typical range of use cases and scenarios. (Vlingo for iPhone converts queries into text and submits them to one of two search engines, Google and Yahoo. We chose Yahoo.) A special highlight: A foreword by Bill Meisel, Editor of the specialist publication and voice technology knowledge destination Speech Strategy News. I'm honored to have him on board for the voice search white paper, and look forward to showcasing his analysis/columns on MSG soon. I won't divulge all the white paper results and stats here. However, I can say that ChaCha's results proved superior to both the Google Mobile App's voice feature and Vlingo for iPhone.

This first in a series of exclusive interviews with mobile ad networks, profiles JumpTap and details what today's announcement means for advertisers, publishers and market rivals. Look for more interviews/podcasts with ad networks you need to know better including Greystripe (CEO Michael Chang tells how his company made the move from advertising enable to ad network); Mojiva (CEO Dave Gwozdz walks us through a new white-label platform for publishers), and itsmy.com (CEO Vince Staybl talks about targeting options in itsmy.biz, the mobile social network's ad network). If you are an ad network with a story to tell, then contact me directly or arrange a briefing with Andrea Henninge (andrea@msearchgroove.com). On the heels of JumpTap's announcement of tapMatch, its pay-per-click (PPC) performance mobile ad marketplace, I can finally post this exclusive Q&A with Paran Johar, JumpTap CMO. During the pre-briefing we went through the nuts and bolts of the offer (unlike Google, which offers keyword bidding and MCN - a provider of mobile search management, search merchandising, and PPC content promotion solutions offering category bidding- Jumptap offers both), and took a closer look at how the search technology potentially maximizes performance by delivering contextually relevant advertising. Q: Let's start with the landscape. When I read the draft press release I thought it competes with Google at one level and MCN at another. What is the differentiation?

UPDATE: DOWNLOAD LINK HAS BEEN FIXED Just two weeks after release and my new white paper (Mobile Advertising For The Masses) counts 500+ downloads. (Again, I am honored that Bango (white paper sponsor) refers to me as a "mobile guru.") I always endeavor to communicate complex ideas in a way that everyone will understand, and am told people enjoy my accessible and entertaining writing style. But the real reason behind the popularity of this hands-on analysis of campaigns across three mobile social networks (BuzzCity, itsmy.com,and Peperonity) is timing. Mobile social networks are on the rise (a recent Informa report counted 200+ of them) and open for business. Where is the money? I was fortunate to speak at Mobile Advertising & the Rise of Social Networking: What does it mean for Brands, Agencies and Service Providers?, a Knowledge & Networking Seminar organized by AIME (the Association for Interactive Media and Entertainment) last week in London. My session looked at the nuts and bolts of mobile advertising in social networks, and the real results, revenues and strategies first-mover companies such as pioneer mobile flirting service Flirtomatic and brave consumer brands (via full-service mobile marketing agency Inside Mobile), have to share. As I am currently conducting my own mobile advertising research, I was particularly interested to learn from Eric Mugnier, Inside Mobile Product and Innovation Director, that the agency has also done its homework in the form of an in-depth survey of 80 key decision makers in the global mobile advertising value chain. The report won't be released for a few weeks/months but Eric, who is also interested in my input and ideas, has promised MSG will have it first. (Thanks Eric!) In his presentation, which included video interview excerpts from a selection of interviews, Eric outlined a few clear trends/requirements for effective mobile advertising in a social network. Mobile advertising must be targeted and relevant; the industry has no shortage of good ideas, but it must address issues around scale; and finally, brands and agencies have built the proper foundations, and now the priority must be to create a toolkit approach that will allow more companies to execute on the lessons they have learned. "Killer app" Where are the brands? Further along than I thought if we consider the example of a major sporting goods and sports apparel company, an Inside Mobile client gearing up to release an iPhone app that combines creativity, communication, and community to deliver a compelling advertising experience that users can make their own.

Starting this week off with a bang. I arrived back in Germany from ThinkMobile in NYC just in time to put some of the insights I gained from the mobile social media panels during the event to good use in Vol 2 of my series of mobile advertising white papers. (Kudos to MobileMarketer's Dan Butcher for doing an expert job of capturing the key points and messages in his coverage (which you can read here), and a big thank-you for sending me his notes from the session that brought together MocoSpace, Buzzd and Cellufun. I had to step out for some client meetings but later caught up with the CEOs, all three of which are excited about appearing on MSG in podcasts and guest columns. I'll follow up on those conversations next week. For now, all attention is focused on Mobile Advertising For The Masses, my new-release white paper timed to CTIA and an essential read for marketers who want to tap into mobile social networks (and the ad networks they provide) to drive positive results. This time I evaluate the analytics capabilities offered by three ad networks: BuzzCity (BuzzCity), itsmy.com (itsmy.biz), and Peperonity (AdMob). I also compare the depth and breadth of analysis they provide, and examine the need for an additional comprehensive mobile analytics package to connect the dots, fill in the gaps, and give me the big picture view of what my campaigns achieved and how I might use this insight to plan and target future campaigns. It's among my best work and worth the all-nighters during and since my stay in New York to put in the final finishing touches. I won't go into the details here (for that you'll have to download the free white paper), but I can say BuzzCity came out on top, allowing me to visibility into who my customers are (gender), where they are (location down to the U.S. state level), and handset make and model, for a start. itsmy.com also allowed me to hone my campaign to target my key demographic, but outdated order and payment systems dampened my enthusiasm. Peperonity also had a few highpoints, but hasn't quite reached its full potential. BTW: I'm also pleased that I have been invited by Andrew Darling to speak on mobile advertising, social media and my key findings during Mobile Advertising & the Rise of Social Networking: What does it mean for Brands, Agencies and Service Providers?, a Knowledge & Networking Seminar organized by AIME (The Association for Interactive Media and Entertainment) that will take place in London on April 2.

It's great to kick of the New Year with an analysis of some of the companies and developments sure to leave their mark on 2009. In the case of Taptu - a provider of "socially assisted" mobile search that MSG has tracked from day one - it's a case of both. It's a company we're sure to hear more from and - more importantly - it's a company whose recent deals with Gofresh-owned itsmy.com point the way to one trend high on my radar: The natural fit between mobile social networks and mobile search. I caught up with Steve Ives, Taptu CEO, in an exclusive interview where he revealed the recent deal with itsmy.com is just the start. Look for three more deals with mobile social networks before February. Also expect Taptu to sharpen its focus on mobile search monetization, particularly in the U.S. where Steve tells me most of his traffic is. (And there's an even better reason to concentrate on mobile search sponsored links, sources tell me CPMs around key word search terms are in the $3-$10 range.)