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Regular readers will recall that I am sharply focused on tools/technologies and companies providing personalization and recommendations solutions to mobile operators and content owners. My passion stems from my own ongoing research into content discovery and – more recently – work on a new report on mobile personalization and recommendation. (If you are a company in this space, then I invite you to contact me directly.)

10 MILLION PEOPLE IN BRITAIN GET ONLINE ON THEIR MOBILE PHONES, or 20 percent of those with handsets, says some new research from Nielsen. The firm also says that smartphone ownership increased by more than 10 percent over the last three months, with 6.2 million of the devices now in use in the UK

In brief: Inma Martinez - a leading digital media strategist, "free radical" and advisor to venture capitalists - is back for the second in the series. Following her last take on Blyk she comes back from lunch with Antti Öhrling, Blyk Co-Founder, with deep insights into the Blyk model. Other topics/companies include: VouChaCha and other startups high on the radar; social media buzz and Vodafone 360; a review of Mobilize and Mobile Marketing Forum Europe; the new mobile brain drain; and why developers need to tune into women. We salute Mark Curtis, founder of Flirtomatic; Dagmara Brylack (for innovative and thoughtful mobile campaigns at P&G); and Mark "Mr. Mobile" Wächter, for his work to take the partnership between the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and the German Federal Association for the Digital Economy’s mobile division, the BVDW Section Mobile, to a new level. Mobile Groove, the monthly podcast that focuses on the news and companies that matter most in mobile -- is back with a great line-up of topics and the usual mix of insights and outspoken observations from co-host Inma Martinez, my über-connected and always professional partner in crime. (We missed posting on Friday, but the reason for the delay will be clear when I take the wraps off an all-new MSearchGroove, so watch this space.) Mobilize, the conference Inma attended in September, left a lasting impression. Her SWOT analysis: a great line-up of startups and a high level of energy and VC activity in the Valley. Where does this leave Europe? Inma (also based in London) connects the dots in some recent investor reports and concludes Europe may see its best and brightest in mobile "defect." Is the U.S. the place to be if you are a mobile entrepreneur? Listen in and let us know what you think. Speaking of startups, Inma also outlines the highlights from Seedcamp, a program created to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe by connecting next generation developers and entrepreneurs with over 400 mentors from a top-tier network of company builders; including seed investors, serial entrepreneurs, product experts, HR and PR specialists, marketers, lawyers, recruiters, journalists and venture capitalists. One company that stood out: VouChaCha, a U.K. startup that delivers vouchers to your mobile phone. Where is the hold up in Europe and why aren't coupons a de facto part of our daily mobile routines (as they are in the U.S.)? You tell us! Other success stories Inma shares: Flirtomatic, iScoot and eBuddy. CONTEXT MATTERS? Will location-based services excite women? Well, we beg to disagree.

The popularity of location-based services applications - particularly their top-notch position in a variety of app stores - indicates that location apps are crowd-pleasers, but are they really game-changing? Nate Janewit - an MSG columnist and a computer scientist at Stanford University sharply focused on the larger issues around LBS - suggests companies need to think differently about location in order to wring more value out of their vast stores of data. The recent report on trends in location-aware apps from Apple's App Store, Google's Android Marketplace, and Blackberry's App World released by Skyhook Wireless, itself a provider of a patented hybrid system of location awareness, reveals a buoyant market for LBS apps. Indeed, the Apple App Store was found to have the greatest number of location-based applications, at over 2,300, and the highest percentage of paid for location apps, at over 75 percent. 67 percent of Blackberry apps are paid, and 80 percent of Android Marketplace apps are free. Clearly, location apps are popular, as their increasing ubiquity and popularity across a variety of app stores demonstrates. But move past the hype and the excitement generated by the flurry of activity in the space, and it becomes clear that location services - by themselves - are not game-changing. Location-aware data is not enough Indeed, mobile location-based services and social networking companies such as Loopt, Pelago, and Sense Networks have invested a great deal to achieve their vision, which revolves around the provision of an array of consumer and community services supported by socially-tagged, location-aware data stores. The data they have is impressive and the expansion plans they pursue are ambitious. However, they also face formidable competition from Internet giants (Google, MySpace, Facebook, and Yelp) that have already aggregated their own large sets of useful social content, and are anxious to extend their reach to mobile. Can companies compete on location data? Many players are positioning themselves to do just this. However, I submit that location services - and the structures and systems in place to deliver them - represent little more than an incremental innovation on top of the immense stockpiles of location data and content that are largely under the control of established Web companies and heavyweights. As a result, these Web giants are well-positioned to leverage location data to mobilize their offers and ultimately dominate the marketplace. There are, however, options and strategies mobile location services companies can employ to win the game - even though, as I argue in this is column, location services on their own are far from game-changing. Admittedly, not everyone shares my view. Sam Altman, founder of Loopt, told me in a recent interview that he strongly believes in the value of innovation in location-based services and their central position in personal mobility experiences. A prime example is the company's iPhone app. Loopt's Mix feature enables users -without compromising their personal privacy - to connect with other users nearby. What's more, users can find places nearby on Yelp and find what their friends on Loopt are saying about those places. Beyond this interesting user experience, Loopt's location-related content is thin, and therefore isn't terribly useful - yet. However, it's not so much the company's progress with their service offering that interests me as much as its business priorities.

Mobile social networks (or at least the clever ones) are mapping out business models that allow them to transition from being meeting places for communities to being marketplaces for commerce. It's early days and there are no easy answers - all the more reason to attend 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), this Thursday in London. The seminar provides the perfect opportunity to explore key learnings with industry pioneers and network over drinks. (The event begins at 6:30 p.m. and wraps up around 11 p.m. More details on the program and venue here.) One company I look forward to hearing is Flirtomatic, a pioneer mobile flirting service that has had great success monetizing mobile users through conversation with added fun and great content such as virtual flowers and kisses. The company recently extended its reach to enable members to give the objects of their affection real gifts including chocolate and sexy underwear. As Matt Dicks, Commercial Director for Flirtomatic, put it in an interview with AIME's Andrew Darling: The approach to mobile advertising is about marketing entertainment and content services as part of its mobile social network. "It's about integrating ads and brands into the fabric of a social networking service - enabling premium gifting between users and using advertising to support content."

Super-charged from a super week at ThinkMobile. With 450+ attendees, the inaugural event was a huge success, and a huge part of that is to the credit of Matthew Snyder - ThinkMobile Conference Chair and Founder, & CEO of ADObjects, a strategic cross-media consultancy - who brought together an eclectic mix of professionals and practitioners. I used the opportunity to connect with some cool companies and mobile pundits, so check back for a line-up of exclusive briefings and in-depth analyses, beginning with a podcast with Bob Rosenshein, Answer.com CEO. In our audio interview, we discuss what makes for an optimal mobile search experience, and talk in broad terms about the company's mobile strategy. Having just packed 100+ business cards and a stack of notebooks in my suitcase, it's going to be tough choosing whom to showcase next, but be assured I will pick the gems. My dear colleagues from bnetTV also covered the event, providing me the opportunity to do some impromptu interviews with Smaato, Nokia Interactive, David Berkowitz (Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy at digital marketing agency 360i), and Mobify, a start-up that gets publishers around the pain and expense of making a version of their website for mobile phones (and the iPhone) by enabling publishers to create "mobile views" of their existing destination. (I'll have more about the company, and an interview with Igor Faletski, Mobify CEO, in a special post that outlines the process in a how-to that results in an iPhone version of MSG.) A real highpoint of the conference: The chance to connect with Alan Moore, founding director of SMLXL (Small Medium Large XtraLarge), a specialist community and engagement marketing firm, and co-author of Social Media Marketing: How Data Analytics Helps to Monetize the User Base in Telecoms, Social Networks, Media and Advertising in a Converged Ecosystem. I'll deep-dive into this work in a future podcast, but in the meantime allow me to leave you with a key bullet point from Alan's presentation (and one that echoed across a string of post-session discussions): Advertising inventory as we know it is dead. Think about it.