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Mobile search and location-based services are hot topics in the wireless sector. Getting consumers to use them - let alone combine the two - is another matter. Right now, for standard cell phones, at least, entering where you are to get driving directions or determine the whereabouts of the nearest movie theatre is - especially if you don't know exactly where you are in the first place - a bit of a chore, since few handsets (smart or otherwise) integrate GPS chips.

Sprint Nextel may have the answer.

The solution: A new $2.99 per month InfoSpace-powered solution called Find It! With the service, users don't need to know where they are or a zip code to search out nearby restaurants, movie times, gas stations and ATMs, or get driving directions and maps.

Find It! works because it leverages the 911 location awareness the U.S. government requires manufacturers to build into mobile phones; so responders - police, EMS - can locate people in case of an emergency.

Consequently, Find It! does not require a GPS chip - although one does help - in a phone to operate and Sprint Nextel can offer the service across 20 handsets - from the high end to the low end - to 70 percent of its estimated 48 million subscribers. Sprint is the third largest carrier in the U.S. after Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless.

"Location-based mobile local search has been a promise for many years, and InfoSpace Find It! robustly delivers on the possibilities. InfoSpace Find It! is like having a concierge in your pocket," asserts Stephen Davis, president of InfoSpace Mobile and Online Media.

Analysts who've had a chance to use Sprint's new local search service compare it favorably to existing offerings from Google, for example, because Find It! was designed with cell phones in mind.

M:Metrics analyst Mark Donovan told Reuters, "What's very elegant about what they've done is they've made it possible for me to search a wide range of information using just my thumb and a single button on the phone." He added, "For most mainstream consumers I don't think they've had the option to have an application like this before."

Find IT!'s secret sauce, Donovan meant, is the ability to perform location-based searches without entering details about the location; a capability usually reserved for higher-end customers with advanced GPS-enabled handsets.

Features of Find IT! include:

- Local Quick Clicks - Find local business listings and locations with maps and driving directions with minimal clicking.

- One-Stop Searching - A single search location for Yellow Pages, White Pages, Maps, Directions, Movie Listings and more.

- Find People by Name or Number - Search using only first and last name, or by entering a phone number to find out to whom it belongs.

- What's Nearby - Access details on what's close with one click on the phone, even if the caller doesn't know exactly where they are.

- Click to Connect - Make phone calls with one click instead of dialing the entire number.

InfoSpace is handling all the content for the service and will not charge businesses for their listings, for now. This may change as the mobile directory market matures. Kelsey Group analyst Neal Polachek told Reuters advertising revenues around mobile search could reach $561 million a year (maybe even significantly higher ) by 2010.

Because InfoSpace's agreement with Sprint isn't exclusive, the company is in talks with other operators to bring the service to them as well.

Sprint cites industry analyst projections that the U.S. market for mobile directory assistance - a key feature of handset search - will hit more than $3 billion this year alone.