The Mobile Marketing Association has released the latest version of its “U.S Consumer Best Practices Guidelines for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Services.  More simply, its the latest iteration of guidelines in terms of cross-carrier mobile content services such as SMS, MMS, shortcode services, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and the mobile Web.

Dubbed version 4.0, the new guidelines represent the first time the individual mobile marketing guidelines and codes of conduct, known as “carrier playbooks,” of the four largest U.S. wireless service providers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile USA have been consolidated into one integrated “rule book” so to speak.

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Visual search is a new concept aimed at making the overall search experience more user-friendly, interactive and quicker for the end-user.  While there are visual search engines on the traditional Web, the concept has been better received on the mobile Web- where quicker and more visual search results are more welcomed given the nature of the devices used.

To heed this trend, Searchme has been busy introducing mobile applications that bring mobile visual search to the various mobile platforms.  While an iPhone, Android and even Nokia Ovi Store version already exist, the Windows Mobile platform has lacked an app.  That’s now changed with Searchme’s debut of a beta version of its mobile app for Windows Mobile users.

Instead of a list of blue links, Searchme delivers images of web pages, videos, music and products that play right on the search result page making it easy to find and consume information on a cell phone.  Searchme offers significantly improved performance for searching on a phone because it runs as a native Windows Mobile application, rather than in a slow-rendering web browser.  Unlike other search applications, Searchme supports a full touch screen interface.

In the beginning, I have to say I wasn’t impressed with the idea of visual search.  It’s a slower process and I found it harder to find exactly what I was looking for given the plethora of media that’s presented with each search.  Text-based search results just feels more natural.  With the advent of bringing visual search into a separate mobile application, the idea seems much more viable.

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Google is getting one step closer to dominating mobile contextual advertising much like it did on the traditional Web with the launch of a public beta for its new AdSense for mobile apps solution.

Aimed at providing both contextual and graphical ads for apps running on both the iPhone and Android platforms, AdSense for mobile apps is taking on niche mobile ad networks such as AdMob and Greystripe who have been serving up ads in mobile applications for quite some time now- AdMob, in particular, has done very well thus far.

The solution will work similar to Google’s other AdSense products and will display ads based on keywords, demographics and location.  In addition, advertisers can also directly bid for placement in certain apps.  The application developer can even determine the positioning and appearance of any ad displayed in their app, and can filter out any un-wanted ads if they desire.

At the moment, the public beta is limited to apps that garner a minimum of 100,000 daily pageviews, which is a small number of apps, but should be released to the masses shortly.

This is significant only because of the vast reach Google already has, as well as the fact that it will be easily integrated into Google’s other AdSense solutions.  Although it’s separate now, when marketers can check mobile apps as part of their overall AdSense campaigns, there should be a lot more bidding for those mobile ad spots within iPhone and Android apps, which will also increase the bid amounts and make the overall task of advertising within mobile applications much more streamlined.

As it stands right now, Google already has more advertisers than any other startup that’s deemed their competition (AdMob), and the solution hasn’t even launched yet.  With that kind of inventory integrated within Google’s already vast AdSense/AdWords networks, the launch will undoubtedly be a game-changer.

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SecureSMS, a product from CellTrust that promises a secure mobile environment for “critical information,” has won the Communication Solutions product of the year for 2008 from Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC).

SecureSMS is designed to help organizations in healthcare, financial services/banking, government, education, travel and mobile advertising to have the ability to exchange critical information with customers in a trusted environment on the mobile device.  Unlike traditional SMS communication, SecureSMS adds a multi-layer level of encryption and security to messages that contain more sensitive information.

Among other things, SecureSMS adds control to manage confidential information exchange via mobile devices, accountability with recipient confirmation when SMS is received and opened, enterprise level compliance without costly development or server infrastructure investment, carrier-ready compatibility with more than 710 carriers in over 217 countries and security with end-to-end encryption across the mobile ecosystem (i.e. carriers, tower operators, infrastructure providers or aggregators).

Working in conjunction with CellTrust’s “SecureSMS Gateway,” SecureSMS works by utilizing a micro client that installs on the handset to communicate with the SecureSMS Gateway.  The application is similar to a regular SMS editor and encrypts outgoing secure messages as well as decrypts incoming secure messages received via the SecureSMS Gateway. 

As more and more information is being shared via SMS from business to consumer or vice versa, especially information that’s private or extra-sensitive, security and an extra layer of protection will be vital.  Products like this will only further the innovation surrounding SMS, so its no wonder they won the product of the year when it comes to mobile technology solutions.

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Warner Brothers Digital Entertainment is planning to flood the mobile realm with dozens of new apps (at least forty in all) by the end of this year.

Hoping to increase its presence in the digital sphere with an assortment of apps that will promote individualized projects and promotions, Variety is reporting that Warner Brothers has released more than a dozen iPhone apps so far, all pushing films like The Dark Knight, Watchmen and the new Terminator flick.

But apart from standard movie-trailor themed apps, Warner Brothers has bigger plans for their forthcoming anticipated blockbusters like Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes.

In short, Warner Bros. is reportedly entertaining everything from animated episodic video apps to other original content offerings based on winning brands. Variety also touched on Warner Brothers’ possible interest in developing mobile games centered around newly released films.

The director of worldwide marketing for Warner Bros., Stephanie Bohn, struck a cooperative tone regarding the studio’s relationship with Apple. “It’s difficult for developers to have a direct call into Apple,” she said. “We spend time talking with them weekly, if not daily.”

“It doesn’t cost a lot to launch an app,” Bohn added. “Relative to a TV show or a film, it’s nothing.”

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In an effort to extend further into big ticket live sporting events, mobile TV service Qualcomm’s Flo TV is taking one giant step this week with a new deal in partnership with NBC Universal for a series of major events.

Events now covered will include The Preakness Stakes, the French Open, the Stanley Cup Final, the U.S. Open and Wimbledon.

Proving the increasing competitiveness of the genre, Flo TV competitor MobiTV has a deal with CBS for the NCAA, in which March Madness championship basketball is aired every March.

As it stands, by now Flo TV has already aired thousands of hours of college basketball and football, professional basketball and baseball, golf, soccer, boxing, auto racing, and hockey. Included among these events are big-ticket broadcasts, like the U.S. Open golf championship, for which it said viewership climbed 80% over its usual viewing average.

Currently, MobiTV has 6 million subscribers. Flo TV does not release subscriber numbers. Nonetheless, it’s available to AT&T subscribers and Verizon Wireless customers in 68 markets nationwide.

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Maxing out your credit card? Ten Grand. Ending payoff balance? Twenty Grand.

Launching a payment platform to optimize business? Priceless.

For MasterCard, the financial services giant, there’s a big launch planned for the US later this month.

MasterCard announced its on-demand, person-to-person Mobile MoneySend payment platform will go live within the next two weeks.

According to the official word, “the Mobile MoneySend platform enables bank customers to offer P2P payments to their customers. Users can send and receive funds via SMS, mobile web, downloadable mobile application or PC, linking their mobile phone number to a MasterCard prepaid card issued by Bancorp. MasterCard adds that as more issuers enroll for the platform, their customers will be able to use MoneySend with their everyday accounts, including MasterCard debit, credit, prepaid or checking, as determined by their issuer.”

This week, CNBC reported that the major credit card companies (ranging from Visa to American Express) are stepping up efforts in the mobile world to attract new customers. MasterCard is certainly on board with this agenda, a development born in partnership with mobile payment solutions provider Obopay.

If you can’t wait, the platform is already available across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and parts of Africa.

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