NEW DELHI, INDIA: Vodafone and Microsoft India have launched of SMS Search for Vodafone customers in India powered by Live Search. Vodafone subscribers can type in their query as a SMS text message on their mobile handset and send to 55060. The mobile originating SMS will be charged 30 paise per query.

The development work to embellish the Live Search platform to deliver search service via SMS was done at Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC). "Developing SMS search at MSIDC was a logical choice because SMS is the de facto protocol for information exchange for majority of the 225 million mobile users in India after voice," said Gurpreet S. Pall, Director of Live Search and Emerging Markets at MSIDC.
 
Harit Nagpal, Marketing and New Business Director, Vodafone Essar said, "Vodafone customers will now have a complete search experience with this first of its kind service.  After providing our GPRS users the ease and convenience of Windows Live Search, SMS Search was the natural next step forward."
 
Live Search on Vodafone mobile offers users a search experience by enabling them search On-portal/deck content like ringtones, images, articles, Local / directory information like restaurants Mobile sites (WAP sites), World Wide Web (WWW)
 
Currently, the local search/directory information is available in 8 major cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. In addition, 21 more cities are expected to go live soon.