AIRTEL TO OFFER ASKLAILA-POWERED CITY SEARCH IN INDIA

India-based local search provider asklaila has partnered with private telecom service provider Airtel to power its city search services. The free “Airtel city search” service will reach more than 30 million users across the six cities where asklaila is available, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Bangalore. The uniqueness in Airtel’s offering lies in the fact that the local search service will be available across three screens, i.e. mobile, PC (via Airtel’s broadband service), and TV (Airtel DTH). The mobile service will be available across four modes: SMS, USSD, WAP, and Airtel Live. To use it via SMS, users can text a keyword to 54321. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) is an instant messaging type phone service and can be used in even basic phone models. This is accessible under Airtel Live USSD portal by dialing *321#. It will also be integrated in the Airtel service menu, under the Airtel Live brand. asklaila is a service of Four Interactive and its search features include proximity search, syntax-free search option, address compression, locality short forms, and landmark information. -Smarajit Dasgupta