WhitePages has introduced a new Android application that not only helps the company drive brand awareness, but also lets users stay connected to friends and family.

The Current Caller ID app bundles all of a user?s information from a mobile device into one place to help consumers keep tabs on friends and family. The app is available for free download from Google Play.

?We set out to marry call and text ID with social status, local news and weather to create a single useful service that makes it easy for people to instantaneously stay up-to-date with the people they communicate with the most,? said Lori Roth, director of mobile products at WhitePages, Seattle.

?This approach allows us to move well beyond making Caller ID just about a name and a number and provide consumers timely, relevant information to keep on top of things in an information overloaded world,? she said.

Mobile hub
Users can sync their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to the app.

The app also pulls in all of a consumer?s contacts, which are then organized into categories such as frequent callers and most recent callers.

The app also breaks down a consumer?s calling and texting habits into graphs and charts.

Using the mobile device?s built-in GPS, the app serves up local news and weather content to consumers.

WhitePages? business and people search app is integrated into Current Caller ID, which lets users find local information.

Although the app is not currently ad-supported, the company realizes that the combination of social, mobile and local poses a powerful opportunity for marketers.

Local search
Mobile has played a large role for WhitePages.

Last year, the company rolled out an Android app that uses data from business directories and foursquare to help users search for nearby, relevant businesses(see story).

In addition to localicious app, the company also has a reverse phone number lookup iPhone app. The company?s Whitepages app is available for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices.

With more consumers searching for information on their smartphones and tablets, brands and marketers need to incorporate mobile search to not only drive online sales but also in-store foot traffic.

For example, a recent BIA/Kelsey forecast predicts that mobile search will outpace desktop search by 2015 (see story).

?Mobile and local go together like peanut butter and jelly ? both provide marketers the opportunity to provide extremely targeted messages to the consumer when the relevance of that message is the highest,? Ms. Roth said.

?Consumers now come to expect information to be delivered to them almost instantly,? she said.

?Soon, if they aren?t already, consumers are going to be accustomed to relevant and customized marketing and are going to come to expect it. Mobile and local provide this opportunity for marketers to deliver to the benefit of both the consumer and the brand.?

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York