Berggi to debut hakia semantic search on mobile

By Mickey Alam Khan

June 19, 2008

Feed the engine

Hakia, a leading online semantic search engine, will launch its service on mobile phones in a deal with mobile consumer application provider Berggi.

The hakia Syndication Web Services offering will include an XML feed and options to customize it. Hakia claims it offers 30,000 searches each day free of charge and free of advertising to early adopters until the partners’ quota is filled.

“With this search we’ll be able to syndicate search results to third-parties who send us a request or a query,” said Riza Berkan, CEO of hakia, New York.

With this deal, mobile consumers will be able to have another alternative to Web search, the company said.

Mobile advertisers will also benefit from more traffic driven by the semantic search application.

Burgeoning sector

“From my perspective, mobile users have limited space on their devices and when they type in a query, it’s not like a regular search,” Mr. Berkan said.

“Mobile search is much more semantic search,” he said. “You don’t have to open so many documents. Semantic search is crucial for mobile applications because it really cuts down the scrolling and the ups and downs.”

Consumers can conduct the mobile searches on the site at http://www.berggisearch.com. Berggi claims 5 million users worldwide.

Berggi and hakia will promote the new offering to existing customers and through public relations efforts.

Wireless carriers AT&T and Sprint will offer mobile semantic search in the United States.

“People want to search without using a browser,” said Babur Ozden, CEO of Berggi. “Second, people were asking that search results be more relevant. This is where the power of hakia fills the need. Third, we wanted to put a unique twist, so this can work on any phone.”