6. People will search by voice.

Voice-driven search is the dominant form of mobile phone search right now, and it may stay that way. For one thing, it's faster than trying to thumb-type many product names: V-Enable's Hagopian says that it takes about a minute and ten seconds to key-in a search for "coffee shop" on a phone that doesn't have a full keyboard, which ismore than 90 percent of the market right now. A voice search on the same phone could take 20 seconds to kick back a result.

Most voice searches fall into that age-old category of directory assistance calls—Tellme and V-Enable both power such services for mobile phone companies, as does Nuance Technologies, a speech-recognition company. There are also free services from Microsoft (800call411) and Google (800goog411), and an ad-supported service from Jingle (800free411). These services are morphing beyond directory assistance calls, however—maps, driving directions, nearby businesses and tourist sites are among the others that people ask for from their phones. There are also startups chasing this market, like Vlingo and yap.com.

"Speech is about the only alternative to a true flat menu," says Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates in Tarzana, Calif., which consults on speech recognition. Meisel thinks that voice is the natural way for people to search on the phone—but it will probably never be the only way.

7. People will search by text message.

SMS or text-based search is currently the second most popular way to search online, according to Opus Research. It's the way people search when they can't talk (for instance, when they're in a meeting).

Texting is also a primary way that teenagers use cell phones.

8. People will search by platform.

Downloadable applications are by far the smallest market for mobile search. Yet there's a huge array of offerings like Yahoo Go, Google Mobile, AOL's My Mobile, uLocate, Zumobi, a start-up, spun out of Microsoft Research, and Nokia's Widsets. People can also download targeted search platforms to their phones, like Mapquest Navigator.

9. You need to handle all four kinds of mobile search.

This bears repeating: There are four main ways people will use their mobile phones to search: voice, text, WAP and specialized platforms. Smart companies will figure out how to support all four, how to market via all four and how to strategize for all four within their firms, particularly in retail.

Your customers want choice. If you give it to them, you may get a leg up on your rivals who don't.

10. Gear up: This is big!

Hagopian thinks that eventually, mobile search "will be a larger market than desktop-based advertising," in part because more people use cell phones than computers.

These are the "Ivery early days ," acknowledges Tellme's McCue. There are already companies using Tellme to open new ways of creating business, like Domino's Pizza. You can search for Domino's on your phone, and it will show your last order on the screen, and you can say 'buy that one.'Without anything more, the order will be delivered to your door.

Mobile search went from hype to whisper in the late 1990s. But today, with wireless broadband widely available, increasingly powerful cell phones and improved search technologies, it's going to emerge. Says Opus Research's Sterling, "It's not going to take another 10 years for mobile search to be something that is a big deal."