It’s great to kick of the New Year with an analysis of some of the companies and developments sure to leave their mark on 2009.

In the case of Taptu – a provider of “socially assisted” mobile search that MSG has tracked from day one – it’s a case of both.

It’s a company we’re sure to hear more from and – more importantly – it’s a company whose recent deal with Gofresh-owned itsmy.com point the way to one trend high on my radar: The natural fit between mobile social networks and mobile search.

I caught up with Steve Ives, Taptu CEO, in an exclusive interview where he revealed the recent deal with itsmy.com is just the start. Look for three more deals with mobile social networks before February. Also expect Taptu to sharpen its focus on mobile search monetization, particularly in the U.S. where Steve tells me most of his traffic is. (And there’s an even better reason to concentrate on mobile search sponsored links, sources tell me CPMs around key word search terms are in the $3-$10 range.)

Listen to the podcast here. [20:22] on MSearchGroove (MSG).

Everywhere you look MSG is ending the year on a positive note:

Bango counts nearly 2,000 downloads of Peggy’s mobile advertising white paper, and emails continue to pour in from professionals and practitioners showing their appreciation for the industry’s first how-to white paper to help companies harness mobile advertising.

Download Peggy’s whitepaper here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Mobile, Verticals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.