Onyomo, an IIT Delhi incubated company, and reportedly India's premier mobile search company, has announced the launch of its mobile search service on the GPRS site, www.owap.in.

The company says that GPRS users can access the WAP site to search for information on categories ranging from current movies, restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels, and ATMs in an interactive way.

Onyomo provides local search, available on its Web site named onyomo.com, which according to company sources, was the first location-based search engine to be launched in the country.

Shailesh Mehta, Chief Executive Officer of Onyomo, said, "First to launch a location-based search engine in India, our aim is to provide every piece of information that the user might be looking for. Our search engine recognizes the requirement of the user, and provides complete info."

"For example, other search engines only provide the name and the phone number of the hotel you are looking for, and only in the mentioned area, whereas Onyomo gives additional value-added information such as the rating of the hotel as per customer feedback, the type of cuisine available, a round about price for a person or two, etc" Mehta said.

Onyomo also provides the option of SMS search, wherein users can type in the key word 'FIND' followed by the info required, and send it to 8558. The messages are charged anything between Re 1 to Rs 3 per SMS.

"Your SMS will be answered within 15 seconds on an average," Mehta added.

Reportedly, the content on owap.in is local in nature and comes from well-researched sources, taking into account user preferences and needs. It will allow all GPRS users across most GSM operators to access comprehensive actionable local information at no additional cost. However, CDMA phone users could check with their operator if the service is accessible from their phones.

It is learnt that GPRS users can access this service by logging on to owap.in on their mobile phone browser. They can select their city of choice, a preferred location (optional), and specify the service of interest that they are looking for. They will also be able to directly call restaurants from their phones, or save details for future use or forwarding to friends.

Mehta said, "This would be a great convenience for GPRS users to exactly find what they need while they are on their move, and easily share the same info with their friends as well. We will regularly provide our GPRS users with more such services that solve some real issues."

The service is reportedly now available for the metros of Mumbai, Delhi/NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, and Pune, and will soon be extended to other towns/cities in the coming months. GPRS Mobile Search Engine is ready to use as it has been made active across these locations from May 16 this year.

Some of the popular categories made available under this service include: ATMs, florists, restaurants, cinemas, hotels/lodgings, lounges and bars, hospitals, book stores, coffee shops, taxi services, courier services, beauty salons, gymnasiums, et al.