As mobile phones offer more and more information - news, video clips, music downloads - finding what you're seeking can be a challenge, so a slew of companies is developing search tools to take advantage of all the content that's becoming available, writes CNET News (via MediaBuyerPlanner).

But only about 15 percent of U.S. wireless subscribers downloaded some type of multimedia content during the three-month period that ended in July, according to mobile tracking firm M:Metrics, and the Yankee Group points out that only about 18 percent of wireless users in the U.S. have even tried surfing the mobile internet.

Some believe that's because people can't find the content they're looking for. So Google, Yahoo and startups like InfoSpace, JumpTap and Medio are developing search tools - but smaller screens, tiny keypads and a user's impatience to wait for downloads and scroll through pages of search results pose tech challenges.

But the biggest challenge may be finding an appropriate business model for the mobile operators, most of which offer subscribers the carriers' own content, usually supplied through deals with TV networks and record labels, and so don't want users to leave their content and find other content via search.

"At the end of the day, the carriers make the business decisions. Some will continue to be very restrictive and others will be more open to accommodating outside content and outside brands," Iain Gillott, an analyst with iGillott Research, is quoted as saying.