In a joint study, Yahoo Search Marketing and Boston-based analytics firm Compete found that 37 percent of shoppers said search influenced them more than any other channel when buying a wireless product, DMNews reports (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Although most searchers go offline to buy such products, 70 percent of people who purchased their phones offline used online research before buying.

Sixty-one percent of consumers said they expect the wireless brand leader to be in the top three search results. Yahoo and Compete expect 24 million consumers to perform a keyword search for wireless service by the end of 2005.

Consumers are using search as a decision-making tool, not merely a navigational one, using it to narrow their choice of carrier. However, search accounts for less than one percent of the total media mix for the "Big 5" carriers: Cingular, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.