46.1 million mobile data users in the US used mobile search functions in the third quarter of 2007, according to a Nielsen Company report examining the mobile search behavior of wireless subscribers, reports MarketingCharts.

More than 5,700 mobile search users who use at least one mobile data service were surveyed for the Nielsen Mobile report. Among the findings:

• The most popular form of mobile search among data users in Q3 2007 was 411 (18.1 million users), followed closely by SMS-based (text-message) searching, which was used by 14.1 million data users during the same period.
• Local listings were the leading search objective in terms of users (27.1 million data users searched for local listings in Q3 2007)
• Some 14.8 million also said they searched for information such as sports scores, news or weather, and nearly a quarter (11.3 million) said they searched for mobile content.

"As more mobile users turn to their phone for the answers they need, mobile search has quickly escalated as a critical part of the mobile media and advertising landscape," said Kanishka Agarwal, VP of Mobile Media for Nielsen Mobile.

"Knowing how mobile searchers find information - and what they're looking for - will help us intelligently engage with consumers through mobile search."

From a demographic perspective, Nielsen reports that among mobile data users…

• Some 61 percent of 411 search users are female, while 60 percent of WAP (or mobile web) search users are male.
• SMS-based searching skews younger than other methods of search: 33 percent of SMS searchers are under 25.
• Within SMS search providers, Yahoo, YellowPages SMS and SuperPages SMS all over-index for Hispanic users.

About the report: Conducted by Nielsen Mobile, the Mobile Search Report sizes and characterizes the mobile search user market, examines the methods people use to search, compares usage across individual search providers and identifies the objectives people have when searching for information over their mobile phone.