nternet visionary and Google evangelist Vint Cerf says cell phones are going to drive future growth of the Internet. As part of a much longer conversation with reporters in Bangalore India, Cerf suggested that mobile devices, primarily cell phones, will push programmers to design for handheld units. (source: CIO.com article, Feb21, 2007)

According to Cerf almost half the world's population uses mobile communication devices of some sort or another. With 2.5 billion users globally and rapid growth in China and India, the mobile market is one of the fastest growing sectors in tech. Logic follows it is likely to become one of the hottest markets in search marketing.

Cerf said that one of the key benefits to the IP packet layer is that a packet is a unit of information that can be separated from the medium it is being displayed on. Unlike telephones connections and television transmission, Internet packets can be carried across multiple platforms and rapidly transferred in tiny byte-sized bits.

BusinessWeek.com reports on The Battle for Mobile Search in its Feb 20, 2007 edition suggesting that Google and Yahoo might face a run for the money when it comes to serving search on handheld devices. There is a lot of money to run for. According to BusinessWeek, by 2011 the mobile advertising market is expected to be worth $11.4 billion.

Though they lead in monthly mobile search subscribers, the major search engines face competition from other players. Currently, search function for cell firms such as T-Mobile, Verizon and Amp'd Mobile Services is being provided by Seattle based Medio Systems Inc. and the market is said to be wide open.

Website designers and search engine marketers should take note of WAP design standards. They should also read up on and think strongly about how the small screen and slower connectivity of Internet enabled mobile devices will affect they way people use th

e Internet on their handheld devices.

There is no question that the world of personal computing devices is getting much smaller. Information is easily moved from point to point either via the web or via a datastick. My five-month old laptop is actually stronger than my much heavier but older desktop is and I can easily move it around. What is really important is that the information I require is portable. Even if I had to forsake my laptop, rely on web-based storage and carry a massive datastick, a cybercafé in Come By Chance, Newfoundland offers virtually the same services as those in Berkley, California would.

If I can connect reliably and get information I need using a mobile device, all's the better. In 2007, a critical mass of North American consumers is likely to come to a similar realization.

For the first half of the age of the Internet, (1994 – 2000ish), users were literally tied to their desks by numerous cords, wires and peripheral pieces of hardware like scanners and printers. The laptop sort of freed us from our desks but until the installation of open public WiFi, could not guarantee ubiquitous freedom from wires. Today, forward looking cities are finding ways to provide public WiFi in downtown and business areas. Many universities have WiFi available on-campus and throughout student housing units.

No longer attached to the nearest dataport, we are now free to lug our cumbersome laptops around with us and get Internet access almost anywhere we want. Virtually any student or traveling business person would agree that public WiFi is a great leap forward. At the same time practically every one who uses them will also testify that their laptops, no matter how small, get heavier and more burdensome by the day.

While amazingly useful in transit, traveling with a laptop promotes strained shoulders, bruised busted backs and the portliest of poor posture. On a crowded commute and on airplanes they also present the danger of getting elbowed in the ribs by a frantically working seatmate.

Mobile, handheld computing vs the laptop? It's rather like carting a boom-box with headphones in place of an iPod. Learn WAP now.