Taptu app searches for “iPhone-friendly content”

Search applications for mobile phones don’t need to emulate their computer-desktop counterparts. Yahoo oneSearch deliberately returns results different from the company’s website, based on Yahoo’s research that found customers searching from a phone tended to be looking for a narrow set of items — phone numbers, directions, flight info — and that creating phone-centric results tested better than trying to build another Googlephone.

Now startup Taptu has launched a free search app for the iPhone. The company previously launched a browser-based version of its app as well as a Symbian 60 phone app last year. It claims its latest release returns “iPhone-friendly” results. But what that apparently means is that they’re loaded with what seem to be a mix of bizdev-deal and curated results from digital magazine publisher Zinio, religious sermon publisher SermonAudio, and even Yahoo oneSearch. The company serves ads targeted to the phone owner’s search.

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So, compared to Yahoo’s results, you could call Taptu’s pretty scattershot. Searching for “speakers” brings up the E section of the alphabetical index of SermonAudio speakers. (Actually, I was looking for add-on loudspeakers to buy for my iPhone.) Typing in “Britney” returns her oneSpace page, but a search for “K-Fed” returns a comedy sketch about Britney and K-Fed from MadTV.

Taptu has the right idea but lacks the consistent feel of Yahoo oneSearch. The obvious question is, can a startup keep up with Yahoo at creating phone-specific results? The answer, for now, seems to be no.