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Britain's mobile operators aren't always as creative as they might be when it comes to making money out of existing services. They fret about 'delivering OT content' when they already have services that go unexploited.

Text information services are a case in point. Up until now the market's been dominated by two players, TextPerts and AQA. The latter charges £1 for every question it answers by text. The latter charges £1.50! Well, it is owned by the men with moustaches.

Now a new entrant has entered the market. ChaCha charge 'the standard rate for texts' (I've always wondered what that is) which, in their case, comes to around 10 to 12 pence per query.

To test them, I texted them three queries of varying difficulty, and to their credit they answered in minutes. 

'What is a Croydon Facelift?' came back almost immediately. 

How on earth do they make money though? Even if they bought some impossibly cheap minutes, the margins on each transaction must be pretty slim.

They claim to have 60,000 highly-trained human fact finders - and highly trained people don't come cheap (unless, of course, they're exaggerating that bit).

There are no adverts on each text that I could see, so how are they doing it? Are they selling details about our queries? 

TEST: HOW THEY PERFORMED

We tested ChaCha's speed and professionalism with these questions:

1. If we all held up a mirror and directed the sun's rays in one direction, could we fry Piers Morgan like an ant?

2. How much power, on average, does a Cornish wind turbine generate?

3. What is a Croydon Facelift?

Answers 1 and 3 were provided within a minute. Answer 2, which was trickier, only took slightly longer (but was obviously taken from standard  figures for wind turbines, so was effectively meaningless, arguably)

Still, for 10p a question, it's not bad. Have you tried AQA or TextPerts recently?

Simplexo claims to have invented a tool that allows you to use your mobile to search your desktop computer. So if you're crawling up the west coast main line and suddenly remember a document you need, you can scan the office computer for it with your mobile.

Is that right? You'll have to ask Simplexo. All they've told me is that their 'SearchYourDesktop' web app for smartphones is a handy tool for businessmen and woman on the move.

If so, then it is the first mobile search application that enables you to remotely search and access files on your desktop. It can search for information on social media services and email accounts, from a mobile device.

The application can be used on a wide range of devices such as iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry 6, with further device support planned in the future.

Once installed on your home or work PC, 'SearchYourDesktop' allows users to find files such as documents, presentations, photos and media files.

You can create playlists for remote playing of music. It also concurrently searches the web, leading social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked In, and securely connects to Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint servers. Results are presented in a single 'unified search' interface.

Check out their site for more information on 'SearchYourDesktop'.

We're going to have to review this and see if it lives up to its billing!

Photo courtesy: Hemera Technologies/ThinkStock

Britain's mobile users think mobile ads are intrusive and tend to ignore them, says a new study by YouGov.

Let's put that another way. Somebody actually spent money paying YouGov to conduct a study of the bleeding obvious.

Of course we hate mobile marketers. They're like charity muggers, Jehovah's Witnesses and British Gas phone canvassers, all compressed and integrated into your handset.

Here, for what it's worth, are the details of the study.

We're not even going to bother reading it, so excuse us if there's any typos. Here we go, Control A, control X, control V....

The majority of smartphone users questioned (79%) believe that ads are intrusive. In addition to this only 5% think mobile ads are a good idea and welcome them. But most worryingly for advertisers is the general apathy smartphone users have toward ads, with the vast majority completely ignoring any kind of placement - 88% ignore ads on applications and 86% have ignored placements on the mobile internet.

Awareness of advertising on smartphones in the last three months, however, is high. Apple iPhone users and O2 and 3 customers are most likely to have seen ads - 46% of Apple users, 42% of O2 customers and 40% of 3 customers have received ad messages of some sort.

Preferred mobile ad formats

For smartphone users in particular, basic banners remain the most recognised formats -87% see them while browsing the mobile internet, and 80% while using apps. When browsing, recommended links to search (63%), rollover banners (51%), and special offers (47%), attract the most attention. While using apps it is sponsored apps and games (45%), recommendations linked to apps (44%) and a full screen ad before an app is activated (38%) that are the next most recognised by smartphone users.

Embedding ads into applications is the most effective way to get messages to smartphone users - with 33% of respondents recognising placements every time they use an app, and 19% recalling ads on apps they use daily. Not surprisingly, Apple and HTC users are most likely to have been reached given their high use of apps.

Text speak

Unsolicited text messaging, along with advertising on apps, is one of the main types of advertising or marketing smartphone owners have remembered receiving in the past three months, however they are not acted on by respondents.  It is evenly high across operators - 64% of Orange, 57% of O2, and 56% of T-Mobile and the same proportion of Vodafone users have all received unsolicited texts from advertisers in the last three months. Only 33% of 3 customers have received unwelcome text messages. Despite the proportions of respondents who remember receiving unsolicited texts, 79% say that they generally receive these less often than once a month. When asked how they deal with these messages, 53% state that they ignore the message and delete it.

Active responses by smartphone users to ads remain very low. Few respondents click on a link in an ad - 6% from a text, 6% from an email, 4% from the mobile internet, 3% from an app, and 2% via an instant message. Even fewer users have bought a product or service as a result of advertising - 3% from a trusted text and 1% from advertising on an app. However some 27% of respondents agree that they would welcome more advertising if it offered money off deals or special offers. 21% agree that they do not mind ads as long as they are relevant to them.

"On the face of it, it looks very bleak indeed for mobile advertising with high consumer awareness, but equally high resentment, apathy and inaction," says Adele Gritten, Head of Media Consulting at YouGov. "But the research shows that mobile ads really can provide brands with an effective vehicle to engage directly with audiences and drive actions.

"Marketers need to harness the higher level of personal engagement that mobile users have with their handsets to provide them with something truly unique, relevant and interesting. In particular money off deals and special offers will appeal to consumers. Ad treatments must be more relevant and personal, and advertisers have to stop hoping that spam volume alone will drive response rates."

Under EC regulations, we are all entitled to refunds for cancelled and delayed flights.

But there's a catch, of course.

The airlines hold all the cards and make claiming your refund nigh on impossible.

With all the narrow eyed, rat like cunning of a riverboat gambler, they've devised systems that are so labyrinthine that Indiana Jones would throw in the towel.

The evidence you need to prove your case is out there. But it's impossible to find. By the time you have dug it up, you will have gone mad or dead. If you do get lucky and find forensics of sufficient quality, the return wil barely justify the effort you had to put it.

And that's exactly the way RyanAir and BA and all the other Fly Lows like it.

So hats off to Dutch boffin Hendrik Noorderhaven, who has invented EuClaim, a system that scours all the sources of airline information around the globe, and presents the information to you.

Suddenly, you're presented with a level of detailed forensics that would make the CPS look like a bunch of useless amateurs.

All of a sudden, your claim against RyanAir won't seem like a waste of time. If you bring BA to justice, your refund won't seem like a pyrrhic victory. Because EuClaim does all the work for you, so you don't need to play detective to find out all the published airlines schedules and performance results.

Mr Noorderhaven, the consumer champion of the oppressed airline passenger, has done it all for you.

Move over, St Christopher, your time is up. There's a new patron saint of travel in town, and his name is Hendrik Noorderhaven.

(His name's not quite as catchy, but there you go)

How does he do it?

See part 2.