Nokia plans to launch a service in 2008 that will let people point cameraphones at real world objects and get information on them from based on pattern-recognition technology which searches a database. The service will be called Point&Find, and the curious thing is that it’s being pitched as an advertising service rather than a search service. “The company is currently looking for partners in advertising, media, and retailing to take part in trials it hopes to start in various parts of the world in August, Philipp Schloter, senior business development manager at Nokia’s Palo Alto, California, research center, told Red Herring.” The service will start on Nokia handsets but eventually be available to any handset on the Symbian operating system. “Various branding and revenue models are being considered for Point&Find, including Nokia, operator, or third-party branding; revenue sharing with the carrier; and sponsorship from brands and affiliate marketing.” Nokia got the technology when it bought start-up Pixto in April.

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There’s a number of similar services such as this, including several mobile barcode services and GeoVector’s GPS-based service, but this is likely to get a huge boost simply by being supported by Nokia, which effectively breaks the “chicken and the egg” issue of getting the service in handsets and getting users interested in the service—because Nokia can just dump it into its Symbian phones.