In the race to present users content within an acceptable click-distance operators and providers have lined up to implement a variety of mobile search schemes. But an increasing number of operators are also gravitating to client software solutions that use the idle screen to push content. The reasoning is simple: Selling content is not just about user-pull. Mobile search, a form of user-pull, is built on the premise that users know what they want and are prepared to go look for it. (That’s quite an assumption when it comes to fast-paced content such as entertainment and multimedia which changes faster than users can keep up.)

Indeed, the new content-selling paradigm is likely to be around content-push (which can also be personalized based on an understanding of the individual user’s purchases, passions and past click-behavior, depending on the vendor). TMN Portugal has become the latest mobile operator to select a push scheme to deliver content. It has selected MobiComp’s Active Ticker solution to deliver “a zero-click application that delivers personalized, aggregated information to subscribers via an always-on, scrolling ticker that runs along the bottom of their handset screen,” reports Cellular News. TMN has re-branded its product as Flash tmn and is now delivering users customized information directly to their handsets, including news, weather, sports, ringtones, games and images.

Today’s news is just one in a long list of announcements, but it speaks volumes about the place of the idle screen in content-selling schemes. (In fact, Andreas Constantinou at VisionMobile reckons some 30 (!) companies have jumped on the ODP – stands for on-device portal – bandwagon, with triple the number of operators and content companies harnessing the idle screen to promote content to users directly on their handsets.) Players in this “sardine can” range from SurfKitchen, which rules the roost with 20 operator wins, to Nellymoser, which counts 10+ deals with content companies.

Granted mobile search goes a long toward clinching a content sale. However, it can also lead users to destinations that are dictated by the search engine provider’s algorithms or advertising schemes – and not the individual user’s personal preferences. (Moreover, content providers confide they are not fans of mobile search since it may lead users away from the sites they invested to build.) Against this backdrop, operators are quickly and quietly moving in droves to schemes (centered on ODP software) to encourage content discovery and – ultimately - impulse buys.