World’s largest ‘offline’ search engine : Search the web just by SMS !

Do you need a smartphone to show your smartness? How useful is your smartphone without a Wifi connection or an internet pack? A majority of us rely on the internet for the little and the big things in life. Although buying a smart phone cannot provide the complete functionality of a PC, they are cheaper alternatives to access the internet. Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 455.6 million units in the third quarter of 2013, with smartphones accounting for 55 percent of the total. But 45 per cent of them aren’t connected to the Internet in a smart way. That’s what a revolutionary startup targeted.

Also Read : How much data is being used on a smartphone?

What’s the one thing you can do that’s almost as cheap as sending messages over the internet? Ah, the SMS. What if I told you the Short Message Service could provide you the information riches of the World Wide Web? Now you can go ‘online’ without a data connection but just via SMS. A Bangalore-based startup, Innoz Technologies, which seeks to be an offline Google has come up with this new innovative idea. Innoz is rated by Forbes magazine as among the “Top 5 startups” and the business has also made to the MIT Technology Review Innovator list.

Deepak Ravindran, the founder, stated “The goal is pretty simple: Connecting the unconnected. The dream is to make available the world of information to the less-fortunate, by using a simple, intuitive and affordable device that runs on SMS”.

SmartSMS, the crown jewel product of Innoz, provides answers of up to 480 characters to an SMS query within seconds. Innoz technology expands their market visibility by opening a new platform, 55444.in. This is an option to retrieve more information on a query. Users text their query to 55444 and the software searches for an answer. Location based queries such as location of ATMs, restaurants, petrol pumps topped the list of most searched on 55444, movie reviews and movie timings came in a close second followed by search for music information and lyrics. Innoz works in partnership with Wikipedia, WolframAlpha and other popular resources to provide answers. The platform uncovers new avenues for technologists in the mobile space and is expected to help Innoz to reap higher revenues.

77% of Indians still using feature phones constitute majority of Innoz users. They don’t have access to mobile Internet, smartphones, iPads etc., but do have the one service that provides the essence of all such devices: SMS. Consumers can choose to get charged a rupee an SMS or an avid user may opt for a monthly or daily subscription.

Innoz built SMS Appstore for people who use apps like Facebook, Twitter or Evernote over SMS. Deepak says there are over 10,000 apps inside their SMS Appstore. Recently apps such as Truecaller are also integrating with Innoz to augment their services and revenue.

The offline web browser built by Innoz is called Brownie. Built on Android, the browser can work both in internet mode and non-internet mode. Using SMS technology at the back end, the browser can display any website in text mode without internet. The app has a direct connection with the SMS Appstore. For all these apps, users can choose between data or SMS mode to access and retrieve information. Brownie is also useful for those needing data access in dead zones or to avoid spending big bucks on roaming charges while abroad.

Innoz has partnered with Du in UAE and is trying to expand into United States, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Innoz is also looking at expanding in nascent markets like Africa where their partner, Airtel has a ubiquitous presence.

“We also want to launch Brownie OS so even an ordinary phone with no GPRS could have access to internet applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Evernote and Gmail. There are over 3 billion dumb phones in the market. Innoz can make them all smart.” added Ravindran.

Comment below : Which are the APPS you would suggest Innoz to takeup and integrate into their AppStore?