Online coupons have been around for many years, at least a decade. Despite this no publisher or site has arisen to yet win the space. There’s no Facebook of coupons, no Twitter of coupons and, dare I say it, no Google of coupons. Google itself would seem to have missed or mishandled the opportunity with its peek-a-boo approach to local coupons.

Yet coupons and deals have become progressively hotter during the recession. And now there are a growing number of sites online and in mobile that promise access to offers and savings. Sensing a differentiating opportunity, Ask is today launching a deals vertical (”Ask Deals“) within search that seeks to be that comprehensive source of coupons and offers from a wide range of sources.

Ask is largely crawling for the data and said the following in its press release about the scope of Deals at launch:

Ask Deals, its proprietary database of more than 1 million high-quality savings offers from national and local merchants across hundreds of product categories.

Ask Deals scours the Web for all the deals available online – from savings on ‘skinny jeans’ to restaurant coupons – and organizes the best money-saving offers front and center on the results page, eliminating the need for consumers to search multiple sites or multiple coupon sites or search engine links to find their answer. The Ask Deals database is continuously refreshed and editorially refined, giving consumers the most up-to-date and highest-quality savings offers every time they search on Ask.

Each of the major search engines now plays to some degree in the deals and coupons space. Yahoo has recently made a bigger push, while Google has seemingly neglected the coupon opportunity.

Microsoft offers an excellent travel vertical in Bing Travel (with price predictions and alerts) and provides cash back within shopping. The company also acquired the assets of local coupon platform Zixxo some time ago. And AOL, for its part, has one of the most interesting of the various deal/coupon initiatives in the little-known Shortcuts, which ties online CPG and grocery coupons to offline loyalty cards.

If you go into the iTunes app store you’ll find something like 30 apps that respond to the query “coupons.” Clearly this is an area that is growing and will be perennially popular.

To rise above the increasing number of sites and corresponding noise, Ask is betting on comprehensiveness, based on its ability to crawl the Internet and deliver a more effective and efficient search-driven user experience. I wasn’t able to try it out extensively before launch but my initial impressions are largely positive.

Ask’s Mobile WAP site has added voice to the process of getting directions. The voice-activated service is provided by Dial Directions. On the mobile Ask site, next to the “Directions” link you’ll find a new “Voice Entry” link. That sends users to the Dial Directions phone number (347-328-4667) or initiates a phone call. Users then verbally provide the requested location and destination information. The service sends a text link that opens a WAP page with a map and turn-by-turn directions. Dial Directions also has the capacity to provide text-only directions that don’t require mobile browser access.

Here are some screenshots:

The underlying Dial Directions service is very good and easy to use, and Ask is the first of the major engines to offer WAP-based voice-search for directions. Live Search for mobile (the downloadable application) offers embedded voice for local search, but not for directions. InfoSpace FindIt (now part of Superpages) has voice output for turn-by-turn directions; so does the Mapquest Navigator client. And of course, the free directory assistance alternatives, to varying degrees, represent voice-enabled local mobile search.

Dial Directions may equally try and “white label” its service to others, so there may be similar offerings in the future.

Here’s a short video demo of the new service on Ask:

Ask Mobile with Dial Directions from xbrendanx on Vimeo.

I am a strong believer in the future of mobile search or what I prefer to call mobile access to information. This takes into account not only what we think of search today but also audio, video, text messaging, location based info, and more.

This article is part of Local Search Week here at Search Engine Land, a special look at local search marketing issues in the run-up to our SMX Local & Mobile conference next month.

Why am I so bullish on mobile?

When mobile services become better known by searchers (that’s a large challenge) and used correctly (another challenge), they can offer something most people want more of. Time! It has been my experience when you can actually demonstrate to people how that can save time, you’re likely to make new friends quickly.

Increasingly, users can get the info they need with a mobile device without using a desktop or laptop computer. Just think how quickly we went from only business people and tech geeks having mobile or cell phones to what sometimes seems like everyone having one (especially noticable when you’re driving).

The next step fpr mobile search is for the masses (moms, dads, even grandmas) to gain access to useful information when and where they need it. Powerful stuff. I think search geeks often forget that many of the tools and resources that are second nature to us are still not known by many users. That’s important to remember.

Ask believes strongly in the future of mobile search. At Ask.com we began offering our Webby Award winning mobile service last fall at http://mobile.ask.com. This Spring Ask debuted a service offering GPS navigation and much more appropriately named, Ask Mobile GPS. Here’s an inside look at both services.

Ask Mobile

Ask Mobile loads very quickly and provides several services you don’t find elsewhere. More features and services are in the works. You can access Ask Mobile at http://mobile.ask.com (this works both on mobile devices and standard computers).

One of the most interesting things about Ask Mobile is that it’s carrier agnostic. While some mobile services are tied to specific wireless carriers, Ask Mobile will work on any mobile web browser from any web carrier.

Tip: You can always return to the home page by clicking the “O” key on your telephone keypad.

The main features of Ask Mobile are:

Web search. Results include some Smart answers, like weather, time zones and horoscopes.

You can also easily navigate to these and other features by selecting them from the home page of Ask Mobile. In other words, multiple ways to get to the same location.

Ask.com’s Zoom Related Search feature is also available to help users narrow and focus their search. Look for those suggestions at the bottom of the page.

Pages appearing in Ask Mobile search results that are not formatted for mobile browsers are made mobile friendly with page optimization technology.

One frequent question asked when someone sees the Ask.com Mobile home page for the first time is, “where’s the search box?” There isn’t one. Ask’s VP of Product Management, Doug Leeds, provided a review of some of the reasons why it’s not there on a post on Google Blogoscoped shortly after the product launched. It’s well worth a read.

Here are are key passages from Doug’s comments:

In general, we found, people search for the same type of information and use the same queries that they use on a PC. One very important implication of this is that, like on a PC, iteration is an key part of searching on a mobile device.

…unlike on a PC, there are constraints that make search iteration on a mobile device more difficult. For example, relatively limited bandwidth makes it much more time consuming to perform multiple searches. At the same time, a common way to solve for the bandwidth issue, reducing the number of results that appear on a single page, only exacerbates the problem because there are fewer results to determine how to refine the search.

Typing is another problem. On most phones (non smart phones), each letter can take multiple keystrokes. (An “R” is three strokes, an “S” is four.) This not only means tons of time typing but also many many more typos. Typos lead to poorer results and more iteration, meaning more time lost and more typing. It’s a vicious circle.

Removing the search box had the immediate effect of uncovering all of the other search tools we offer. (Tools we offer on our PC home page in a toolbox that gets much more viability on a PC monitor). These tools are designed to disambiguate queries. For example, instead of typing “weather in SF” users click and type only “SF.” On a normal phone keypad this saves 18 of the 25 clicks required to get a result (remember “r” takes 3 clicks).

On average, we saw a 25-40% decrease in the number of clicks to the “end point.”

Maps. In this map-crazy world you’ll notice that Ask.com mobile maps not only offers the actual street map but also aerial imagery. That’s right, aerial imagery on your mobile browser.

Maps can be manipulated by clicking arrow keys and you’ll find direct links to local listings “find nearby” and the option to send a link to the phone via SMS. Of course, entering a city without state info will offer up a list of options.

Aerial Examples for Mobile:

• Terminals at O’Hare Airport in Chicago
• Fenway Park in Boston

Directions. In my opinon, this is a key service for mobile users. Just like Ask.com on your laptop, we offer both driving and walking directions. It’s also a click to “swap” your beginning and ending address. Here are some cool things regarding directions:

Here’s a walking route from Michigan Ave to Wrigley Field in Chicago. Note both the ability to view the directions in list form or turn by turn with visual cues. Many pages also help the searcher resolve ambiguity by offering links labeled “All Matches.” For example, is it North Michigan or South Michigan Avenue?

In some cases, you will get visual cues (arrows and lines) that will even tell you which direction you need to go. You can always go to the first step (click 3) or last step (click 4).

Local business listings. You can send business listings to your phone via SMS, or just directions for getting there. Also, on many phones, clicking the phone number will actually dial the number located in the listing.

Image Search. Results offer three images per page. An option to send a link to the images to someone else via SMS is also available.

Blog Search. Ask Mobile offers a direct link to the Bloglines mobile search tool. It also uses Skweezer, a technology that takes ordinary web pages and renders them more mobile-friendly.

Other features available with just one or two keystrokes include: area codes, currency conversion, horoscopes, and time zones.

Like all search products, the best way to get to know it is by using it. Have some fun and become familiar with how mobile access to information will become just as important to cell/mobile phone users as being able to talk with someone on the phone.

Ask Mobile GPS

Ask Mobile GPS is a GPS-enabled application that features the best of Ask.com, Citysearch, and Evite.com. The service is available on a number of Sprint GPS-enabled phones and offers a number of location-based features including:

• Zoomable and scrollable maps based on your location
• Integration of contacts
• Location sharing: Find out where your friends listed in your address book are located. Tell them where you’re at. You choose which friends
• Access to CitySearch with reviews and info on nearby events
• Send and manage evites, online invitations to events
• Real-time walking and driving directions. This includes the both visual cues as well as voice navigation telling you to turn, go straight, etc.

You can read much more about Ask Mobile GPS (including screen caps) in this blog post.

Gary Price is Director of Online Information Resources at Ask.com. He is also the Founder and Editor of ResourceShelf.com and DocuTicker.com.

On Friday I received a briefing on Ask Mobile (with GPS) and a demo phone with the application pre-installed. I now have three mobile devices that I’m carrying: a traditional cellphone, a Windows Mobile device and the Ask Mobile demo phone. It’s quite a challenge to physically manage all these devices as I walk and drive around.

I’ve been testing Ask Mobile casually beside Google Maps for Windows Mobile, Microsoft’s Live Search/Local Mobile application and WAP-based Yahoo oneSearch, which just rolled out yesterday to a broad range of Asian countries.

This post offers some preliminary reactions to Ask Mobile based on an initial weekend of testing. One big caveat: I haven’t been able to test the sharing and social features, which are potentially most compelling aspect of the service, because Ask Mobile is not integrated with my contacts. (Almost anything in the application can be shared with your contacts.)

There are five modules or components currently on the application: contacts/sharing, directions, Citysearch, Evite, history/saved places. There’s also nice mapping integration with directions and local search results. Ask plans to integrate other IAC content, including Match, Ticketmaster and other properties in the future. As I argued on my personal blog on Friday, this integration of IAC content on Ask Mobile is more successful in some ways than online.

But there’s also an irony here: there’s no Ask. Literally, Ask is the overarching brand of a mobile portal where Ask Web search is missing; there’s no mobile Web search on Ask Mobile. Ask’s WAP site has mobile Web search and also offers the ability to sort local search results (from Citysearch) by rating, something not available on Ask Mobile but which would be nice to see in future versions.

The Sanyo demo phone I received has a traditional keypad and requires “triple tapping.” However, Ask Mobile attempts to minimize keystrokes through history, suggestions (which populate a list as a user types) and GPS. GPS is not, contrary to some reactions/perceptions in the market, a revelation that will transform the mobile experience. It’s a helpful feature that is very useful with driving directions and avoids having to enter location in many cases. (There’s a “near me” GPS option, which is also helpful for traveling or if you don’t precisely know where you are.)

The two features I used the most in my weekend of testing were Citysearch local listings and directions. I found the turn-by-turn directions, which are voice-enabled, to be quite helpful and generally accurate. They adapt to user location via GPS. There are also several useful directions options: fastest route, avoid highways, walking and advanced. Advanced gives users different choices regarding the presentation and delivery of the information.

The Citysearch listings are the only source of local information. By contrast, Ask City online is a broader local search application that incorporates data from Citysearch and other sources into results. Citysearch is a fairly comprehensive but uneven database of local business listings; it’s very strong in some categories and weaker in others. There were a couple of instances where I found business locations on the Google Maps application and in Live Local that I didn’t find via Citysearch.

One nice feature of Ask Mobile is a menu that allows me, once I’ve located a business, to read Citysearch reviews (although reading full-text reviews on a small screen is difficult), call that business, get directions, share the listing or save it.

It must be said that none of the WAP search tools or applications I’ve used are perfect. Google’s Maps application (unlike Google Maps online), for example, has no reviews or star ratings content to help me make decisions, although I love the maps themselves.

Ask Mobile will require a $9.99 monthly subscription service after an initial free trial. This is separate and apart, I believe, from any text messaging and/or mobile Internet access fees that the carrier charges. We’ll see if that flies. Company representatives at Mapquest, which currently charges a $2.99 monthly fee for its mobile application, have indicated they think the market is moving toward ad-supported models.

Mobile directions and navigation are a core feature and extremely valuable for mobile users. So people may be willing to pay something for that functionality. But $10 per month is a fairly high price point. Yet the mobile market is relatively segmented and will potentially support multiple business models.

As a bottom line assessment, in my 48 hours of testing, I found Ask Mobile to be a useful application with a few blind or awkward spots. But I anticipate those areas will improve over time.

More About Our Feeds

Reuters and the Wall Street Journal have broken the story early. Ask has launched a new GPS-powered mobile application that contains content from Citysearch and Evite (and other IAC properties in the future). In my quick demo of the phone I was impressed with its many features and capabilities. But the most interesting and impressive aspects of it from my point of view involved the integration your contacts, the application’s content and tools and GPS: the capacity to send my location information very simply to many people simultaneously through my contact list.

I’ll have more to say Monday when I’ve had a chance to play with the phone a bit more. I have a few screenshots on my personal blog Screenwerk.

Postscript: Ask has now posted details about the service in Ask Mobile GPS: The Next Level of Local.