Joining Yahoo Local, Windows Live Local, Google Maps, and IAC-owned Citysearch and AskCity, YellowPages.com announced a new “send to mobile” feature. The listing and contact details are sent via text to the user’s mobile phone. Here’s a result for the search “Plumbers, New York.” (Send to mobile is on the upper right of each ad.)

To my knowledge (based on a quick check) none of the other major traditional yellow pages sites offer this feature. Eventually it will be standard however.

YellowPages.com also is announcing a newly redesigned WAP site.

Recently YellowPages.com parent AT&T launched ad-supported free directory assistance in the form of 1-800-YellowPages (only in three markets so far). It has a range of ad options for marketers and offers both category search and business name lookups for consumers. This service, though not officially part of YellowPages.com, nonetheless extends the YellowPages.com brand into the mobile realm.

Mobile is going to be a huge driver of local search volumes eventually and any serious local search player will need to have a mobile strategy.

Postscript: Yell.com in the UK (and parent of Yellow Book in the US) corrected us that the company’s site has had send to mobile for “over two years.”

Related Topics: Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Features: Send To Phone

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling