Ad and Search Firms Team Up for metaTXT Drive

10 mobile companies have formed a working group to drive the metaTXT standard. metaTXT is described as the world's first mobile search engine optimisation (SEO) standard, powered from the Waterford Institute of Technologies research division in Ireland. It will enable search engines to index mobile sites at ease, regardless of their technology domains, whether they are m.name.com, wap.name.com, name.com/mobile or a .mobi domain.
The metaTXT standard enables all mobile sites to be discovered, regardless of URL, giving brands better and more consistent mobile Internet awareness. The group has a strong Asian presence, working with Asian search engine MCN-inc to leverage its mobile capabilities to its 15 million users. 
The mobile advertising providers and search engines involved are Abphone, Bango, JumpTap, Taptu, MCN, Medio Systems, Mobilytics, Nubiq, RingRing Media and founder, Visibility Mobile. Already, 1,000  mobile sites are using metaTXT, and when the standard is deployed by the working group, the reach will be close to 200 million.
“There remains some hesitation in the market about one web and the mobile Internet,” says Mícheál Ó Foghlú, Chairman of the metaTXT working group. “We are carving out ways where we can all work together to achieve excellence for the mobile web, driven by an open standard.”
metaTXT is a free standard, available to anyone. The simple, step-by-step tool for the service is available here. 
“Mobile websites are currently not being effectively interrogated by conventional search engines,” says  Visibility Mobile CEO, Paul Savage. "This is leaving brands incredibly frustrated and is restricting the vast range of commercial opportunities that both mobile advertising and the mobile web as a whole can deliver.” 
Gartner predicts that mobile search will be worth USD 12 million by 2013. There's more information about metaTXT here.