Analysts are saying that search is shaping up to be a key source of mobile advertising revenue, and for carriers to get a piece of the pie, they need to partner with branded, third-party developers like Microsoft, according to a new article in MediaPost's Online Media Daily.

"Carriers are soon arriving at the point that they have to pick partners," said Matt Booth, senior vice president and local program director, interactive media for The Kelsey Group, in the article. ""Many [carriers] view Microsoft as less threatening than Google, so we're seeing the next phase of the search war between Microsoft and Google starting to take place."

This comes on the heels of new mobile search initiatives by Microsoft and Sprint: a location-aware mobile search service, and a voice-powered local search application that users can download to their phone, according to the MediaPost report.

Search War Gearing Up On The Mobile Front [MediaPost]