Nokia Beta Labs has taken the wraps off a new service, Nokia Listings, that is currently available only in the Indian market. Listings are available for three main classifieds formats - Jobs (from 'Maid who can cook' to 'legal'), (Hyper) Local Services, and products (Buy and Sell). However, the ability to browse existing listings does not exist, and I think that is primarily down to Nokia using SMS as a carrier instead of GPRS: thus, live results aren't available. Nokia Listings primarily targets the Series 40 handsets, but also works for non-touch screen Series 60 (S60) handsets. As I found out while trying it on my E71, the experience while navigating menus on a S60 device has its issues, albeit nothing singificant. I thought Nokia might have preferred to keep the service device agnostic, and make it available on all its platforms. Nokia's approach to the service itself is quite interesting: - Search: Nokia expects users to send a search request (with SMS as a carrier, I presume), and users will be sent results as soon as they are available. - The hyperlocal approach: for cities, one can search and place listings for a specific locality. Nokia probably intends to surface results closest a users location - One couldn't/can't browse services (as explained earlier) - Specific information: If I'm searching for something as generic as 'Electronic Items' for purchase, I have to specify a budget and my location. One can't submit the search without specifying a budget, but the truth…
