Mobile search volumes have been a long-requested feature that Google representatives have been historically reluctant to share. Speculators always concluded that this was due to the low volume of mobile searches.

The new feature is not immediately obvious in the new keyword tool. Advertisers need to click the “Advanced Options” link and then check the “Show stats for: Mobile search” box.

The network statistics setting allows advertisers to change search volume data to show mobile device statistics only. This setting changes only search performance columns and does not affect traffic estimate columns.

Mobile website owners and mobile search marketing agencies will welcome this new feature as it finally gives them the ability to estimate PPC costs and traffic volumes they can expect from search.

A quick review of the mobile search volumes shows that even in popular mobile search categories such as local information and gaming, the volume of mobile searches is a mere fraction – as low as 0.3% – 0.6% of traditional Web searches for the same 1-word keyword queries.

In September 2007, Google launched AdSense for Mobile Content, to enable publishers to monetise their sites on the mobile networks, with Google text ads.

With this new service, carriers and mobile site owners will be able to embed a Google search box on their portals or websites, thus allowing users to search Google from within the site.

Revenues generated from these searches will be shared with the mobile operator and website owner. Publishers will be allowed to co-brand the search results page with their own logos and insert links back to their site at the bottom of the mobile search results page.

This service is currently in beta, and testing is available to only a few network operators and website owners. Those interested in this facility can apply for it by filling out this form.

AdSense for Mobile search is aimed squarely at mobile operators and large publishers that have not yet joined forces with Google on mobile. While most larger carriers have already chosen sides – either playing along with Google or Yahoo! or trying to take on the giants by offering their own search service or partnering with search services such as Taptu and Medio, this product caters to smaller networks and those that Google has not deemed important enough to woo individually.

At present, data charges from mobile search far exceed the income generated from advertising. However, this trend is changing rapidly as more and more operators offer flat rate tariffs and all you can eat data packages. As operators bring down their walled gardens, more content owners and developers will be able to take advantage of the market, eventually attracting more consumers.

Juniper Research‘s estimate of $4.8 billion by 2013 may seem very far off at present, given that last year global mobile search advertising brought in less than $100 million.

Google has, however, reported a 20% jump in mobile search usage in recent months, owing to the improved user experience offered by the search application on handsets and improved handset design, as well as flat-rate data tariffs.

40% of the money spent on mobile ads is expected to be earmarked for local search ads, according to the report from Juniper Research. This too seems unlikely at present, given the recent doubts cast over the actual popularity of mobile local search.

However, current trends could change if application developers and search providers create a more compelling proposition for consumers, who would then be more inclined to take advantage of the benefits of geo-specific services and advertising.

China and the Far East are expected to be the main revenue generating regions, followed by Western Europe and North America, in that order. Current trends in China, India and the Far East definitely point towards this prediction coming through. The world’s largest mobile operator is China Mobile, followed by Vodafone and then China Unicom. These volumes will naturally attract more advertiser dollars.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has repeatedly spoken about their plans to expand the AdWords mobile advertising programme. Google has already forged partnerships with the leading manufacturers like Nokia and BlackBerry as well as the largest operators including China Mobile and Vodafone. Yahoo! has similar tie ups with T-Mobile and Hutchison’s 3.

At the end of the day, the success of the mobile search industry rests in the hands of the consumer. Consumers will decide whether they will adopt the mobile Internet at the rate analysts are predicting and whether they will react to mobile search advertising as receptively as they do on the wired Internet.