Ask.com’s recent launch of Ask Mobile GPS could be a sign of things to come. While wireless networks and phone manufacturers race to figure out how to get us all to stare at our 2″ screens more often, the golden egg could be something that is already gaining traction – GPS enabled phones.

“One of the more compelling things that we might use every day is the integration of that information into knowing where my friends are,” he told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Paris this week.

Research suggests that 25% of mobile phones will have GPS by 2010 and this new feature could lead to the growth of mobile social networks – a concept we explored back in March.

Reading Reuters coverage of Yahoo Map’s addition of 34 new European countries, you’d think that Americans couldn’t drive in Europe without bumping into a cow or driving off a pier.

Besides guiding U.S. motorists around Europe for the first time, Yahoo said it also will feature more landmarks and other visual cues to help people find their way around neighborhoods.

How dare they, I know exactly how to drive around Europe.

1. Get in car.
2. Point car west.
3. Keep driving until you find German beer.
4. Stop.

If you need something more complex, then check out the new Yahoo Maps.

If you own a GPS-enabled Sprint phone, you’re among the first to be able to test out Ask’s new Ask Mobile GPS mobile service.

With Ask Mobile GPS, you can:

• Share your current location with anyone in your address book.
• Get turn-by-turn driving or walking directions.
• Tap into IAC’s comprehensive CitySearch database of local businesses, restaurants and services.
• Send out, and respond to, Evite invitations.

The service is available on seven Sprint phones and will cost $9.99 per month. Ask is hoping that it can gain traction by offering a solid search platform with GPS, before others can.

“Up to 30 to 40 percent of what is done on the Web could move to mobile,” Ask’s CEO Jim Lanzone told Reuters. “At the end of the day, everyone needs to go mobile. But being early in the game can help lock people in for the long term.”

I just finished reading a NYT article on the frustration being felt by Hollywood because they can’t get advertising dollars to support their mobile content.

…while short, multiepisode cellphone series are growing in popularity, the lucrative advertising dollars prevalent in other entertainment segments — and which studios rely on for profit — have been slow to migrate to the supersmall screen…”an advertiser would have to pay us to develop content for wireless phones because right now there is no business model. There has to be a way to make money there.”

Welcome to the world of new media! Here’s where you’re going wrong.

The Cellular-News brings new hope for mobile media marketing today: teens in the UK say OK to mobile ads. Among the 1500 cell users aged 11-20 surveyed by Q Research, 32% were willing to receive ads on their mobile phones. Contrast that to the 90% of American adults who weren’t at all interested in receiving them.

Targeting increased teens’ willingness to receive ads: 71% said they’d be willing only if the ads were for things they were already interested in. 76% would be willing to receive ads in exchange for incentives like discounts and special offers. 82% would be willing to receive ads in exchange for “top-up” credit (pay-as-you-go customers’ willingness rose to 90%). Again, to contrast this with American adults, only 1/3 were willing to receive ads in exchange for incentives, and their preferred incentive was cash (78%).

If you live in the UK, Canada, Spain, Italy, Germany or France, I have good news for you. Yahoo has announced the expansion of their oneSearch mobile search service to your country!

If you’re not quite sure how oneSearch will change the way you search for pizza, we have a refresher from the US launch.

oneSearch is designed to make searching for and finding information as quick as possible for consumers by providing relevant results right on the page such as news headlines, images, business listings and more as well as easy navigation to other web sites. Effectively, oneSearch anticipates the type of information you are looking for, and does away with the arduous task of navigating ten blue links in a mobile browser (see the “pizza” example, right).