Sprint Phones Get Location-Based Searching

Got a Sprint phone? If so, you can now find the nearest restaurants, ATMs, movie theaters, and more on your phone—and you won't need to key in your current location to do it. Now there's something the iPhone can't do (yet).

Launched on Tuesday, the new (and free) service uses cell-tower triangulation to pinpoint your location, which is then automatically incorporated in your searches on the Sprint mobile Web portal. The service works on any Sprint phone except for Windows Mobile-based smartphones, which is...not so smart, given that Microsoft is partnering with Sprint on the new feature. Bummer.

Wondering how Sprint and Microsoft are planning to make money on these location-based searches? Easy—expect to find some sponsored (albeit, nearby) results in your search results. And if you're paranoid about being tracked, don't worry; you can turn off the auto "find-me" mode if you don't want The Man watching you.

Related:
Sprint brings automatic LBS to its handset lineup [The Boy Genius Report]
Sprint Nextel Offers Geographic Search [AP]