AT&T and ChaCha have announced a strategic relationship in which the mobile search services provider will use a cobranded greeting and promote the carrier when consumers call 1-800 2ChaCha.

The two companies will work together to further enhance ChaCha's free mobile-answers service and explore opportunities in both text and voice ad-based services.

"This is an umbrella agreement," said Susan Marshall, vice president of marketing at ChaCha, Indianapolis. "We are both going after text savvy consumers.

"It is an opportunity for us because I am sure their base of advertisers would be interested our 2.3 million unique users," she said. "This relationship lets us link forces and we both bring a lot to the table.

"AT&T is a huge wing for us. They have all kinds of reach."

ChaCha is a free mobile answers service. Users call 1-800-2ChaCha or text questions to ChaCha (242242) on mobile phones and receive answers within minutes. ChaCha expert guides respond to the queries.

This announcement comes at a good time. Mobile search is really taking off -- T-Mobile, partnering with Yahoo, Google teaming with Sprint Nextel and Verizon potentially teaming with Microsoft.

ChaCha believes its demographic (16-34) is an ideal market for advertisers.

This alliance is key for ChaCha's monetization of its business.

The bigger picture here is as more agreements between search providers and mobile phone service providers are formed, consumers will not only be choosing their providers for cell phone coverage but also for the perks that come with phones.

Advertisers only stand to gain from these relationships. As information on search topics becomes more available, advertisers can gain insight and create content that can be directed and targeted for consumer use.

"AT&T continues to look for new ways to make its voice and local search services tailored to the needs of today's consumer -- in the voice space specifically, beyond just traditional name and number searches," said Susan Johnson, senior vice president of AT&T Customer Information Services, Dallas, TX.

"Our work with ChaCha provides a great opportunity -- really, another vehicle -- to put information and answers right at people's fingertips," she said.