We are looking for fun, cheerful and hard working people to join our Search Quality Research Team. As Taptu is still a young search engine, the work you would be doing will contribute towards the foundation of the search engine and your work will be vital to our success and future growth.

The position will require you to work on a number of different projects requiring internet research about the mobile web and popular culture (particularly music and films). You’ll take part in research projects designed to improve the quality of Taptu’s naturally produced search results.

We are looking to find researchers to work in either of these three languages; English, Italian & German.

Essential Criteria:

• You will be computer literate and be a quick learner when it comes to computers.
• You will be fluent to a native level in Italian or German (if applying for these two roles) and have a good grasp of English.
• You will have a good knowledge of the relevant Italian, German or English (US/UK) popular culture.
• Experience using the Internet as a research tool, while not essential, would be a bonus.
• You would be working with our team in Cambridge, UK as a permanent employee.

Think the role suits you? Drop us a line at givemeajob@taptu.com and tell us a bit about yourself and what you get up to on the internet.

Another year at Mobile World Congress ends; the team comes home both exhausted from the long days (& nights) and energised by meeting so many interesting and enterprising people.

Looking at the mobile trends, many manufacturers have now jumped on the Touch UI bandwagon. For Taptu, that’s great news; we love a touchy-feely interface, since using your fingers to point at menus is so much more intuitive than having to scroll and click.

There are however a few cases where we couldn’t believe our eyes at how Touch UI can be used so poorly. Regardless, it’s encouraging that more manufacturers are considering the simplicity of touch; it’ll just take a while to polish it and make it most user-friendly rather than purely “flash, spin and float around” eye candy. Just before MWC, we published a whitepaper on Touch UI, which Bob Last mentioned on the TechCrunchTalk panel on Mobile Disruption.

The second noticeable trend was the clear focus on apps, apps and more apps. Everyone is opening their own app store, following Apple’s success. It’s exciting to see to think that every device platform could develop its own hub for applications, as it’s something I always felt was missing back in my S60 days, but the take-up will depend highly on the quality of the user experience in browsing the apps available. If every platform has a high quality app store, users will have more fun and developers will get the recognition they deserve. What could possibly go wrong?

Shiny gadgets and business exchanges aside, some of the other highlights of our week include the bear machine, which was so popular with visitors to our stand that it broke by the third day. Don’t worry, we still gave away the teddy bears for the rest of the week.

The team thoroughly enjoyed hosting drinks on Tuesday evening, and we want to thank everyone who popped by! Celia’s Killer Pink Cocktails were such a hit, we were asked for the recipe and we thought we’d share it here:

Celia’s Killer Pink Cocktail

• 1 part raspberry liqueur
• 2 parts triple sec
• Top up with chilled dry white wine

Serve with a pink stirrer and enjoy!

Twelve hours later, top up body with two headache-relief tablets, a glass of water and a bacon buttie.

Manning a stand for a few days can also lead to discovering new skills in your colleagues, as we did with Bob when he started juggling teddy bears to entertain people walking by!

In summary, we thoroughly enjoyed our time at Mobile World Congress and cannot wait to see what partnerships, funky app releases and friendships the next few months will bring as a result of this event.

Our very own Bob Last will be taking part in the TechCrunch Talk event this afternoon at Hotel 1898, Barcelona. He will be joined by a panel of VCs and fellow mobile companies to take part in a discussion around mobile disruption; what VCs are looking for in mobile, the disruptive power of mobile companies, how mobile app stores are driving innovation and how the new wave of mobile handsets are changing the market.

The event starts at 3pm will take place at Hotel 1898, www.hotel1898.com, La Rambla, 109 (Entrance on Pintor Fortuny) – 08002 – Barcelona.

The session will be broadcast live on TechCrunch.

TechCrunch Talk Panel, 3pm, Hotel 1898, Barcelona

Thanks to everyone who turned up to our drinks party last night – it was great to see so many old faces – and some new ones! There was a bit of a party atmosphere in Hall 7 yesterday due to many of our neighbours choosing Tuesday afternoon to host their own stand parties.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves – and Celia’s lethal raspberry cocktails – we had a great time.

Day two at Mobile World Congress 2009 was very busy for us all on the Taptu stand. We started the day with a deluge of people all coming to try their luck with our teddy grabber and we met the first of our competition winners; now the proud owners of a new iPod Touch.

And here’s our first, picking up his prize from Andreas Bernstrom, our COO.

The proud new owner of an iPod touch

Every day there will be a golden ticket hidden within one of our teddies. Whomever finds it will win an iPod Touch so come along to the Taptu stand, Hall 7 D42 and try your luck.

We’re looking forward to meeting some new faces tonight at our drinks party, taking place between 5pm and 7pm this evening. If you’re free, we have a chilled glass of something waiting for you and so please stop by Hall 7 Stand D42. We look forward to seeing you.

We’d like to invite you all to come by the Taptu stand (Hall 7, D42) and enjoy a drink with us tomorrow evening.  We’ll have a cold beer waiting for you from 5pm onwards and so we look forward to seeing you.

Greetings from Barcelona!  Gemma Griffiths and I will be blogging on Taptu’s  behalf throughout MWC 2009 and we’ll be bringing you the very lastest from the show every day.

Our first day here at Mobile World Congress has been a hectic one; although it felt that this year’s show might be quieter than last year’s, Hall 7 has been jumping. We’ve met some great people already; a good mix of industry people, journalists, analysts and bloggers – all excited about what we have planned for 2009.

Greetings from Hall 7

Without a doubt the stars of the show so far have been our amazing Taptu teddies. We’ve had a steady stream of delegates passing by the stand to test their skill and try and win one of our teddies. As you can see, it’s not as easy as it looks.

Pitting their wits against the mighty Taptu Teddy-Grabber!

As for what else there is to see here this year, we all love Nokia’s new line-up; no N-Series yet but the introduction of a few E-series devices, a brand new Navigator device and a revamped Classics series. Many are suggesting that the new E75 – the follow-up to the successful E71 – will be the next big ‘touch-screen’ thing this year. We’re loving the new QWERTY keyboard – sweet.

More from us tomorrow.

Next week, Taptu will be at Mobile World Congress, one of the biggest events of the year in mobile – and a great opportunity to go galavanting around beautiful Barcelona.

As we’ll be busy galavanting working very hard, meeting the mobile community and demonstrating the latest version of the Taptu service, we’ve called in the help of Gemma, Caroline and Philip, from Racepoint Group. They will be blogging on our behalf, snapping pics of the event, and sharing their MWC experience.

Remember, if you’re at the event, you’re welcome to join us on Tuesday evening for a drink; from 5 to 7pm in Hall 7, Stand D42. Be sure to say hi to our lovely office manager Celia and ask to see her pink Taptu shoes.

Well hi there! I’m Talisker, and I’m part of the Taptu team. I’m probably the hairiest one in the office and am rather chilled out (unless someone mentions W-A-L-K-S).

One of our favourite Friday activities is putting together the Wishing Line, a summary of all the feedback that’s been sent to us during the week. Sometimes, you lot come up with some very very funny stuff. Not always hrmm… totally appropriate, but thankfully our team has a good sense of humour.

So I’ve picked up a few of the silliest comments to share with you. If you have an explanation for any of them, we’d be very grateful to hear it as they sometimes leave us scratching our heads. Hold on while I scratch my ear a bit. Oooh yeah that was good.

Bayer: “No one knows the universe like taptu”
Shorty: “Mmm luv pantyhose”
bocho: “What’s going on in Taptu? before the background was black and now is white. Maybe it’s a virus or an alien invasion? please beck wilson, give me an answer!”
Tsurugi: “You’ve got awesome and cool items! Marvelous!! By the way, keep the service online,okay? ”
Ciara “So, I find that your website is excellent but If you’d add some poems that we can send directly it would be better. Thanks.”

And a bonus one, they even ask me for love advice:
Jacquice: “I just found out dat my bf got a gurl on facebook callin er wifey wat should i do? ”

Well, must go – Rosie’s offering me a walk in the snow and a tasty treat, which I simply can’t resist so I’ll catch you later! Have a good weekend all.

Love,
Tali

PS – I’m on Twitter too, you know!