We recently found out that we’re a finalist for a Search Engine Watch award.  The editorial team from SEW announced the finalists and we’re among the three contenders for “Most Innovative New Search Engine”.

We are amongst some other strong contenders for the Search Engine Watch award and we’re flattered to being in this group.  At Taptu, we have been working really hard to hit our goals and help bring a fantastic mobile search experience to mobile phone users – whatever platform they’re running on their mobile device(s).

The winners will be announced throughout the day next week on 11 and 12 August at the Search Engine Watch Stratetgies Conference in San Jose, California.

Thanks again to the SEW editorial team and hoepfully I’ll report next back with good news!

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.

In two weeks, we’ll be at Mobile World Congress, one of the biggest events of the year in the mobile industry, to meet industry colleagues and demo the next version of Taptu. Come see us and we’ll be happy to give you a sneak preview of it.

If you’re also intending to be in Barcelona for MWC, we hope you’ll be able to join us on Tuesday evening from 5 to 7pm for drinks in Hall 7, Stand D42, as we’d love to meet you.

Otherwise, pop by our stand at any time: you’ll be greeted by our white and pink bar and, believe it or not, a Teddy Bear Grabber machine where you can get a Taptu bear. If you’re lucky, your teddy may contain a winning ticket for an iPod Touch. There are three to be won during the week!

[More teddy bear antics? You'll find them on Flickr.]

Over the next few days, the Taptu team will be spreading across Europe to attend a few conferences.

You’ll find Stef and Lynsey in Barcelona for Mobile 2.0, an event organised by dotOpen, ESADE and Mobile Monday. Meanwhile, Chris, Conor and myself will be going to Amsterdam for the Mobile Social Networks & UGC Conference, organised by IIR Events.

If you’re attending either of these events, we’d love to meet you and have a chat.

In our competition for who would get the best weather tomorrow, it looks like Barcelona wins over Amsterdam. Aww shucks!

With a week left to go until the Being-Digital conference in London, I can announce that the winner of the Favourite Gadget competition and the free ticket to the event is James Whatley, an active mobile geek in London.

The winner was selected completely fairly by Jack, my big fuzzy ginger cat, who stuck his head in the hat full of paper and pulled one out for me to see. (And then proceeded to eat all the papers that were left in the hat…)

Congratulations and we hope you enjoy the conference!

If you didn’t participate in the competition, thinking your boss may be hard to convince when it comes to attending events, here are a few reasons you can fling his/her way to (hopefully) show them the importance of letting you out of your shackles every so often.