During finals week, late-night study sessions and end-of-the-year stress can lead to cravings for comfort food such as greasy pizza or Chinese takeout.

Several free directory assistance programs have been released in the past month, making it much easier to locate a restaurant that will make middle-of-the-night deliveries to the dorms.

Global mobile marketing and advertising is becoming a lucrative business. ABI Research predicts that the industry will increase to $19 billion by 2011 from an estimated $3 million by the end of 2007.

A few corporations are staking out their pieces of the market, including Tellme Networks, Jingle Networks and Google Voice Local Search.

Tellme Networks, Inc.

Last month, Microsoft purchased California-based company Tellme Networks, Inc. for a reported $800 million. The company takes billions of calls each year, and handles about half of all directory assistance calls made in the U.S.

Users can call 1-800-555-TELL from any phone and say "business search" to find a particular company or category. When calling, music plays while a pleasant-sounding woman runs through the menu. Callers can do a business search, shop for ringtones, get stock quotes, find news and sports headlines, and find entertainment and travel information.

A business search for pizza delivery restaurants in State College turned up with 10 results including chains like Domino's and local businesses like Canyon Pizza.

Users can transfer the call to the business, get a map, get driving directions and share with a friend. The company is not currently using advertisers but expects to test new capabilities by June, according to a press release.

Although there are no advertisers taking up time on the call, Tellme limits calls and disconnects after five minutes.

Jingle Networks

Jingle Networks has launched a similar program called 1-800-FREE-411, which is a directory assistance program accessible through any phone. The only cost callers might face is from their cell phone plan, because the company covers all other costs by playing 15-second advertising messages, often related to the subject of the call.

For example, if the caller is searching for pizza places, the message might advertise Pizza Hut. The company claims that a call to them, including the ad, lasts the same amount of time as a regular 411 call.

A brief advertisement can play before the directory assistance service recording begins, giving callers the option to learn more about the advertised service or continue with a 411 search.

This service is unique because it offers government and residential searches in addition to the business search, and is not fully automated.

The service did not recognize a request for pizza restaurants and transferred the call to an operator. The operator was able to locate 35 results for State College and narrow down the information upon request.

Google Voice Local Search

Google Voice Local Search is available by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411 from any phone. Users can search for a local business by name or category, get connected to the business or get details by text message if they're using a mobile phone. If the service does not understand a voice request, the caller can use text messages. The local business information is the same as that on Google Maps.

Google's calls are recorded for quality control and are totally automated. A search for pizza places in both State College and University Park yielded similar results, but the service only listed the top eight results. The service will repeat the list if the caller does not speak. The call can be restarted at any time with a new search.

At this time, Google's service is in the experimental stages and does not support advertising. The service is the most basic of the three.