Speaking to a German newspaper, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that the mobile Internet will indeed be the next major advertising platform. According to Schmidt, the iPhone is leading the charge.Schmidt credits the iPhone's browser for taking mobile advertising to the next level. Heise Online quotes Schmidt as saying, "The iPhone was the first mobile device with a good Web browser, and more such devices will follow. Advertising will then become very personal. In a few years, mobile advertising will generate more revenue than advertising on the normal Web."

He also said that Google "still has plenty ideas for improving the technology and targeting advertising more effectively." I would hope so.

You can't fault Schmidt's comments about the iPhone, but other browsers aren't far behind. Opera's Mobile and Mini browsers are both capable of displaying ads on mobile Web pages. The same is true of Nokia's S60 browser. There's also a host of other mobile browsers set to hit the market, such as the Android browser, Skyfire, and Mobile Mozilla. The browsers, however, aren't the issue. Mobile advertising won't be the juggernaut Schmidt says it will be without targeting ads correctly.

So far, advertisements I've seen on mobile phones aren't all that impressive. What I've noticed from Yahoo typically links you to a generic ad campaign and not something specifically targeted to my interests. Google and other mobile advertisers have a long way to go.