VentureBeat

With the major U.S. telecom carriers rolling out ways to track the location of mobile phones with more precision, startups are rushing to offer services exploiting this.

Krillion is the latest Silicon Valley company to seek possible salvation in this so-called “location based” technology.

Krillion emerged last year with a way to find specific consumer electronic and other products in local stores, and their exact availability in those stores. However, it’s service originally targeted the PC Web. Like many other companies, the Mountain View, Calif. startup found it difficult to become a destination site online because of all the noise out there. So for starters, it changed course and offered its local product search technology to third parties, including manufacturers like Panasonic. (Using Krillion, Panasonic lets visitors to its Web site find out which local stores carry that Panasonic flat-panel 32LX70 TV they’re dying to buy.)

But now Krillion is placing a big bet on a mobile application for the first time. It’s just raised $6.1 million more in venture capital backing, in part to help it go after the mobile opportunity, including writing an application for iPhone. The financial backing comes from Leapfrog Ventures, which led the round, and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. The round is an extension of the first round of capital raised last year, when the company raised $3 million.

The new Apple iPhone being released next week is just the latest development whipping up a frenzy in this area. The iPhone is widely expected to offer Global Positioning System technology, which uses satellites to pinpoint the whereabouts of iPhone users. Whrrl, Yelp and many other companies are writing applications that draw on the iPhone’s location awareness, as VentureBeat staff writer MG Siegler pointed out yesterday. The iPhone’s great browsing interface arguably makes it more likely people will use the iPhone to interact more with their surroundings.

Aside from the hype around the iPhone’s expected GPS technology, Krillion chief executive Joel Toladano tells me the iPhone’s existing ability to tap into WiFi routers to judge the location of a user (iPhone uses a WiFi mapping company called Skyhook to do this) will already help his application. Unlike GPS, which relies on line-of-site to judge location, WiFi works well indoors. The company expects the mobile application to be released later this year.

Krillion is a search engine that lets you find consumer appliances in stores near you.

This start-up, based in Mountain View, is a response to strong evidence that most people prefer to buy in a store, even after they research prices online — particularly big ticket items like refrigerators, ovens, washers, dryers and dishwashers. (Krillion cites research that it says shows 75 percent of people make more than 90 percent of their purchases offline).

So Krillion lists the specific makes of fridges and other appliances carried at the stores near you, and that are in stock, thus giving you more direct help in your quest to find them. Eventually, Krillion wants to expand coverage to other categories, including consumer electronics, lawn and garden and seasonal appliances.

Joel Toledano, chief executive, gave VentureBeat a preview last week, and it does the job it says it does. It is better ShopLocal and other search engines, which don’t offer such detailed local information. ShopLocal will show which stores are supposed to carry an item in your area, but it often links you back to the retailer’s main site, and there’s no guarantee the local branch carries your item. Krillion, by comparison, offers that information, and lets you click to call the local store — to double check something is in stock or ask other questions. Krillion’s challenge is that, so far at least, it serves a very narrow niche. Its service is predicated on getting the consumer in touch with a store, so the purchase won’t be made at Krillion.

That’s why Krillion kicks off with an advertising product too. It lets advertisers track ad campaigns at Krillion with an analytics tool. This way, advertisers can hawk their wares with ad beside the results of competitors, and watch how their campaigns are doing.

Krillion covers more than 40,000 U.S. cities and towns.

Users should be able to find Krillion’s results by searching in Google and other search engines, Krillion says.

Founded in February 2006, Krillion is funded by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Chief exec Joel Toledano was previously director of business development and chief negotiator for Yahoo’s search unit. Before that, he did business development for Yahoo’s consumer services, and managed Yahoo’s alliance with SBC. Earlier, he was at Rentals.com, and before that a lawyer at Wilson Sonsini.