As we’ve sought to closely cover the inception and growth of mobile local search over the past few years, Poynt has been an important and influental company on our radar.

This has involved a great deal of evolution in broadening its appeal beyond its leading position on the BlackBerry platform (a great diversification move in hindsight). It’s also involved growth into new search categories and geographies.

On the latter point, it took a big step forward recently by gaining a foothold in the massive India market. A new partnership with Times Internet will produce a local search app. This was announced a few weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to cover it since.

After talking with Poynt, it’s clear this is one flank in a greatly active pipeline of upcoming announcements (mostly off the record for now). Specifically, it will be a co-branded app that brings together Poynt’s mobile local app chops with Times’ content and advertisers.

Known as timesPoynt it will address 858 million mobile users and comprise content from Timescity.com. This will include city guides and listings for restaurants, events, cinemas and weather. User actions will include click to call, directions and social sharing.

From the press release:

A free application powered by data from Timescity.com, timesPoynt will provide users in India with the ability to move beyond discovery of their local area to locate restaurants, nightlife, events, movie theaters and weather information. Like the flagship Poynt app, timesPoynt features the ability to allow users to click-to-call businesses, get directions, browse listing websites, send details to a friend or add listings to their device calendar or address book.

To monetize timesPoynt, the partnership plans to leverage the Times Group’s relationships in India with advertisers, agencies and merchants. It plans to market and promote timesPoynt through all its media vehicles such as radio, television, magazines and newsprint. This will be used to target the more than 858 million mobile subscribers in the country.

In addition to content, TIL’s advertising relationships will be a key part of the equation. In this case, user aggregation will be monetized through Poynt’s own evolving ad placement and optimization. This includes location targeting and a combination of CPC and CPM based ads.

There will be a lot more to develop and report on as this partnership reaches full stride. And as I mentioned, lots more in the pipeline from Poynt to look forward to. Some of this we’ll discuss on stage at ILM West with Poynt CEO Andrew Osis. Hope to see you there.