Geodelic  is a GPS mobile search start-up with a killer sexy red hot user interface. I first heard about the company here.

But since then I have taken the time to check them out and I have to say that web design and UI is everything. It can really make or break a start-up but Geodelic has it right.

Now, let me put that into perspective. I have seen and tested hundreds… no thousands of mobile search services since 2004. But this is just sexy.

I had heard about this from T-Mobile before and had taken it with a pinch of salt saying that this Sherpa search on the MyTouch 3G device was a copy of what Orange personalisation had been doing for years.

But I eat my words. The person that designed the Geodelic logo and the colours with feng shui written all over it deserves a medal.

From chip makers to mobile phone giants to tiny upstarts, location-based services are seen as the wireless world’s pot of gold. Among those looking to dip into that pot is Geodelic, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup that this week announced $3.5 million in funding from Clearstone Venture Partners and Shasta Ventures. Even more impressive is the fact that Geodelic has partnered with T-Mobile to offer an LBS application known as Sherpa on the  the company’s myTouch phone.

Unlike other mapping applications, Geodelic’s technology customizes your location search according to your interests and preferences. According to Geodelic:

Sherpa uses a learning engine called GENIE (Geodelic Engine for Interest Evaluation) that automatically learns a user’s favorite locations and lifestyle behavior. If a user eats out more than they shop, it modifies itself and tailors the experience to begin showing more restaurants and less retail stores.

When you launch the Sherpa application on your phone, it assigns you a random number that’s stored at Geodelic’s data center. That number is used to reference you and all of your preferences that the app gleans from your searches, so there’s never a need to input anything manually. And the GENIE tech means the more you search, the “smarter” the application gets — with just a few clicks on your phone, Geodelic’s technology yields location information that’s instantly customized to you, but for which you may not have been looking.

T-Mobile USA Inc. is featuring the new local discovery GPS application Sherpa that was developed for HTC’s new myTouch 3G with Google.

Powered by mobile technology company Geodelic, the app lets Android smartphone users access locally relevant information, including location-based advertising, offers and content from brands. The more it is used, the more it customizes itself to consumers’ tastes, learning their likes and dislikes so it can prioritize recommended and relevant local retailers, restaurants and attractions.

“We’ve had the World Wide Web for the last 15 years or so, and it’s been transformative, but the Web designed for PCs doesn’t understand or care where you are,” said Rahul Sonnad, founder/CEO of Geodelic, Santa Monica, CA.

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“We think something is going to emerge in parallel to the wired Web that will become equally important for consumers and businesses — the ‘Global Mobile Web, which is about hyperlocality and browsing the real world,” he said. “Being able to browse your surroundings will be transformational in the the same way the wired Web was for a lot of companies.

In the past few days, I’ve gone back and forth between Manhattan, Connecticut and southeastern Massachusetts. At various moments, I’ve used my phone to find a farm stand, two sub shops, a toy store, a Japanese restaurant, as well as to frequently escape from traffic jams.

This is the realm of Geodelic, a location-based recommendation service for mobile devices. Said another way, they want to anticipate what you want right…now, and right… here.

Imagine that you are attending a conference in a large hotel. On the 2nd floor at 10 a.m., you’re probably interested in finding a specific seminar or conference room. In your room, at the end of the day, you might be thinking about dinner. Either way, they’d like to help the hotel serve you better.

Geodelic will provide a new service called Sherpa on the newly-announced Android-powered myTouch 3G due in August‎ from T-Mobile. Later in the year, it may offer a similar service for the iPhone.

Santa Monica, CA (June 22, 2009) — In a move that signals a significant evolution in the way smart phone users will access locally relevant information, mobile technology company Geodelic Systems announced today that it has partnered with T-Mobile and
will provide its application, exclusively known as the “Sherpa,” for T-Mobile’s new MyTouch phone, available in stores later this summer.

Founded in 2008 by Rahul Sonnad, Geodelic has secured $3.5 million in funding from Clearstone Venture Partners and Shasta Ventures.  Sonnad’s previous company, thePlatform, acquired by Comcast in 2006, services the majority of large video
publishers on broadband and wireless platforms.

The Sherpa application, developed by Geodelic specifically for T-Mobile’s MyTouch, provides users with a tool for effortless information discovery that redefines how to find locally pertinent information via a smart phone. By combining a user’s location and
interests, with other contextual information such as time, the Sherpa aggregates and presents contextually relevant, location-based information about the “real world” that surrounds a user at any moment.

“Any local search application can find the nearest Blockbuster or Chinese restaurant, but Geodelic’s approach is to go beyond this and give you the information you want while you’re at these locations – movie reviews, menus or promotional information all while
you’re in the store,” added Sonnad.  “Our partnership with T-Mobile is the first step toward taking local discovery to the next level.”

Google’s Android is going mainstream.

The G1, the first phone to run the search giant’s mobile platform, has been a magnet for tech-savvy people, selling more than 1 million handsets since October 2008. Now wireless operator T-Mobile wants Google’s ( GOOG – news – people ) second Android phone, which will be available later this summer, to attract a broader audience and sell even more briskly.

…

T-Mobile is also adding a level of personalization to the phone’s applications. It commissioned an app from Santa Monica, Calif.-based start-up Geodelic that combines user activity, information from the phone’s global positioning system (GPS) chip and a proprietary “learning engine” to build user profiles. The app, called Sherpa, uses the data to recommend local restaurants, retailers and events. The more a person uses Sherpa, the smarter it gets; search for McDonald’s  ( MCD -  news  -  people ) frequently and it will assume you like fast food. T-Mobile likens it to a personal concierge.

T-Mobile is announcing today that its myTouch 3G (G2) is coming out formally in August. As I’ve written it’s a much better phone than the G1. One of the features I like quite a bit is the Google voice search capability in general and on Maps. I find that it’s accurate most of the time.

One of the featured apps on the new myTouch 3G is called “Sherpa,” a personalized LBS discovery tool. The company behind the app is Geodelic, which put out a release about the app this morning:

Created by Geodelic, in partnership with T-Mobile, Sherpa is a local discovery application that learns a user’s favorite types of locations and preferences over time. The more it’s used, the more it customizes itself to the user’s taste, learning their likes and dislikes so it can prioritize recommended and relevant local retailers, restaurants and attractions. By combining a user’s location and interests, with other contextual information such as time of day, Sherpa aggregates and presents contextually relevant, location-based information about the “real world” that surrounds a user at any moment.

Sherpa uses a learning engine called GENIE (Geodelic ENgine for Interest Evaluation) that automatically learns a user’s favorite locations and lifestyle behavior. If a user eats out more than they shop, it modifies itself and tailors the experience to begin showing more restaurants and less retail stores. So no matter where a person goes, whether they are traveling or exploring their neighborhood, Sherpa prioritizes recommended locations and presents them to users.

The “Sherpa” application is being touted as a major selling point of the now-officially announced T-Mobile USA myTouch phone. Sherpa learns a user’s activities and provides nearby establishments that may interest him or her. For instance, someone who frequently searches for places to buy music would be alerted about a nearby record store. The same concept would apply to people who enjoy Indian food, comic book fans, fashion addicts, and several other points in between.

Sherpa is an Android location-aware search tool exclusive* to T-Mobile USA similar to other Android GPS-friendly apps. Each point of interest app will need a hook to separate itself from the pack, and the “learning” feature fits the bill.

Sherpa is the work of Geodelic, a small company based in Santa Monica, Calif. Based on information and a short video showcased on its website, T-Mobile USA snagged a great feature.

Mobile technology company Geodelic announced today that it has partnered with T-Mobile USA, Inc. to deliver a new application, called Sherpa, a local discovery application that learns a user’s favorite types of locations and preferences over time.

Founded in 2008 by Rahul Sonnad, Geodelic has secured $3.5 million in funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, where the company was incubated, and Shasta Ventures.  Sonnad’s previous company, thePlatform, acquired by Comcast in 2006, services the majority of large video publishers on broadband and wireless platforms.

Created by Geodelic, in partnership with T-Mobile, Sherpa was developed for the new T-Mobile myTouch 3G.  The more it’s used, the more it customizes itself to the user’s taste, learning their likes and dislikes so it can prioritize recommended and relevant local retailers, restaurants and attractions. By combining a user’s location and interests, with other contextual information such as time of day, Sherpa aggregates and presents contextually relevant, location-based information about the “real world” that surrounds a user at any moment.

“Any local search application can find the nearest video store or Chinese restaurant, but Geodelic’s approach is to go beyond this and give you the information you want while you’re at these locations – movie reviews, menus or promotional information all while you’re in the store,” added Sonnad. “Our partnership with T-Mobile is the first step toward taking local discovery to the next level.”

Geodelic, a mobile technology company based in Santa Monica, Calif., is partnering with T-Mobile (News – Alert) USA to deliver a new application called Sherpa for the new T-Mobile myTouch 3G phone.

Sherpa is a location-based service that uses GPS to help users find restaurants, movie theaters, and other businesses or points of interest that are nearby. It has the capability to learn about a person’s likes and dislikes, prioritizing recommended retailers, restaurants and attractions through behavior and user feedback.

This app was developed by Geodelic specifically for the newly unveiled T-Mobile myTouch 3G. Geodelic hopes that its new application would bring about a revolutionary change in the way smartphone users will access locally relevant information.

According to Geodelic, Sherpa features GENIE (Geodelic ENgine for Interest Evaluation), a learning engine that automatically customizes itself to the user’s preferences. The company claim that by learning about customers’ likes and dislikes Sherpa can prioritize recommended and relevant local retailers, restaurants and attractions. Seamlessly blending behavior recognition, a recommendation engine and location relevant information, this combination of learning is exclusive to Sherpa and unlike any experience currently on the market.