Vodafone’s Dutch OpCo is the first in western Europe to unveil Google search within Vodafone live!, and this first glance is rich in insights into Vodafone’s collaboration strategy with the Internet giants. Google search will open up a chink in the walled garden, but the floodgates are firmly in place.
After months of speculation, we finally get to see how, and to what extent, Vodafone is prepared to share live! real estate with the mighty Google: On May 21, Vodafone Netherlands launched Google search within Vodafone live!
Undoubtedly packed with significance, this event still only merits a neutral stance, as far as we’re concerned. While embracing the off-portal wide Internet, the Vodafone Group has managed to tame the giant, Google, with a clear on-portal results bias. Whether or not end-users will love this approach remains to be seen. full story »
When it comes to mobile search, could more be better? After hinting at the trend to metasearch and documenting NTT DoCoMo’s conscious decision to offer over a dozen mobile search services, I now see that Thailand’s AIS has chosen Mobile Content Networks (MCN) to provide search for its mobileLIFE WAP portal. However, the release fails to point out that AIS already has Google as its all-purpose search engine. MCN therefore serves the purpose of a vertical search engine. The company tells me it will deliver results across some 14 “channels of content” including music, games, ringtones and images. In addition, MCN will provide “customized search” for the operator’s Music Click service, enabling users to search and buy full-track music downloads. It’s not possible to conclude from this deal that operators’ interest in offering more than one search engine is indeed on the rise but it’s easy to imagine operators are beginning to see the merits in offering users a choice. But the real revelation is the position of MCN on the portal next to Google, a top-notch spot that speaks volumes about the search engine giant’s abilities to index and search mobile entertainment content.
The good news is mobile users are ready to surf the Web. The bad new is usability is so poor most users give up. This is the key finding of a survey of 1,000 students from five U.K. universities following a series of extensive use trials conducted by InfoGin, a provider of content adaptation solutions. Prior to the trials, two-thirds of respondents found surfing the Web on their phones so frustrating they gave up trying. During the trial period, students were asked to surf the Web twice - once using InfoGin’s technology and once without. As a result, 69 percent of users reported surfing the Web on their mobile phones was useable or enjoyable when accessed through InfoGin. Vendor pitch aside, the study underlines the importance of good usability and explains why a disappointing percentage of users surf the Web let alone use mobile search. Students are traditionally early-adopters and if they are turned off by surfing on their mobiles, then alarm bells should go off in boardrooms everywhere. full story »
The white label/branded debate that marked the mobile space a few months ago hasn’t cooled; it has taken on a new dimension as it becomes clear that search is the de facto interface to content. As search becomes more central to the content consumption experience, the brand on the search engine will ultimately become core to the operator’s value proposition.
Should operators go with branded search engine providers because of the halo effect it can have on their own often times lackluster brands. Or should they shy away from branded search engines and tie-up with white label providers whose motives are much easier to divine? (Consider a recent BusinessWeek article outlining Google’s wireless ambitions, and since just last week new rumors resulting from Google’s presentation at MoMo in Barcelona and its own admission that it could imagine being a mobile portal destination in its own right.) The jury is out on which strategy is superior. They both have their merits: branded gives operators buzz while white label gives them control. (And who says operators will choose one over the other? Many operators I speak with confide they are determined to have it both ways in the end. Does this create an opportunity for mobile meta-search, I wonder?).
At the London mobile search conference I co-chaired, Omar Tawakol, Chief Advertising Officer at white label search engine provider Medio Systems, eloquently outlined what is at stake. Can the operator afford to give up mobile search to one of the online portal search brands? In his view, even aligning with Yahoo or Microsoft providers willing to put their brands second when operators’ business rules demand it can be a risky business. Ironically, Tawakol pointed out that operators may find themselves in a no-win scenario where “consumers begin to think of their devices as Google phones.” (And I may add this observation is all the more eye-opening when taken in the context of this weekend’s user poll by the Equs Group, via Information Week’s blog, which claims that over half of respondents surveyed would “purchase a mobile device made by Google or Yahoo if such hardware existed.” The methodology is shaky at best, and I’m in contact with the company to get some answers - but the findings nonetheless speak volumes about the trust users already place in search engines brands.)
I caught up with Tawakol following the conference to learn more about the raging branded debate, as well as focus on other key topics including Medio’s current efforts to build an inventory and an ecosystem through its Ad Network, and the increasing importance of content discovery and recommendation in mobile search services mix.
Listen to the podcast here:
More is better: Microsoft’s acquisition of Screen Tonic was a must. “Typically search engines are not organized and don’t think in the right kind of way to be able to really go deep into a carrier. I think the acquisition of Screen Tonic by Microsoft is really about getting that type of thinking and that type of organization and those sets of relationships right in terms of building a network on top of carrier traffic.” Meanwhile, Medio continues to invite “networks like Ad Mob, Ingenio, who we’re already working with, and a couple of other networks we’ve been working with that we haven’t announced but are already live and active on our system.” The goal: “Keep fluid and get as many networks to participate with you [Medio] as possible.”
The following is an in-depth examination of the mobile search and content delivery landscape based on the competitive intelligence white paper presented at the March 2007 mobile search conference.
1. Mobile content: More effort than its worth?
With an avalanche of pre-packaged and user-generated mobile content slated to come online this year, subscribers can’t say they dont have choice. But they can complain about the tedious navigation process they have to endure to find, access and buy content they like.
Recent usability studies, from Sweden’s Mobile Matrix, argue mobile portals must bring content to users within six clicks. The same studies conclude that a whopping 65 percent of content is positioned too far from the home page, making it invisible to users. Indeed, the vast majority of content may as well not be on offer because it is buried deep in confusing – oftentimes counter-intuitive – hierarchical menus and positioned too many clicks from the portal home page. A recent Informa Telecoms & Media benchmarking study found that users typically have to click through 10-40 screens, and spend more than two minutes to download some of the most popular ringtones or games. Mobile devices with their screen-size limitations and restricted input capabilities only exacerbate the problem. full story »
Motorola’s first-ever Innovation Day in Europe was a show-and-tell event of exciting service prototypes that harness personalization to deliver what Andrew Aftelak, Director of Operations and Business Partnerships within Motorola Labs, calls ‘zero-effort’ search.
Listen to the podcast here.
The idea is to understand and, more importantly, predict user preferences from the clues they leave on devices - including mobile phones, set-top boxes, car radios and PCs - and leverage that to deliver seamless access to content.
Motorola is quietly crafting an approach to music content discovery, using mobile devices, that covers all the right bases. Its Liquid Music prototype service harnesses community (a must-have element of any discovery service going forward), and recommender technology (no user-pull search scheme will ever deliver searchers the long tail of entertainment content; that’s where discovery will rule - just try searching for “cool” tracks and you’ll see that I mean). After an eye-opening demo , I caught up with Venu Vasudevan, who heads the project, to find out more about Liquid Music and how it can enable what he calls “enhanced social networks and context-aware spontaneous” mobile music experiences. But this is not a collection of nice-but-not-here-now technology; Moto is working on multi-modal interfaces that would effectively make finding, buying and connecting with music - as well as like-minded fans - a no-brainer.
Listen to the podcast here.
“The thought was why not take a good experience, that of listening to your favorite music over and over again, and overlay on it an even better experience by connecting the music you’re listening to to things that are musically related, (such as) people who have musical affinity to you, or people you know very well in your social network who you are wanting to know even better by understanding their musical taste,” Vasudevan observes.
Chetan Sharma
An executive at a prominent mobile operator recently asked me “Is there any money in Mobile Search? Should we just get Yahoo or Google in here and not worry about it? Is there something at stake here that we should worry about?” Mobile Search is a dilemma to many in the value chain. Should they cede control or innovate for the long-term? As the discoverable content increases in depth and breadth, it is inevitable that mobile search will drive user navigation on devices. Whether it is by user keying in a few keywords or short cuts or search engine generating a personalized, to-the-minute user interface that directs user navigation, mobile search strategies will start taking center-stage on majority of decks. Also, advertisers are starting to discover the power of mobile channel to connect with the consumers.
A key problem for the mobile data industry is subscribers trying to find a specific piece of content or a specific application. All of the major operators offer an excellent and expansive range of games, ringtones and many other applications. While choice is great for the consumer, if they can find what they are looking for, the sheer number of options available is bewildering. It is impossible to browse and navigate the labyrinth navigation structures available today. Mobile search helps tie together otherwise silo’d catalogs and deep navigation trees for ringtones, graphics, games, music, sports, news and other content. full story »
The key to mobile search is the emphasis on location for content optimization. When the location is known (via inclusion of a city, etc., in the query, or via GPS or Wi-Fi), search results can be filtered with respect to proximity, making them more relevant.Location-based search for mobile users has broad implications for content providers and advertisers. Currently, only about 5% of small and midsize businesses are using paid search, according to consulting firm, The Kelsey Group. However, the local advertising market is expected to reach $5.1 billion in the U.S. by 2009, and The Kelsey Group sees local search advertising accounting for about two-thirds of that total. Geo-targeting users at a zip code- or even better, a block-level can be a boon to local advertisers. Neighborhood profiles could be used by marketers as a basis for targeting ads.
Mobile carriers are already harnessing the power of location-based services (LBS) and multi-function handsets. LBS developments are on the cusp of serious rollouts. Subscribers of location services will grow from 10.3 million in 2006 to 309.7 million by 2011 in the U.S., predicts ABI Research. inCodewireless.com surmises that LBS and GPS will become mainstream before the year is out. The incorporation of social networking applications - like Sprint’s Loopt - will increase. Mobile advertising will climb ever higher as the value of LBS is realized in the ability to offer interactive mobile advertising via LBS-enabled applications and social networks. full story »
Question: Name one underexploited opportunity in mobile?
Answer: The handset idle screen
It is no secret that the handset idle screen (a.k.a. home screen or phone-top) is the most valuable real-estate on the mobile handset. The idle screen is the A and Z of the user journey, as the user navigates through the handset menus and functions. It is the starting point for calling or texting, browsing operator services, and accessing handset settings. It is the single destination for checking to see who’s calling, whether there’s a new message, even confirming that the phone’s locked.
As of recently, the idle screen was pretty much unexploited territory. Yet in the last year, a dozen or so technologies have been launched to utilize the idle screen and bring services at a zero click-distance to the user. Here is a list of these technologies and products:Aditon, a 10-people PA Consulting spin-off is bringing advertising content onto the handset idle screen. Launched at 3GSM this year, Aditon’s U-Daily is a handset application that displays advertisements on the handset idle screen. Aditon revenue comes from advertisers who pay on a per click-through basis. Amobee’s SDK offers a similar technology channel for service developers. Moreover, Nokia’s Advertising Connector should essentially offer the same functionality when launched at the end of 2007.
Celltick’s LiveScreen, Vodafone’s Live! Cast and Motorola’s Screen 3 are technologies for pushing content teasers on the idle screen. One click and you go directly into the corresponding WAP page where you can read more about the content you’ve selected. Technology-wise, Celltick uses a SIM application; Vodafone’s Live! Cast is an in-house implementation using Ikivo’s SVG player; and Motorola’s Screen 3 is an in-house handset application.
This special three-part podcast series - sponsored by JumpTap, a white-label mobile search and advertising company – continues with a look at recent mobile moves from Google and Yahoo, and why operators should think twice before surrendering control over the mobile search experience to a single branded search company. Dan Olschwang, JumpTap President and CEO, discusses what operators need to control and why.
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I caught up with Tawakol following the conference to learn more about the raging branded debate, as well as focus on other key topics including Medio’s current efforts to build an inventory and an ecosystem through its 
