MSearchGroove

Is search becoming a commodity? In the fixed Internet it’s clear that search is the de facto interface to content, with more than half of all users going straight for the search box when they enter a website. It’s a knee-jerk reaction – and the search engine brand delivering the results is secondary. No brand loyalty in this scenario.

Prodege has turned a problem into an opportunity, introducing one of the most imaginative services I’ve seen in long time. Put simply, the company takes search results from its partner search engines (Google & Ask) and re-brands the complete search with the name of a popular band. To date Maroon 5, Universal Records recording artist Drake Bell, and rock bands Hinder and Shinedown are among the first to buy into the idea, launching the sites: www.searchwithmaroon5.com, www.searchwithdrake.com, www.searchwithhinder.com, and www.searchwithshinedown.com .)

To make sure fans use the search engines to carry out their queries Prodege offers them a chance to win prizes such as autographs and exclusive meet and greets with the bands. Prodege has pre-set winning times each day and users who are the first to search after that time win a prize.

I spoke with Scott Dudelson, Prodege’s chief operating officer. He told me the scheme is gathering steam among fans who “would rather associate themselves with a band than a bland search engine.” Moreover, fans are using the search engines to do all their searches – not only look for music and entertainment. Predictably, the biz model is a carbon-copy of Google’s AdWords. (No surprise: Prodege repackages Google search results, so it figures that Prodege can make its money through sponsored ads and links.) Prodege splits the revenue with the bands and artists. “The search engine brands aren’t the attraction; we partner with the brands that allow us to have reach and benefit from fans’ loyalty to their bands.”

Scott also said he’s mulling over a social networking component (and discussing the prospects with “private-label MySpaces”), but right now the focus is mobile. To this end it has teamed up with Mixxer, a company specialized in mobilizing media, to let users send the images they find on the Internet to their mobile phone. The widget, called Yowgo.com, enables image search and send-to-phone functionality. How does it work? Users click a hyperlink titled “send-to-phone” under the image thumbnail and input their phone number. They then receive an SMS that allows them to view the image on their device.

Granted it’s a bit clunky, but it’s not the service we’re talking about here. It’s the business model that merits a closer look. It reminds me of a discussion I had last year with Neil Flanagan, CEO of Alatto, a content discovery company headquartered in Ireland. (Neil has since moved to Quinridge Technologies – www.quinridge.com .) He predicated advances in personalization technology and techniques would enable operators and service provider to offer each user their own portal. A convert to Web 2.0, Neil mused about a day when there would be as many portals as there are users. In a similar vein, Scott has stumbled on to a long tail of search engine brands and developed the strategy to create and market as many search engines as there are personal interests (Prodege also offers search engines branded for charities, BTW).

The takeaway: Alongside our schemes to market the BMW-branded mobile phone and the Justin Timberlake “look-and-feel” mobile portals we should consider the potential of celebrity-branded mobile search. Contests for prizes are already at the heart of many successful mobile social networking services (including Tapatap, a newly-funded company I’ll examine next week). Moreover, mobile search is so new there’s a good chance users will just go for the box rather than demand a particular search engine brand. The jury is out on whether Prodege’s approach is the answer, but it does present us with a concept that covers all the bases.

• Posted in
• Web 2.0, Personalization, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising

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