In-Brief: Survey results reveal a majority of respondents believe branded search (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) will dominate & location is the must-have feature of mobile service moving forward.

If it has seemed a bit quiet on MSG the last few days, it is because I am collaborating with Netsize, a provider of mobile business and entertainment solutions, on the Netsize Guide, a respected mobile industry report and almanac that documents the developments that marked 2007 and the trends that will impact 2008. In this capacity, I am honored to work with Renaud Ménérat, Netsize Marketing Director, and everyone else on the Netsize team.

I’ll be in Paris until Friday a.m., putting the finishing touches to this must-read report. I’m not saying this because I co-wrote it and had the pleasure of conducting the interviews with some 20 senior execs from companies including eBay, Google, Jamba, MSN, Nokia, Paypal, Visa, Vivendi Mobile Games and Vodafone. The real attraction is the Netsize survey, the company’s first-ever online poll of some 1,800 industry professionals. From mobile advertising to social networking, and from mobile games & music to mobile search, this survey is chock-full of surprises. 

Which brings me to mobile search. I’m the first to see the results – they will be formally released with the guide at Mobile World Congress – and they blow me away. Consider this: When asked if white-label search will win the mobile search battle against GYM (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft), the survey respondents are convinced size (and marketing) matters. A whopping 76.2 percent think white-label will lose to the search giants.

And here’s another for the nay-sayers who insist location-based services are more of a toy than a tool. Is location an essential element in mobile content and services search? Almost 75 percent of respondents think location is essential. That’s all I can divulge — for the moment — but there is much, much more…

The full Netsize Guide will be available for download via the company website soon. Over 50,000 execs and analysts download it every year – and it has been around since 2002. If you haven’t read it, then this year is a good time to start.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Content Discovery, Local Search, Location-based services, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Content, Mobile Music, Mobile Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.