1 – to Steve Page’s comments on Yahoo! being better than Google. This is correct in that Google shows far too high a weighting for a site’s web presence in the ordering of its mobile search results. It is really appalling and needs to improve markedly.
BUT – if you are trying to drive traffic to your site then Google beats Yahoo! hands down in our experience in any market worldwide. For all the foibles of Adsense, it works, it is understood and can be used to drive significant response. Add to that the greater customer throughput and Google is far more valuable.
2 – I really do not find that Google’s tool is so difficult to manage and I would also point out that through Proxy and its RSS reader Google is also doing more than, say, AdMob to create mobile inventory.
BUT I am happy if other people find it difficult as it means cheaper acquisition for me
ALSO every system has its faults. If AdMob were Google then we would be widely criticising the tool for being a little antiquated and yet we see it through more generous filters for what it is: a decent market place for advertisers.
3) Google was criticised for not providing real time access to the search terms being used and response to keywords.
BUT this is no worse than AdMob not revealing the content publishers with whom you will be served. In fact, AdMob’s policy is arguably more debilitating
ALSO look in your logs! All the information is there.

I feel unclean defending Google but clearly there is a lot of noise in the space and a lot of misinformation. We should all be proactively working with Google, AdMob, Yahoo! as well as CPM based servers to ensure that we have the most mature market place possible. Personally, I am greatly encouraged by where mobile is right now. If I spend a £1000 I know I am going to get a response and I know how big that response will be. I was not able to say that prior to the autumn 2007 despite too many years in the industry.