MSearchGroove

In-Brief: Another company MSG has followed from the start moves into expansion mode. This time it’s Veveo, a company that covers the bases, allowing users to browse search and discover mobile video content, as well as create their feed of personalized and relevant video content. To this end, Veveo has created a large, diverse and ever-growing index of video content - to date more than 150 million Web video clips from thousands of websites including YouTube and MySpace. To round out the offer, the company can also link with social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, allowing users to link their profiles and preferences with their personal vtap Feed of video content and with those of their friends.

Thanks to Kathleen Goodwin and her team who set it up, Veveo pre-briefed me on the European launch last week. Schedules are tight but I still have high hopes that I’ll connect face-to-face with Murali Aravamudan, Veveo founder and CEO, this week at CTIA for an interview and a demo. Even if we don’t connect during the show, you can count on a podcast/Q&A that deep-dives into the nuts and bolts of the service and how it enables the creation of a personalized and dynamic feed of video content.

During the phone briefing, Murali told me his big-picture strategy revolves around making video part of our daily mobile routine.

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• Personalization, Mobile Social Networking, Mobile Search, Mobile Content, Mobile Advertising, Content Discovery

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I may have missed Mobile World Congress due to an injured ankle, but I’m back full-force for CTIA with a schedule full of briefings and demos with a balanced mix of market giants (including all the mobile search companies) and must-watch newcomers. Naturally, I want to deep-dive - so I may choose to circle back with my analysis after CTIA. I’m particularly excited about my interview with Eran Wyler, InfoGin CEO, which will also conclude a special five-part podcast series on federated mobile search (combining results from multiple sources) and the key importance of transcoding. The seriesis timed to promote my latest white paper on the topic — so please be sure to check back.

I’m also honored to join John Puterbaugh, Nellymoser Founder & Chief Strategist and guest columnist on MSG, in a roundtable during CTIA focused on Web 2.0. The event — titled Web 2.0 comes to Handsets - New Issues and Upside for Monetizing the Mobile Web - organized by Airwide Solutions, brings together a Who’s Who list of mobile luminaries and renowned bloggers. (I’m looking forward to a mind-meld and some great ideas in the break-out sessions.)

Thanks again to Brenda Suarez, Director of Corporate Communications, Airwide Solutions, and Janet Swaysland from Beelinelabs for inviting me to participate. I’ll circle back with some key points, but Airwide will also document the sessions. I’ll link to the summaries/podcasts/etc when I return from CTIA.

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• Mobile Research, Web 2.0, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising

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In-Brief: Another time that MSG was on the money! Aggregate Knowledge hinted at a mobile deal in this exclusive podcast - and now we know Paul Martino, Aggregate Knowledge CEO, meant the tie-up with CBS Mobile. I caught up with Dave Peterson, Aggregate Knowledge Chief Marketing Officer, late last night (my time) to get the inside track on precisely how the partnership aims to deliver personalized content and relevant ads. Thanks again to Falguni Bhuta & Jennifer Henderson for the quick response in arranging an impromptu Q&A with Dave.

The news yesterday reminded me how much I love my work and why. It is exciting to be that little bit ahead of the curve, consistently and correctly identifying the companies and trends that will have a significant impact on the mobile space. No wonder VC companies lead the new user registrations on MSG and also pack my in-box with requests to discuss cool new companies and technologies. I enjoy the exchange and encourage VCs - as well as the rest of the MSG community - to reach out to me directly to continue the dialogue. Of course, MSG will continue to showcase companies worth watching - so please check back regularly.

By now we have all read that CBS Mobile and Aggregate Knowledge are teaming up to enable content discovery and recommendation and deliver targeted and relevant advertising. But it’s not just about technology; it’s about a seismic shift in mobile advertising strategy. As Jeff Sellinger, Executive Vice President, CBS Mobile, pointed out in a press statement: “Behavioral targeting on mobile phones is the next frontier …because the smaller the screen, the more relevant the content needs to be.”

Trading in key words for technology to tap the collective wisdom of crowds… Is this the way forward? It will be great to hear the CBS side of the story, particularly since this move is the latest in a strategy marked by industry firsts - including the first location-based advertising scheme (together with social-mapping and communications company Loopt) and the first alliance with a line-up of leading mobile advertising companies (AdMob, Millennial Media, Rhythm New Media and Third Screen Media) - to get more bang for the ad dollar. (I’ve contacted CBS for a podcast/Q&A and will circle back when I have it.)

In the meantime, let’s look at what Aggregate Knowledge brings to the table, and the interplay of discovery, recommendation and advertising.

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• Recommendation, Mobile Social Networking, Personalization, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising, Content Discovery

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In-brief: Between trips, meetings and meet-ups I have put together metrics MSG should report as a matter of record (in line with the MSG mission to be a knowledge resource). Here’s a double dose of stats that matter. Admittedly, I’m slightly behind, but should be back on track after CTIA. Incidentally, I still have some slots open and encourage you to pitch to MSG. Contact me directly or my PA at andrea@msearchgroove.com

MOBILE SEARCH: A new report and a great offer for MSG readers! (I’ve not only been speaking at conferences; I’ve been sealing deals with an exciting line-up of partners to provide rich content, exclusive metrics and special offers to the community. Check back regularly - because you’ll like what you see!)

In this case, it’s the new release mobile search report from Juniper Research. The report, which has cleverly divided mobile search into categories including local and on/off-portal content search, forecasts annual revenues generated by mobile search services will rise from $1.5 billion this year to $4.8 billion by 2013. Local search services will be the most popular sector with advertisers, attracting 40 percent of mobile search ad spend over the forecast period.

Not surprisingly, the China/Far East region will generate the most revenues from mobile search services over the next five years, followed by Western Europe and North America. A word of caution: Don’t get too upbeat about the lucrative link between search and advertising. “An ‘advertising overload’ might act as a disincentive to consumers and might ultimately limit adoption, while there are continuing public concerns over search engine usage of personal data,” the report concludes.

Order Mobile Search and Discovery, Opportunities and Markets 2008-2013 from CMS via this link and you’ll receive a free copy of The Worldwide Directory of Mobile Network Operators (GBP995 value), which lists 700 operator profiles and 2,900 named management contacts.

ADMOB: Thanks to Jason Spero, MSG gets AdMob’s monthly Mobile Metrics report first (!). But this time I was too busy with my travel to Thailand, and engaged with subsequent trips to mobile operators around Germany, to post it before today. As MSG has recognized the importance of this must-read monthly report from the start, and posted it as a matter of record, we’ll continue today with a look at the February Mobile Metrics Report and Ecosystem Events. This time the report is chock-full of valuable data at the country, manufacturer and device level - going a long way toward classifying its network traffic in a way that allows advertisers to target devices and the people who own them.

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• Location-based services, Mobile Research, Mobile Social Networking, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising, Local Search

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In-Brief: SpinVox reveals its vision for mobile search and mobile advertising services that will harness its voice-to-text technology to pick up on clues in voicemail exchanges to deliver users relevant results in an unobtrusive way. It’s not here yet, but you can bet on some deployments this year as mobile search providers and operators take notice.

Talk about timing! I first met SpinVox co-founder Daniel Doulton last summer at the company headquarters in the U.K., a mind-meld during which we discussed the progress the company had made (its voice-to-screen technology now lets users post to their Facebook, Twitter and Jaiku sites by simply speaking into their mobile handset) and the potential for the same technology to supercharge mobile search and enable the delivery targeted mobile advertising. It was an invigorating exchange and I put in my request for a podcast when the time was right.

I got my wish this week and had an exclusive interview with Daniel just a few days before the news broke that SpinVox has raised more than $100 million in funding from a Goldman Sachs Group unit and other institutional investors. The cash allows the company to expand its presence in North America and introduce voice-to-text services in more languages. (The company has deals with 12 mobile operators and plans to double that number this year. It is negotiating with all the top U.S. network operators and expects to announce two deals in the next quarter.)

I’ll bet SpinVox also uses the investment to move its strategy of enabling what Daniel calls “implicit mobile search” a quantum leap forward.

The scenario: An exchange between friends looking for a suitable restaurant to meet might trigger the service to suggest a few nearby restaurants, complete with a link to a local map or even driving directions. “It’s a fascinating ability that we now have in the actual voice message conversion system, which obviously has a semantic ability. And by that I mean; it can actually link together intelligently, keywords and messages that would make up an intelligent request or a search query.”

Listen to the podcast here. [10:56]

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• Posted in
• Multimodal Search, Mobile Social Networking, Web 2.0, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising, Content Discovery, Local Search, Podcasts

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In-Brief: On the evening before I left for my last trip M3 Mobile, a social networking service that last week launched it’s beta site in London, pre-briefed me on the service, which combines all the right buzzwords and approaches (ad-supported, location-based and social networks) to get audience and eyeballs. Special thanks to Kate Berg, who reached out to MSG and made sure I had more than enough material and interviews (including a Q&A with Tullio Siragusa, M3’s CEO) to do a deep-dive. BTW: I encourage more companies in this space to do the same as I am also preparing to present & chair at upcoming mobile social networking conferences/events in Europe and Asia. Always (!) interested in hearing your pitches. Contact me directly or my PA at andrea@msearchgroove.com for a briefing.

As MSG also tracks social networking (part of the brief to analyze all things at the intersection of content and context), I jumped at the chance to learn more about nimble newcomer M3. M3’s location-based mobile and Web platform is designed to facilitate face-to-face connections for people to socialize, and the ad-funded/sponsor-supported model is a big part of that. Granted there are similar offers gaining traction in the mobile space, but few have voice at the center of the exchange. And still fewer give a voice to grassroots organizations such as Cardboard Citizens, the UK’s only homeless people’s professional theatre company. I was intrigued, and caught up with Tullio for the inside track.

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• Mobile Social Networking, Location-based services, Personalization, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising, Local Search

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In-Brief: A look at Aggregate Knowledge, a content discovery/recommendation company that drives highly targeted and relevant content and product placements to consumers based on real-time buzz and collective buying behavior which it monitors across its network of 100+ media and retail websites. The newcomer is gearing up to make its mark on mobile. With one trial in progress (no word on whether it’s with a mobile operator or a content company) and others in the pipeline, it merits a closer look. Paul Martino, Aggregate Knowledge CEO and co-founder, talks about his company and the mobile trends on his radar. Best to listen. Paul is a serial entrepreneur whose social networking company Tribe Network was recently acquired by Cisco.

I first met with Aggregate Knowledge during RecSys 2007, a super-cool conference focused on recommendation engines and technologies. I felt it was a great opportunity to meet with companies sure to make a mark on mobile - and I was right. Aggregate Knowledge has since entered into its first mobile trials, and Paul tells me that other companies in the space are lining up. Why? Because mobile search is great if users know what they want, but most times they don’t. And even if they do, inputting their request on a mobile device can be a pain. That’s where discovery and recommendation come in. (Why I’ve consistently come out for tie-ups between companies in the two spaces - and why we’ve seen a string of M&A aimed to accomplish just that…)

I did the interview a few weeks back, but had to hold off on final production because industry conferences and speaking engagements kept me on the road and away from my studio. But sometimes being a little late is a good thing. Case in point: yesterday’s news that BusinessWeek has chosen Aggregate Knowledge to deliver “user-driven content recommendations” on BusinessWeek.com. How will it work? When a reader clicks on a breaking news story on the BusinessWeek site, Aggregate Knowledge will automatically provide user-driven content suggestions in the form of “More from BusinessWeek.” These suggestions are based on what visitors are actually reading across BusinessWeek.com.

Clearly, recommendation - not search - will transform how users find and buy content. The tie-up with BusinessWeek confirms that this is going to be a big thing in the online. I look for it to be huge in mobile - soon.

After all, the personal nature of device and the emergence of social networking are key factors that play in favor of any scheme that harnesses community buzz to bubble up cool content. (In a nutshell, this is what Aggregate Knowledge does and I encourage you to read my recent column for background on the company’s Pique Discovery Network, an offering that - true to the name - is designed from the ground up to pique the consumer’s interest in targeted content they will most likely find useful and most definitely would not have known otherwise existed.) As Paul puts it: “We think that discovery is going to be a line item on the marketer’s budget the way search is. And it’s not that discovery will cannibalize search or search will cannibalize discovery. It’s much more that there are two ways in which people find content.”

Listen to the podcast here. [10:13]

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• Recommendation, Mobile Social Networking, Web 2.0, Personalization, Mobile Search, Content Discovery, Mobile Advertising, Podcasts

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In-Brief: Peggy Albright is back from the Open Source in Mobile USA conference organized by Informa with an analysis of AOL’s Open Mobile Platform and the strategy that may see AOL make its mark with an industry-leading network for buying and selling advertising on mobile phones. Sure, AOL may have announced its latest moves with little fanfare, but this post spells out why we need to brace ourselves for something big. Special thanks to Jai Jaisimha, AOL VP for mobile product and technology development, who granted MSG an exclusive interview to connect the dots.

It’s second nature to talk about a “Big Three” in mobile search these days. In fact, we’ve arrived at a point where GYM actually stands for something (namely Google, Yahoo, Microsoft). But I think this will change once AOL breaks on the scene with its mobile search & advertising value prop, which comes complete with a development platform to back it up.

AOL is back. Not that it was ever really absent from the scene. To the contrary, AOL has taken the last months to quietly and cleverly regroup its assets to become a more powerful advertising-driven business.

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• Mobile Social Networking, Mobile Search, Mobile Content, Mobile Advertising

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It’s my first day back after my trip to Phuket, where I addressed the Mobile Search Expert Group (MSEG). My thanks again to the organizers and to the senior representatives of mobile operators including Blyk (U.K.), AIS (Thailand), DTAC (Thailand), TrueMove (Thailand), SMART Communications (Philippines), SUN Cellular (Philippines) and Yahoo Mobile Japan. I’m pleased to report MSG can count on more than new “fans” and multipliers who share this site’s purpose and vision; we can look forward to articles from and exclusive Q&A interviews with mobile operators anxious to share their mobile search & advertising best practice with industry peers via MSG.

It will be an exciting and worthwhile “exchange” program, and I encourage you to check back regularly. A very special thanks to Edel Ortiz, who heads the telco account team at Wireless Services Asia. Edel has kindly offered to write columns and generally help us all keep abreast of important developments in the region – an offer I gladly accept! Well, despite a slight cold I picked up somewhere between Bangkok and Frankfurt, I have some articles and a great podcast to produce for today’s line-up – so check back in a few hours…

• Posted in
• Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising

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In-Brief: As I explained in this earlier post, I’m in Phuket speaking at the 3rd meeting of the Mobile Search Expert Group (MSEG). No live blogging due to NDA, but I do have the green light to print this in-depth and exclusive Q&A with Holger Knoepke, EVP, Product Design & Provisioning, T-Mobile International. He talks us through his pick of key prerequisites for a profitable mobile search service and reveals why T-Mobile replaced Google with Yahoo as their “partner of choice.”

As regular readers may recall, an ankle injury forced me to miss out on Mobile World Congress, but the buzz that T-Mobile’s session on mobile search created convinced me to reach out to T-Mobile directly for a deep-dive into the presentation and an exclusive Q&A with the presenter. Thanks again to T-Mobile’s Klaus Czerwinski for arranging both.

So what precisely is the business case for mobile search? Holger Knoepke tells me the answer is a mix of models.

It’s about generating direct revenues (by monetizing sponsored links via the search results pages); communicating the brand (strengthening the brand by providing a superior user experience); and creating indirect revenues. He splits the latter into three approaches: driving content revenues by recommending relevant content and providing easy access to it; driving mobile advertising revenues by making customers return to the web ‘n’ walk portal because it provides the best search experience; and driving mobile access revenues by underpinning the “free Internet” message of the web ‘n’ walk proposition. full story »

• Posted in
• Web 2.0, Location-based services, Mobile Social Networking, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Content, Local Search

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