MSearchGroove

In-Brief: Gearing up for this week’s meeting of the Mobile Search Expert Group (MSEG) in Phuket, Thailand. A look at some topics and top-level thinking.

It’s going to be a busy time at MSG this week as I prepare for my flight tomorrow, but there will be reams to report and analyze when I return next week. I’m honored to be the only analyst chosen to address a select audience of mobile operators, service providers and mobile advertising execs from Japan, Thailand, China, EMEA, and the U.S. at the upcoming MSEG meeting.

Specifically, participants include Masataka Matsumoto, General Manager of Yahoo Mobile Japan, Takayuki Hoshuyama, COO of D2 Communications, and senior reps responsible for mobile search at a mix of Asian mobile operators whose combined reach exceeds 100 million users. A final surprise is a c-level exec from an innovative European mobile operator. Please note that MSEG participants must sign a mutual NDA that protects information shared in the sessions, so live blogging is out. Nonetheless, I’m assured that I will have the green light to produce a good summary of the event - and the ideas exchanged.

Predictably, my topic revolves around mobile search trends and forecasts. My presentation will stress that an all-inclusive mobile search strategy (that blends results from multiple sources including rival search engines, vertical search engines, content sites and storefronts) is far superior to many of the approaches we see today. But don’t just take my word for it.

Check back tomorrow/Wednesday latest for an eye-opening and exclusive Q&A with T-Mobile, an operator that recently dumped Google for Yahoo (and Yahoo’s pledge to blend results - and no doubt federate advertising - played a huge role in that decision). I spoke with Holger Knoepke, EVP, Product Design & Provisioning, T-Mobile International, whose presentation during Mobile World Congress listed the 5 key prerequisites for a profitable mobile search service.

By way of background they are:

Convenience: Handset limitations require that access to the search service and its use is simple, with few clicks

Federated Search: Syndicate results from large number of content sources and instantaneously display answers on results page (”beyond blue links”)

Contextual Relevance: Use of contextual data, e.g. physical location information, browsing context, to improve relevance of results and ads

Personal Relevance: Use of customer profile (e.g. socio-demographic data; purchasing, browsing, & search history) to improve relevance of results and ads

Partner: Strong capabilities

More in the Q&A…

• Posted in
• Mobile Research, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising

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