MSearchGroove

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.

I caught up with Jai Jaisimha, who also addressed the audience during Informa’s Open Source in Mobile USA conference in San Francisco, to get the inside track on the company’s campaign to open up its online and mobile software and services development to third parties, and the potential pay-off for partners, advertisers and others in the ecosystem.

By way of background, the heart of AOL’s strategy is its Open Mobile Platform (OMP), a client-server architecture based on technologies AOL acquired when it purchased AirMedia last year. AOL announced the OMP last month and plans a formal launch this summer. The platform is about enabling third-party APIs, and enabling developers to create, efficiently port and distribute applications that can run on any mobile device or operating system including BREW, Java, Linux, RIM, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. AOL will license its full source code to developers, free of cost, via the Apache 2.0 open source licensing agreement (Google’s Android employs this as well). AOL welcomes content from any service provider, and gives developers the freedom to use or not use AOL content and services in their applications. It will even accept applications that compete with its own. (But you can bet the real prize is about getting developers to create mobile applications that nonetheless lean heavily on AOL services…)

The platform is also about making AOL advertising services a main attraction on the mobile Web. As the company press release at the time put it: “The AOL Open Mobile Platform will also give developers the ability to monetize their mobile applications by utilizing advertising resources, such as clickable banner ads, provided by AOL’s Platform-A.” Platform A is the forthcoming product suite that will integrate AOL’s many advertising companies, including a full-fledged network for buying and selling advertising on mobile phones that AOL got when it acquired Third Screen Media last year.

As Jai put it, “We have a broad set of advertising assets that have or will have mobile manifestations.” An example he offered is the behavioral-targeting firm Tacoda that AOL acquired last year. “So if you’re an application developer, you can sign up with AOL and sell an ad from AOL in your product. We will sell that advertising for you.”

White label & reach:

AOL is taking on a lot all at once and is making some startling changes. For one, the company that was once the leading Internet brand is willing to subsume its brand and essentially white label its services to get its new platforms-vehicles for selling potential advertising-into the marketplace. “We don’t need to put branding anywhere,” Jai told me.

AOL’s approach to an open mobile platform differs from other approaches, such as Google’s Android, because it’s not about locking developers into an OS; it’s central to a distinctly horizontal market strategy. “What we’re interested in is broad coverage. Without reach, our applications won’t work. If they’re going to be ad-supported, you have to have reach.” And it’s not just developers and advertisers that see the value prop here; mobile operators are also enthusiastic. “There isn’t an incumbent vendor that provides a horizontal program here that works on all devices,” Jai added. “If there was, we wouldn’t be in business.”

OMP basics:

The OMP uses an ultra-lightweight client software which can work on top of any handset operating system, and a technology-agnostic XML-based markup language. It can run on low-end handsets, feature phones, smartphones, and mobile Internet devices - a range that Jai asserts gives the platform added value. “Smartphones are not the only platform that matter.”

AOL will allow software companies to choose their own preferred method of delivering applications to consumers. Content could be preinstalled on a phone, downloaded from carrier portals, downloaded from the vendor’s Web site, side-loaded via a PC, or obtained via AOL’s web site. Operators and device makers will, of course, expect to have a say in this too.

Right now the focus is on gathering together partners up and down the value chain to move the ambitious OMP forward. The number one priority: Bring in independent software vendors to work with the platform. Jai tells me a small number of ISVs are now doing that. “We’ll have our own applications to show, but we want to have other people showing their own as well.”

How does the OMP business model work in practice? Jai declined to fill in the gaps at this time and walk me precisely through how AOL intends to connect its users with third-party applications-although AOL will most certainly do this. Jai also declined to discuss the revenue-sharing scheme AOL plans to use. That information will come out when the product launches, so check back then.

Mobile search & social networking:

Mobile search and social networking applications that tie into AOL’s current Web and mobile services will no doubt lead the list of applications we’ll see offered via the OMP. AOL, which partners with Google and JumpTap for its search solutions, will have what Jai calls “an internally developed sponsored link solution” for the new platform.

As for social networking; Jai promised me there would be more to come. And sure enough, AOL announced its planned acquisition of the social networking site Bebo the day after we talked. It’s easy to imagine spin-offs from that site into mobile market via AOL’s OMP.

Web to mobile:

AOL is serious about extending its reach to mobile. Just look at the recent track record. AOL took the wraps off of Open AIM 2.0, which allows anyone to build an application, including mobile apps, with AIM. To keep the momentum going, AOL recently partnered with the TopCoder software developer community, which represents 140,000 developers - a move sure to accelerate OMP product development. In late October, AOL launched a new WAP portal that MSG covered here, which vastly improves the mobile performance of many of its services, including instant messaging, email, mobile search, and information services such as MapQuest and CityGuide. Since then, AOL has created a downloadable application for Windows Mobile, called MyMobile, which is currently in a private beta testing phase.

My take: AOL has made some smart moves in a short span of time. And a good thing too. Management upheavals in the company’s rather desperate advertising division, as well as aggressive moves by AOL’s competitors, make this new road they are traveling a rocky one.

AOL is determined to stake its turf with a new platform and one that relies on buy-in from all the players-operators, device manufacturers, service providers, content companies, software developers, and now advertisers. AOL will have to sign up some significant partners when the platform launches this summer - but Jai tells me AOL has those bases covered. As he openly admits: “I think we lost our way for three or four years…Now we’re focused. That’s why you’ll see more of us.”

Peggy (Salz) adds: Great catch Peggy! Ironically, AOL was a topic at the MSEG I just attended. It seems the company is going to break on the scene with a path-breaking mobile search & advertising scheme soon. No details, but a good chance it will bring together multiple sources and thereby qualify as a new kind of federated mobile search approach…In any case, AOL is the one to watch - and MSG certainly will!

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

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