MSearchGroove

First, an update on MSG. The site has been down over the last days due to some server problems that also kept me from posting yesterday, but Paul Nash and the team at fifty50 have it under control. We’ve decided to move the site to a new server tomorrow in preparation for MSG expansion and a few surprises.

In the meantime, I’m catching up on my reading and planning coverage/features/podcasts for the next weeks. Top of the list is the Carnival of Mobilists (CoM), which is on this week at Xen Mendelsohn’s Xellular Identity. It’s a great line-up as always, but a few really merit a closer look.

My favorite (and Xen’s as well since it was her pick for the best post of the week) is a deep-dive from mobile consultant, author and esteemed colleague Tomi Ahonen. He expertly and eloquently outlines the advantages of mobile as a mass media (the 7^th Mass Media channel) and provides examples that make me wonder (as he does) why we don’t “think mobile” when we develop mobile content/apps/ads/etc…

To drive home this point he describes MTV, a content creator that truly “gets” it. When MTV shoots Jackass, for example, they do it with two separate camera crews. One focuses on producing a show for the TV screen, and the other films it for display and enjoyment on the mobile phone. Both crews shoot the same action, but they do it with the media in mind. Tomi’s conclusion: “This is the level of thinking we need. Don’t copy. Develop expressly for the 7th Mass Media.”

Mobile advertising also has to be different. Indeed, I recall a  Wireless World Forum event last year where a representative of an ad agency told the audience mobile advertising wouldn’t produce positive ROI and results until the brands and agencies developed new messages and schemes to reach mobile uses. A display banner that says “Try this!” or “Buy that!” isn’t going to cut it – and he is so right!

It’s a new game with new rules – and Tomi doesn’t just tell us that; he treats us to a few free business tips/models to get us started. There’s super-cool and lucrative personalization services via Cyworld and Flirtomatic that companies could/should consider; personalized idle screen news tickers from NTT DoCoMo that are “almost to easy” to emulate; and a blueprint to follow from ad-funded mobile services provider Blyk. Its success in allowing users to co-create their advertising experiences is more than a warm-and-fuzzy approach to capture the attention of mobile youth. It’s a hard-nosed business model that has allowed Blyk to meet its target and chalk up 100,000 users in only 7 months.

(I recently had the pleasure of meeting Anti Öhrling, Blyk co-founder, and plan to circle back with an analysis of Blyk’s approach to “user-generated” mobile advertising as well as his personal thoughts on mobile search. The folks at GCI London, Blyk’s PR agency, assure me this will happen soon - so please check back regularly…Thanks for the quick response!)

I have to wonder how long it will be before location-based service providers catch on to the sure-fire value prop Tomi presents in his discussion of a just-in-time/on-location short-term job placement service pioneered by Otetsudai networks in Japan. Its mobile service lets users see where the jobs are – and where potential employees are located. Great stuff – so I encourage you to check out his worthwhile post and download the thought piece he wrote to accompany it. (I have reached out to Tomi for a podcast on this post and his latest book, Digital Korea, so chances are good he’ll make a guest appearance on MSG as well…)

But it’s not all praise for his paper. Tomi also tells us to move on with mobile and not worry about squeezing Internet content on the phone. However, I want a lot of that Internet content because it’s there now (!) and I know it will be a while before content providers “think mobile” and produce the stuff I like the way I like it. Besides, stats from Vodafone and other mobile operators/portal providers show that users do gravitate to a Long Tail of Internet sites they know and love. Granted we have to invent new content types and approaches for mobile – but until that happens I’m hopeful that content adaptation and transcoding solutions from providers such as InfoGin and Novarra will vastly improve the user experience - and allow us to have it “all”without having to worry where the content comes from…

Another worthwhile post comes from Jamie Wells at Mobistance, who walks us through Fluid Nexus. The open source P2P mobile messaging app that runs on Bluetooth, points the way to a whole new form of messaging that was built from the ground up to enable activists to exchange data and messages amongst themselves independent of a centralized mobile network.

The part that caught my attention: The observation that Fluid Nexus can be used as a “hyperlocal message board, loosely attached to physical locations.” Jamie’s ideas on how this could be used for mobile marketing are a bit blue-sky at his point, but nonetheless food for thought…

To switch gears for a moment. I was on the road last week, so missed my chance to promote CoM #121 over at 3-Lib. But there’s no time like the present and there were some gems I just have to highlight.

MSG friends and supporters Chetan Sharma and Andrew Grill had great posts.

Chetan published an interview with ex-Moto CTO Padmasree Warrior, that is as relevant today as it was when he conducted it. I like his interview style, which gives us a holistic view of her current thinking and future vision. Well done! Andrew, who apparently shares my fascination with Blyk’s approach to mobile advertising, analyzes the importance of user feedback in mobile advertising. He (and Blyk) are on to something…

Kudos to Jamie Wells at Mobistance for providing a comprehensive update on QR codes, and divining the ambitions of Google and Apple in this space. It’s a confusing market and it’s helpful to have a roadmap. I also included a few of Jamie’s arguments in the mix of questions I posed Jonathan Bulkeley, Scanbuy CEO, yesterday. More when I post the podcast. (Just getting the other players lined-up to have a 3-part series on QR codes and content discovery…)

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

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