What are the mobile search services that matter and how do they perform?

It’s a hot topic, and one at the top of the agenda at MSG. In fact, regular readers will recall that my business associate Peggy Albright and I have formed a venture to research and produce the Mobile Search Performance Report (MSP).

Published quarterly, this report will break new ground to routinely and thoroughly investigate the capabilities and performance characteristics of mobile search solutions provided by AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, as well as a number of white-label and vertical search providers around the world. We have concluded our top-level briefings (and Peggy will circle back with some surprising stats and “scoops” from each search engine company, beginning with JumpTap later this week).

By coincidence, we are starting Phase 2 of the project (systematically and methodically testing services and documenting the results) at precisely the same time that many analyst firms in the industry, including Frost & Sullivan, have sharpened their focus on mobile search and the quality of the experience it delivers.

After examining both (and evaluating 25 companies in the mobile search and advertising space), Frost & Sullivan has announced that ChaCha (a company MSG covered here) is the recipient of the 2008 Frost & Sullivan North American Product Innovation Award. Frost & Sullivan determined that ChaCha offers a solution that “provides the best user experience within the mobile environment.” (All the more reason for Peggy and I to include a road test of the service in our upcoming report.)

As the research firm put it in a statement: “ChaCha has clearly identified the missing pieces in mobile search, and developed a unique solution to address the key requirements of mobile subscribers.” (You can download the full report here.)

By way of background, ChaCha has developed a “search-with-a-guide” process that lets stumped searchers connect with a live person – in real-time and via an instant message chat – for answers (in the form of relevant links and results). In January, ChaCha brought its value prop to mobile, announcing a new service that allows users to text questions of any kind to 242242 (ChaCha on a phone keypad) and to receive text answers on their phone.

Next to the user experience, which got high notes from Frost & Sullivan for its ability to “leverage a unique combination of technology and human intelligence to deliver accurate answers to mobile subscribers,” the research firm was also impressed by the number of queries ChaCha answers on a monthly basis (a clear indication that users are finding the service to be of real benefit).

ChaCha reports it is “adding a new user every ten seconds, and now answering several million questions per month – all in less than seven months.” According to a recent survey of ChaCha users conducted by ChaCha, 93 percent would recommend the service to a friend, and 83 percent consider the service to be very valuable. (I have no information on the methodology, so it may be wise to be wary of a vendor spin.) “Loyal” ChaCha users (not a clue how many this could be though) query the service “an average of over 27 times per month.”

In case you missed it, July was a banner month for ChaCha. On the heels of a string of accolades – including being named to the annual FierceWireless Fierce 15 list — ChaCha announced that it was joining up with Alltel to promote the mobile search service available to the U.S. mobile operator’s 13 million subscribers. (Makes sense since ChaCha encourages text messaging and can therefore boost higher adoption of text plans.)

FYI: ChaCha was also ranked by Charles Knight at our partner site ASE (AltSearchEngines) as the No. 1 Alternative Search Engine in February.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 11:37 am and is filed under Mobile Research, Mobile Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.