MSearchGroove

The Carnival of Mobilists (CoM) is on at Skydeck this week with a great line-up of posts from authors and pundits (many of whom are MSG authors and enthusiasts, I’m pleased to say).

Andrew Grill, whom I highly regard for his ability to zero in on the key components of successful location-based services, literally provides us with a blueprint for a new way to deliver mobile advertising to consumers based on aggregated information. As he points out: User data, segmented by characteristics such as calling patterns (where we call and how often we call), direct (permission based) user profiling, and cellular location are three inputs that will help drive user acceptance of mobile advertising.

Another post that stands out comes from Ajit Jaokar, who reviews Cincinnati Bell’s strategy under the leadership of Jack Cassidy. His post also happens to be a perfect complement to this Q&A, which takes a closer look at the carrier’s on-device portal (ODP) launch and commitment to being the on-ramp to the open mobile Web. And speaking of the open mobile Web, this post from John Puterbaugh expertly explains the role of widgets in the larger scheme of things.

But the post I’d like to highlight comes from Dennis at WAP Review. He walks us through the issues around transcoding (reformatting PC sites for display on mobile devices) and updates us on the tie-up between Openwave and Sprint to overcome the downside of transcoding (namely, poor usability, broken links and a disruption in downloads). There’s good news to report and Dennis commends OpenWave, Sprint and InfoGin for “recognizing the value of off portal mobile publishers and content vendors” by adopting Rules for Responsible Reformatting: A Developer Manifesto, a document called that offers suggestions on how content reforming could/should/must work.

Dennis also summarizes a webcast hosted by Sprint and Openwave to discuss Openwave’s OpenWeb roadmap and larger questions around transcoding. In July, Sprint, in partnership with Motricity, will launch Mobile Internet 2.0, a new mobile portal enabling users to “customize their portal view to include only the content they want and will also suggest content to users based on links they have clicked in the past.” Once again - more (choice) is better, but open is best.

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• Web 2.0, Location-based services, Usability, Personalization, Mobile Advertising, On-Device Portals, Content Discovery

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I’m sure many MSG readers are already familiar with the Carnival of Mobilists - but since I know many of my newest and most loyal readers are in Asia, allow me to formally introduce the Carnival and the excellent roster of authors involved. From mobile diva Darla Mack, to mobile pundits (Tomi Ahonen and Alan Moore) at Communities Dominate Brands, to mobile industry strategist Rudy De Waele, to Debi Jones, social media guru and practitioner (her video rocks!), the Carnival brings together the best posts of the week from bloggers who walk the talk. (CTIA allowed me to connect with many of the Mobilists personally. It was a high point of the event and I greatly look forward to continuing the dialogue and showcasing their excellent work/sites here…)

This week the Carnival is hosted by Debi Jones at MobileJones, who not only eloquently summarizes a long list of worthwhile posts, but also connects the dots to uncover a growing trend to mobile services mashups. Andrew Grill, a frequent contributor to MSG and a brave voice in the location-based services (LBS) debate, gives us his take on the mashup of Facebook and LBS, and Ajit Jaokar, a long-time MSG supporter and industry luminary over at Open Gardens, draws some surprising conclusions from his own mashup of Gmail and Blackberry. And speaking of surprises, I applaud the candor and common sense presented in this practical post (via Mobilestance.com) on the issue of mobile advertising glut and the approaches buyers and sellers can/should take.

Overall, great stuff - so check it out. Or - better yet - enter your post and join the conversation. (MSG was also in the line-up with my take on Qualcomm’s emerging services strategy, a popular post that got a lot of attention in the blogosphere and was picked up by MoCoNews, a must-read daily news site I am proud to say I was a part of for some 16 months before founding MSG.)

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• Web 2.0, Location-based services, Mobile Research, Usability, Mobile Social Networking, Mobile Content, Personalization, Mobile Advertising

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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: 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: 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 »

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

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In-Brief: Chetan Sharma, independent consultant, mobile luminary and a co-author of the just released book, Mobile Advertising: Supercharge Your Brand in the Exploding Wireless Market, urges mobile operators to start acting like media companies, and gives them 2-3 years to get their act together before the Googles, Yahoos, Microsofts and Nokias of the world change the rules of the game - forever.

Of all the podcasts I’ve produced to date, this has been the toughest. The material was just too good to cut - but I had to in order to deliver the length you have told me you prefer. So, I do have a podcast of less than 15 minutes. Fortunately, Chetan understands my dilemma and is intrigued by the idea of coming back to MSG for a series of podcasts to deep-dive into the exciting mobile advertising case studies he has collected and elaborate on the do’s & don’ts of targeting. It’s safe to say Chetan will be back - and so should you!

One comment that struck me: Chetan is firm but fair in his plea to operators to focus on cultivating an ecosystem rather than compete with other mobile operators. But not all mobile operators are “thinking in their own little universe.” He gives high marks to Vodafone and Reliance for having a radical and refreshing view of the marketplace.

Listen to the podcast here. [10:55]

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• On-Device Portals, Personalization, Location-based services, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising, Content Discovery, Local Search, Podcasts

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In-Brief: MSG speaks with Kate Edwards, CEO of Jentro Technologies, a German-based provider of mobility solutions, about ambitious plans to facilitate the development and delivery of location-based services, social networking and vertical content mini-apps (including search). Is it just another platform - or will it give Google & Co a run for their money?

A few months ago I would have shrugged my shoulders, but that indifference has turned to interest since I heard the inside track on Ö-NAVI, a world-first completely ad-funded navigation services scheme (based on Jentro’s white-label solution) deployed by DasÖrtliche, a top German directory service and local search provider. DasÖrtliche wanted to boost brand awareness, add more value to its local search service and drive incremental revenue - a checklist Dirk Schulte, a DasÖrtliche spokesman, assured me the company has completed.

In fact, the service has significantly expanded its portfolio of services and advertisers to include Volvo, the FAZ (a major German daily newspaper), and a partnership with Clever-Tanken.de which lets users find the nearest and cheapest gas stations.

As you can see for yourself, these stats from a Jentro presentation I caught during a recent and worthwhile Wireless World Forum mobile search & advertising event in London (reported here), show companies can adopt a mini-Google strategy and drive positive results.

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• Mobile Social Networking, Web 2.0, Location-based services, Personalization, Mobile Search, Local Search, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Content, Podcasts

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In-Brief: MSG’s Navigation Day @ CeBIT pre-event coverage kicks off (albeit a day late due to server issues) with an overview of Nuance, a provider of speech-enabled technologies and solutions for mobile search, navigation and in-car communications. Fatima Vital, a Nuance senior marketing director, provides a snapshot of mobile search use in the U.S. (where Sprint and Verizon offer Nuance voice-enabled search services), shares her checklist for an optimized voice UI and brings us up to date on Tegic (a former AOL company best known for its flagship T9 text input product, which Nuance acquired in 2007).

Nuance used this week’s CeBIT to showcase new speech solutions and put more marketing muscle behind its predictive mobile search offer known as T9 Nav. I followed this content discovery solution from the start, from the days that it was just a cool idea circulating around AOL and had yet to make its mark.

The product launches at the end of 2Q2008, and we have the chance to sign up for a special trial during CeBIT. Show delegates can download T9Nav here to experience first hand the mobile search and content discovery experience it allows. To be fair, T9 Nav does cover many of the bases to have a significant impact on the marketplace. However, there are also some striking similarities to Zi Corp. - and we can’t ignore the traction it’s getting, including a recent win that will see Zi Corp’s mobile discovery solution Qix picked up by Canadian mobile operator TELUS and installed on “select models” of phones and PDAs.

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• Multimodal Search, Location-based services, Mobile Research, Mobile Search, Mobile Music, Content Discovery, Local Search, Mobile Advertising, Podcasts

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In-Brief: Some highlights from two weeks of research and interviews around mobile advertising for a Wall Street Journal special report timed to CTIA.

What are the mobile advertising models/approaches that will fly and why? The jury is out on this one but my discussions with a number of companies/executives including Bango (Ray Anderson, CEO), Millennial Media (Paul Palmieri, CEO), Mobile Discovery (David Miller, CEO), NearbyNow (Scott Dunlap, CEO), NeoMedia Technologies (William “Chip” Hoffman, CEO), and ScanBuy (Jonathan Bulkeley, CEO), have allowed me to place some bets. It was a special pleasure to connect with eMarketer’s John du Pre Gauntt, who has just this week finished a must-read mobile advertising report, and Chetan Sharma (a long-time supporter of MSG and one of its very first contributors), who, together with Joe Herzog and Victor Melfi, has quite literally written the book on mobile advertising.

The just released book, Mobile Advertising: Supercharge your brand in the exploding wireless market, expertly outlines the opportunities and hurdles ahead of the industry as it seeks to deliver clear and scalable value to the emerging ecosystem. I just today conducted a podcast interview with Chetan, so please check back Monday. This week is dedicated to coverage from CeBIT (MSG is a media partner) and kicks off tomorrow with a podcast with Nuance, a provider of speech-enabled technologies and solutions for PNDs and mobile devices.

First, my thanks to everyone who reached out to me. Of course, space constraints mean much of the material I collected couldn’t be included in the article, but rest assured there are many more writing projects and columns in the pipeline. I’m also fortunate that Scott, Jonathan and John have either agreed to a podcast - or already recorded one with me. Again, please check back regularly - I have a wonderful line-up for the next weeks.

Which brings me to my discussion with Scott Dunlap and a few points/stats he revealed that I must share…

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• Location-based services, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising, Local Search

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In-Brief: For-the-record - a roundup of news & developments that matter. Companies covered: Blyk, Clear Channel Outdoor UK, Google, Jaxtr, Latin-Pak, LinkedIn, mobilePeople, MobiTV, Nokia, Opera, Skyhook Wireless & Xanga.

OPERA: As of this weekend (March 1), Opera is switching from offering Yahoo and making Google the default search engine for Opera mobile web browsers, which include Opera Mobile and Opera Mini. (BTW: Opera Mobile has been shipped on over 100 million handsets so far, including devices from Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and HTC. Some 35 million people use Opera Mini. Opera claims that every month, Opera Mini users browse more than 1.7 billion pages, with much of that traffic generated through the search function in the browser.) So why did Opera effectively dump Yahoo? Sources at the companies are predictably tight-lipped, but here are some theories to ponder while I wait for responses to my briefing requests.

Could Opera be nervous about MicoHoo (as this post suggests) and painfully aware that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is a direct competitor? Has Opera brought Google into the fold to avoid fragmentation (as this post suggests) and ensure a uniform and satisfactory user experience? Or has Google has effectively “bought” itself a mobile browser (as ReadWriteWeb ponders) and bet the farm on click-through to sweeten the deal? Hardly out of the question if you consider these reports that Google has already won over mobile operators with offers too good to resist… (It’s great -actually, an honor - to read that ReadWriteWeb points its readers to “the blog of mobile search specialists MSearchGroove ” for coverage. You can be sure MSG will have more soon.)

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

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