MSearchGroove

In-Brief: Placement on the operator portal is close, but no cigar. Off-portal traffic and the advance of a more open Internet are encouraging content owners to bid heavily on keywords in a stepped-up effort to drive traffic to their sites. Plus: An exclusive Q&A with Geraldine Wilson, vice president of Connected Life, Yahoo, Europe, and a closer look at Medio.

Shortly before I left on my last trip I asked for pitches for a piece New Media Age (NMA) magazine requested I write examining the move by some clever content publishers to a more aggressive and innovative paid search strategy. I’m pleased to report the article - which also analyzes Google’s latest features including mobile image ads - has gone live. You can find more here, but you’ll need to subscribe to read the entire article.

The takeaway: Content providers (including Thompson Reuters Europe and Condé Nast UK - both quoted in the article) are convinced the potential for paid search will be massive. Condé Nast UK even went so far as to pull its mobile properties from mobile operator portals in March - partly in anticipation of a mobile advertising/paid search advertising windfall, and partly in an effort to better control its relationship with existing advertisers.

In my view, these brands are blazing a trail other publishers will soon follow. But it isn’t the “when” that I find quite as interesting as the “how.”

Will publishers gravitate to Google and Yahoo, or will they explore what white-label providers can offer?

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• Mobile Research, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising

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In-Brief: Continuing MSG coverage of mobile analytics tools and technologies available to help publishers/advertisers drive (and measure) results. Where does this leave Google, Yahoo & Microsoft? Will this spark new interest in M&A? And what is the state of mobile search in the scheme of things? I explore these and other questions in an exclusive Q&A.

In preparation for last week’s in-depth post on AdMob’s new mobile analytics tool, I also connected with Bango CEO Ray Anderson, who hinted that Bango would also soon announce a new goal comparison feature, allowing marketers to measure the ROI for campaigns across different ad networks.

Bango did indeed release the news this week, and I caught up with Anil Malhotra, Bango SVP Alliances & Marketing, to get more details. In a nutshell, the new goal comparison feature is designed from the ground up to let users see which mobile ad campaigns and traffic sources deliver the best conversion rates. The data provided by Bango allows users to compare the value of traffic from third-party ad services. Bango reports that “some companies have already reported discrepancies approaching 20 percent between traffic they are getting and what they have paid for.”

It’s this gap that Bango aims to fill with this latest feature. (BTW: A survey of the market tells me a goal comparison tool - or one like it - is not currently available in other analytics products. However, if you offer one, or know of one, then please let me know.)

This week’s improvement effectively extends this tracking to tell marketers/advertisers if users reached the goal of a campaign and if they took action (completing a click to call, a content download or a purchase, for example). This shift in focus makes sense if we consider the broader mobile advertising paradigm is moving away from getting clicks to achieving conversion.

Against this backdrop, I predict more activity in the emerging mobile analytics spot. And, if you want a blow-by-blow account, I highly recommend you check out Bryson Meunier’s natural search and mobile SEO blog here.

I caught up with Anil to ask him about the competitive landscape and some likely outcomes. Vendor spin aside, he provides an interesting take on the market and hints that a partnership with one or the other mobile advertising companies is in the works. (I could imagine companies like Millennial Media teaming up with Bango for the vendor-independent analytics, for example.)

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• Mobile Research, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising

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In-Brief: The first in a series of quarterly Thought Leadership articles focused on personalization and content discovery for the mobile Internet from Prof. Barry Smyth, ChangingWorlds‘ Chief Scientist, examines the hidden interaction costs associated with surfing and exploring the Mobile Internet. Prof. Smyth concludes that these costs - a sum of the time and effort required by subscribers to access the relevant content they demand - are prohibitive, frustrating, and threaten the future of mobile data usage worldwide. (More in this press release.)

The Mobile Internet is a case of good news and bad news. The good news is that it’s chock-full of compelling content and data services that could more than make up for the worldwide decline in mobile voice revenues. The bad news is mobile data revenues are relatively low - and will remain so - until mobile operators demonstrate the value of the Mobile Internet to subscribers. This is tougher than it looks, since accessing the Mobile Internet is neither enjoyable nor affordable, and no amount of marketing to the contrary is going to encourage usage until mobile operators understand and address the hidden costs.

Put simply, there are two costs that drain both users’ wallets and their patience.

There are the obvious monetary costs associated with Mobile Internet access. These are the direct costs that the subscriber bears, in the form of charges levied by the operator, each time they access the Mobile Internet from their phones. This is a clear direct cost to the user they are faced with each billing period - and it’s the one charge that causes “bill shock.” Common sense tells us high data tariffs will never encourage high data usage. The fact that mobile operators such as Vodafone have recently introduced flat-rate data packages is evidence that monetary costs are indeed a barrier to usage that operators can no longer ignore.

The second type of cost, what I call interaction cost, is perhaps less obvious than a line item on a monthly mobile bill, but it is far more central to the health and continued growth of the Mobile Internet and must be addressed.

These interaction costs reflect the time and effort required by the average subscriber to access the content they consider relevant and genuinely useful. While these costs are less visible to subscribers, they are manifest in the frustration that subscribers routinely experience when they try - and often fail - to find and access the content they want.

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• Recommendation, Mobile Research, Personalization, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising, Content Discovery

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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.”

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

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In-Brief: A look at AdMob Mobile Analytics & an exclusive Q&A that connects the dots to describe the competitive landscape and answer the all-important question: Why does data matter? Plus: A surprising scoop direct from Bango CEO Ray Anderson ….

Jason Spero, AdMob VP Marketing, pre-briefed me on the company’s new release analytics tool just prior to my last speaking engagement. I was excited because I could see this was not just another product announcement (and thus I decided not to report it as one).

It’s a tool that puts AdMob back in play and potentially one step ahead of rival vendors including Amethon Solutions, Google (which hasn’t yet launched a mobile analytics product!), Mobilytics, TigTags and Wapalizer. In fact, this worthwhile assessment via ClickZ concludes Bango is AdMob’s closest challenger, and I’m inclined to agree.

Or could it be the other way around?
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• Mobile Research, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising

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In-Brief: In response to the comment Medio Systems’ co-founder Michael “Luni” Libes recently posted on MSG I tested Verizon’s Get It Now service. My analysis reveals what Verizon delivers - and doesn’t.Mobile search is about allowing users to find what they already know they want. It’s important to get search right, but even power-search does little to encourage impulse buying behavior. That’s where recommendations come in. Unlike search results, recommendations suggest similar content to users based on their search queries. It is also possible to base recommendations on other factors such as browsing patterns, purchasing habits or intelligent segmentation - but the mobile industry, for the most part, isn’t there yet.

What the industry can do is match content recommendations with keywords. At least, that’s what I assumed when I began my study of mobile search/recommendation on the T-Mobile USA and Verizon portals. However, I am forced to conclude that the industry has a long way to go before it properly implements content recommendations. To be fair, the industry has to get search right first, (which it is currently struggling to do), but I believe the industry should tackle these issues in parallel as the technologies are intertwined and mutually beneficial.

In response to my earlier post Luni correctly pointed out that the searches were performed from within Verizon’s Vcast Music application. He stated that “for a better experience on a Verizon phone, subscribers (today) must download the “Get It Now Search” application, which will search not only the VCast Music catalog, but also the ringtones, ringback tones, wallpaper, games, and applications catalogs, all from a single search box.”

Curious to see if there would be a vast difference in the quality of the results I downloaded the Get It Now app to my handset and conducted mobile searches for a variety of content, the results of which I have documented in this post.

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• Mobile Research, Recommendation, Mobile Search, Mobile Music, Content Discovery

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It’s official! The ink is dry, the business plan in place and I’m proud to formally introduce Stuart Willett and his team of ad sales professionals. Stuart will be the contact for all companies interested in advertising on MSG, sponsoring a podcast series and/or branding a “briefing room” on the site to present their value proposition to the MSG community. You can contact Stuart directly at sw@morianamediagroup.com

Stuart is perhaps best known as Group Publishing Director, Moriana Media Group (MMG), the company that produces trade magazines including Wireless Business Review, Convergence World, Telecoms Europe, and Middle East and Africa Communications. (These magazines are all available in a digitized format, so I encourage you to visit the sites and explore the archives.)

Stuart, whose publishing career spans over a decade, has developed much more than a leading online destination; he has created a knowledge portal that expertly meets the needs of its community with a targeted mix of white papers, technical presen­tations, magazine articles, and webinars. MMG also develops and organizes leading industry events. Chief among these is the Convergence World Awards, which showcases the convergence of fixed and mobile communications, broadcasting and entertainment, and recognizes the innovations and achievements of the companies driving convergence forward.

I’m excited about what MSG and MMG can co-create, and I am also pleased to have an international team in place that can help advertisers address MSG’s growing audience of mobile operators, mobile professionals, and VCs. Since the re-launch in October, MSG has become the essential read for executives worldwide. The people count is impressive, but the engagement (10-minute visits on average) is a testament to the quality of analysis and the breadth of coverage MSG offers.

Naturally, our partnership will be instrumental in taking MSG to the next level. I look forward to introducing MMG readers to MSG content, and I hope for an exciting cross-pollination in the other direction.

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• Mobile Social Networking, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising

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In-Brief: A quick overview of the new names and approaches in mobile search that merit a closer look. Companies include Cafegadgets.in, ChaCha, dotMobi, Veveo, & Zodigo.

Is mobile search a source of competitive advantage? Or is it merely a must-have navigation feature well on its way to becoming a commodity? (The scenario: Every service will need a search box - and any technology will do…) Well, the jury is out on this one for now. (I might add it was a topic of lively debate at Search Goes Mobile - over dinner and after-dinner grappa.) One conclusion I did reach: There is new interest in offering — even cultivating — a breadth of mobile search engines. For operators, mobile search is a new weapon in their competitive arsenal, and being the gateway to new search services is top item on their agenda. (More in follow-up coverage from SGM.)

In the meantime, a review of this week’s developments reveals a growing interest in mobile search. There are new names and new approaches, and you can count on coverage here and at AltSearchEngines. (I have sent out requests and will circle back as the companies file in.)

Indeed, I greatly look forward to a webinar/briefing next week with Veveo, a vertical mobile search engine provider. The company’s vTap application - available for Windows Mobile, Nokia N-series, and handsets from Samsung, Sanyo, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and LG - effectively lets users search video from the Web and then transcodes it into a format that will work with the player on the handset. MSG covered the company from the start and it’s encouraging to see the mainstream media catching on as well. If you want to read up on Veveo and its vTap offer in the meantime, then check out this column in BusinessWeek.

ZODIGO: Zodiac Interactive is in the news after grabbing headlines at DEMO 08, where the company also introduced Zodigo, a mobile content search and discovery engine for TVs and browsers. Earlier this week the company made the decision to spin off Zodigo into a new company, entirely focused on mobile content search, led by Matt Johnston, formerly Zodiac’s SVP of strategy and Zodigo’s CEO.

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• Mobile Search

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Regular readers will know from this earlier post that I am attending an exciting mobile search conference in Bertinoro, Italy. It was well worth the trip, not only because the city is serene and beautiful, but because the university is the center of path-breaking informatics research and innovation. I learned that Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, flew in with his own plane to attend last year’s Web search conference - and this year an equally stellar line-up of executives and academics has gathered to give their expert view on the current state of mobile search and the outlook for the future.

Picture/image/camera search in all its forms is a hot topic, and you can count on me to come back with a deeper analysis of what was discussed and the potential impact on mobile search services. A personal favorite is MUFIN (Multi-Feature Indexing Network), which enables similarity searching for images. It gets even more interesting when you can put” for a variety of results in a variety of forms. I’m proud to report Pavel Zezula, a member of the faculty of the University of Brno and a passionate man who has spent 40 years looking at search problems and solutions, will give us the inside track on MUFIN in a Q&A following the conference.

Not that MSG follow-up coverage will be all theory (although I have to admit I am excited by this topic). I also had the pleasure to meet with telco executives who have all agreed to tell MSG about their mobile search pilots and plans. In short, MSG will also have some worthwhile “scoops” - so check back for exclusive Q&As that speak volumes about their current and future search ad advertising strategy.

Special highlights so far (the conference continues tomorrow) are Carlo Alberto Liccardi from Telecom Italia Lab, who will give us the inside track on a content and context (!) sharing platform that provides the basis for a photo/video sharing service set to launch this year.

It’s wonderful to attend a conference that will have a profound impact on the present and future focus of mobile search. Thanks to the organizers for inviting me to speak - and thanks to the academics and executives who have agreed to be featured in the coming days. Your support is an important confirmation of MSG’s blueprint and business model: To be a knowledge resource and thinking space for this industry.

• Posted in
• Web 2.0, Mobile Research, Mobile Social Networking, Multimodal Search, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising

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In-Brief: On the heels of wins with T-Mobile USA and India’s Tata Teleservices, MSG gets the inside track on Juice Wireless, the company behind the mobile social networking app JuiceCaster, from the source. Nick Desai, Juice Wireless CEO, updates us on Mobile Video Search (MVS), the free search app that may pay dividends.

Will the usual suspects (Google Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask) dominate mobile search? This summary post from AltSearchEngines (and the rousing success of its AltSearch Day) tells us it’s by no means a shoo-in. The site counts 227 alternative search engines in the online space. Sure, they may only have 1.7 percent market share, but the fact that there are so many of them speaks volumes about our increasing need for vertical search engines. (And then there is the novel idea of building a single federated search for alternative search that would most definitely give Google & Co a run for their money.)

A Long Tail of search engines is flourishing in the online space - will it be the same in mobile? And more importantly when can we expect it?

Common sense tells us the personal nature of the device and the variety of content types available create the perfect Petri dish for vertical mobile search. (Consider mobile music and mobile games search - two content-specific search services we can look for this year.) In line with MSG’s brief to track and analyze all the flavors of mobile search coming online, I have set up briefings with the vertical search companies I’m sure we’ll see more of soon. I also have an exciting mix of multimodal (visual/voice) search providers in the pipeline - so please check back regularly.

One company on my radar is Juice Wireless, which earlier this year took the wraps off its Mobile Video Search (MVS) service. As the video below shows, this free and first-of-its kind service allows anyone with a mobile phone (capable of viewing video) to search for videos (user-created content as well as professionally produced videos from brands and media companies) by texting keywords to the shortcode 84462 (in the U.S.). The search tool sends the user a reply with links to the requested content.

The MVS announcement got some media attention, but I missed a closer look at Juice Wireless strategy and some straight answers to some nuts and bolts questions. For example, what is the connection between mobile search and JuiceCaster - the company’s hugely successful social networking app/subscription service lets users upload/share pictures and videos directly from their camera phones to more than 20 online social networking and blogging sites (including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter)? More importantly, why does it make business/commercial sense?

I caught up with Nick, who was fortunately forthcoming with answers, stats and a status report on his wider plans to partner with media companies/brands and let them reserve keywords in a “Google AdWords-like model.”

Listen to the podcast. [11:37]

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• Mobile Social Networking, Mobile Search, Mobile Content, Mobile Advertising, Podcasts

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