Mobile Search Is Hot
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There are good reasons why Google and Microsoft are making big investments in cellular phone services. |
For Google, its forthcoming Android platform is its big mobile play. Microsoft continues to add to its mobile arsenal, with 2007 acquisitions of ScreenTonic and TellMe. Both companies see huge opportunities in mobile search. But the opportunity isn't tomorrow. It's today.
Yesterday, Nielsen Online released results from a survey of 5,700 mobile search users. During third quarter, a whopping 46 million mobile data users searched from their cellular devices. Neilsen calls local search the "top search objective," or 27.1 million mobile data users during third quarter.
Another analyst firm, Forrester Research, forecasts that by 2012 mobile marketing will reach $2.8 billion and online video ad spending will reach $7.1 billion. The obvious opportunity is the same appeal as Web search from the PC: Local information.
"As more mobile users turn to their phone for the answers they need, mobile search has quickly escalated as a critical part of the mobile media and advertising landscape," Kanishka Agarwal, Nielsen's vice president of Mobile Media, said in a statement.
What people searched for, according to Nielsen:
- 411 (18.1 million users)
- Sports, scores, news or weather (14.8 million users)
- SMS (14.1 million users)
- Mobile content (11.3 million users)
My prediction: 2008 will be the pivotal year for mobile search and not just established markets. In many emerging markets, cell phones are often the first data and Internet devices—not PCs.
Google's dominance isn't necessarily assured on mobiles the way it is on the PC. Mobile search is even more complicated than on the PC, because of:
- Display considerations—variable viewing sizes compared to PCs
- Non-standardization among devices (although this is getting better)
- Consumer resistance to ads sent to their cell phones
- Ad-serving complexity across multiple channels
One Microsoft advantage over Google: Carrier and manufacturer relationships through Windows Mobile. But Google is pushing ahead with location-based services that, while touted for consumer mobile mapping, could be used for improving local search capabilities. The race is on.
Related Posts:
- Microsoft Plays for the Third Screen, Microsoft Watch, Dec. 10, 2007
- Android, 'Can You Hear Me Now?,' Microsoft Watch, Nov. 5, 2007
- Android: What You Are to Google?, Microsoft Watch, Nov. 5, 2007
- Microsoft Bets Big on Mobile Mbps, Microsoft Watch, Oct. 23, 2007
- What Makes a Good Phone?, Microsoft Watch, Oct. 14, 2007
- Why Microsoft Wrote aQuantive a Big Check, Microsoft Watch, May 18, 2007
- Microsoft Vies for the Third Screen, Microsoft Watch, May 5, 2007
- RIM Around the Rosies, Pocket Full of Posies, Microsoft Watch, April 23, 2007
- Microsoft Reorganizes Search, Microsoft Watch, March 21, 2007
- Tellme About Dial Tone 2.0, Microsoft Watch, March 15, 2007
- Tellme What?, Microsoft Watch, March 14, 2007
- Who Shot Windows Live?, Microsoft Watch, March 8, 2007
- Microsoft Seeks More Mobile Relevance, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 12, 2007
- Windows Mobile Turns Six, Microsoft Watch, Feb 8., 2007
Comments (4)
Very well done article. It's easy to see how the mobile market is growing as a whole, and with mobile products becoming easier and better to use, this number can only intensify in the coming year(s).
Posted by thatguy | January 17, 2008 8:18 PM
"One Microsoft advantage over Google: Carrier and manufacturer relationships through Windows Mobile."
Right, but Apple's iPhone has the same relationship with Google.
And iPhone is really popular (more than WM smartphone in USA).
Posted by LVM | January 18, 2008 9:14 AM
Uhh...LVM simply put...you're wrong about WM smartphones being less popular than the iphone here...
Posted by thatguy | January 18, 2008 3:11 PM
In order to understand I-Man and his motives, there's really only one question we need to consider: why is he here?
If his posts contained anything even remotely resembling the subject of Joe's post, there would simply be no reason for him to be here. He would spend all his time buying up every share of VCSY.ob he possibly could. He'd be out mortgaging the house and otherwise borrowing every penny he possibly could to buy VCSY.ob stock. He could then simply sit back and wait for VCSY to make him independently wealthy. There would be no need for him to post at all. And we would never have heard of him.
But what if he had already spent many thousands of dollars to buy up VCSY.ob shares and he knew that the company was failing and on the verge of bankruptcy? What if he knew that he was about to lose his entire investment? Ah, then he would have reason to be here, posting every day, disregarding the risk of arrest and imprisonment, trying desperately to pump the price of that stock.
Every time he posts here -- and under any of his many screen names on other message boards -- he shows us all just how desperate he really is. That's all we need to know about him. Or about VCSY for that matter.
Voluntary disclosure: Not stupid enough to touch VCSY.ob stock with a ten-foot pole.
Posted by Tom Berber | January 21, 2008 8:04 AM