3GSM update GoMo News on mobile search and more
Rating: great show – gave us flu
By Bena Roberts
First we would like to say thank-you to the 60 plus companies we met last week at 3GSM last week. Also to Nauta Capital, Sofinnova Partners, AOL, Mobile Entertainment Forum, Benefon and the Mobile TV Alliance for entertaining us in the evenings. A special thank you also goes to fastmobile for giving us the opportunity to speak on activating mobile communities during the event. Not forgetting guru editor Ian Channing for offering Bena Roberts the chance to write on Cutting Edge Mobile in the Wireless Business Review (Download 16_WBRspring07_cutedge.pdf).
We met 18 new mobile search companies, some of which are in it for the long-haul while others are hoping to get eaten by bigger brand names sooner rather than later. Either way, mobile search remained firmly on the radar.
But what we noticed is that confusion remains as to what exactly mobile search is. Even experts in the industry are finding it difficult to find the connection between discovery, search and relevance. These are all aspects of mobile search, but a true mobile search proposition offers more than a search box. The browser, the rendering engine and the results are all essential parts of mobile search, hence the agreements between JumpTap and Openwave, Infospace and InfoGin.
The fight for mobile search is a fight to create a capsule that delivers a unique, strong, appealing and sticky user experience. White label mobile search companies are striving to achieve this and the Yahoo! Go portal is also a feisty attempt. One thing is clear; the most successful mobile search companies will need more than backing from handset manufacturers, they will need operator backing too. For search to succeed, it needs to be free to the user.
Related News:
Leave a Comment