Mobile Search Analyst February 2008

Rating: Mobile Search Analyst February

The first four articles of the Mobile Search Analyst have been published and the final ones will be live by Monday. If you would like more information on the Mobile Search Analyst - please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Apple propels browsers up the agenda, Google wins the Grand Prix
According to internal Google data published by The New York Times, over Christmas the volume of incoming traffic to Google from iPhones was such that it outstripped incoming traffic from any other type of mobile device. Within days, iPhone traffic to Google remained higher than that from all mobile devices except those running the Symbian operating system. While Yahoo! remains a long way from getting its mobile offer right (see analysis Fiddling while Rome burns, below), it seems that Google has found a highly satisfactory way of moving what it does on the desktop onto mobile after all.

Mobile barcodes could and should be a major force for new apps and services

Whether you want to buy the latest TV from Uniden or call a K-cab taxi in the Iwate prefecture, mobile barcodes are part of everyday life for millions of Japanese. Perhaps even more surprisingly for most of the rest of the world, they have been since the late 1990’s. So why have mobile barcodes been staggeringly successful in Japan and made precious little impact elsewhere when could and should be a major force in m-commerce, mobile marketing and advertising, and more?

Yahoo! Go 3.0: fiddling while Rome burns

Yahoo! is in big trouble and looking to mobile to shore up its ailing online business. Certainly its home page (http://beta.m.yahoo.com) is clean and fresh, and navigation is easier, but it isn’t nearly enough to make Yahoo! the indispensable starting point for all types of access to the web – the company’s stated aim? There are lots of good ideas poorly executed or not sufficiently developed. Yahoo! needs to address these points as a matter of urgency.

Microsoft buys Fastsearch and Transfer for USD 1.2bn

Norwegian company Fastsearch and Transfer is an enterprise search provider. Its focus from the start has been to provide industrial strength search technology for the mega-web sites run by the world’s biggest corporations. The company’s recognised expertise in this arena was reflected in the fact that it was chosen to power Vodafone’s mobile search in 2002.

Related News:

1. Microsoft buys Fastsearch and Transfer for USD 1.2bn – latest Mobile Search Analyst Report
2. Microsoft (finally makes a wise mobile search move) Buys FAST Search and Transfer
3. Chat with Fastsearch and Transfer CEO John Markus Lervik
4. Google sees surge in iPhone Traffic
5. The Mobile Search Analyst out next week