Google dominates mobile web search in USA

Rating: Or so say the Opera browser people
According web browser specialist, Opera, Google took the Lion’s share of mobile web search in the USA with a surprsingly small than 9 per cent of all page views . Still that easily outpaces rivals Yahoo! and Bing, who had 4.3 per cent and 0.03 per cent of [...]

You know what? Novarra’s “OneWeb” mobile app program is actually pretty good.

How many times have you heard “develop once, publish anywhere”? It’s a phrase that actually makes me stop listening these days. It has been promised so many times by so many different companies that it has lost all meaning. So when OneWeb came up in my interview with Randy Cavaiani, VP Marketing for Novarra, I almost shook my head in despair. But as I talked to Randy, I realised that Novarra might actually be on to something here. Might be.

MWC: making data collection and learning truly mobile with Wild Knowledge

Here’s an interesting proposition. The first spin-out from Oxford Brookes University, Wild Knowledge is a combination of data gathering, GPS mapping, education and media capture. It began its life as an education aid for schoolchildren, but has since expanded to become much larger than that. I spoke with Director Steve Gayler at Mobile World Congress.

MWC: Mobile browser Skyfire announces a major change of direction with Android and WebKit

In the world of mobile browsers, one of the fastest options is Skyfire. It’s an independent mobile browser, meaning that unlike the mobile versions of Opera or Firefox, it has no stable on-line version backing it up. In an interview at Mobile World Congress, Skyfire CEO Jeffrey Glueck told GoMo about a major shift in direction that will be coming our way soon. Not only is it releasing a version for Android, but it will be integrating elements from the open source WebKit browser engine.

MWC: Flirtomatic keeps it clean for US networks, isn’t all that impressed with the iPhone

I’ve always been interested in Flirtomatic. It’s one of those mobile services that pops up again and again when people talk about success stories in the mobile industry. But my interest has always been from afar. But today I got to sit down with Gary Cohen, Head of Flirtomatic for North America, and we got talk about some of the specifics for the service - like what it needs to do to stay sweet with operators, and where intends to go from here. I’ve always wanted to know more about the nitty gritty of how Flirtomatic actually works, and Gary answered all of my questions.

Motally announces “open ended” mobile analytics - making mobile reporting far more flexible

Mobile analytics firm Motally has announced an interesting new service. Most analytics providers are quite guarded about their data. First they glean information from your service and its usage. Second, they create a report from it, with pretty graphs and other easy-to-read data forms, so that you can see their work. But Motally has announced a service that will you allow to plug the raw data it collects into any reporting service, so you can ensure uniform reportage from across mobile and on-line properties.

On-line and mobile web domains merge as .info eats .mobi

dotMobi is a mobile company that maintains the .mobi domain for the mobile web. This domain was designed to give companies a quick and simply way to get a presence on the mobile internet. Now it has announced that it is being completely acquired by Afilias - the company that runs the .info interne000t domain.

Study shows UK and USA consumers are ready for mobile internet - but operators aren’t

Here’s an interesting survey result from mobile content experts Volantis. Over 4,000 UK and USA respondents took part in the study - and Volantis found that a huge number of them would make much more use of mobile internet features if their data plans were more generous.

Is Opera Mini mobile browser really coming to iPhone?

A lot of excitement has been generated by an announcement from Opera this morning. According to the software firm the mobile version of its internet browser, Opera Mini, will be demonstrated as an iPhone app during Mobile World Congress. This is a welcome announcement for Opera fans with iPhones, who have so far been denied access to their browser of choice. But what does Apple think about this?

Bitstream pushes to get BOLT mobile browser put on more phones before shipping

Bitstream is the software company that maintains the BOLT mobile browser - one of the two major independent mobile browsers available. Not content with just getting user downloads (1 million installs by the middle of last year, now up to nearly 4 million), Bitstream really wants to get BOLT pre-loaded on mobile devices by original equipment manufactureres (OEMs). To further that goal, today it announces the launch of a special OEM version of the browser.

Target to use mobile barcodes for customer loyalty rewards

One of the big problems with mobile barcodes is that most of them need special scanning equipment. Cameraphones can install scanning software, but for large retailers the problem is bigger - they need to install special readers at point-of-sale in all of their stores. Massive retailer Target has announced that it will be making this step, and is installing thousands of mobile barcode scanners at locations all over America.

Mobile navigation is really heating up. CoPilot launches free services for Android and Windows Mobile

CoPilot is one of the leading pure-mobile navigation services available. Created by ALK Technologies, it’s application is most certainly NOT free, but it is very high quality. However, those who have paid for it are getting a happy bonus today, as CoPilot launches a free Local Internet search service to the application.

Cool new mobile internet device runs on Android, connects your TV to your toaster

Inbrics is what I suppose you could call a “new media” company. It works very heavily on using Internet technology to make all of the screen-based devices in your house completely interconnected. By “screen-based”, I mean your phone, your TV and your computer. This isn’t exactly a new idea, but Inbrics is doing with some really sleek, sexy products. At the moment, it’s promoting its new Mobile Internet Device, the MID M1 - which was first revealed at CES and will be receiving a wider launch at Mobile World Congress.

New mobile search engine combines Google and Bing with mobile site directory

A new mobile search engine has been launched by one of the largest Palm OS software developers in the world. Handcase is a Brazilian firm, with over 2 million mobile owners using its products in 80 different countires - and today Handcase is promoting its new mobile-only search engine, Gune.

What does it do?

Gune stands for “site” in Basque - and the core offering of Gune isn’t very exciting I’m afraid to say. But bear with me, because I do think this is a great option for the majority of phones.

Focus on customers, not iPhones - how to make mobile marketing work for Hostels

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