Verizon Wireless Customers Search for Places to Eat, Drink and Sleep Most

Rating: another year - same search results

Verizon Wireless announced the top VZ Navigator(SM) searches of the past year. In 2007, Verizon Wireless customers using VZ Navigator made hundreds of millions of inquiries to help locate one of the 14 million local businesses and attractions in the United States, including hotels, restaurants, historical sites, and more.

The most-frequently searched categories in 2007 on VZ Navigator included:

1. Eating & Drinking Establishments 11. Hospitals
2. Hotels & Motels 12. Chinese Restaurants
3. Bars & Nightclubs 13. Mexican Restaurants
4. Gas Stations 14. Banks
5. American Restaurants 15. Churches
6. Fast Food Restaurants 16. Schools
7. Italian Restaurants 17. Parks
8. Movie Theaters 18. Retail Shops
9. ATMs 19. Amusement Places
10. Department Stores 20. Verizon Wireless Stores

Lee Daniels, vice president of consumer product development for Verizon Wireless, said, “With millions of points of interest to choose from and the availability of audible turn-by-turn directions, VZ Navigator is a popular, cost-effective solution for people on-the-go. Whether our customers are traveling in a new city and searching for a retail location, ATM or gas station, or are simply looking for a new restaurant or one of our stores in their own community, VZ Navigator can help them locate the business they need and get them there, quickly and easily.”

What we think?
It is amazing how searches remain the same year on year but operators’ and mobile search providers fail to make the most of this. Instead of a passive search expeirence the time is now for more action. Operators’ must find an approach that will trigger using the mobile for searching initally. Results must point back to the mobile - in the form of a visual link to a WAP site or a coupon at the target location.

Eg: take a picture of any ATM and get the nearest one to your location, or your bank preference sent to you.

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