Virgin Mobile does it better with Infospace mobile search
Rating: nobody does it better, nobody does it quite as good as you Virgin you’re the best
by Bena Roberts
OK. I have to say I am a fan of Virgin Mobile and the first time I wrote an analysis of Virgin Bites in 2003 – I realised pretty quickly that the new portal rocked. Virgin has now extended its partnership with Infospace in the mobile search space. In my last position content guru at Virgin John Conlon gave me a funky Virgin device and since then I have been an addicted user to the Bites portal. Its fun and addictive and keeps me up to date with mobile yoof.
How?
Well Virgin and Infospace have had a strong relationship in the UK since launch. The mobile search deployment is not new and the contract was actually won in October last year. But today’s announcement marks the end of the three point strategy. The mobile search now also includes one single search box to locate off-portal content as well as local content on the bites portal. Locating off-portal content in one search box is not new – but of course in true Virgin fashion Bites content is indexed first and the Virgin brand is paramount to the user experience.
What does this mean?
Basically, InfoGin is the rendering engine that will now ensure that off-portal content is up to Virgin Mobile’s standard (see analysis of InfoGin vs Novarra in The Mobile Search Analyst). InfoGin can create a made for mobile user experience on mobile devices by tailoring pages from the Internet to make them mobile ready. This means that content is delivered or reviewed mobile ready. The use of a mobile rendering engine by mobile operators and mobile search companies is essential. Fastsearch and Transfer is also part and parcel of this new deal. It’s quite funny actually as I remember last February Fastsearch lost out to Infospace in the RFQ but has managed to get back in the deal by its new partnership with Infospace.
So what does the search do?
It’s an integrated mobile search with portal and storefront. Via one search box it will locate results from all the competitor branded search engines (for off-portal) and re-channel the “best” results to Virgin customers. But users will not know where the results are from – everything will be under the Virgin banner. I spoke to Infospace’s Victor Malachard and he gave me a proud overview of the portal and highlighted the focus of the brand and the mobile search’s ability to link seamlessly with the storefront in order to ensure the exposure and motezisation of the mobile portal. I say proud because Infospace has had a tough year but talking to Victor you wouldn’t know it; Infospace is back.
I asked briefly about the Infospace purchase rumours but the response was “no comment”.
From the press release
Nick White, Head of Digital Services and NPD at Virgin Mobile, said: “If the
impact of the internet on our daily lives as well as the global economy has
taught the mobile world anything, it is that it’s no longer about searching
for the next killer application – search itself is the killer application.
Virgin mobile is a firm believer that the there should be no limit to the
content available for our users – from the latest celeb gossip to searches
for entertainment in the local area or even the most cryptic piece of trivia
– it must be available to everyone, everywhere. We are very pleased to
extend our relationship with InfoSpace into this exciting new area.”
George Fraser, Managing Director - Europe, InfoSpace Mobile, said: “The
mobile phone has revolutionised communication when on the move. Mobile
search is the next stage of this revolution and brings all of the world’s
knowledge to the mobile users’ fingertips. We have been working with Virgin
Mobile on mobile content since 2001 and so we know what their subscribers
expect and demand. Our intimate understanding of the mobile portal,
combined with our heritage in online search and directories, means we are
uniquely placed to enable operators to really exploit the potential of
mobile search.”
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