Yell.Com gets Mobile

by: admin Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

Rating: something to yell about

Yell.com has announced the launch of two new mobile services. A downloadable application for the mobile device and browser-based search. The services will be free (apart from operator data charges). The application was developed by little-known white label mobile search company mobilePeople, which is based in Denmark.

However, only last week, mobilePeople set up a UK office and employed Claudia Poepperl, ex-Marketing Director of QPass. Claudia was also value added services guru at max.mobil in Austria and T-Mobile before that; so no doubt mobilePeople are about to launch a stronger attack on the UK mobile search market.

New features on Yell.com mobile include:
1. Intelligent “regular request” lists

2. Auto-suggest functionality

3. Click to call buttons.

4. Zoomable maps and turn-by-turn directions.

From the Press Release:
Martin Wilson, head of Yell.com mobile marketing, said: “We’re entering a highly exciting period of development within the mobile Internet arena. As more advanced handsets become the norm and 3G technology begins to become more widely adopted, we can expect more and more regular users of mobile internet services.

Jens Andersen, chief executive officer and co-founder of mobilePeople,
said: “It’s evident that consumers are warming up to the idea of searching on their mobiles”.

What we think?

After trying and failing to download the client from the web site, we could only test the mobile browser. The client needed Java and the Windows Mobile device I have is not compatible. An SMS saying that ,“You haven’t got the right handset,” would be an excellent add-on feature of the new Yell.com service. Or a Yahoo! Go style; “sign-up” and we will send you an email when your phone is compatible would also make the new offer more consumer friendly.

The initial layout of the front page of Yell.com mobile is clean. There are three search boxes:

What (e.g. dentists, plumbers)
Who (e.g. business name)
Where (City or postcode)
At the bottom there is a Find button and on the top right a Categories section and Help link at the bottom of the screen.

Thankfully – all three search boxes do not have to be complete and the first search I did was in the Business name box “WHO” and I typed in the word Picture. Within 20 seconds (which is not bad considering I am using a UK mobile phone in Germany bad weather forced me to miss out on attending the Yell.com round table today).

The results were impressive. 100 results were found and the first result was
The Big Picture: Comet Way in Hatfield. The address and telephone number were easy to read and the phone number was linked to assist instant calling. Other links included Map – Directions to.

The Map functionality can be improved. 11kb data was transferred and the map was tiny. I could barely make out Hatfiled. It didn’t look pretty and the Zoom function for scale wasn’t appealing.

Directions to was simple enough, though. Three search boxes needed an Address or City or Postcode and directions were given for people walking or driving. I typed in our company postcode in Uxbridge and within a matter of seconds the results were as follows:

Route has 19 steps
Total distance is 19.22 miles
From UB6 0DH
To The Big Picture.

Directions were clear easy to read simple and the feature will be a godsend to many consumers. In only 5 clicks; 14 words typed on PDA; 1 minute and 14 seconds waiting time I got exact directions in a simple format. I haven’t received my roaming data charges yet and I am sure then and only then will I feel the sting of using the service.

The Categories section is also an interesting feature. It reveals the following links:

1. Days & Nights Out

2. Food & Drink

3. Travel & Accomodation

4. Looking Good

5. Motoring

6. Schools & Jobs

7. Gifts & Shopping

8. Financial & Legal

In turn these links lead to simple links one-click answers for example: Financial & Legal links to:
Banks
Building Societies
Estate Agents
Legal Services
Solicitors

Clicking on Legal services leads UNFORTUNATELY back to the Yell.Com home page three button search menu. The only difference is that Legal Services is already typed in the search box. Business name and City or Postcode are still required. This is frustrating and needs some work. With several other mobile search services already discovering and locating services for consumers the categories service falls short of its potential.

(There is more on this in the February edition of the Mobile Search Analyst which has a special breakdown feature of Yellow Pages US mobile services).