From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mobile search
Mobile search
Mobile search is an evolving branch of information re- the limitations of a mobile phones screen size and gen-
trieval services that is centered around the convergence eral navigability, most of available content that has been
of mobile platforms and mobile phones and other mobile written for mobile users is effectively invisible to users.
devices. Web search engine ability in a mobile form al- Research from Qpass suggests that less than 36% of an op-
lows users to find mobile content on websites which are erator’s portal is within 30 seconds navigation distance
available to mobile devices on mobile networks. As this for the user - this being the expected time users expect
happens mobile content shows a media shift toward mo- to find content in.
bile multimedia. Simply put, mobile search is not just a Beyond navigation is location-aware technology for
spatial shift of PC web search to mobile equipment, but mobile search. Mobile Local Search is 30% of all digital
is witnessing more of treelike branching into specialized searches with a surge in growth expected world-wide in
segments of mobile broadband and mobile content, both 2010. What is Mobile Local Search (MLS)? Are all search-
of which show a fast-paced evolution. es local? What are the component technologies of a pow-
erful MLS application? How can advertisers purchase in-
Market description ventory ad units available within the application struc-
ture? Mobile Local Search is the search and discovery of
"Competition for the US mobile search market promises persons, places, and things within an identifiable space
to be fierce, thanks to the large US online ad market and defined by distinct parameters. These parameters are
strong pushes by portals. By 2011, mobile search will ac- evolving. Today they include social networks, individu-
count for around $715 million, or almost 15% of a to- als, cities, neighborhoods, landmarks, and actions that
tal mobile advertising market worth nearly $4.7 billion", are relevant to the searcher’s past, current, and future
according to a leading market research firm.[1] Depend- location. These parameters provide structure to vertical-
ing on a researcher’s particular bias toward telecom, Web ly deep and horizontally broad data categories that can
or technology factors, the published forecasts for global stand-alone or are combined to comprise searchable di-
mobile search vary from $1.5 billion by 2011 (from Infor- rectories.[4]
ma Telecoms & Media) to over $11 billion by 2008 (ac- Thus, MLS can occupy several application categories/
cording to Piper Jaffray).[2] directories simultaneously. This is a double-edge sword
Mobile Search is important for the usability of mobile for product designers and developers, analytic engines,
content for the same reasons as internet search engines financial media analysts, and media planners and buyers
became important to the usability of internet content. needing to evaluate one category with another or one
Early internet content was largely provided by portals directory with another. The lack of clean comparative
such as Netscape. As the depth of available content grew, analysis based upon application occupancy of an individ-
portals were unable to provide total coverage. As a result ual category creates a challenge for marketers looking to
Internet web search engines such as Google and AltaVista maximize the value of applications to the supply chain
proved popular as a way of allowing users to find the in- including brand marketers looking to embed advertising
creasingly specialist content they were looking for. In a within an application.[5]
international journal article,’Exploring the logic of mo- The early deals are taking place as cell phone op-
bile search’, Westlund, Gómez-Barroso, Compañó, and erators recognize that mobile Internet search is an in-
Feijóo(2011) outline a through review of research on mo- herently different business than its desktop counterpart.
bile search usage, and also present an in-depth study Whereas people might use a Web-connected personal
of user patterns. They conclude that mobile search has computer to search for information about an 18th-centu-
started to change mobile media consumption patters ry British author, they are more likely to use cell phones
radically. they also emphasize that future developments to find targeted information like news, weather and
of mobile search must be sensitive to the mobile logic. [3] sports. Cell phones also offer much less space to enter
There is a similar situation developing in the mobile in search terms and smaller screens to display results.
content industry. Given early adopter usage of mobile Searcher behaviour on mobiles is markedly different
services, there has been a vast increase in the depth of than on desktop machines. Searches can be seen to fall
content developed for mobile phones. There are now few into two categories 1, on the move/commuting where
large organizations that do not offer a mobile service of there the context of local and immediate is inherent in
some sort. Most of the operators run their own portals the searcher’s need and 2, on the couch where mobiles
that showcase the best available content. However, given are being used to surf for information in between watch-
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mobile search
ing TV and engaging in other mobile communication Pages’ services. The basics of the services allow users to
such as sms or using social networks. find local services in the vicinity of their current loca-
Some of the advances by the major portals in Internet tion. The services often use location-based technology to
search, such as Google’s famous page-ranking scheme, pinpoint exactly where the user currently is. An example
don’t apply in the mobile world since people aren’t of usage would be a user looking for a local cab or taxi
searching for Web sites as much as answers to specific company after a night out. Services also usually come
questions. Alltel’s group president of operations, Kevin with a map and directions to help the user. An example is
Beebe, says the Internet search giants aren’t yet deliver- the service offered by Yell in the UK which is powered by
ing the kind of results the mobile content industry wants. MobilePeople’s technology. More details can be found in
"What they’re trying to do is take that core search ca- mobile local search.
pability and just jam it onto the phone," Mr. Beebe said.
"That’s probably not the right approach." Mobile discovery services These services offer users recom-
"Mobile search is a battle to define perhaps the most mendations on what they should do next. An example
important new interface with the consumer," says John would be recommending a user a similar ringtone to the
du Pre Gauntt, eMarketer Senior Analyst and the author one that s/he has just browsed for. They operate, in a
of the new report, Mobile Search: Clash of the Titans. mobile context, in a similar way to the recommendation
"Whoever cracks the consumer and commercial code for engines provided by internet retail shops such as Ama-
delivering and monetizing relevant answers for people zon.com. An example of real usage is the Directory En-
on the go will secure a license to print money, at least for quiries (DQ) service operated by Orange in the UK. Callers
a time." to the Orange landline DQ service are given the business
and residential numbers they have requested verbally by
Types of mobile search an operator. In addition, Orange sends the information
in text format to the users mobile phone. The informa-
Within the broad umbrella of mobile search (the ability tion contains a text reminder of the requested informa-
to browse for mobile specific content), there are a range tion as well as links to local businesses, services and oth-
of services. Given the relative immaturity of the market, er interesting information in the local area that the user
not all of these can be expected to become the industry has searched on.
standards. Mobile navigation services — These services provide the
Mobile optimized search engines — Most major search indexing structure to the portals provided by mobile op-
engines have implemented a mobile optimized version erators. They index the content already on the operators’
of their products that take into consideration bandwidth portal but also provide users access to mobile specific
and form factor limitations of the mobile platform. For content that is available outside the confines of the por-
example, Yahoo has launched a product branded as Ya- tal.
hoo [OneSearch][2] and Google has launched a mobile Dynamic Mobile Selection Interface Services — A new cat-
friendly version of their search engine as well. The algo- egory of mobile search tool that is emerging is one in
rithms for mobile search engine results are thought to which a pre-selected set of possible search content is
be evoloving and aspects such as location and predicitive downloaded in advance by a mobile user and then allows
searching will become increasingly important. for a final internet search step. An example of such
Mobile question and answer services — These services al- search tools is the Worldport Navigator for the iPhone,
low a user to text a question to a central database and re- which provides users with a push-button experience of
ceive a reply using text. A usage example would be a user selecting from thousands of human-screened and cate-
that wants to know the answer to a very specific ques- gorized Web selections in three or four seconds, without
tion but is not in front of his/her computer. Most mo- the need for text entry, search, result review, or page-
bile ’Q&A’ services are powered by human researchers scrolling.
and are therefore a type of organic search engine. An ex-
ample of such a service in the US is Question Mania [3],
where every question is answered via text message, by
Main providers
a real person. A new approach by AskMeNow and Mo-
bileBits is to use Semantic Web technology to automate See also
the process. Some emerging services such as MyHelpa in
the UK address the perceived limitations of one-shot, re- • Mobile local search
verse billed SMS messages by using VoIP to connect the • Upsnap
Caller directly to the Human search agent.
Mobile directory search — This service is known by dif- References
ferent names dependent on country and operator. It can
[1] eMarketer - Mobile Search in the US.
also be known as ’Find My Nearest’ or ’Mobile Yellow
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mobile search
Name & Mobile URL SMS# C. Description Launch
199QUERY 19978379AUS AU Founded by Seb Maslin. 199QUERY is the April
272NZ premier Australian and New Zealand Text 2006[6]
service that answers any question sent to it
by SMS using a mix of human experts and
intelligent organic search engine. Unique
in that SMS messages are then broadcast on
TV.
4info 44636 4Info.com
Any Question An- 63336UK UK IE Founded by ex-Symbian and Psion CEO Col- 2004
swered 57275IE ly Myers, AQA uses human researchers to
provide answers to any free form search
queries or customer questions. It was the
first company to provide such a service us-
ing only a premium short code and not a
mix of shortcode and keyword.
Ask Any Question 66666UK UK Uses real humans to answer any questions
sent to the shortcode 66666, no keyword
needed; questions may range from settling
pub quizzes to standard directory en-
quiries.
AskDroid Desktop askdroid.sadko.mobi US Widget app for Android-based smartphones October
Search Widget allowing one-button access to any of 260 2010
search engines.[7]
Answerly.com[8] answerly.com US ... Free service where real people research October
questions and deliver answers, typically in 2008[10]
minutes.[9]
AskMeNow 27563 US CA Gives users the option of searching for in- 2005
askmenow.com (ASKME) formation using an SMS short code, a WAP
2.0 site m.askmenow.com, or mobile appli-
cations. Uses natural language search that
allows users to ask a question and receive
an answer. AskMeNow has a carrier deals
with Rogers Wireless and Bell Mobility in
Canada and Alltel Wireless in the United
States.
ChaCha Text 242 242 or voice US An SMS and voice natural language-based 2008-01-03
www.chacha.com 800-2ChaCha question answering service by ChaCha
(search engine), allows users on any carrier
network to ask any question on any subject
and the answer is provided by a human
"guide", innovative because it enables In-
ternet users (only with a US work permit)
to earn money by finding answers.
DOTGO dotgo.com DOTCOM (368266) US DOTGO is an extension of the internet to 2008
DOTEDU (368338) cell phone text messaging.
DOTGOV (368468)
DOTNET (368638)
DOTORG (368674)
Fabasoft Mindbreeze AT Mindbreeze takes care of mobile informa- 2005
mindbreeze.com tion access to all enterprise ressources in-
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mobile search
cluding content conversion to fit all kinds
of mobile devices.
Google m.google.com 466453 US Offers Google SMS which allows users to ?
obtain information by texting in structured
syntax to an SMS shortcode. Limited to the
categorical information they offer. Google
has carrier deals with Britain’s Vodafone,
China Mobile, and KDDI Corp. in Japan but
not specifically for the SMS product.
GTIP and other co- 61199UK UK IE DE Launched by AlienPants initially as a gener- January
branded customer im- 81444DE alised service but later deliberately limited 2003[12]
plementations WAPUK/DE to computer game cheats, the service is
82149IE(closed) made available to multiple customers un-
83246UK(closed) der each customer’s own brand, such as T-
83149UK(closed) Mobile as the ’T-Mobile Cheat Service’, or
as GuruGold in support of the on-screen
’Games Guru’ on Sky One’s primetime com-
puter games program ’Gamezville’; first in-
print co-branded service, in association
with GamePlayer magazine, appeared in
the magazine in May, 2004.[11]
Infospace ? ? Provider of meta-search, a technology by ?
which they search the search engines and
allow users the ability to search Google, Ya-
hoo, Ask and Microsoft at the same time.
Infospace also provides local search ser-
vices and offers many of these serivces to
mobile carriers, in a white labeled ap-
proach.
Interchan 55155 Taiwan Totally free mobile search which also en- May 2009
www.55155.com.tw ables free connect function. Designed for
all mobile devices.
Jumptap ? ? JumpTap offers white-label mobile search. ?
Microsoft Live Search 1 800 CALL 411 US? Users have the option of searching from 2006-11
for Mobile (also Bing (dial-in, not an SMS#) their mobile browsers (homepage), down-
Mobile) load client applications specifically de-
signed for Windows Mobile and BlackBerry
devices (download), and search by voice,
from any phone, by calling a toll-free num-
ber.
mInfo wap.minfo.com China mInfo is a mobile search provider based in 2005-11
1066958866(Chinese) China. They offer services on SMS, WAP
106695882929(English) and on-phone applet. Available on all three
mobile carriers. Has an exclusive deal with
China Telecom to power its Omni-search
platform.
mshd.net Question 413-648-7141 US Free Question answering service 2010
Answering Serive 347-mshdnet
www.mshd.net
4
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mobile search
Roboo http://roboo.com China Roboo is a mobile search provider based in 2006-11
(WAP) China. They focus on entertainment re-
http://www.roboo.com sources, including ring, theme, image, mu-
sic, video etc.
Mosio m.mosio.com sms to ask@mosio.com US Mosio is a mobile community based "ques- 2008
tion & answer" / search service. It’s similar
to ChaCha except the answers are provided
by the community as opposed to paid
searchers. Mosio won the best mobile app
award at SXSW in 2008.
MobilePeople A/S ? DK mobilePeople is a private independent 2002-01
Leading provider of global leader in local mobile search and ad-
Local search and ad- vertising solutions for directory publishers
vertising solution for and directory assistance providers. The
mobiles company builds mobile presence, distribu-
tion and advertising utilising its award win-
ning liquid Mobile Platform. It caters for
any handset including iPhone, Blackberry,
Nokia, HTC, SonyEricsson, Motorola, LG
and Samsung. Global customers include;
Yell (UK), Gouden Gids (NL), Promedia (BE),
Golden Pages (IE), Páginas Amarelas (PT),
Schibsted (NO), Schibsted (SE), Sensis
(AUS), Eniro (DK), Eniro (NO), EDC (DK),
Yellow Pages Group (NZ) and Local Matters
(USA). mobilePeople is headquartered in
Copenhagen (DK) and has regional offices
in London (UK), Denver (US) and Mel-
bourne (AUS).
Picollator ? ? Users upload an image from their mobile January
http://picollator.mobi phones and search for relevant resources. 2008
Designed for Windows Mobile and Nokia
devices.
Taptu taptu.com US UK Mobile specific, built from the bottom up 2008
for mobile uses. It’s differentiated from
Google’s and Yahoo’s mobile search in that
it only returns mobile results whereas the
others may return links to non-mobile
websites which may not render properly on
a mobile phone; also offers refined searches
for images, music, videos.
Texperts 66000 UK SMS-based service that uses a mix of hu- 2003-06 or
(formerly Re5ult and man experts and sophisticated algorithms 08?
82ASK) to provide bespoke answers to any cus-
tomer query; founded by Thomas Roberts,
Sarah McVittie.
Towza m.towza.com US & Intl Aggregates results from multiple search 2008
engines, which include restaurant guides,
Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, and price com-
parison shopping tools; also has a directory
listing of the mobile specific versions of
popular websites.
5
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mobile search
www.worldport.net US & Intl Developed by Incandescent, Inc.; a unique 2009
Worldport Navigator mix of data access engine and mobile
search abilities, its graphical user interface
(GUI) includes an unusual hexagonal ring
structure to enable faster selection of op-
tions than with conventional mobile search
systems. By providing a mix of extensive
cached pre-selected common data search
options (so that direct access to the inter-
net is only needed for the final search op-
tion selected) plus a more intuitive GUI,
Worldport Navigator users can access data
up to 50 times faster than with other
search engines, according to the develop-
er’s most recent 2009 test results. It is cur-
rently available for the iPhone.
Yahoo! oneSearch [4] 92466US[13] UK US ... A mobile local search that is offered via ?
(YAHOO) mobile applications. Yahoo! has a search
deal with British carrier Hutchison 3G UK
Ltd.
www.frompo.com/ US & Intl Frompo.com provides a comprehensive 2010
Mobile Phone Search search engine for Iphones, Blackberrys and
Engine cellular phones. Search and navigate re-
sults specifically designed for mobile cellu-
lar phones.
[2] eMarketer - The Search Wars Are Going Mobile [13] Yahoo! oneSearch. Get answers with search
[3] (Westlund, Gomez-Barroso, Compano & Feijo, designed for mobile
2011).
[4] Mobile Local Search Saturates Profit over LBS
Vendors, Advertisers, and Search Application
External links
Developers • Forrester research on Western European Mobile
[5] Mobile Local Search Saturates Profit over LBS internet usage
Vendors, Advertisers, and Search Application • Mobile Search in the US
Developers • Mobile Local Search 2010
[6] "Question Answer SMS Service Launched in • Westlund, Oscar , Gómez-Barroso, José-Luis ,
Australia". 199QUERY Pty. Ltd.. 2006-04-01. Compañó, Ramón and Feijóo, Claudio (2011)
http://199query.com/news.php?release=1. ’Exploring the logic of mobile search’, Behaviour &
Retrieved 2008-02-10. Information Technology’ ’http://www.informaworld.com/
[7] https://market.android.com/ smpp/content~db=all~content=a927256739~frm=abslink
details?id=com.sadko.askdroid • Prospects of mobile search, 2010
[8] www.answerly.com
[9] Answerly.com review on KillerStartups.com
[10] [1]
[11] http://www.alienpants.com/news/prevreleases/
21-05-04-gameplayer.php
[12] http://www.alienpants.com/news/prevreleases/
06-01-03-smscheats.php
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mobile_search&oldid=455547377"
Categories:
• Internet search engines
• Mobile technology
• SMS-based question answering services
6
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mobile search
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