Mobile Search May Soon Find Its Niche
Date : 19 Aug 2008 Category : Technology
NewsFactor NetworkNokia estimates that by 2015, 5 billion people globally will have access to an always-on mobile Internet connection, and there will be a 100-fold increase in mobile network traffic. What does this mean for brands? First, mobile Internet users will use search in a different way from regular Internet users. While the latter tend to search for several keywords to refine their results, mobile users - particularly because of the small size of their screen -- will look for only a couple. This means that only the biggest brands with the deepest pockets will even appear to consumers in the majority of mobile search listings.
The biggest trend in mobile search, and use of the mobile Internet in general, is for users to venture beyond their operator's designated portal to access that of another brand. Mobile Web advertising is encouraging this practice; click-through rates for mobile Web ads are reportedly five to 10 times higher than those for other forms of online advertising.
Scott Gallacher, director of online and partnerships at Sky, believes that many brands are wary of investing a huge amount of money in mobile search because it has not yet been seen to have sufficient penetration to warrant the spending. "I don't think mobile search is on the radar for most companies because it's just not that important a channel [to them], so why would they invest in it?" he asks. "From a brand perspective, it's slightly different for us because we have a mobile-based...