Mobile Search Needs To Be Better Than Just Asking Someone

from the that's-your-competition dept

Wed, Nov 23rd 2005 3:33pm — Mike Masnick

A couple of interesting posts by Russell Buckley at MobHappy help demonstrate some of the challenges that "mobile search" faces. First, there's this growing assumption that mobile search is the same thing as local search -- which Russell points out is untrue. Instead, it's more about "need to know" content, which is similar to what I had suggested in a column last year, talking about how mobile search was different than internet search in that it needed to help you do something right away, rather than just provide you info. However, today, Buckley follows this up with a more interesting post which really defines the "competition" that mobile search players face. The general assumption is that there really isn't that much competition for mobile search, or that it's internet search. That's not exactly true. Instead, the real competition is asking someone for info. This could be someone around you, or it could be someone that you know and trust and can call. Mobile search offerings are still much more cumbersome than simply asking someone -- and that's a hurdle they'll have to overcome to really catch on.

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4 Comments

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Anon, 24 Nov 2005 @ 12:02am

what is mobile search...
Search for mobile and search while mobile are two different things... the guys at www.phonetize.com seem to be doing well on the first front. 4info.net comes out as the best thing in case of search while mobile
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jh, 24 Nov 2005 @ 12:56am

competing with the street
Well, one way to improve their competitive position vis-a-vis people on the street (PotS) is to make the option of asking PotS less attractive. For example by spreading FUD about how it's dangerous to approach a stranger for info. That's what Microsoft would do, anyway :-)
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Benjamin Kaplin, 24 Nov 2005 @ 3:08pm

Cellular Info
Send a text message to everyone you know. You should already have a plan that offers large amounts of text messages.
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Bob Roth, 28 Nov 2005 @ 11:07am

Mobile Search vs. Web Search
Here are a couple of posts that I wrote that may be interesting as related to mobile search, local search and web search.

http://4info.typepad.com/blog/2005/09/post.html
http://4info.typepad.com/blog/2005/11/is_mobile_searc .html
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