Mobile Groove

While reading the collections of mobile 2012 predictions is a great way to gain perspective, I miss deep analysis of these trends that allows us to plan and prepare for the developments likely to impact models and strategies far beyond 2012.

Understanding this gap — and the need to collaborate with many mobile authorities, rather than leave such a work to a single writer — GigaOM PRO has published a new report that provides us a valuable roadmap to navigate mobile for the months (and years!) ahead. I contributed the section on the future of mobile search, which I will explore later down in this post.

Google may give us a glimpse of the top Internet search terms that defined how the world searched online in 2011, but Mobile Commerce, a U.K.-based provider of optimized mobile search services stands out as the only company offering us insights into how we search using our mobile devices.

Much like I remember where I was when I learned the tragic news that John Lennon had been shot (I was watching Monday Night Football and heard it from broadcaster Howard Cosell), I’ll now never forget where I was and what I was doing when I learned of Steve Jobs’ passing.

It’s rather fitting that I was 36,000 feet in the air connected to an in-flight Wi-Fi system working on a MacBook Air at the time. Thus, I was able to benefit from the technology advancements made possible by visionaries (like Jobs) who have brought us all advantages that generations before us would never know.

Mobile is global. Mobile must be aligned with our needs, not technology. Mobile sits at the center of a strategy to ‘engage at every stage.’ Mobile has caused and enabled irrevocable changes in our behavior. Effective mobile marketing requires a sharp focus on four mindsets: 1) I’m local. 2) I’m bored. 3) I’m multitasking. 4) I need it NOW.

These are some of the observations and opinions voiced by a few of the just over 100 professionals, practitioners and passionates who made our first Tweetchat an invigorating exchange and a rousing success. Tweetreach, for example, reports we reached nearly 107,000 people via just under 600 tweets to

Today we kick off a new series of mobile search app reviews and road tests with Goby, a mobile search app that helps people find fun things to do nearby. The company behind the app, described by tech celeb Robert Scoble as more important than Foursquare, was acquired on Friday by location services giant TeleNav, proof that mobile search is a new must-have feature of apps, services and discovery schemes.

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While Google may have sewn up the market when it comes to general or horizontal Internet search, the race to dominate the mobile and alternative search space is far from run. In fact, it’s just starting. A top contender for a lead spot is Goby, a mobile search app available on the Apple and Android platforms designed from the ground up to help people find fun stuff to do nearby.

Is a consumer’s mobile search more valuable to an advertiser than an online query? The stats say yes, particularly in view of the growth in local mobile search.

According to the BIA/Kelsey Group, one in three mobile searches is local in nature and also interactive. After searchers on their smartphones find a local business, 61 percent call the establishment and 59 percent visit the location.