changingworlds » mobilegroove

UPDATE: The deadline for submissions is extended to today. It's also an excellent opportunity for all the super-cool personalization and content discovery companies to shine!

I know and cover many of you on MSG - and encourage you to get involved. They've been dubbed the 'Oscars of the mobile world' – and the title fits. The Meffys (Mobile Entertainment Awards) are indeed the mobile industry's recognized benchmark for measuring success and rewarding innovation. That's why MSG is particularly proud to be a media partner and why I am honored the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has asked

In brief: Recounting my briefing in London with Amdocs prior to the CES 8 launch, the results of a recent service provider survey and the wider implications of both as operators move from selling access to selling value.

What happens when the Internet of Things – trillions of devices,

"It’s all about apps!" That is the message that has come through in dozens of recent briefings and interviews (many of which will be include in the chapter I am writing about app store business models for the

In brief: The MSG special report on content/advertising personalization continues with ChangingWorlds, an Amdocs company, and includes a review of the company's recent road test of personalized mobile advertising across more than 200,000 people over a four-month period.

In preparation for my own industry report on personalization and recommendation I have spent the last weeks interviewing a who's who of industry players and their customers (mobile operators/service providers), companies that are

In brief: In line with MSearchGroove's ongoing and in-depth look at smart toolbars, personalized portals and the players that set the bar for these technologies, regular columnist and contributor Jim Levey shows a robust economic system (and new content distribution model) is emerging with personalization at its core. It is no secret that the success of well-known Internet portals, whether they’re oriented towards mass media or are vertically driven, is content that is fresh and personalized. These portals have developed large online communities by empowering users with self-service tools that enable them to create their own personalized homepages chock full of content that is dynamic, up-to-date and consistently relevant to their preferences. This is achieved thanks to widgets that interoperate with specific applications such as search, weather, finance and social networks. Fast forward and it's the same model in mobile – although mobile markets in Europe and Asia have stolen the lead on North America (at least for now). Why are operators outside the U.S. so far ahead in the delivery of content experiences that users appreciate? In my view, mobile operators, particularly in Europe, have embraced path-breaking personalization solutions that implicitly push relevant content to subscribers based on their browsing behavior. But their business objectives don't stop at delivering a satisfactory mobile user experience (because it is personalized); they are further harnessing these solutions to deliver targeted advertising that potentially drives results. Put the two together, (personalized mobile experiences and advertising messages targeted to users based on their content consumption), and you have the capabilities mix to satisfy users and – at the same time – create a sizeable market conditioned to accept relevant advertising. (And isn't this exactly what brands have been waiting for?)

Judging from the high level of interest in social search-related companies and concepts - such as Taptu, abphone, and people-powered answers search from ChaCha - expressed by participants at conferences where I have spoken, I am confident social search is more than just another hot topic. In fact, this new breed of services, which combines mobile social networking fun and community with the utility of mobile search, potentially creates new forms of interaction and new opportunities for the delivery of relevant mobile advertising. Granted we aren't there yet, but there are some signposts that I believe mark the way. One start-up that that stands out is HeyStaks (www.heystaks.com). The company, based in University College Dublin, Ireland, was founded by Dr. Maurice Coyle and Dr. Peter Briggs, and is a spin-out from the research group of Prof. Barry Smyth, who is perhaps best known as co-founder and Chief Scientist of ChangingWorlds (now a Unit of Amdocs Interactive), a company that has pioneered personalization technology. I recently caught up with Barry for a guided tour of the service and an update on the company's mobile ambitions. I am also proud that Barry recently partnered with me to publish a series of thought leadership columns exclusively on MSG. Understandably, Barry took a break from the series (which kicked off with this exploration of the "hidden interaction costs" associated with surfing and exploring the mobile Internet) to develop his path-breaking HeyStaks service - now in Beta. But he'll be back soon with a typically cool column focused on the intelligent delivery of personalized content and advertising, so watch this space! What is the problem? As the company cleverly points out in the cartoon strip below, we waste a lot of time searching for things our peers are also searching for (or may already have found!). To make matters worse, we have a lot of trouble sharing what we find with people once we find it. A solution is to make search a social activity (and that goes double for mobile search, in my view) and provide people the tools to create and communicate the searches that matter to them most.