In brief:

It’s encouraging to see a much sharper focus on mobile search and a growing realization among mobile operators, content providers and publishers/developers that there is a lot more to mobile search than the universal model we know from the online Internet. Mobile phone form factors push companies to develop new mobile search services that deliver us relevant results in tune with our intent and context. All the better if these services make use of features and functions such as voice recognition, image recognition, location-awareness and Augmented Reality.

Another development that makes search essential is the avalanche of apps and app stores, and the drive by all the players in the ecosystem to make these content and services storefronts a commercial success. Case in point: Apple’s decision to snap up Siri, a voice-activated digital personal assist that takes the concept of search to a new level (allowing us to find not search!)

OPEN CALL FOR MOBILE SEARCH FIRMS

Regular readers will recall that I have tracked mobile search from the start (hence, the name MSearchGroove, following on the popularity of my industry-first report on the mobile search and content discovery space).

My background and passion also allow me to connect with cool companies in the space such as Taptu, the first mobile search company to index the Mobile Touch Web; Expertmaker, a mobile search company in stealth mode that allows us to refine our search parameters in real-time; GetFugu, a company that combines search and image recognition to help people find local businesses and navigate to their website; and Aisle 411, a company at the sweet spot between mobile search and inventory management. (Check out the bnetTV video interviews I conducted with Carl Freer, GetFugu founder, and Nathan Pettyjohn, Aisle 411 Chairman & CEO.)

I look forward to including these and more cool companies in my keynote presentation to the European Commission. The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, which is part of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, has organized an exploratory expert workshop titled “Exploring the Future of Mobile Search” to discuss the innovation potential in mobile search. The workshop will take place in Ghent, Belgium (June 9), during the 9th Conference of Telecommunication, Media and Internet Techno-Economics.

Timed to this event I will also kick off a new series on MSG profiling mobile search newcomers and innovators. If you are a mobile search company and want to be included in my ongoing work and upcoming series, then please contact me directly (peggy@msearchgroove.com).

DATA POINTS

With search at the top of the business agenda, the timing is excellent to recount the key takeaways of several recent mobile search reports.

MOBILE COMMERCE & MOBILE SEARCH: Mobile Commerce (MC) – which handles over 25 percent of the searches coming from U.K. mobile operator portals and other sources – recently released a report summarizing the trends it observes based on the search queries it “sees” per year.

Among the findings:

• The volume of searches has more than doubled over the last 12 months. MC reports an increase in mobile search usage from 125 million queries to 250 million, in part due to the jump in the number of people signing up for flat-rate data bundles to surf the mobile Web. The number of searches per unique user also shows an increase. The total has grown from 8 per month to 13. (Granted this is not the frequency of use we know from the online Internet, but it is an indication that users are gravitating to the search box on portals as they become more familiar with the mobile Web.)
• The position of the search box is critical. MC’s data confirms that the higher the search box is placed on the portal, the more people use it. It’s not rocket science, but it does show that there are very simple ways to significantly increase the use of search. Even stating that search is free of charge (as Orange has done on its Orange World Portal) can boost usage.
• Tag clouds are useful shortcuts. Many use search instead of bookmarks to reach sites and destinations quickly (which is why Facebook was the single most searched term of 2009). MC tells us that displaying tag clouds containing the most popular search terms is another way to increase searches and drive results.
• Date, time and current events drive searches. No surprise here – but you can follow Steve Page, MC founder, who shares the top search terms and trends via his Twitter feed (@sjspage).
• Internet destinations and giants (Google, Facebook, YouTube) are top search terms. In addition to this information and analysis (summarized in this earlier post on MSG) MC shares how subjects are searched, reminding advertisers that they must bid on many related terms and tag their mobile pages correctly to ensure their results are high up in the natural search results for the terms.
• Are local terms also local searches? Google may have recently claimed that 33 percent of all searches on mobile have a local context, but MC is less convinced. It shows that searches such as “Manchester” are more about local soccer teams (Manchester United) than the city. Of all location searches, 55 percent include either a city or area name, 17 percent have a point-of-interest, 15 percent use a full zip code and 13 percent have a partial zip code.
• Search shortcomings can be avoided. Transcoding is not the only way to mobilize sites. Advertisers should build versions optimized for device types. (Taptu indexes sites that are touch-friendly and built from the ground up for access via touchscreen devices, for example.) The intelligence behind the search boxes could also be better. MC’s road test of search on Nokia Ovi reveals that it delivers games results for pac man – but not for pacman. Android Market suffers the “same shortcoming.” (BTW: This could be solved with a simple “Did You Mean” response to clarify the search term and the searcher’s intent.)

Source

The bottom line: MC has brought together a lot of insights about what people search for and how they search for it. Mobile search isn’t perfect, but volumes are increasing, and so is the pressure on providers to deliver a better experience. And it’s not just about mobile operators any more. The rise of the app stores means publishers and the 75 app stores are well-advised to develop mobile search strategies to deliver people the apps they want – or at least relevant results.

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ARE APPS BEATING SEARCH?: This insightful post from GigaOM draws from a Broadpoint AmTech note and asks if apps are poised to disrupt the standard online search model. The Broadpoint report says search engines derive significant revenues from commerce-related queries (searching for “Amazon” or “eBay”) and suggests that warns that the growth in the usage of mobile apps that take people directly to destinations could be bad news for Google & Co. “If users get in the habit of simply using the Amazon app to search for products or a Fandango app for movies, then Google would be seriously impacted,” the report concludes.

Source

The bottom line: Mobile apps cover the bases to bypass search engines when the purpose of the search is navigational (using the search box as a shortcut) and commercial (looking for a product on Amazon by searching for Amazon first, for example). Sebastian Rupley, who wrote the post, reminds us that Google can likely read the writing on the wall, which is why the search giant is so interested in the “spread of Android-based phones, many of which emphasize its tools and applications, and steer users into its search/ad ecosystem.” It will be interesting to see how all search engines react to the onslaught of mobile apps that make finding and buying stuff with our phones a no-brainer.

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FACEBOOK DOMINATES: We all know that social networking is the number one activity on mobile. A recent ComScore report reveals that search queries on the social networking site (online) grew by a whopping 48 percent between February and March 2010. In its study, which is based on 15.4 billion core searches in the U.S., ComScore also found Google leads with 65.1 percent of the market, down 0.4 percent from February. It was followed by Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask and AOL. Microsoft showed a 7 percent increase after adding mapping and other features.

Source

The bottom line: Read between the lines and this bodes well for social sites and social search via mobile. Facebook, which has more than 400 million active users, is exploding when it comes to search (up 48 percent) on the Internet. Only a matter of time before this trend spreads to mobile, our preferred way to connect with our social networks and information about people who matter most to us on the fly. Meantime, Tech Crunch points out that search growth is slowing. The post concludes: the slowdown “may also be an indication that the search industry is maturing, and the next leg of growth may not kick in until people start searching on their mobile phones in a significant way or something else gives people a reason to search even more than they already do.”

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TAPTU TOUCH WEB REPORTS: This week Taptu releases the fourth in its series of reports analyzing the Mobile Touch Web. To make sure we are all on the same page and to set the stage for the next report findings, here’s a summary of the key takeaways.

• The January Report defined the Touch Web (and the ecosystem emerging around it) and concluded that the Mobile Touch Web had arrived full force. According to the company, which indexes touch-friendly sites and destinations, there were around 326,000 touch-friendly sites in January compared with a total of 180,000 apps across all app stores.
• The February Report takes this a step further, offering a breakdown of the sites that make up the Mobile Touch Web. The report emphasized shopping and services, a major subset of this new Web. In total Taptu counts approx. 83,000 Mobile Touch websites devoted to shopping and services. Why is this significant? Shopping and services accounts for about 26 percent of all sites. The same category accounts for less than 4 percent of apps in app stores. Taptu concludes that commerce is a chief focus on the Mobile Touch Web and will play an important role in its evolution.
• The March Report takes an in-depth look at the Government and Non-Profit sector and its growing presence on the Touch Web. The report highlights some of the leading services from Education institutions such as MIT, the Haiti disaster relief effort from the Charity sector and various local and federal government agencies that are using the Touch Web to reach a mass audience. A surprise: a large number of religious organizations embracing the Mobile Touch Web (a whopping 72 percent of all sites in the Government & Non-Profit segment are faith-based services).

Source: You can download all Taptu reports here: http://taptu.com/metrics/

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AUSTRALIA STATS: This post draws from new Nielsen research to provide numbers on mobile search usage in Australia.

• 73 percent of mobile Internet users conduct searches, compared to 38 percent accessing email and 14 percent checking social media sites
• The figure (73 percent) of people using mobile search was just 30 percent a year ago
• 43 percent of total Australian mobile phone owners have Internet-enabled handsets, though just 29 percent use their mobiles to access the Internet
• Search came out on top of activities conducted on mobile Internet; checking the news and weather, emails, maps and directories, and social networking were also cited as common mobile activities

The report also includes some insights into mobile social networking and the top handsets.

Source

The bottom line: Great to have country-specific stats. Although mobile Internet usage has a way to go, there is a tendency among users to use mobile search to explore all the exciting content at their finger tips. Makes sense that we start off by transferring our online experience to mobile.

Disclaimer: Taptu is an MSG supporter and client.

Comscore says that the iPhone represents a third of those touchscreen devices, while the top ten list is filled with a number of touchscreen featurephones. Source

The bottom line: These numbers shouldn’t be too surprising, as smartphones continue to grow in popularity, and touchscreens make their way into the featurephone segment. Peggy adds: The touch web is here and will likely require content, experiences and mobile search tools to make the most out of it. Watch MSG for more on the touch paradigm and the potential business opportunities for companies that get it right.

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THE NUMBER OF NEW APPLICATIONS STARTED FOR THE ANDROID PLATFORM NEARLY DOUBLED IN OCTOBER, according to mobile analytics firm Flurry. The company, which tracks application and developer activity in app stores and across multiple platforms, says it’s seeing a lot of iPhone developers beginning to work on Android apps.

Android is gaining a lot of momentum as more devices hit the market – particularly in the US, where Verizon Wireless has made quite a splash with its marketing campaign for the Motorola Droid, and is also introducing the HTC Droid Eris. Meanwhile, T-Mobile USA recently announced it would introduce carrier billing and some other measures to try and increase its Android customers’ downloads. Source

The bottom line: Mobile developers will go to where the users are – if the developer and distribution experience is easy and rewarding. Apple and Android are leading the way, while others (notably Nokia’s Ovi and Symbian) still trail behind.

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THE VALUE OF COUPONS REDEEMED VIA MOBILE WILL HIT $6 BILLION WORLDWIDE BY 2014, says Juniper Research. In a new report about mobile coupons and NFC-enabled “smart posters”, the firm says that ARPU from offers from NFC coupons and smart posters will exceed ARPU generated by NFC payments in 5 years.

Juniper says, though, there are some potential stumbling blocks: consumer apathy, lack of willingness to change and consumers having to learn a new payment method. Source

The bottom line: Another confirmation that the mobile device is destined to be a payment device we use at the point of impulse – once we overcome the hurdles, of course. Peggy adds: Look for an in-depth look at this topic and more in the Netsize Guide 2010, a must-read mobile industry almanac available for free download beginning February 2010.

Meanwhile, GetJar, which runs an independent, multi-platform app download site, says it, too, has seen more than 1.5 billion downloads of the 50,000 apps it carries. It says the five most popular apps are Opera Mini; three mobile social networking apps, eBuddy, Nimbuzz and mig33; and Google Maps. Source

The Bottom Line: The attraction of app downloads rolls on, and not just for iPhone users. One question, though: how many of those 1.5 billion apps on iPhones get actively used? Still, in some sense, it’s not that important. The big download figures show what mobile users will do when the browsing, download and installation process is quick and simple – something that can’t be said about many previous attempts at app stores on other platforms.

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INSIGHTS ON MOBILE DATA USAGE. Peggy has passed over some stats from Comscore from the Open Mobile Summit, a top-notch conference and networking opportunity that MSearchGroove is proud to sponsor as a media partner. In fact, MSG will be a sponsor and speaker at the next Open Mobile Summit in November in San Francisco – but more about that later. The figures show some interesting points about mobile media usage, including that a higher percentage of US mobile users are mobile media users (meaning they use browsers or apps, or download media) than Europeans, at 35 percent to 28 percent.

Also, an interesting figure on UK mobile browsing habits: 74 percent of mobile browsers in the UK hit operator portals, but those portals only account for 12.4 percent of all pages viewed. This shows that users are comfortable going off-deck to find the content they want, like Facebook, which alone generates 23 percent of all the mobile page views. Facebook and the other top 20 destinations account for 67 percent of the pages viewed, though Comscore measured 167,000 sites.

Comscore also reports that mobile banner ads continue to be dominated by ads for mobile products. 65 percent of mobile banners in the US are for mobile products, while the figure jumps to 85 percent in the UK.

The Bottom Line: There has been plenty of evidence to document the growth in mobile web use, but these stats illustrate that it’s definitely coming from off-deck sites, at least in the UK. Facebook continually emerges as a top mobile web destination, revealing the desire for mobile users to stay connected to their social networks while they’re away from their PCs.

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ENTERTAINMENT COMPANIES TOP MOBILE ADVERTISERS LIST, according to mobile ad provider Millenial Media. The company has released a report of the top ten industries that are using mobile advertising – excluding mobile apps, ringtones and other downloads, which the previous data point suggests makes up the bulk of the market. Movie, TV, music and video game companies topped the list, followed by telecom companies, “portals”, dating services, retailers, consumer packaged goods companies, the automotive industry, the armed forces, education and travel companies. Source

The Bottom Line: These sorts of stats will likely vary widely based on the ad provider’s network of sites, and other factors, though they do illustrate the breadth of companies that are using mobile advertising. Still, taken in concert with the previous data point, it looks like ads for mobile services and downloads dominate.

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FACEBOOK, TWITTER TOPS AMONG YOUNG BRITISH MOBILE WEB USERS, says a new report from CCS Insight. A survey of more than 1,000 people between 16 and 35 in the UK revealed that more than a third of them regularly access Twitter and/or Facebook from their mobile device. It also found that men are twice as likely to access the mobile web as women, and that young people expect mobile content to be free. Source

The Bottom Line: Again, Facebook’s name pops up as one of the most popular mobile web destinations. That’s not surprising, but the difference in use between women and men is, at least in terms of the size of the gap. This highlights an area in which operators, content providers and handset vendors could do more.

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WHAT DO US CONSUMERS REALLY WANT IN THEIR MOBILE PHONES? A new study from online retailer Wirefly says that US consumers are most interested in basic factors when making a handset purchase, such as size and color, with almost two-thirds saying they were more concerned with these aspects than the high-tech features of a phone. Source

Meanwhile a separate survey from Data Development Worldwide found that 40 percent of US shoppers looking to make a mobile device purchase in the next three months wanted a single device that could handle a variety of tasks, such as a smartphone or netbook.

The Bottom Line: It’s hard to take much away from either one of these surveys, really, apart from a confirmation of the old adage, “different strokes for different folks.” Physical form factors obviously remain very important, but so too is functionality. Witness the reaction this week to the Nokia Surge, a social-networking-centric device that’s being launched on AT&T. Much of the online reaction was to call the device ugly, but its design stems from AT&T’s desire to sell more low-end QWERTY devices – a desire borne out of consumer demand for such devices that can make texting and emailing easier.

Among the overall findings:

• Devices don’t’ matter (much): Users with standard feature phones will use the Web as much or even more than a smartphone user if the mobile Internet experience is good
• There is a ‘long tail’ in the mobile Internet: The top website typically accounts for 5 percent of total mobile page views. The number two site accounts for less than 1 percent of traffic. And the top 500 sites account for only 25-30 percent of all page views
• Sessions vary: 40 percent of mobile internet sessions are under five minutes and 40 percent are over 15 minutes

The report further groups mobile users into ‘tribes’ based on their distinctive user profiles. These are:

• The Business Pro – Dependent on their mobile to be more productive and to handle all their communications
• The Mobile Millennial – Early adopters and young adults with disposable income
• The Connected Kid – Children and teenagers who have grown up with technology from a young age
• The Multitasking Parent – Use their mobile phone to stay in touch and manage family schedules
• The Frugal Fanatic – Cost conscious of spending, usually opting for a free handset

Based on these observations and segmentation the report concludes:

• Multitasking Parents and Mobile Millennials are the most active user populations, generating nearly 2/3 of mobile browsing sessions between them
• Business Pros even with their highly capable devices, generate less mobile browsing sessions than expected. They also use news, sports and information sites twice as much as nearly all other groups and are lowest for social networks
• Mobile Millennial and Connected Kids are by far the heaviest users of social networks
• Frugal Fanatics utilise handset customisation services more than twice as much as any other group
• Connected Kids have far more page views relative to sessions than any other group, indicating they tend to surf more for entertainment purposes
• Source

The bottom line: The Mobile Internet, and indeed many mobile services, would fail to survive and thrive without technical companies such as Novarra, largely unknown to the masses, but which provide critical back-end solutions. Peggy adds: Kudos to Novarra for an excellent report! Not a lot of rocket science here, but an important confirmation of the groups of people on the mobile Web and an overview of what they do. Read between the lines, and you’ll see there is a great deal of untapped value in developing (and branding) life-enabling/life-simplifying services for the Multitasking Parents and Mobile Millennials, who are the most active user populations and – potentially – most responsive to companies that make their lives easier. (I highly recommend you check out my fireside chat with Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland, packed with some surprising business model suggestions, supported by the findings above.)

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LOCAL MOBILE CONTENT ATTRACTS SIGNIFICANT AUDIENCE. Local content views are up 51 percent over the past year, according to comScore figures. Research also reveals that application downloads are leading the growth.  It observes an 83 percent increase in the number of subscribers to local content via applications since March 2008, with text messaging services also outpacing average growth.  The study shows a 72 per cent increase in SMS subscriptions in the 12 months to March 2009.

Meanwhile, browser based access continues to grow at a rate of 34 percent year on year over the same period and, despite the slower growth rate, remains the dominant method for retrieving local content.  It accounted for 63.7 percent of all downloads in March 2009. Earlier research by comScore found younger mobile users tend to retrieve more entertainment content, while older users across Europe usually prefer financial information. Source

The bottom line: These generally encouraging comScore statistics confirm our hunch that applications downloads and mobile Internet usage are on the rise. However, the surge in local mobile content may not reflect a universal trend. It’s likely that the popularity of local content is a product of context. In other words, local content thrives in a handful of large, dense, urban regions where high-speed network coverage and captive audiences are the norm. Peggy adds: These stats also question our assumption that the global giants we know rule the roost. Take Skyrock in France, which is bigger that Facebook can ever hope to be. The popularity and reach of local content – particularly on personal devices such as our mobile phones – is sure to climb.

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MOBILE ADVERTISING FOR MOVIES AND ALCOHOL SET BENCHMARK for industry, according to a study by Amethon Mobile Internet Insight.  The study also states that despite high CTRs, brands should focus on the quality of engagement.

Analysis of traffic to more than 100 mobile advertising sites found that consumers view just over 3 pages per visit for best-in-class campaigns, while the average across all campaigns analyzed was only 1.53 pages. Only 33 percent of consumers venture beyond the first page of mobile campaign sites, which the research says suggests mobile advertising campaigns need more compelling content within the microsite to engage consumers more effectively.

The report found that movie related campaign sites achieve the highest engagement levels, visitors viewing an average of 1.65 pages per visit, a figure that also accounted for a 21 percent share of overall audience. Alcohol campaigns achieved a similar share of audience but suffered from poor engagement, with users often not navigating beyond the age verification page.

Portal and directory service campaigns were the most common (22 percent of all campaigns), but had a relatively low audience share and below-average engagement.  Meanwhile, content downloads such as branded wallpapers or videos in the microsite did not significantly improve engagement. Source

The bottom line: This detailed study of mobile advertising offers insightful statistics to support what many have been saying all along: Advertising must be relevant and engaging.  While it probably comes as no surprise that interest in advertising around films takes the top shot, a lot of work has to be done in the way of creative thought to the landing page and what people do after they click through. This is particularly pertinent in view of the drop off in popularity of wallpapers and video.  The other issue of poor engagement in popular alcohol campaigns, possibly due to age verification process is disappointing but not surprising or uncommon.  I explore age verification issues in more detail in a recent post here.

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40 PERCENT OF USERS ACCESS INTERNET MORE OFTEN ON iPHONE / iPOD TOUCH THAN ON PC, according to a new demographic study from comScore and Admob.  The research also reveals that 69 percent of iPod Touch users are between 13-24 years of age, while the same age segment represents just 26 percent of iPhone users. In total, 74 percent of iPhone users are over the age of 25, compared to 31 percent of iPod touch users. Over 70 percent of users on both the iPhone and iPod touch are male.

Over the next six months, iPhone users are said to be planning to buy clothing (57 percent), entertainment (47 percent), and travel (45 percent), while iPod touch users plan to purchase clothing (61 percent), entertainment (53 percent), and mobile devices (36 percent).

By way of background, the methodology used in this primary research into the demographics and behavioral characteristics of iPhone and iPod touch users in the first half of 2009 is as follows: Participants were visitors to domains within the AdMob iPhone network who were shown survey invitation banners rather than banner ads. Those who clicked through the survey banner were presented with the mobile survey. The total sample size of iPod touch participants is 3,848, while the total number of

participants in the iPhone sample is 3,454. All results were tested for statistically significant differences at the 95 percent confidence level.  Source

The bottom line: As well as the headline that 40 percent of users access the Internet via their mobile device more often than their computer, the other key finding is the age differentiation.  You could surmise from this that teenagers can convince their parents to buy them an iPod touch, but not an iPhone and all its recurring bills. Other findings such as average salary were largely in-line with the age difference.  The ongoing generation of such data is key in the production of applications and the execution of mobile advertising strategies.

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LG EXPECTS NINE PERCENT RISE in mobile sales.  The Korean handset manufacturer has said it will sell 110 million devices this year, despite a flat global market. The company has also said this figure will rise to more than 200 million by 2012. Source

The bottom line: Handset manufacturers marginalized, at least in publicity terms, by the “bigger” names now have an uphill task to continue producing new quality devices which will gain mass market penetration and to effectively promote their core differentiators.  These bullish projections are encouraging signs of a still highly competitive marketplace.

This has been widely heralded as Vodafone’s venture into the app store market.  Only after the APIs are released to developers will it be any easier to tell if Vodafone has a good chance of emulating the success of Apple’s original. (Source)

The bottom line: Betavine, Vodafone’s open source developer community will also need to play a key role in feeding out information and supporting developers.

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VODAFONE MOBILE AD RESULTS: Vodafone announced on Wednesday that it had fulfilled its ambition to open up mobile advertising services to 18 operating company markets in the last 18 months. It reports strong revenue growth from mobile advertising services was experienced during 2008/9, and plans to continue the roll out, expanding the type of mobile advertising services and their reach.

Over the last year, Vodafone Marketing Solutions has run over 2000 campaigns across its global footprint for hundreds of global brands. According to Vodafone, these brands are enjoying considerable success with mobile banner campaigns and newer mobile advertising formats such as branded content, sponsored alerts, opt-in push messaging and advertising on service based text messages.

Vodafone says it will continue to invest in its advertising offering over the coming year by adding to its global reach through affiliates and partners- “including operators such as mobilkom, Proximus, Vodacom, and China Mobile” – and by seeking to extend the number, type and effectiveness of its advertising service portfolio. (Source)

The bottom line: These developments in mobile advertising can only be good for a still nascent, yet evidently burgeoning market with many new technologies to explore. As the technologies and partnerships develop, together with mobile Internet usage and penetration of sophisticated handsets, so will the numbers exposed to mobile advertising.

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ORANGE TRAFFIC: Orange revealed record mobile Internet traffic levels. As a study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) showed, the U.K. mobile ad market was worth GBP28.6 million in 2008.

The Orange World portal counted 3.25 million unique users between December and February 2009, a 26 percent increase on its previous Orange Digital Media Index (ODMI) study for the three months from July 2008.

Social networking continued to gain popularity, averaging more than 940,000 monthly unique visitors to sites such as Bebo and Facebook, each viewing an average of 397 pages a month. (Source)

The bottom line: This goes to show that mobile Internet traffic is strong outside the top two operators, with mobile Internet consumers increasingly happy to mimic their PC-browsing habits on the smaller screen. The statistics do seem generally skewed to a younger demographic.  It would be interesting to see increased demographic granularity on these browsing statistics, and discover where older age groups head to for their mobile internet content.

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IN-APP ADVERTISING:  In-application up-selling is set to exceed $14billion by 2014, according to the latest Juniper Research report. Juniper says the “fremium” business model, in which free-to-download applications are monetized through subsequent micropayments from within the application, will become increasingly prevalent.

The iPhone is set to support in-app billing later this year as part of its operating system v3.0 upgrade, and Juniper expects other app stores to follow suit. (Source)

The bottom line: It should be interesting to observe the support in-app billing receives and how it is adopted.  We are currently asked to pay to upgrade an application to the full advertising-free version, but this will ask us to pay to unlock new content such as the next level of a mobile game, or the most up-to-date video highlights of a match. Will it be an interruptive nuisance and create a negative user experience; or provide a compelling value added benefit to already appreciated applications?  Watch this space, and check out this post for more commentary.

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U.K. MOBILE AD SPEND:  The U.K. mobile advertising spend rose to GBP28.6 million ($44 million) in 2008, higher than expected, according to a study from the digital marketing trade body Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

• Spending doubled in size on a like for like basis in 2008, jumping 99.2 percent year on year
• Mobile ad spend was divided evenly between mobile display advertising (49.8 percent) and paid-for-search advertising on the mobile web 50.2 percent.
• Mobile display, including banners, text links, tenancies pre/post roll and in game ads, accounted for £14.2 million ($22 million) in 2008
• Paid-for search reached an estimated GBP14.4 million ($22 million).

The larger than anticipated spend was put down to several factors: A bigger audience, a better mobile user experience, increased mobile Internet usage – especially in social networking, better handsets, and growing mobile departments in U.K. media agencies. (Source)

Following a similar theme, comScore’s M:Metrics reported last Friday that 45 percent more U.K. advertisers ran mobile Internet banner campaigns in the six-month period ending March 2009, compared to the six months prior.

The bottom line: These statistics illustrate that far from being a neglected medium, U.K. brands are committing budget to targeted mobile advertising, which is reaching an ever-increasing audience. If many of these are only still trials and the total spends remain modest, then the figures produced when brands properly begin campaigns should make for compelling reading.

The 450+ attendees at Think Mobile that descended on NYC in March can count themselves lucky. We were treated to an excellent line-up of 60+ top-notch speakers, chosen by my esteemed colleague Matthew Snyder, Founder & CEO of ADObjects, a strategic cross-media consultancy, for their insights, ideas, and willingness to share both. Feedback from my panel on Mobile Search & SEO has been overwhelmingly positive, in part because Matthew and I brainstormed and purposely brought together an eclectic mix of individuals passionate about their work and the mobile industry at large.

I was so impressed by the caliber of speakers (Michael Slinger, Manager, Google: Rachel Pasqua, Director, Mobile Strategy, iCrossing; and David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy at 360i) that I have decided to showcase each individually on MSG. (I had the opportunity to do a video interview with David and will be back with more on that, and his views on social media and mobile search, once the bnetTV team has edited the footage and posted in the video player in the sidebar.)

Today I kick off this “mini-series” with Bob Rosenschein, Answers Corporation CEO and mobile search “guru” (my description- he’s far too modest). The company’s social search service WikiAnswers.com has seen some stellar growth, according to comScore. In March, the measurement and market research firm reported that WikiAnswers.com U.S. unique visitors reached nearly 19 million in January 2009, compared to 729,000 in December 2006. During this time period, WikiAnswers.com’s market share increased from 4 percent to nearly 35 percent, vs. Yahoo! Answers, based on U.S. unique visitors. Overall, WikiAnswers.com was identified as the fastest growing top 200 U.S. domain for all of 2008.

Another milestone: Answers Corporation counted 10 million questions in the WikiAnswers.com Q&A database. (Answers Corporation acquired the WikiAnswers.com database in 2006, and since then questions have increased over 35-fold.) As Bruce D. Smith, Chief Strategic Officer of Answers Corporation, who leads the Community Development team, put it in a recent release: The WikiAnswers community is “experiencing exciting growth,” with over 500 volunteer supervisors and millions of contributors, supported by our 12-member Community Development Team.

Social search meets mobile? Regular readers will know I am excited about this combination. (In fact, I commented on this emerging business model in recent-release white papers from mobile search companies Taptu and abphone.) In view of WikiAnswers.com’s increasing popularity, I decided to take a closer look at the company’s future roadmap. I caught up with Bob to get the inside track on his company’s mobile ambitions, discuss the key criteria for an optimal mobile search experience, and the role of mobile advertising in the scheme of things.

Listen to the podcast. [16:18]

By way of background, Answers Corporation, founded in 1998, was formerly known as GuruNet. It changed its name to Answers Corporation in 2005. The company is best known as the owner of the popular social knowledge Q&A site WikiAnswers.com, and the “encyclodictionalmanacapedia” Answers.com. Answers is a Google AdSense partner, meaning thatAnswers.com and WikiAnswers.com show Google performance ads on their pages.

WIKIANSWERS.COM: It’s a fast-mover. “On WikiAnswers, people type in the questions; other people answer them; and hopefully, over time, we get the best possible answers. Our goal is to give the best answers anywhere on the Web, for any kind of question.”

MOBILE SEARCH: Bob can’t give specifics and I respect that. But he can give us an indication of what is in the pipeline. As he put it: “I will say that the area of delivering our answers on mobile is obviously of enormous interest to us this year and next year.” While companies can tailor their services to specific platforms and devices, Bob doesn’t recommend it and hints that his company is focused on “adapting our product lines over time to work on all of the mobile devices, and of course we mean smartphones, but not only smartphones — anything with a Web browser.”

OPTIMAL USER EXPERIENCE: Quick answers in fewer clicks is the algorithm for mobile search success. “We believe that there’s too much information overload.” The problem is that search engines are really good at searching the Web, but what do they deliver? “A page of links; of links to other sites, but you know what? The mobile world still has slow browsers….If you get a list of links to pages that are mobile pages, you’re almost afraid to click on one of them. How do you know if it’s going to be a 5 second page or a 25 second page?” You don’t know. “Our goal is to give people useful information in fewer clicks. And so that’s actually a very good hint towards how we see the mobile world evolving and what we think we might be able to add to it.”

MOBILE SEO: Is the end-game about delivering answers on the go? If so, then what is the potential impact on SEO? In a word: Profound. Bob points out that Google’s introduction of a canonical element aimed at assisting SEO clearly recognizes mobile content is different from the Web. “In other words, you can now make a page that exists in different forms, give it a canonical name, and tell Google that this is the canonical page. This is the real page, and all these other things are just adaptations of it for different user experiences and phone factors, especially mobile. So, Google is being advised that this is the same page as another page in a legitimate fashion such that it doesn’t hurt SEO.

PUBLISHER TIPS: Brand is everything, which is why companies must deliver a quality user experience that begins with the basics, such as presentation. “Users will have even less patience on a small device. You have to get it right and it’s a really different ballgame in terms of presentational dynamics.” Google and Yahoo will continue to be important, and I think the challenges for the rest of us [will be] to find our place in this new world…. [It] will boil down to user experience. In the words of Tim O’Reilly; ‘How do we get users to visit our content in an age where they are free to choose content?’

MONETIZATION & MOBILE ADS: Google changed the rules when it introduced text ads on their pages that didn’t look like text ads. “Google zagged when everybody else was zigging, and they did something very brilliant.” But the real lesson we must apply to mobile is relevancy.  ”It is attractive to the user; it’s more trustworthy. But if that weren’t enough, it is informative and not interruptive.” But even relevant ads might not convince users to accept mobile advertising, according to recent research from Nielsen Mobile (via Citi Investment Research, a division of Citigroup Global markets). Bob was kind enough to share a short excerpt and some surprising stats from the client report, written by analyst Mark Mahaney. Under the heading: “There is a material consumer resistance to mobile advertising,” Mahaney states privacy concerns and users’ skepticism are holding back mobile advertising in the U.S.

Meanwhile, we learn from the Thanh Nien Daily that mobile advertising is booming in Vietnam. Quoting Aaron Cross, managing director of The Nielsen Company in Vietnam, who spoke at a two-day conference on Integrated Marketing in Vietnam which wrapped up last Friday in Ho Chi Minh City, the post reports (according to the Nielsen Mobile Insights Survey 2008) almost half of mobile owners in Vietnam receive advertisements via SMS each month.

The majority of those ads are read by consumers. The survey also said 74 percent of people in HCMC and Hanoi, the country’s two economic hubs, own a mobile phone. Over half (58 percent) of the country’s urban population, and a third (37 percent) of rural residents own cell phones. But the way isn’t clear for mass marketing yet. Cross pointed out the new anti-spam government decree, which took effect last month in Vietnam, protects consumers from receiving unwanted messages on their mobile phones. However, cost-conscious Vietnamese consumers are open to “hot deals and great value to relieve pressure from their monthly budgets.”

Mobile advertising is also gaining traction in Japan. This post, quoting Tom Bowman, BBC.com’s VP international ad sales who spoke at the Digital Symposium hosted by Habari Media last week in the Western Cape, argues consumers are “almost twice as receptive to mobile advertising as to magazine advertising, making it the highest priority for prospective advertisers.”

WHAT’S NEXT?: The industry has to sort out business models. Is it sponsorship? Is it an animated display ad? Or is it some kind of click-through only on performance ads? “But I’m going to say something very flippant now: “Who cares? …It’s a branding opportunity… and sometimes you subsidize one part of your business with another.” Bob would rather “get the service right and figure out how to monetize later.”

Special thanks to Alison Minaglia at Technology PR for the image of Bob addressing the ThinkMobile audience!