The explosion in app stores and off-portal browsing are changing all the rules, pushing content discovery (and the search for solutions to make finding stuff easier) to the top of the agenda. This came across in my own on-going research (dating back to 2005) and the industry-first report I wrote on the topic at the time, aptly titled Mobile Search & Content Discovery.
Back then content owners and mobile operators alike complained about content discovery shortcomings, ones that no mobile search services could solve for a myriad of reasons I outlined during my recent mobile search masterclass.
Fast forward to (almost) 2010, and it's shaping up to be an exciting time indeed, with recommenders (finally) taking center stage. Industry interest is high and this has prompted
December 15, 2009
Tags: Content Discovery, discoverability, Recommendation, recommenders, Xiam
Posted in Featured, Mobile Research, Personalization, Recommendation | 1 Comment »
Author: Alfred DeRose | Tego Interactive
It's Retail 101 again in mobile. We thought we saw (and learned) it all in the heyday of the mobile operator portals, but it's all coming back if we examine the recent wave of app stores. From handset makers turned content/services providers (Nokia and Apple) to platform providers (Android), and from mobile operators (Vodafone and Telefónica) to independent app emporiums (GetJar) – the excitement is all about software applications stores, but the usability is hardly a crowd-pleaser.
What needs to be done to make content findable and buyable? How (and why) should our experience on mobile complement our experience online? And where does the user fit in? It's just common sense, really. Smart retailers make shopping a no-brainer by placing hot-selling items where consumers can see them. Mobile operators and content providers, on the other hand, forced users to navigate through multiple menus and sift through catalogues to find content they like.
