Long Tail » mobilegroove

Wrapping up an exciting mobile search white paper project this week with Peggy Albright, founder of Albright Research and MSG research associate. We can't give away too much before the formal launch next week, but the research - which evaluates Google, Vlingo (Yahoo) and ChaCha - has also drawn our attention to social search, the Achilles heel of universal search engines Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. (In fact, a comparison between mobile answers/search services ChaCha and Google SMS, ChaCha achieved 70 percent of Google's SMS search volume in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to data from the Q4 Mobile Messaging Report from The Nielsen Company.) While a new report from Bernstein Research may argue that (at least in the US) Google wins the mobile search battle hands-down on the strength of its brand, I believe that other factors (specifically, the quality of the user experience and the tie-up between mobile search and mobile social networking), will pave the way for other companies (and business models). BTW: I am scheduled for a podcast interview this week with Jeffrey Lindsay, Senior Analyst, Bernstein Research, to discuss the key findings of his milestone report, Google, IAC, Yahoo!: Mobile Internet - the Next Advertising marathon - Google and Yahoo! Moving to Front of Pack. In the meantime, I recommend you read Dianne See Morrison's worthwhile summary post at MoCoNews. In my view, social search - search that enables people to add their personal knowledge, opinions, and experiences to search results - has arrived in full force in online. (The market is already teeming with people-powered search engines - ranging from Wikipedia, which recently took the wraps off Wikia, a search service that combines computer-driven algorithms and human-assisted editing to Mahalo, a company building - and paying - contributor communities to direct searchers to relevant results, to nimble newcomers like NosyJoe, a private beta social search engine that relies on people to "sniff the Web for interesting content.") The mobile phone - a personal device we have with us at all times - represents the next frontier for social search.

An exclusive interview with Noam Raffaelli, managing director of Plaza for Qualcomm Internet Services, and a look at Qualcomm's upcoming and exclusive event during Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. I am honored to participate in the Plaza Mobile Internet Forum in Barcelona (my presentation explores mobile Internet strategies and what media companies can do to take advantage of the widget opportunity). But the real news is the crowd of major publishers and brands, including Amazon, Turner Broadcasting System, and Universal McCann, I will address, and a special guest whose identity I have promised to not yet divulge. In the course of conducting interviews with some 35 industry movers and shakers for the Netsize Guide - an in-depth analysis of the mobile industry - I learned that, across the board, senior executives viewed the march of Internet giants such as Google into mobile, and the advance of handset makers such as Apple and Nokia into content and apps, as more of a cause for concern than celebration. Qualcomm takes a different approach, crafting a one-of-a-kind mobile Internet strategy that allows mobile operators to control their own apps store - and their destiny. What's next for Qualcomm? In the run up to Mobile World Congress (MWC), I caught up with Noam Raffaelli, managing director of Plaza for Qualcomm Internet Services, to discuss the evolution of Plaza (and how it can be leveraged as a monetization platform); the role of widgets; and the increased focus on mobile advertising. Special thanks to Richard George, Qualcomm account manager at Hill & Knowlton, for arranging the briefing.