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Mobile Search Analyst headlines


Mobile Search Analyst December 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

Is MyMedia Net the Trojan horse of on-device portals?
Analysis of mobile content services has found that speed, latency and click time have all hindered the uptake of mobile data services. Three years ago on-device portal companies made.....


There are different routes to federated mobile search – is one better than the others?
What is the difference between MCN and Medio System’s approach to federated Search?.....


What is Tesco doing so right in the UK’s mobile market?
Tesco is the UK’s biggest supermarket chain and in November opened its sixth Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Store in the US. In the UK, it offers finance and insurance, as well as groceries,.....


A closer look at the JumpTap Alltel US BREW user interface
After being critical of the JumpTap user interface for WAP on Alltel’s service, I was eager to test the BREW interface. The difference is amazing – the BREW experience is very much better......



Mobile Search Analyst November 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

The cost of mobile search
Mobile operators are trialling and deploying mobile search solutions and services globally. Pilots are changing constantly.


Yahoo!’s advertising vision is clouded
BKI Media has continually argued that Yahoo!’s different strategic paths obscures what it is trying to achieve in the mobile market – to the outside world and it seems within the company too.


Yahoo! Answers are integrated into oneSearch
oneSearch has been commended as one of the best mobile search services, but it still has shortcomings.


InfoSpace (Virgin Mobile) vs Microsoft/Motion Bridge (Orange)
The problems of mobile data user interface are well documented. The following is a pictoral analysis of how vendors and operators have tackled issues of user interface and where or how the search box is positioned is key to uptake and repeated use.


Is Nuance succeeding where others have failed in voice control?
Using speech to make data services easier to use or to control text messaging and dialling are seen as becoming a “must haves” on every mobile operator’s platform.


Microsoft Mobile 6 and Live Search – a view from San Francisco
This might sound like common sense, but after testing Live Search on an HTC device, rather than an Orange SPV handset, the user interface and experience improves remarkably.



Mobile Search Analyst October 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

Overview: Orange Converged Search services (Mobile, PC and Desktop) from Microsoft/ Motion Bridge
Orange’s strategy for mobile data is to create a mobile experience as close to the online one as possible.This means that surfing on Orange.co.uk in terms of content is similar to surfing on the SPV Microsoft/Motion Bridge version of mobile search.


Nokia’s new on device search vs Abaxia’s Idle screen search on Orange
On-device search is heating up with Qix (ZiCorp), Discovery (Tegic) and now Nokia and Abaxia also adding idle screen search. It is adding a new dimension to handsets, which might provide a cash cow for those vendors and operators that are quick to add it to their service portfolios.


Nokia’s Mobile Search and Internet strategy expands
Nokia is intensifying its focus on mobile search and the Internet in a move to win market share in the stand-alone (rather than bought from a mobile operator) market. The launch of Ovi and several new discovery features for Nokia’s search will infuriate mobile carriers.


MCN purchases Caboodle’s recommendation technology and signs up True Phone for mobile search
Having won USD 10 million funding earlier this year, then moved the corporate HQ to Japan, MCN search is proving to be a stronger than anticipated competitor.


Search & share vs search & tagging (Taptu vs Mobiseer)
Mobile search company Nubiq has two complementary strands to its business. One is to create free .mobi WAP sites for consumers and the other is a mobile text and tagging search engine to discover mobi WAP sites. Nubiq is currently testing its Mobiseer search engine in BETA.


Interview with John Markus Lervik CEO of Fast Search & Transfer
BKI Media was unsure about the new partnership between Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) and Rakuten in Japan. After talking to John Markus Lervik, CEO of FAST, Bena Roberts realised that FAST has a trump card up its sleeve.



Mobile Search Analyst September 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

T-Mobile’s Mobile Internet
T-Mobile relies on not one, but five different search engines for its mobile Internet offering. Is this a case of flexibility or inconsistency and a usability meltdown?


Mobile share – Is this the next essential addition to any mobile search solution? (Or is this the mobile share economy?)
Sharing content is the latest trend in communities and any vendor or operator that is not looking at offering mobile share services could be at a serious competitive disadvantage.


Does Taptu have a competitive advantage?
Taptu is an ambitious mobile search start-up looking to launch itself into an already fiercely competitive market. While existing mobile search companies are tending to specialise – in search, advertising supported/funded search and/or other sources of revenue – and partner to provide a wider range of services, Taptu is going it alone.


AOL Mobile Search BETA – the verdict
AOL has revamped its search section of the AOL Mobile portal. At first the changes seem insignificant. Further investigation revealed that AOL has created a managed mobile search experience by adding Quick Navigation and results that constantly link back to the AOL search box or the mobile portal home page....


Why did Fast Search & Transfer purchase AgentArts?
Fast Search & Transfer has acquired mobile recommendation provider AgentArts. Fast Search is a white label mobile search provider that partners InfoSpace and mobilePeople to target specific mobile sectors. So what will its acquisition bring to the party? Was it a good move?





Mobile Search Analyst July 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

Part 3: Idle Screen Analysis: Celltick deployments vs rest of world
The idle screen has taken centre stage in 2007. There are approaching ten different, commercial deployments in western Europe (see Idle Screen part 1 in the May issue), but arguably the real action is in Russia and Asian countries, where Celltick has carved a sizeable niche for itself............


Purple Ace: innovative recommendation that is way ahead of the market
There was a lot of hype in 2005 around recommendation strategies and Purple Ace was seen as an important player. Its product portfolio consists of the Discover 2.0 solution, which was built on a proprietary Clustered Hybrid Collaborative Prediction (CHCP) technology.


InfoSpace re-launches itself with mCore
InfoSpace has revamped itself and at the heart of the transformation is mCore, its new platform for delivering portal, storefront, search, messaging and managed web services to operators. In June InfoSpace extended its relationship with Virgin Mobile UK and Verizon in the US. Virgin Mobile uses InfoSpace’s unified platform of services including search. Verizon, on the other hand, uses InfoSpace’s portal and storefront services, but not its search function.


Is Fastsearch and Transfer stuck in mobile's slow lane?
Mike Brady, senior director, business development, with Fast Search & Transfer explains new development and why mobile is only part of a much bigger picture to BKI Media’s Annie Turner....


Nuance takes the mobile voice control market by storm
BKI Media has been watching Nuance closely for the past year and the vendor is making strategic decisions in mobile with the intention of becoming the de facto leader in more than just voice search. Nuance’s aim is to dominate in multi-modal technologies and services. Its recent acquisition of Tegic brings text input to the party and adds to the acquisition frenzy that has seen Nuance engulf VoiceSignal, BeVocal and Mobile Voice Control....


Federated Mobile Search Part Three
BKI Media’s initial impression of mobilePeople was that it is a very small player, focused primarily on local search. The company has other ideas, arguing that it is a full, white label search player, specialising in the media and directory market. mobilePeople boasts “over nine” deployments in this field, most notably Yell.com in the UK, Sensis in Australia and the media/news agency Schibsted in Norway....


GoMo News
Lunch with Orange and Abaxia,Breakfast with 3,MCN-Inc and Tribeworks/ Atlas Technology sign agreement,YFonGlobal gets wynd behind it for social network with click-to-call



Mobile Search Analyst June 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

JumpTap vs Medio Revisited
Intense competition in mobile search has lead to a diverse and more threatening competitive landscape. The uptake and movements in the sector over the past six months have been a reaction to fresh interest in search from both operators and entertainment companies. Operators are rethinking the branded vs white label argument and entertainment companies such as CNN, CBS, FOX, Sky and Coca-Cola are all looking to launch vital new revenue streams through mobile portals and mobile search forms a crucial part of this...


JumpTap vs Medio Systems: The User Interface
Mobile search companies are aiming to expand in all directions over the next six months. The pressure is on because successful mobile search is the goal of operators and mobile entertainment companies, both of whom are seeking a competitive edge. Design will become as important to those using mobile search as the number of clicks needed to do what they want, hence there is intense focus on the user interface...


The new Vodafone live! vs The New OrangeWorld: an analytical visual review
Vodafone has concocted a PC to mobile strategy for the new Vodafone live! While Orange World is focusing on the personalisation of its entire portal. Both are looking to mobile advertising to bring new revenue streams, but only one of these strategies is bullet-proof. Someone is going to have to overhaul its mobile portal again sooner rather than later...


Part II The Idle Screen: Motorola Screen3 vs Nokia Active Idle/ Ad Connector
The idle screen has huge potential. It's captured the attention of the mobile market and is set to revolutionise the way we discover content...


Part II Federated Mobile Search Analysis Targetize
Targetize is one of the few mobile search companies that also creates mobile portals. This means that it can create search experiences throughout the portal and not only from the search box...


mPortal - how customer experience is reshaping mobile
DP Venkatesh, founder and CEO of mPortal, talks to BKI Media's Annie Turner about the soaring importance of the user experience, the idle screen's role in getting it right and why the i-Phone is changing operators' agendas...


GoMo News
Mobile local search is a hit close to home, Google spokesperson mute on new Vodafone and Google rumours, T-Mobile chat with Web 'n' walk Guru...



Mobile Search Analyst May 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

The Mobile Search Definition Cheat Sheet
Vertical search, meta search, federated search, clustered search and natural language search are hitting the headlines daily; but what are they and what do they mean for mobile? In the internet space meta search and federated search are often interchanged; but BKI Media do not believe this is the case in mobile. Instead, there is a much clearer definition between meta search and federated search in the mobile environment...


MCN-Inc Federated Mobile Search Company Niche Solutions in Japan and Europe
The one brand, one philosophy strategy from mobile operators is slowly being replaced by diversity, which, in mobile search, means being able to introduce, push and reflect services to users in the simplest fashion. As a result of this...


On-device discovery and content search (Qix vs Discovery vs MobiFindIt)
A great weakness of mobile search and discovery has been finding mobile content downloaded by the user on to the mobile device. Default settings for saving content vary on mobile devices and consumers often struggle to find and access their downloaded goodies...


Google vs Yahoo: war of attrition for the best branded search
Google’s answer to Yahoo! Go’s new mobile browser is weak attempt to re-channel its mobile search solution. It is as if Google is trying to downplay the new mobile search to create a quieter and more meaningful mobile search buzz, in great contrast to Yahoo!’s bullish marketing...


Mobile Search Analysis: Windows Mobile Live
BKI Media found the Nokia search experience disappointing, but Windows Live Mobile wins first prize for a poor, inconsistent user experience. Microsoft’s multi-brand strategy is confusing and results vary, depending on the field of the mobile search. Microsoft is touting different brands via the same mobile search portal range from MSN to Messenger, from MSNBC to Live. There is no clear differentiation and the number of mobile search boxes within the Live portal is bewildering...


MSN discovers local success with RoundTown
MSN has started outsourcing many of its mobile services to specialist third parties in an attempt to grow fast by offering best of breed new services to consumers. In the UK, MSN has outsourced its location services portal RoundTown to Mobile Commerce. Last month we looked at the services Mobile Commerce provides for Vodafone and found they looked dated; the MSN portal is a different experience altogether. It proves that Mobile Commerce can offer an excellent...


Microsoft: Deep Fish
On March 28, Microsoft unveiled a new mobile technology, called Deepfish, designed to offer mobile users quick and convenient Web browsing that more closely resembles the experience of browsing the Web on desktop computers. To learn more Deepfish technology and how it will improve Web browsing for mobile users, we spoke with Dr. Gary William Flake, a Microsoft Technical Fellow and the founder and director of Microsoft Live Labs...


The Idle Screen Radar
Mobile search is not only about browsing and surfing the mobile Internet. It is coupled with navigating the mobile device as well as the ability to push mobile services directly to the consumer through idle screen technology.


Mobile Operator Idle Screen Deployments
The idle screen is the current buzz word, but it is not new. Deployments started as early as 2003. Some mobile operators have embraced the services (Alltel, for example) and have been successful. Others pushed idle screen alongside existing services (such as AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular) have done less well with it.


GoMo News
icrossing says consumers stick with big search engine brands, Mobile Search Conference: Is Google faking it?, Panel Debate Mobile Search Conference, London



Mobile Search Analyst April 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

What is mobile local search?
Mobile local search is the discovery of the local environment. This means places of interest, businesses and products, or events in the vicinity. Mobile local search is different to mobile search in that maps and directions are desired rather than ringtones and full track downloads...


Mobile Commerce vs m-spatial
Have mobile operators seen the writing on the wall? Some argue that the carriers have finally realised that mobile location and mobile search aren't money spinners and hidden them in the mobile portal maze...


Nokia becomes an Advertiser
There is plenty of room for more mobile advertisers in the growing ad market place. With existing mobile content sites such as nokia.mobi that services 100 million hits per month in 120 countries, Nokia is in a strong position to inject advertising into its existing mobile network and has an army of content suppliers that it can collaborate with. Content is key and the right, dynamic WAP sites are essential for pushing mobile adverts...


X-Series, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Go - what a disappointment
The X-Series has been described as the best thing from Asia to hit Europe since curry. We don't agree and were greatly disappointed. Asia is the leader in the mobile Internet space and consumers there surf with their phones regularly, but mobile operators' attempts to recreate the Asian experience in Europe have failed...


What is a mobile browser?
Dictionary definition: A microbrowser (sometimes minibrowser or mobile browser) is a web browser designed for use on a handheld device such as a PDA or mobile phone. Microbrowsers are optimised to display Internet content most effectively on the small screens of portable devices and have small file sizes to accommodate the low memory ...


InfoGin vs Novarra
InfoGin and Novarra have two completely different methods of tackling the mobile browser. InfoGin commands unique technology that renders all web pages mobile-ready and categorises content. Novarra, on the other hand, prefers to offer the same experience on mobile as online...


GoMo News on Mobile Search
GoMo News Edgy Wireless News from BKI Media featured over 30 articles on Mobile Search in March 2007. This is one of the most comprehensive new databases for information on the hottest topic in mobile. Companies covered include: Microsoft, Medio Systems, JumpTap, NellyMoser, Infospace, Voicesignal, Yahoo!, UpSNAP, myStrands, Askmenow and Tappity...



Mobile Search Analyst March 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

Fastsearch vs Infospace
Fastsearch vs Infospace is largely a tale about the blind leading the blind. Both have been carried away with the Internet side of the equation and failed to carve a strong enough proposition on the mobile side to fend off competition, particularly from the big internet brands like Google...


Opera Mini Analysis
We downloaded the Opera Mini on to a Motorola V1050 3G device running on the Vodafone network in Germany. The download time for the browser was less than 20 seconds. We also signed up for the service via email...


12 things you need to know about local search
BKI Media's Annie Turner first wrote about location-based services (LBS) for the International Herald Tribune in 2000. They were set to be the killer app once WAP was available. Seven years later, they've failed to make any real impact on the mobile market. So what went wrong and will their...


Nokia Mobile Search
Nokia has been a driver of mobile search for a few years now. It's invested heavily into mobile search and recently announced some enhancements to its services. Unfortunately, Nokia's mobile search always sounds better than it is. Promises outstrip reality. Even when the services work, they only do half the job or fail to fulfil expectations...


Targetize Mobile Search and Interview
Search and discovery have often been such a disappointment that's it's exasperating to find a technology that works well, but isn't widely available. BKI Media saw a brief, impressive demonstration of Targetize's search technology at 3GSM...


The SDP (Service Delivery Platform) Alliance
At 3GSM one of the quietest launches was of an extremely relevant and important new collaboration. A group of Irish companies has teamed up to launch a new Service Delivery Platform (SDP) Alliance.The group, as the name suggests, aims to reduce the costs of implementing and establishing an SDP for...


Mobile Search News
Nuance buys BeVocal Inc ,Taptu introduces new mobile search engine at 3GSM ,3GSM update GoMo News on mobile search and more...



Mobile Search Analyst February 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

Yahoo! Go Analysis
Watch out Google and AOL as Yahoo! shifts into fifth gear on mobile with oneSearch. The all new Yahoo! Go is a mini widget heaven with stylish carousel navigation that makes search and surfing simpler and faster. BUT, it took three attempts to download and then we had to install it on a US device to get it to work and it cost us a fortune...


Competitive Intelligence: Mobile Answers
Answers is the buzz word around mobile search, knocking discovery off the top perch. Slowly but surely answers is becoming the way to engage customers. There are several SMS search and answer services such a 4Info SMS search, 82Ask, AQA (Ask Any Question), Askmenow and the mobile version of Yahoo! Answers from the Internet...


4Info Mobile Search Engine Analysis
At CES 2007 in Las Vegas, SMS search company 4Info launched a Mobile Search Engine with "Single-Click" answers. We put the search engine to the test. Our attempts to download the search failed. We used a Motorola V1050 device on the Vodafone Germany GPRS network as we couldn't get a 3G connection in Rheinland Pfalz. After logging into live! we went to the...


Guest Article: The Developing World by Celltick
With emerging markets across Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe commanding a more active role in the mobile industry, Stephen Dunford, CEO of Celltick, looks at the drivers behind innovation and the lessons ‘developed' countries can learn...


T-Mobile and Medio Systems: the real importance of the deal
It's easy to dismiss T-Mobile's deal with Medio Systems as a step backwards for T-Mobile, but that would be both unfair and untrue. Rather, T-Mobile is finally taking control of its own mobile search services and entering the battle to lead in the mobile Internet...


Yellow Pages Mobile Analysis
Access to the Yellow Pages mobile site took about 5 seconds to download. The navigation menu was clear and simple and the colour scheme fresh. Navigation of the different criteria was simple and self-explanatory...


Idle Screen Search Wins: Fastsearch wins MTS contract
Earlier this year, I predicted that Fastsearch would be frustrated by its performance in the mobile search arena. Its licence model is a tougher sell than some revenue share plans. Also, Fastsearch expects the customer company to know what they want and then bend the white label platform to meet these needs...


The lowdown: looking for search companies in Barcelona
The Action Engine Mobile Application Platform from Action Engine Corporation introduces a client/server approach to discovering mobile content. The company says this approach requires 80% fewer keystrokes and drives 20x faster response times than alternatives...


Visual Mobile Search Picapage
Picapage is the mobile only search solution available on Windows Mobile 5 (WM5) devices and Symbian 9.1, 9.2. The company has been operating a beta service for a few months now and has just launched its services in a low key way...


Mobile Search News January 2007
4info free alerts to Spark community members , Mobile Communities and Mobile Search: The .Mobi Saviour?, MCN white label search attack, Yell.Com gets Mobile, China starts searching the minfo way...



Mobile Search Analyst January 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

Jumptap vs Medio Systems
Mobile search is vital for mobile operators. It is not yet a source of income from the mobile Internet, but it will soon become THE source of income. Mobile search makes mobile advertising, recommendation, digital content and discovery possible...


O2 Ireland Mobile Portal
O2 Ireland has chosen Irish company Trust 5 to power its new O2 Active mobile search. Harnessing mobile search is achieved in a number of ways. Some operators prefer the glitzy branded experience, while others aim to drive value to services using local expertise. O2 Ireland has chosen local expertise...


Airwide Interview
Jay Seaton, CMO at Airwide Solutions and Vince Kadar, CTO of Airwide Solutions, tell bki:media's Annie Turner what needs to happen next for mobile social networking and marketing to fulfil their potential. The company provides software to manage and track mobile marketing campaigns...


AOL Mobile Search Analysis
Device Sony Ericsson K610i on T-Mobile 3G Network : After typing in the URL, it took less than 3 seconds to download the page and all the graphics. We didn't get off to a brilliant start, as the first mobile search service timed out, but after some teething trouble the portal performance improved and an easy to navigate...


Hot Buttons EnPocket Interview Mike Baker
Predictive analytics are search's catalytic converter:Mike Baker, CEO and President of Enpocket talks to bki:media's Annie Turner about his company's role as mobile advertising market maker and why big brand search engines aren't automatic winners on mobile...


Hot Buttons Yahoo! Connected Life - Why size matters in monetising search
PGeraldine Wilson heads up Yahoo!'s global business unit, Life Connected. in Europe. She argues that size does matter in the scramble to monetise mobile search...


GoMo News: Edgy Wireless News
T-Mobile has signed up for Zi Corporation's Qix mobile search and discovery service. We first wrote about this here and we guessed T-Mobile was the operator. Qix is an embedded software solution that provides intelligent interfaces on mobile devices. It will be available on 25,000 T-Mobile Nokia N70 mobile devices. More devices are expected follow in 2007...



Mobile Search Analyst December 2006 - HeadlinesRSS

What are On Device Portals?
On device portals (ODPs) are making an impact on the mobile industry. ODPs offer instant content discovery. They can increase ARPU, reduce the number of clicks on mobile and allow users to find, create and personalize how they view content and what they see...


SurfKitchen vs uiOne: The Battle of the Planets
surfKitchen boasts deployments of some of the most successful on-device portal strategies and services in Europe. Flagship services include the much regarded O2 Active portal and TIM Imagine services in Greece. More recently, surfKitchen has powered Orange Downloads and is also responsible for a special service called The Supper Club with Orange NL...


T-Mobile Portal Analysis: Web 'n' walk. Away
T-Mobile's Web 'n' walk strategy is easy to criticize. The so-called 'open Internet' was to bulldoze the wall round the garden - then kicked off by banning VoIP. Not surprisingly, this strategy earned negative press for T-Mobile and its flagship news services were holed below the water line as soon as they were introduced. Belatedly, T-Mobile enabled VoIP on its services and has just launched the Samsung Z560 multi-media device with HSDPA...


Guest Article: m-spatial's Andy Walker on the Future of Local Mobile Search
Andy is CEO of m-spatial. He has 16 years of international experience in the telecoms industry, starting his career with LogicaCMG and co-founding Vocalis, the speech recognition solutions provider. Andy co-founded m-spatial in 2001 and has spent the last 5 years leading the company ...


Spotlight: Russell Buckley Admob
Russell Buckley, AdMob president and managing director, Europe, tells BKI Media's Annie Turner about a mobile advertising model that works - aka known as how to launch a mobile ad campaign in ten minutes, without leaving your desk...


News Highlights
Nokia stomps on with Middle East Mobile Search - Back to top :Rating: another brick in the wall -Nokia has added new local directory providers from Al Wahda-Express Group of Companies, official publishers of Etisalat Yellow Pages, Saudi Arabia STC Yellow Pages and Egypt Yellow Pages to Mobile Search...


Hot Button's Interview: Visual Mobile Search: DSPV in the spotlight
Can you tell us about the deal you have with Craze in the UK? What will the new service allows users to do?...



Mobile 2.0 Analyst headlines


Mobile 2.0 Analyst Nov 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

JumpTap: Mobile Advertising Campaign
The mobile search provider JumpTap has taken a stronger approach to advertising than many of its white label competitors. BKI Media put JumpTap’s ad marketplace to the test, running a USD 50 campaign.


DoubleClick fails to hit the ease of use button
BKI Media wanted to run a DoubleClick campaign so that we could analyse its effectiveness and value for money. We were thwarted from the start.


Skype unblocks premium rate numbers – another error of judgment?
Skype is on the ropes. At the beginning of October, its parent company ebay wrote down its value by almost half to USD1.43bn (EUR 0.9bn).


Google makes a big, initial impact – without the gPhone
Google hasn’t got Apple’s flair for beautiful design and creative marketing, but it does know how to generate and sustain publicity


How Google is missing big tricks in search and advertising
Mobile Commerce has engaged in many of its own bids on keywords to understand exactly how the market is working and has found that if you take the same number of page impressions on Google and Yahoo!, the click-through rate on Yahoo! is nine times higher than for Google.


User generated content is giving location a new place in mobile
Social networking and communities are making the transition to mobile, but it’s not a straightforward route. For instance, UK-based Pitch (see interview with CEO Martin Bowley) tried to morph into a social networking site, but after just a few months has retreated to what it knows best – selling content.



Mobile 2.0 Analyst Oct 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

What is pay per click advertising – in the past and now?
Pay per click (PPC) is designed to attract traffic to websites via search engines.


Google Mobile AdWords BETA
PPC has always been considered an effective, affordable form of online advertising. A few months ago Google started PPC advertising for mobile sites and devices.


Why the move from platform supplier to managed service provider is a good one for Celltick
Idle screen services company Celltick did idle in the shallows for some time, but over the last 18 months, it has turned the power on.


Mobile voice marketing moves up the agenda
Frank Riva, director industry markets, Apptera (which started off in voice recognition, but has moved into voice marketing mobile platforms) answered these questions at the Mobile Web Americas' conference in Orlando earlier this month. BKI Media’s Annie Turner was the moderator.


Voice search boosts LBS – Google and Microsoft join the party
Local market search and directory services’ uptake has accelerated in the US. A main reason for this is the increase in free call directory enquiry services.


Never mind the size of banner ads, transcoding is breaking up the ecosystem
Transcoding has moved up the agenda because it has the potential to blight efforts to build a mobile ecosystem and it needs to be addressed urgently.


Facts, figures and myths about who’s doing what on the mobile Web
Those within the industry are much too focused on what they would like to do on the mobile web instead of thinking about what consumers are doing, what they want to do and how to make it easy for them.



Mobile 2.0 Analyst Sep 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

The AdMob equation: number of ads served vs value
Mobile websites are proliferating because of the increasing ease of creating and setting up a mobile channel and mobile advertising is mirroring that growth.


Analysis of an AdMob mobile advertising campaign
BKI Media signed up for AdMob services as a publisher and advertiser.


On-device portal advertising – future business models
Initially consumers perceived on-device portals (ODPs) as a gimmick designed to extra high and unnecessary data charges without warning.


Why hasn’t mobile got a ‘PayPal’ service?
Mobile is failing to exploit its potential as a means of moving money about – for a range of applications.


IM begins to gain traction on mobile
There’s a real buzz around the take-up of IM on mobile. Progress so far has been glacially slow, despite big pronouncements by a gang of operators at the GSM Congress in Barcelona in 2006, but things are moving now.


Case study: mobile ads and the cost of acquiring users
It has been widely argued that push advertising is not nearly so successful as pull on mobile.


Google new Mobile Adwords
Google's very clever tactics for mobile search AdWords. By now everyone is aware that Google will be including AdWords advertisements within Google Mobile Search results.



Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst Jul 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

Cheat sheet for mobile ad inventory
Ad or advertising inventory, and associated terms, are words batted about the mobile industry all the time, but what exactly do they mean?...


Mobile Advertising is expanding in all directions. What does that mean for mobile operators?
At the time of writing, AdMob claimed to have served almost 4.5 billion ads. Yahoo! has been selected to push mobile ads on Vodafone live!. 3 has opened up its TV ...


How did JumpTap achieve 100% ad inventory fill?
BKI Media received an email from CEO of JumpTap Dan Olschwang. The email explained in detail how JumpTap was moving forward in mobile search and advertising. Part of the email claimed 100% ad inventory ...


What is Xiam's competitive advantage?
Xiam is a mobile discovery company with a recommendation engine. It's based in Ireland and has been in the public eye after securing deals with the likes of Orange, Qualcomm, Vodafone and trials with Telefonica and TIM...


Mobile advertising: where will the money come from?
If you listen to the hype, it's all about the big brands – Coca-Cola, Nike, car companies. Certainly they have the money and if anyone in mobile advertising wants to get press, then there is no surer way than being able to announce a deal of some sort with one of the big names. So where will the money come from...


Mobile advertising and the user experience: finding the right balance
SurfKitchen held a roundtable to discuss this tricky issue on 5th July. Here are the highlights. The debate was chaired by Ben Wood, director of CCS Insight...


O2's moves in mobile coupons
O2 has plans for mobile coupons and barcodes beyond simply pushing barcodes to consumers. It is creating a VIP club initiative to support the sale, use...


GoMo News Headlines
Out there Media sign up Coca Cola for Mobile Advertising CampaignStupidvideos.com chooses Quattro Wireless to go mobile Vodafone and Yahoo! ad-inventory and adverts...



Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst Jun 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

In Game Mobile Advertising as seen by Mobile Operators
Mobile operators are embracing ad-funded mobile gaming in the same way they are embracing mobile advertising - warily but driven by necessity. With a mobile content market continuing to under perform and valued at only USD 20bn action needs to be taken now to move the mobile content industry from a nice-to-have service to a thriving business segment. Smaller, niche vendors have been teaming up with ad agencies to drive the uptake of mobile in-game advertising, but few operators have implemented a strategy...


The Japanese approach to mobile advertising and how Europeans can capitalise on it
Japan continues to be the market that European mobile operators look at with awe, which is reaching new heights: for the first time this year Japan's off-portal market equalled the on-portal market. This is due in large part to the rise of mobile communities the first of which was as Mixi, launched in 2004. But it's now been overtaken by DeNA's Mobage Town which has over 20 million active users...


What is the difference between pure mobile advertising and search-driven mobile advertising?
There are many confused areas in the emerging mobile advertising market, but two camps are more clearly defined. On one side there are those who support a pure mobile advertising model that follows an AdSense-type approach, offering users the opportunity to launch and execute a mobile advertising campaign from as little as USD 50. On the other side, branded and white label mobile search companies are portraying themselves as the cornerstone of the advertising revolution; they are in no doubt that the Internet model will prevail and anyone who owns the search query eliminates the guess-work from publishing the correct contextual advert...


Case study: self-configuration is at the centre of boosting service uptake and cutting costs
The new generation of SIM cards means users can self-configure their phones, serve themselves ads and enjoy better, self-service customer care - all prompted by the consumer's own, up-to-the-second behaviour. This drives usage, but keeps operators' costs down in a variety of ways - so why aren't more operators doing it? Is it too good or too expensive to be true?...


SMS just keeps steaming ahead in Mobile 2.0 applications
It's quaint to think how many industry pundits thought that MMS would overshadow SMS five years ago. Not only is global usage of SMS still growing fast, but new uses for text messages are appearing all the time, particularly in promotion and advertising, and India is blazing the trail...


Sprite Yard vs data charges and the big Internet brands
Coca-Cola, one of mobile advertising's pioneers, is creating a social network on mobiles for teenagers in the US and China to compete with the likes of MySpace. It will be built around the company's less popular Sprite brand and allow members to set up profiles, chat, send messages post images and interact with other members...


GoMo News Headlines
M1 completes successful SMS2.0 trial,JumpTap throws down its Ace,Ninemsn jumps on in-game mobile advertising trolley in Australia...



Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst May 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

Mobile Advertising: Medio vs JumpTap and FAST
Medio Systems is playing catch-up in the mobile advertising space. JumpTap has been promoting itself as the mobile advertising leader for at least a year in the consumer arena, while Medio has embarked on a quieter, more structured marketing assault. In the meantime, FAST has pretty much had mobile advertising in enterprise to itself...


Killer ad models generate user activity and content
Mobile advertising is already stale. Just as the mobile browser needs to be made for mobile, so mobile advertising needs to be fit for purpose too. Banner ads, pay per call, pay per click, organic links or sponsored links are only the tip of the iceberg. Vendors need to shift their focus away from copying Internet business models to creating new ones for mobile and, in particular, to cash in on the apparently insatiable appetite for and the viral spread of user generated content (UGC)...


Will ScreenTonic provide the lift to realise Microsoft's ad ambitions? Mobile has moved up the agenda
It's a big task. In 2006, Microsoft's chair, Bill Gates, and its CEO, Steve Ballmer, were vocal about their aim of catching up with Google's online revenue. They've made little progress. Google made a cool USD 1bn last quarter while Microsoft's MSN business lost USD 205m. MSN's platform adCenter is only being used in 11% of searches compared with Google's 48%, according to comScore...


Gaming industry divided over the ad-funded business models
So this is the received wisdom: the global games industry is worth around USD 5bn annually, but is stagnant and in need of another business model. The mostly younger people who play games simply can't afford the EUR 5, USD 5, GBP 5 average price per game and the way forward is for big brands to subsidise games. This would mean that are free or at a discounted price to players in exchange for them viewing adverts in some form or another (see panel)...


Voice is still the killer application – and how
As everybody knows, mobile operators' chief source of income comes from phone calls – with SMS a good second. The expectation is that eventually revenues from voice account for a smaller portion of income as it becomes a commodity and as revenue from data services increases...


Can made for mobile communities triumph over Internet models?
One British mobile community thinks so. Martin Bowley, CEO of Pitch (www.pitch.mobi) tells BKI Media' Annie Turner why and how they can. Previously Mr Bowley was CEO of British TV channel Carlton Media until it merged with the larger ITV in 2004. At Carlton, he was responsible for the TV and cinema sales business, and developing new, interactive advertising streams to match the arrival of new free-to-air channels...


GSMA
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GoMo News
Another exciting month in mobile and GoMo News our edgy daily blog has tracked all the latest events and provided exclusive coverage and insight from the Orange Partner Camp Conference...



Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst April 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

Mobile Barcodes Cheat Sheet
Semacodes, shotcodes, QR codes, barcodes and data matrix mobile coupons are set to change the way content and advertising are distributed and accessed on the mobile device...


NeoMedia vs Abaxia (qode vs Mobile Tags)
In Europe French company Abaxia has called its coding technology mobile tags and has launched services with several operators. The company has been working hard to promote mobile tagging and barcoding in France and this has made France European leader in the technology, with widespread acceptance of the services by consumers, due in part to their ease of use...


Sugar Mama proves ad-funded services work
Virgin Mobile USA has a 99% completion rate of its advertisers' online surveys through its reward scheme, Sugar Mama. Is it the fastest, most efficient market research ever for advertisers? Metrics are the key, along with listening to what your customers tell you they want...


Medio Systems
Combining ads with search is not enough for Dr Brian Lent of Medio Systems. He thinks the combination will transform the ad industry into a highly reactive, competitive, real time marketplace...


MEF Advertising Forum Roundtable - Moderated by Annie Turner
The Mobile Entertainment Forum teamed up with the Institute of Advertising Practitioners and asked panellists from Vodafone, Sky, Starcom MediaVest, agency.com and aerodeon to debate where mobile advertising is, where it needs to go and how to get there...


BeVocal Interview: Operators are talking a new marketing language
BeVocal has just been acquired by Nuance for its in-operator marketing capabilities. It has some nifty, brand new services up its sleeve and plans to go global...


GoMo News
Another exciting month in mobile and GoMo News our edgy daily blog has tracked all the latest events and provided exclusive coverage and insight from the Orange Partner Camp Conference...



Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst March 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

What is paid mobile search ?
Monetising mobile search is a growing trend that will become a formidable force in mobile. Companies are gathering to create mobile ad-funded business concepts in an attempt to increase the revenue potential in mobile. In short, this means recreating the Internet paid search advertising model on mobile...


AdMob vs Third Screen Media
AdMob is the new kid on the mobile advertising-funded block - but it's got big aspirations. Its executive headcount is made up of Yahoo! search marketing people and has set off to aggressively lead the ad-funded market. Third Screen Media on the other hand has four years' experience. It's on great terms with mobile operators and has a strong background in mobile advertising and marketing. On top of that, AOL now seems keen to purchase the company for USD 80 million to ramp its own mobile advertising portfolio...


The free calls via mobile market: barablu vs Skype vs Google Talk
Barablu (beta) is a made for mobile software that enables free calls from mobile devices or free IM via GPRS. It already offers interoperability between barablu, Skype and Google mail contacts...


Mobile Advertising the Legal Perspective: Permission is the key to push promotions
John Styers' controversial presentation at the Informa Mobile Advertising and Marketing conference in New York this month included this interchange with one of the delegates...


TV content subsidises mobile memory cards, ads to follow
Fourth Screen has scored a great success in its native market offering M+ Memory Cards (manufactured by Kingston) containing 24, half hour episodes (of the original 33 broadcast across three seasons) of the most popular TV programme in Danish history, Klovn (Clown), plus other goodies such as exclusive ringtones and wallpaper...


Mobile Marketing: Ringtones recede, ringbacks rampage
A new star is born - the ringback tone, but for many operators it isn't as lucrative as it could and should be. The key is much, much better marketing to overcome the barriers perceived by would-be users...


Statistics and Analysis of Mobile Advertising and Marketing from Harris Interactive
What are the US public's thoughts on mobile advertising? Judith Ricker and Joseph Porus* of global research firm Harris Interactive reveal all at the Informa Mobile Advertising and Marketing conference in New York...


GoMo News on Mobile Advertising and Marketing
Blyk set to annouce mobile operator deal on Monday ,Advertising pioneer Smaato nets Red Herring ,Exit Games Partners with Amobee for In-Game Advertising for Mobile Games ,Ad Infuse adInMotion game mobile advertising ,Medio MobileNow new Mobile Performance Ad Network from Medio Systems...



Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst February 2007 - HeadlinesRSS

Editor's column
Few people have any understanding of mobile advertising and marketing or their implications. Among the cognoscenti, the only thing we agree on are that they will create a massive market. How this will happen is a subject of hot debate...


Competitive analysis
On 14 September 2006, Vodafone Germany announced that the digital media and marketing company Gruner + Jahr had landed the contract to market advertising on the Vodafone live! portal. The announcement stated that the new partnership would allow mobile ad placements across Vodafone live! for the first time...


WPP and JumpTap
On January 31, 2007, mobile search company JumpTap announced a strategic partnership with WPP Group, one of the world’s biggest advertising and marketing agencies. There are some big implications for mobile advertising and search...


Blyk
Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) have flopped in Europe. Disney gave up before launch, ESPN went out with a whimper and even EasyMobile bowed out. In short, the MVNO market hasn’t delivered...


Rok's Free BeTV
Bruce Renny is marketing director with Rok Diamonds, which has just launched a worldwide, free mobile TV station that will be funded by ads. Here he describes the model for mobile TV advertising examines and how much mobile TV slots are worth to advertisers compared with ordinary TV...


GoMo News headlines
Measuring the success of mobile ad campaigns,Free Mobile Mapping Navigation Service amAze funded by mobile advertising,Abaxia MobileTag application on Nokia N70 devices in France...


w2forum
The Mobile Advertising and marketing Analyst is a Media Partner with The Wireless World Forum. Two exciting events will be held by the Wireless World Forum in 2007...



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