This assumption has been confirmed by studies in the USA that show that in January 2011 mobile devices accounted for only 5.3% of all clicks on Google. In contrast, just 12 months later in December 2011 mobile devices accounted for 12% of all clicks on Google. This increase of 132% is substantial to say the least.

Comparing the share of clicks on device by region. Source: Marin Software

The good news is that ad spend on mobiles has kept pace with this increase and has gone up from 3.4% to 8.7% during the same period. This is an increase of 156%.

It is being predicted that mobile devices will account for 25% of all paid-search clicks on Google by December 2012, and at the same time ad spend on mobiles will account for 23% of Google’s paid-search spend.

Comparing the share of ad spend on device by region. Source: Marin Software

This sudden rise in mobile paid search as well as mobile ad-spend can be attributed to the unprecedented increase in adoption of smartphones and other devices such as tablets.

It is being estimated based on current figures that the number of smartphones in use globally will touch 1 billion between December 2012 and June 2013.

When increasing the ad-spend on mobile devices, advertisers will have to keep in mind the fact that while the cost per click on mobile devices and on tablet devices is less than on desktop computers, the conversion rates are considerably lower on mobiles than on desktops and tablets.

Though tablets are not yet as common as desktops and Internet-connected mobile devices they are growing in popularity and are providing the best overall return on ad spend. Advertisers should keep this fact in mind while planning their ad budgets in future.

The Offers app is free, of course, and users will be notified about all the offers available. Users will be able to make purchases within a few clicks and they will even be able to redeem the offers without the use of any paper forms, from certain selected outlets.

The app is based on four different screens.

• A “Featured” screen that’s the deal of the day.
• A daily deal notifier, which alerts you about the deals that are available.
• An archive screen, which shows the deals that the user has made use of or saved, as well as the deals that have expired.
• A screen for redeeming offers without printing them.

While the success of Groupon has led to the proliferation of several websites providing such deals, it is very likely that an app like this from Google will be more welcomed by users. The timing for the launch of this app is also commendable as it has come just at the time, when people would start their shopping for the upcoming holiday season.

Groupon already has a fairly successful Android app, with over 1 million downloads and an average rating of 4.6 stars out of 5. Google’s new Offers app has less than 50,000 downloads to date, with an average rating of 3.6 and quite a high percentage of pretty poor ratings

If Google expects to steal any market share from Groupon, it is obvious that they will have to do a lot more than just release a mobile app – for starters by getting more offers in all major US cities!

Mobile search has grown 5-fold for Google in the past year. A slew of Android-based devices are hitting the market this year, and the Nexus One aims to be one of the best. Google’s mobile phone’s features include:

1. Nexus One phone hardware includes a 3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen touchscreen interface with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, Wi-Fi, GSM EDGE, Bluetooth and a trackball
2. The phone will run on the Android 2.1 mobile platform
3. Basic features include a compass, gps, accelerometer, light sensor, proximity sensor
4. 2 microphones on the Nexus One allow noise cancellation
5. The phone is 11.5mm thin and weighs just 130 grams (with battery)
6. 5 megapixel cam + LED flash. 1-click upload to YouTube
7. 5 home screen panels to add more widgets
8. Live wallpapers – including animation – will sit behind widgets on the home screen
9. Live wallpapers are interactive and react to touch!
10. 3D framework introduced into the Android platform
11. Quick photo loading, 3D gallery and photo clustering
12. Google Earth for mobile due to be released soon
13. Voice activated searching and GPS-based search localisation
14. Voice enabled ALL text fields in the device, which means you can speak your emails, tweets, facebook updates

The Nexus One will be sold exclusively online via the Google website:

www.google.com/phone

Unlocked phones will be sold for $529. Alternatively, users can buy a subscription to T-Mobile and get the operator-subsidised phone available for $179.

Pricing of the Nexus One is disappointing, and this sentiment was reflected by some of the attendees at the press conference. Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, had in the past voiced hopes that we may one day see an ad-supported mobile phone. They seem now to be falling short of their own hopes.

Vodafone will be the first operator to sell the phone in the UK. Spring 2010 is the estimated time Google has given for the UK launch of their new mobile phone. Users on other networks can simply plug in the other netowrk operator’s  SIM card.

At the Q & A session following the press conference, Google mentioned that the core revenues and income they aim to gain from the mobile phone business is not meant to be from sales of the hardware but from the usage of their mobile search service and the ensuing mobile advertising.

The confirmation has come through none other than the Wall Street Journal.

While it was earlier speculated that the new phone would be launched before the end of this year, it has now been confirmed by sources close to the matter that the phone will in fact be launched early next year, possibly in January itself.

The new phone has been given the name Nexus One, and the hardware required for it is being built by HTC. The phone has actually been designed by Google. This new phone may be similar to the forthcoming HTC Passion or might in fact be a renamed version of the same.

The operating system for this phone will of course be Android. The other features expected on this phone are that it will have a capacitive touch screen, on-screen keyboard, a thin scroll ball and animated desktop wallpaper.

It will be sold in the unlocked state and will be sold without any subsidy from a wireless partner. At least initially the phone will be available directly from Google online.

The launch of this new phone by the Internet giant will not only give competition to all other smart phones in the market, but it also highlights Google’s ambitions of expanding their own horizons further.

Best Buy Mobile will install these apps on all compatible smartphones including BlackBerry, Windows Phones and S60 (Symbian OS)  phones for free in their stores at the time of purchase. This program has been branded ‘Walk Out Working’.

Google has even created a new micro-site to provide details of this new method by which users can get the Google Mobile App installed on their phones. The site includes a Google Maps application that allows visitors to find the nearest Best Buy stores.

While it is already possible for users to download the Google Mobile search application from the Google Mobile site, m.google.com, directly, it is expected that this new alliance will drive adoption of the application to more regular (non-technical) consumers.

The main features available on the mobile search app are:

• One-click access to Google search
• Voice querying – users can just speak their query into the phone
• ‘My Location’ – allows users to search for local businesses, without having to type in their location
• Google Suggest – provides suggestions for queries and local businesses even as the user types his query
• Links to other Google apps such as Gmail and Google Maps.

Users will also be shown a demo of these apps in action by a Best Buy Mobile representative.

Scott Moore, the Vice President of Best Buy Mobile says, “We know that consumers want smartphones and increasingly, they want to use applications. The challenge is that people still need help understanding what is available to them and how they can bring it to life on their device.”

The partnership between Google and Best Buy Mobile is obviously a step in that direction.

Go Mobile! provides tips to help marketers realise how best to reach their mobile clients. Google aims to make the site helpful to both new comers to the mobile marketing as well as to experienced marketers.

At present, the Go Mobile! site merely provide a one-page write-up with tips on mobile marketing, as follows:

Mobilise your website – if pages are specifically formatted for the mobile browsers, it becomes easier and faster for the user to see the highlights of the products or services being offered, thus saving the user’s time and improving the chances of making a sale.

Know your place – instead of asking the user for his location, make use of information from the mobile browser, or use Google Maps or other applications to know the customer’s location, thus impressing customers and providing more locally relevant information.

Offer ways to engage at any time – Since the mobile handset is always with the user, the marketer can engage them by providing a QR code or a phone number on a bus, for example, or by creating a downloadable mobile game to reinforce the brand.

Help customers spread the word – Encourage users to take part in events and ad campaigns etc. by sending MMS, IM, email etc to their friends.

Help them find you – make use of the ad products which Google offers to place relevant ads alongside the mobile search results when a customer is looking for something.

These basic steps are more common-sense than strategy, but could help marketers focus their mobile marketing initiatives more effectively.

Google Go Mobile!

Mobile search volumes have been a long-requested feature that Google representatives have been historically reluctant to share. Speculators always concluded that this was due to the low volume of mobile searches.

The new feature is not immediately obvious in the new keyword tool. Advertisers need to click the “Advanced Options” link and then check the “Show stats for: Mobile search” box.

The network statistics setting allows advertisers to change search volume data to show mobile device statistics only. This setting changes only search performance columns and does not affect traffic estimate columns.

Mobile website owners and mobile search marketing agencies will welcome this new feature as it finally gives them the ability to estimate PPC costs and traffic volumes they can expect from search.

A quick review of the mobile search volumes shows that even in popular mobile search categories such as local information and gaming, the volume of mobile searches is a mere fraction – as low as 0.3% – 0.6% of traditional Web searches for the same 1-word keyword queries.

Data pulled from the 4 billion page views collected across more than 3 million websites that use the StatCounter analytics solution showed that Google monopolises the mobile search market. The search giant, whose brand is now a neologism for searching, delivered 96.23% of mobile searches worldwide in the first half of 2009.

Yahoo! follows second, worldwide, with 3.24% mobile search market share and Yandex.ru is third with 0.14%.  Ask Jeeves (0.11%) and AltaVista (0.07%) round off the top 5 mobile search providers. The rest, including Microsoft, account for no more than 0.21% of the worldwide mobile search volume.

In the UK, the situation is similar, with Google commanding 98.8%, followed by Yahoo! (0.86%) and, surprisingly, Ask Jeeves (0.14%).

Before screaming “anti-trust” or falling into depression caused by the world turning into a Googleopoly, let’s take a moment to examine the data…

While the size of StatCounter’s data set is nothing to laugh at, most of its volume comes from fixed internet websites rather than mobile sites. In fact, the page views and number of sites using StatCounter to track visitor data on the mobile Internet is bound to be much, much lower.

That’s not all. StatCounter data itself is not wholly credible due to the fact that they use cookies and JavaScript to track visitors, both of which often don’t work when websites are viewed 0n a mobile device. Therefore, any data delivered by StatCounter is only valid for a small subset of all the different mobile phones consumers use to search the Internet.

Last year, Nielsen reported that Google’s mobile search market share in the USA was an estimated 61%, while Yahoo! and Microsoft got 18% and 5% respectively. Not a lot has changed in the mobile search market since June 2008, which makes it safe to assume that Nielsen’s numbers would not be drastically different today.

This still leaves us back at square one, asking “has Google already won the race for mobile search supremacy before it even really began”?

The report says, “The emergence of devices such as the iPhone and HTC Dream (G1) that deliver truly compelling Internet experiences has generated discussion of which Web consumers will use on mobile – mobile Web sites or HTML sites.”

This question is what must have encouraged AdMob to undertake this survey. The survey was based on data collected from ad requests on their own vast network of about 7,000 mobile websites and 1,600 apps, and also from details provided by Gartner.

According to the findings of this report, smartphones have a smaller market share compared to other handsets, but they still account for almost 3 times the usage compared to the usage by other handsets.

Some of the findings of the survey are listed below.

While the iPhone OS holds only 8% of the market share, it is responsible for 43% of mobile web requests and 65% of HTML use.

The Android OS has even less than 1% of the smartphone market share but it generates 3% of the mobile web requests and 9% of HTML requests.

On the other hand the Symbian OS which holds a huge chunk of the smartphone market share – 52%, carries only 36% of requests for mobile web usage and a mere 7% of HTML usage.

The survey also found that 24% of requests made from the U.S. were made using a Wi-Fi network. The iPhone, iPod Touch, Sony PSP, HTC Dream (G1) and HTC Dash are the most popularly used Wi-Fi handsets.

The study concludes that overall, mobile Web sites are used far more on smartphones than HTML sites on those phones which operate on the RIM and Symbian operating systems.

Social implications of Google Latitude are obvious. The product sets the base for what could be an extensive geo-spatially aware mobile social network with the potential to deliver extremely targeted ads to users depending on their current location.
The latter application, MyTracks, does not have as far-reaching potential, though. However, it is  definitely highlighting what could become a pattern for forthcoming Google Mobile launches.

Outdoor sports enthusiasts such as bikers, skiers and runners should be particularly thrilled with the latest offering. The service, which works on Android powered phones such as T-Mobile’s G1, keeps track of a user’s path, by means of the mobile phone’s GPS.

It also provides details such as speed, elevation and distance covered. These details can then be downloaded to a spreadsheet using Google Docs or to Google Maps. Once that is done these details can be forwarded to friends through email or Twitter. The application is free to use.

Earlier, GPS devices required the user to plug in a separate device into the computer, install special; software and then transfer the track to the web by uploading it. All this cumbersome activity has been eliminated. Now, a user just needs to carry an Android phone when outdoors.
My Tracks will then offer details such as recording and visualising the track followed during any outdoor activities such as running, jogging, cycling and hiking. It will also give the total time taken, the average speed, distance covered, elevation and so on.
Users can forward these details to other members in their groups so that others can follow the same trail or avoid certain dangerous spots.

http://mytracks.appspot.com/

The potential for greatness definitely lies withing mobile social activity. If the user numbers are any indication, this is where the future of mobile might lie. And Google seems to be right on track to cash in on this growing market.

Latitude works with Google Maps on mobile handsets as well as on a desktop. Users who add this service on iGoogle or download the latest version of Google Maps on their mobile phones can join Latitude and then invite their friends to join. If the friends accept and share their location, they can see where they are, in real time, on the map.

The system makes use of a digital map, where the coordinates of the handset being used are plotted by triangulating the location of the nearest mobile communications towers. This is merely an extension of their My Location service that was launched in December 2007.

The service has its benefits above and beyond the obvious social aspect of knowing where one’s friends are. For example, people can keep track of each other in a very large gathering, or parents can keep an eye on their childrens’ whereabouts.

There are concerns that using such a service would allow Google to invade an individual’s privacy. As David Perez of Arete Consulting put the point across succinctly, “I do not want my mother to know where I am!”.

Users have the choice to accept or refuse an invitation to join the service. A user’s location is revealed only to those members whose invitation has been accepted. Moreover, one can also choose to change the privacy settings for individual contacts in their friends list. Users can also manually input a fake location if they wish to hide their true location from a particular contact.

While Latitude is free to use, Google will most likely start serving location-based advertising to monetise the service.

At present, the service is available on Android phones like the T-Mobile G1, iPhone and iPod touch devices, most colour BlackBerries, Windows Mobile 5.0+, Nokia Smartphones and Java-enabled mobile phones in 27 countries including the USA, most of Europe and India.

According to comScore, 20.8 million users in the U.S. and 4.5 million users in Europe used mobile search in the month of June 2008. This means that there has been a 68% and 38% growth of mobile search over the last year in the two regions respectively, which is phenomenal.

Google has stated in the past that they believe that mobile search would soon generate the highest advertising revenue, and they have moved accordingly to lure mobile phone users.

Presently, Google is already the default search provider for handsets by Sprint in the USA, T-Mobile in Europe and NTT DoCoMo in Japan and also for the iPhone. Their own mobile device, the Android phone, will further boost Google’s market share and revenue generation.

Yahoo! is next in popularity for mobile search and advertising services and holds about 35% of the market share in the U.S. They are the default search engine on AT&T handsets, except for the iPhone and are planning to provide some new services by the end of the year.

9.5% of mobile users in the UK use mobile search services and 9.2% of cell phone users in the U.S. do the same, and these numbers are expected to go up.

Among the main reasons for the recent growth of mobile search would be the easy availability of smartphones, better 3G penetration and the introduction of flat rate data plans.

It is reported that along with the number of users, the frequency of mobile search has also increased. comScore analyst Alistair Hill says “The number of people accessing mobile search at least once a week grew 50% in Europe, with France and Spain leading at 69 and 63 percent respectively.”

Google’s lead is followed by Yahoo!, with 18% market share. MSN lags far behind with only 5% share of the market in the first quarter of 2008.

Earlier, Hitwise and comScore had declared similar results for the general search market.

Nielsen has found that each Google visitor uses the mobile search facility about 9 times a month, on average, while Yahoo! visitors use mobile search about 6.7 times a month on an average, in spite of Yahoo! providing a much wider range of mobile services than Google.

It has also been established that the majority of mobile search users are male, with Google having 65% and Yahoo! having 63% male users respectively.

The most frequently searched for categories on mobile devices were found to be information, local listings and navigation to specific websites, in that order. Users of both Google and Yahoo! query these search categories in almost the same proportion.

On a scale of 1-10, 44% of Google users said their experience with mobile search could be rated between 8 and 10, while only 40% of Yahoo! users felt the same way.

James Watt, a software engineer with Google, has commented that Google’s mobile homepage has been updated to make it faster to upload. He says that Google is “obsessed” with the idea of speeding up mobile search.

However it was necessary to plan out the travel strategy, from home or office itself, where one had access to their desk top.

Google has now decided to change that. They have lately introduced a new version of Google Maps, which is accessible through mobile phones, in most of the important cities of North America. This will now allow users to check out public transport routes while on the move and take instant decisions regarding their travel plans.

This new version of Google Maps, for mobiles, has some additional features incorporated in it. For e.g. one can check out the timing of the first and last trip for the day on a given route, and thus plan ones schedule accordingly.

Another feature called “My Location” allows users to set the starting point of their trip based on their current location. The availability of this feature depends on the handset being used.

Users can also find out if there is a traffic jam on certain routes, or the location of the nearest coffee shop, late night restaurant etc.

Other features such as fast searches, star ratings of businesses etc. Are also available on BlackBerry and other Java-based phones.

One can download this facility from http://www.google.com/gmm from the desktop or mobile.

This facility should also be accessible on other handsets in the near future.

Henceforth, mobile display ads will be shown to all Windows Live for mobile users across the U.S. U.K. France and Spain on both Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger. The ads will have to follow guidelines set by the Mobile Marketing Association.

According to Chris Ward, Commercial Director of Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, the launch of Display Advertising on Windows Live Mobile is an important milestone for their business and demonstrates the progress they have made in the field.

Brian Arbogast, Corporate Vice President of Mobile Services at Microsoft says, “In today’s connected world, the mobile device is emerging as a prime opportunity for advertisers to reach their audience.” Since Europe is estimated to have over 220.5 million mobile users, mobile advertising has become a fast growing field and advertising on Windows Live Mobile platforms will help advertisers to reach target audiences at all times and places.

Paramount Motion Pictures will be among the first in the U.K. to advertise through this means. Mobile advertising on Windows Live is expected to also be available in Germany, Italy and Netherlands shortly.

Microsoft also plans to include Live Search in the mobile advertising mix, but at present, the mobile search advertising facility will be confined to the U.S. on a ‘by-invitation-only’ basis. Microsoft plans to expand the mobile search advertising service later this year.

Google’s mobile search advertising service has been live for more than a year now, giving them sufficient time to establish a solid presence in the mobile search market and gather enough data to provide a far more intelligent service than Microsoft will be able to.

The delays in incorporating technology from ScreenTonic into the Microsoft Advertising service and launching a good mobile ad product are Microsoft’s fault alone, and they are likely to pay a heavy price for it, just as they are in the Internet search market at present.

A line of text with the word “[AD]” attached to the banner will identify it as an advertisement to users. Google is not the first ad platform, nor the first search provider to offer this format of advertising. Yahoo!, Microsoft’s Screen Tonic, AOL’s Third Screen Media and AdMob already provide mobile display ads.

AdWords, though, is the only integrated platform offering mobile display advertising alongside a host of other formats. Moreover, it is not too late for Google to enter this market, as mobile Internet usage is still not very widespread and advertisers are still testing the waters.

Mobile image ads on AdWords are currently only offered on a pay per click basis and not on the CPM basis where advertisers pay for ad impressions. Mobile text ads are also available on a pay per phonecall basis, but this option is not enabled for mobile display ads.

The mobile image ads are similar in principle to ads on the content network for PC users, but are smaller in size, in order to be accommodated on the mobile screen, and will run on mobile content network. The ads can be in JPEG, GIF or PNG format and will be in the following sizes:

• 305 x 64 Banner (3k max)
• 215 x 34 Banner (2k max)
• 192 x 53 Banner (2k max)
• 167 x 30 Banner (2k max)

Keywords will be used to contextually target the sites in the mobile content network. Google will only show one image ad per mobile page. Publishers will be allowed to maximise profitability by choosing between text ads, image ads or a combination of the two. Google will then automatically run the ad that is expected to best serve the user’s purpose.

Mobile image ads are currently functional in several countries including The U.K., U.S.A., Russia, Australia, France, India, Italy and Japan. The screenshot below shows how advertisers can use the new service.

Adding image ads to Google AdWords Mobile

According to latest reports from Forrester Research, the vast majority (83%) of marketers think that mobile advertising will grow several fold in about 3 years from now, and to be able to make the most of the boom when it occurs, advertisers should start preparing themselves from now.

One of the biggest obstacles advertisers will have to deal with is the lack of awareness among the masses about mobile ads. It is reported that only about 7% of users trust mobile ads.

Advertisers will need to start analysing data on how clients use their mobiles. Prior research and data from network operators indicates that 42% of users use their mobiles for SMS, 25% for picture messages, and just about 15% use it for email, apart from making and receiving phone calls.

33% of users have come across some form of marketing on their phones, and this figure is expected to increase with time. According to data collected by Forrester, only 1% of users said that they had clicked on a banner ad, while using their mobile phones, although new arrivals on the mobile market such as Blyk have made claims of very high click through rates.

Acceptable Advertising

Marketers can use the ‘send to a friend’ feature and referral incentives to improve the acceptability of mobile ads. They can also distribute branded logos and graphics that can be used as screen savers or wall paper by customers. Using ads containing keywords that are common in that region or local language would also be a smart move.

Sponsored links are prefered over ads that appear while the page is loading, as most users find the latter to be quite tiresome. Marketers can also put in pre-roll ads before mobile video clips and games, as this seems to be the most acceptable video ad format on mobile. Advertisers must remember that it is extremely important to keep their ads short and sweet – preferably under 15 seconds.

It is also necessary to consider that the size of the mobile screen is small in this case and users make use of the mobile to collect information while on the move. As of now, only 23% of mobile users feel that accessing the web through their mobiles is a pleasant experience. Advertisers should use fast-loading content and use only miniature versions of their regular sites on mobiles.

Traditionally the 700 MHz spectrum was used for television broadcasting. On 19 Feb 2009, the TV channels using this spectrum will be turned off and transmitted via set-top boxes, and usage of the spectrum will be handed over to Verizon. GigaOm provides a good explanation of the history of this part of the wireless spectrum

Increased coverage and better penetration through walls make the 700 MHz spectrum attractive for Verizon, who will use it to cut costs and achieve greater nationwide coverage in the United States. Verizon will now be able to reduce their roaming cost by having their own towers in rural areas, and they will also be able to provide DSL-like service to rural areas.

AT&T was another big spender, paying about $6 billion at the auction, in addition to their prior purchase of Aloha Partners’ 12MHz of spectrum, which covers 196 million people in the U.S.

Before the spectrum was auctioned Google convinced the FCC to set up openness standards for the winner of this block. Their lobbying efforts resulted in the FCC setting standards that allow users of the 700 MHz spectrum to attach any device and allow access to any applications that don’t harm the network.

The search giant’s interest in this auction was mainly to ensure open standards would be maintained, which will be very useful once their Android platform is in use.

Google had also shown a strong interest in the spectrum and had bid on it. They were possibly discouraged from heavier bidding due to investor concerns about their stock price and fears of Google moving away from search operations, which are the mainstay of the company.

The findings are based on a study of over 22,000 mobile users, carried out in the last quarter of 2007. The results of the report indicate that:

• The number of consumers who remembered seeing mobile ads has increased 38% between the 2nd and 4th quarters of 2007.
• Teenagers are far more likely to recall mobile ads. Asians and African Americans are more likely to recall these ads.
• SMS text messaging is the most popular form of ad response, and was used by 26% of the users, while click-to-call was used by 9% of people.
• 32% of those studied sid they were willing to accept mobile advertising if it could lower their mobile bills, 13% would accept mobile advertising if it improved the media content available amd 14% were open to mobile advertising if it would be relevant to them.
• 23% of users expect that mobile advertising will increase in the near future.

While advertisers continue to look for ways to connect with users through their mobile devices, the quest for acceptable mobile advertising is not complete. Only 10% of the users surveyed found mobile advertising acceptable.

As of now there is no consistent yardstick to measure the performance of mobile ads and this leads to advertisers feeling as if they were fumbling in the dark. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! have launched a number of services for mobile and programs to enable marketers to place ads on mobiles. This can only mean that the mobile ad market is set to take off in a very big way and a lot of money is at stake here.

Read the full press release from Nielsen

Due for launch in Q2 2008, Yahoo! onePlace will allow mobile users to bookmark any piece of content with a single click in one convenient place.

A built-in RSS reader and image and video management system allows users to link to news feeds, websites, videos, images, emails, search queries and all content that has already been personalized on other Yahoo! services such as Flickr and MyYahoo!

Yahoo! onePlace will be more sophisticated than their other bookmarking service, del.icio.us. The service will allow users to create collections and bundle all related information within a collection.

Every piece of information that is bookmarked will also be categorised and kept up to date automatically. The sytem will provide users a quick overview of everything that has changed in the mobile users world, via a feature called Pulse and even provide a favourites view to provide quick access to the content they view most frequently.

onePlace will be bundled with oneSearch, Yahoo! Go 3.0 and oneConnect to provide a mobile experience that goes far beyond plain-vanilla search.

Yahoo! have realised that they will not win against Google in a race to dominate search on the desktop or on mobile. Instead, they are doing what they are best at – creating a portal and a host of services that users are likely to keep coming back to.

Computers are not commonly available in the African continent. Even in South Africa, which is relatively better off than most African countries, only 22% of mobile phone users have computers. Stafford Masie from Google’s local office in Nairobi said in a media briefing that a lot of locals who had worked abroad for Google had “come home” to launch the local branch. Most of these employees are sales personnel and will try to make advertisers divert some of their funds from TV and radio ads to online ads.

Google is looking to hire as many locals as possible to ensure the success of this venture. According to reports on AllAfrica, they also intend to start offices in Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria etc. When Google was first launched in the late 1990′s their avowed aim was to organize all the information in the world and make it universally available. Since only about 20% of all the information is online as of now, it is imperative that this information be made available to everybody.

According to Douglas Merrill, V.P. Engineering at Google information accessibility in Africa will have to be acheived through mobile phones. Since most of the searches done in Africa will be through mobile phones, Google intends to find new and better ways to conduct these searches. Methods such as voice entry or SMS entry of keywords are being looked into. They also want people to be able to study maps and receive directions via SMS. All of this will require a lot of hard work and efforts in the near future.

The services in Africa will initially be available in Afrikaans, Sesotho, Zulu and Xhosa; they will contain information about South African culture, tourism, traditional medicine etc. Google also hope to be able to help educate the local people by bringing in information and creating awareness about different parts of the world.

Mobile network operators, mobile search providers and associated mobile commerce solution providers have long known the problems Google faces with providing in-depth visitor information to advertisers on their AdWords mobile platform. The operators hold this user information dearly, since it is likely to be the single most important factor they can leverage in the race to prevent Google from dominating mobile search and the associated ad spend.

Bango Analytics is latest in the new breed of mobile analytics solutions that provide more in-depth information than Google Analytics or AdWords conversion tracking can. Mobile Analytics from Amethon is another such product.

Bango Analytics
Mobile Analytics from Amethon

Advanced mobile analytics systems from providers like Bango can provide advertisers extensive information about how visitors interact with their site. These systems use ‘off the wire’ capture technology and are integrated into the mobile operator or content provider/aggregator’s network and can therefore mine much more information than a JavaScript or cookie-based system like Google Analytics and AdWords. The information these advanced systems provide can include:

• Number of unique visitors per day
• What phones the visitors use to access the site
• What networks in which countries the visitors come from
• Most popular content
• Referring search terms
• Total return from a marketing campaign

Data from these systems is presented near real-time, unlike Google Analytics, which can take a few hours to update or Google AdWords conversion tracking, which takes as much as 24 hours to update.

As the race for dominance of the mobile platform heats up, the other players in the market are arming themselves with every possible weapon to fight Google.

While Google drives the majority share of mobile search traffic, very few advertisers will consider spending their ad budgets elsewhere. However, if the other providers liaise or a new dominant player arises with an ad platform that includes superior tracking and targeting capabilities, Google could end up losing favour with advertisers.

Above: Screenshot of Bango Analytics

The new service will be more efficient than before for local searches, as they will maintain records of the user’s search location and therefore not require users to enter their address every time. Also, unlike the earlier version where it was necessary to be specific about the search type required, (such as images, websites or local results) the new search results pages provide relevant, location specific results that have been integrated from various sources.

Yahoo! and Microsoft have been much quicker to adopt the Universal Search concept onto mobile. Google has finally caught up, though the quality of results being offered here is not yet remarkable. The image below compares the mobile search results pages from Google, Yahoo!, Ask and Microsoft (in order, clockwise from top left):

A post on the Google Mobile Blog highlights that fact that the improved mobile search experience, also detects the language of the query and automatically delivers the most relevant results in one of the local languages (English, German or French) or via automatic translation.

Google says this service will be much faster than before and will therefore be useful for businessmen. Also, as the mobile search market expands, commercial opportunities for advertisers will increase; but whether mobile advertising will be really beneficial for all businesses remains debatable.

Last week also saw the launch of a UK version of Google Finance, which will provide financial news, stock prices, mutual fund information etc specific to the UK market.

The highlights of this facility are:

1. Search preference for UK companies and funds
2. Google news integration – organisation of business news according to date and topic etc.
3. Interactive charts on market data, news stories, stock prices etc.
4. Front page summary and exchange rates
5. Blogs and related company information
6. Group discussions by experts
7. An easy way to create and track portfolios.

Alternatively, users can text the airline name, and Google will send a text message with the main numbers one can call for information.

In their ongoing endeavour to organise the world’s information, this is yet another handy service being offered by Google. They already offer parcel tracking, vehicle identification number search and many other similar services. The question, though, remains – how many people will actually use these services? When an individual is in a rush, Google might not be the first thing that pops up in their mind when they want information about their flight.

Over time, though, this trend could change. Their continuous innovation is making Google the main online destination for more and more people. As these users discover additional services Google offers, they are more and more likely to keep returning to Google every time they need to find an answer to something. Visitors will also start experimenting over time, trying to search for information that Google doesn’t already provide – which will, of course, be a great way for Google to gauge what else to develop!