Mobile Search: All to Play For

Mobile search has been slow to take off, but marketers seeking to connect with young consumers should not ignore the medium as technological advances and brand investment start to boost its appeal. By Mairi Clark The growth of mobile search has been hindered over ie past five years by perceived high data costs and mited handset capability. However, higher bandridths and the uptake of 2.5G- and 3G-capable andsets by more mainstream consumers means the medium is likely to become a more important driver of both revenue and traffic for brands.
Nokia estimates that by 2015,5bn people globally will have access to an always-on mobile internet connection, and there will be a 100- fold increase in mobile network traffic. What does this mean for brands? First, mobile internet users will use search in a different way from regular internet users. While the latter tend to search for several keywords to refine their results, mobile users - particularly because of the small size of their screen - will look for only a couple. This means that only the biggest brands with the deepest pockets will even appear to consumers in the majority of mobile search listings.
The biggest trend in mobile content search, and use of the mobile internet in general, is for users to venture beyond their operator's designated portal to access that of another brand. Mobile web advertising is encouraging this practice; click-through rates for mobile web ads are reportedly five to 10 times higher than those for other forms of online advertising.
Scott Gallacher, director of online and partnerships at Sky, believes that many brands are wary of investing a huge amount of money in mobile search because it has not yet been seen to have sufficient penetration to warrant the spend. ? don't think mobile search is on the radar for most companies because it's just not that important a channel [to them], so why would they invest in it?' he asks. 'From a brand perspective, it's slightly different for us because we have a mobile-based TV product, so we focused on that and made sure the content worked in that environment. If that's not part of your core business, then I'm not sure why you would have a specific mobile presence. Yell, of course, provides a very good mobile service, but that's core to its business.'
Hugh Griffiths, director of mobile at Microsoft, says brands should be aware of the benefits of mobile search. cents lot of brands produce content that's very campaign-specific,' he says. 'Consumers, particularly teenagers and those in their early 20s, expect good-quality mobile content. In its current campaign, Vodafone is going to spend millions of pounds on the mobile web. What's the expectation of users if the operators are telling them to use the mobile internet; what do brands want those users to experience? Do they expect them to j ust take a rendered version of their website? I think that's completely the wrong approach.'
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Too many companies give insufficient focus to the mobile web, according to Griffiths. 'At the very least, brands have an opportunity to create a great experience for users,' he says. 'There's an opportunity for them to be taken to a mobile microsite that features the same kind of creative as on the regular website.'
The rise of mobile search is primarily due to advances in handset technology, and Dr Windsor Holden, principal analyst at Juniper Research, believes that the mobile network operators have pulled off a canny move by working with the major search engines. 'The improved user interface on handsets is making it a lot easier for people to search on the mobile internet,'he says.'Providers such as Google and Yahoo! are getting into the mobile space. The phone operators used to guard their fiefdoms terribly, as they wanted to have more control of the value chain, but that has become unsustainable because people clearly want to emulate on the mobile web what they do in the fixed space. The operators have invited the major search engines into their tent, rather than kept them out.'
Location-based mobile search -where the user's location is taken into consideration when ranking search results - is one of the terms currently being bandied about in the UK, but Gallacher doubts its popularity as a technique. 'Everyone talks about it, but I'm not really sure howbig a market it is,' he says.
Griffiths disagrees, and points out that Microsoft has adapted its mobile web service to enable location-based search. 'Mobile search is certainly more focused on the destination, rather than browsing,' he says. On our mobile search engine, we now have a specific service that sits below the search bar, "Find my location". We did that because there's a high possibility the search will be location-specific. If they're searching for mobile content, users can do that anyway. Entertainment brands are not really going to be location-based in mobile search. We're coming at it from a different perspective.'
Holden says brands should be aware that use of mobile search varies according to country.'You need to look at the level of mobile search in the emerging markets,' he says. 'Location-based search is growing in the developed markets, but not necessarily in the emerging ones, where it fulfils the role that the fixed internet does in its established markets. In India, four times as many people use the mobile internet as use the fixed internet.' According to Holden, there is no point in mobile page-makers duplicating content from the fixed internet, because the latter has been designed for display on much bigger computer monitors. 'What you need is a site that's designed to be viewed on a mobile screen,' he says.
Although Gallacher is not convinced that brands should start spending millions on mobile search, he does believe there are factors that could contribute to the sector's growth. 'Something will occur to people when they're travelling or doing something else, and they will want to look into that immediately,' he says. 'Mobile-specific content and search make the mobile internet make sense. But it needs to change. On mobile, it's a different interface from online. Texting has developed its own language; you would expect a version ofthat to be developed for mobile search. The market is still embryonic.'
Griffiths agrees the market is young, but believes it is maturing. 'In the past five months, our mobile search business has grown by more than 250%, and anecdotal evidence from network operators says people are using bookmarks to avoid having the delay of going through the network's portal.'
In this context, Griffiths argues that brands must engage better with the mobile internet, for example by ensuring they have a mobile- optimised web offering, to help develop the mobile search medium to its full potential.
Mobile web: has an Impact on the way people search
Fact file Jargon buster
Mobile search can be Identified In different ways depending on the objective of the user.
Mobile-optimised search engines
Virtually all the major search engines, including MSN, Yahoo! and Google, have created a mobile-optimised version that accommodates the limitations of the mobile platform.
Mobile question-and-answer services
Not so much a search tool as a service. Users text a question to a mobile shortcode number and an answer is sent to their handset. Most people who use such services have specific, detailed questions, but more generic ones, such as on local services, are also asked. Answers can include links to relevant maps or companies.
On-portal content search
When a user does not leave their mobile operator's site. If they do leave, it is to visit partner sites.
Off-portal content search
As the term suggests, this is when a user searches for mobile content by leaving their mobile operator's homepage.
Local search
With the advance of GPS and cell-tower triangulation, this is becoming more popular. It enables a user to find a nearby service, such as a restaurant or petrol station, through location-based tracking, or by inputting their location. Occasionally called mobile directory search.
'The mobile phone operators have invited the major search engines into their tent, rather than kept them out'
Dr Windsor Holden
Juniper Research

By Clark, Mairi
Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Jul 23, 2008
(c) 2008 Marketing. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.