News
Rush to mobile search begins
Tim Green at 3GSM in Barcelona Feb 16 2006, 12:15pm
The land grab to control the mobile search space is officially on, with a flurry of key deals being announced at 3GSM. Google and Microsoft stepped up their commitment and now ME has learned that Infospace is set to sign up a number of operator customers.
Infospace wants to capitalise on its parent company’s web-based search expertise with its own modified mobile engine. It is already live with Cingular, but Infospace promises many more implantations before year end.
George Fraser, Infospace’s European VP of sales and marketing, believes mobile search is critically different from web. He told ME: “Mobile search is about relevance because consumers won’t tolerate multiple clicks as they do on the desktop. It’s also about navigating the portal as opposed to the entire web. What we propose to do is to let operators generate revenue from bids for placement – and from increasing activity in general.”
Search has become a crucial battleground now that operators are loosening their content stranglehold and letting partners run their own ‘stores’ on deck.
Fraser says: “How can you find the ringtone you want when there are so many options? And how can you locate the more obscure content that doesn’t appear in the top 10? Through search.”
Infospace is not alone. Search engines have also been launched by smaller companies like Jumptap and Enquire. Earlier this week Vodafone announced it is to put Google on Vodafone live!
Meanwhile Microsoft bought French mobile search specialist MotionBridge. The company wants to “unify the Windows Live experience across the desktop and mobile devices”, according to Brooke Richardson, an MSN group product manager. MotionBridge already works with Orange, Sprint and O2.
