Mobile search vs. mobile find
Mobile search has proved a time-consuming and inefficient way to access information on the go. Despite recent innovations from companies such as Vivisimo, mobile search still falls short of the promise of the perfect search. The term “mobile search” is problematic because it tacitly assumes that users’ desktop search needs, at home or in the office, simply transfers to the mobile platform. In fact current research and 82ASK’s own NOP survey indicates that people require different information on the go, and they want to access it in a different way. The “Wisdom of Crowds” model that most search technology evolved from doesn’t necessarily apply. People don’t want mobile search — they want mobile find!
Currently there are a number of companies building mobile search tools — kozoru, Inc. has launched its BYOMS (Build Your Own Mobile Search) technology while Windows Live Messenger is implementing an IM search client in the near future. Both of these solutions use messaging clients, and are (or will) not necessarily be optimised for the mobile handset. Search software developers Vivisimo have partnered with Bitratings Co., Ltd. (a Japanese directory search portal provider) to deliver a clustered search service for mobile devices in Japan. Vivisimo claims that “mobile users will be able to find the information they’re looking for in less time, with less frustration and despite the fact that they are searching the vastness of the Internet on small device screens.”
Yahoo!’s Go package has focused on delivering communications and IM solutions. But as MobHappy commentator Russell Buckley reports, Yahoo have also paying attention to mobile search. Yahoo! have been investigating the vastly different way people search when on the go, where the standard “Wisdom of Crowds” model falls down. As 82ASK’s own research and experience has repeatedly confirmed, when mobile, people do not want to spend their time searching for information; they want instant gratification — an intelligent solution that delivers bespoke answers to precise, time-sensitive queries. This idea is at the heart of 82ASK’s free-text, one-step service. It is not mobile search technology: it is a mobile find service that eliminates search time and is more cost effective than WAP/3G services.
