Mobile Search On the Move

Mobile search is the third aspect of local search. I have been meaning to write about it some time but never got around to it-other things got my attention. This is what I love about the local search field-there is something new everyday!

A ton has been written on mobile search. This field is growing quickly with the growth of cell and smartphones. One of the biggies is Apple’s iPhone which comes out later this month. I want to review 3 articles to get the ball rolling at LocalBizBits.

Brian Wool’s Everything’s Local in Mobile Search, is a good article to start off with. “Something north of 10 percent of mobile searches are for local businesses.” Brian’s article provides a nice review on choices of local search on phones, technology needed for both, and some general statistics.

People won’t make car purchase decisions based on mobile searches, but they will use their PDAs to find the nearest oil-change center, gas station, florist, ATM, or restaurant for a given ethnic cuisine.”  Food for thought.

The second article is Interview with Barry Schwartz : a quick Q & A with Barry Schwartz by Joe Whyte. This is a small article but I like this point Barry made:

“Mobile search, to me, is more about local search. Small companies can thrive off local search. Be it on a mobile or standard platform, local search can be huge for small businesses.”

The last article is Big Money Little Screens from the New York Times.  It is a long article but a good one about the money and competition growing in mobile advertising. The key statement I took away from it was:

“There is plenty at stake in the mobile search market, which some analysts predict could grow to be even bigger than the desktop variety. There are far more cellphones in the world than there are computers. What’s more, consumers on the go are often searching for information a restaurant, movie listings, a store that could result in a transaction, making them attractive targets for advertisers.

Mobile phones are also linked to a single person, and their location can be tracked, potentially allowing advertisers to deliver highly focused messages and pay a premium for the privilege of doing so.” Makes you think huh?

As I started this post off, there is a ton of material on-line regarding local mobile but this is field is just beginning to grow. I am very curious to see how it develops.

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