MoMo London : Mobile Search
Last night’s London Mobile Monday was themed ‘Mobile Search’. Speakers were Nic Newman from the BBC, Martin Wilson form Yell, Steve Ives from Taptu and Claudia Poepperl from Mobile People.
Here’s some of what I took away from the meeting…
- The BBC considers that their mobile web site traffic is small given the effort they have put into this area.
- A major problem is service discovery. Even if a search engine exists, how do people find the search engine?
- The explosion of media creation will make things increasingly harder to find.
- Some think innovation in user input, such as voice, will aid usability. In the case of voice, others believe voice won’t help as it raises ambiguity rather than narrowing the search context.
- It’s not just about search but also how this data is used (eg phone call, purchase)
- Location may not help to narrow the search context as we often search for information on where we are going, not where we are now.
- There’s still contention as to whether there should be ‘one web’ accessible by all devices or a mobile web optimised for mobile.
- Mobile user expectations will always be increasing as desktop browsing technologies improve.
- Do people really want to use mobile for search? Can’t most people wait until they are back in front of a work or home PC?
- Who will end up owning the mobile search experience? Network operator, brands, Internet companies or phone OEMs?
- Will the browser or stand alone web applications prove to be more suitable for mobile?
Steve Ives gave a intriguing presentation on the thoughts behind Taptu, a new way of searching on mobile available later this year, which he claimed should solve some of these problems.
My thoughts? I am sure innovative hardware and software solutions will appear that will improve the user experience. I see the discovery problem and shorter term proliferation of mobile search engines as bigger issues. Lets hope the ownership battle between network operators, brand owners, Internet companies and to a lesser extent phone OEMs doesn’t end up disillusioning users and hindering the potential of mobile search.