Mobile Search

If you are reading this, the chance is that you will have either an iPhone or an Android. We all do. In fact, I have both, and lately I had to use them a few times to check positions and look at my analytics. I have been through a lot of apps, some better and some worse. I thought it would be quite useful to share the best ones. I am going to start with the iPhone, but expect the Android version very soon.

Positions:

SEO Check (£1.19)

This one is simple but effective. Check your positions, nothing more. It gives you the possibility of tracking international SERPs and keeps a history record of your positions, which may be quite useful. It has a nice interface too.

SEO Search Ranking (£1.19)

This one is not as nice as Seo Check, but it does the job. Nothing new here, move on.

Analysis:

SEO Adviser (£1.19)

This app will check the basic optimisation elements and obstacles depending on the keywords you tell him to check. And I don’t really like the UI. But it does the job.

SEO Automatic (£5.99)

Another analysis app. Very simple and intuitive, in fact, a bit too simple for my taste. If you don’t want to spend £6 on this, there is a free Lite version.

SEO IT (£1.79)

Quite a clunky app that will analyse any page you introduce. It can give you a quick link report, which is nice. And it is quite useful to analyse content. However, I was really put off by the interface of this app.

Read more…

This map shows the popularity of different mobile browsing platforms country by country, with some interesting results.

Apple’s dominance can clearly be seen, with the iPhone and iTouch accounting for over half the market in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany and Japan.

The Android platform has its largest share in the US and the UK, but has a much weaker share in other countries. This could change in the near future as new phones emerge that run Android, such as the Nexus One.

Docomo and KDDI are the largest mobile phone operators in Japan, and account for 12% of the mobile browser share platforms.

Canada seems to like the iPhone and iTouch, with 86% of mobile internet users using this platform to access the internet.

Yesterday Google acquired Admob for $750 million. So what does that California based company do? They are specialised in Mobile display and more precisely apps advertising. The success of those bite-size software programs doesn’t need to be demonstrated: Apple announced last week that developers have now created over 100,000 applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Furthermore, Steve Jobs also announced last August that 60 million iPhone apps had been downloaded, averaging 2 million per day!

60 million iPhone apps downloaded? Wow that must be representing a lot…

…of free ones. So how are those free apps monitised? Well, in a way there’s no suprise here; through advertising.

The advertising formats which are used on Apple’s smartphone are quite familiar to what we know and several ad network/platforms are already available:

• Text and rich media banners
• Microsites
• CPM, CPC and CPA advertising

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If you are anything like me, you were eagerly watching the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) live from San Francisco last night. This event has a key place in the diaries of all Apple lovers, software developers and any clued up IT professional.

The Keynote led by Phillip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, gave announcements of any specification upgrades to their Macbook and Macbook Pro notebook range, discussed the eagerly awaited new operating system – Snow Leopard which will be launched in September, the new iPhone 3.0 OS software update and of course the focus of the event this year, the launch of the new iPhone 3GS – ‘ the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet’

The iPhone 3GS – (S stands for speed) has been speculated and rumoured on many of the reputable blogging and news sites that follow what Apple is working on. This time they were almost spot on with their predictions which is very good news for us iPhone users because of the very exciting new features it represents.

iPhone 3GS Features:

Improved Performance

The main selling factor of the iPhone 3GS is its improved performance. The time it takes to launch applications, WebPages and email attachments is noticeably up to 2 times faster. That and with its updated 3D graphics should improve its user experience considerably and will obviously boost Apple’s marketing as a gaming device through the downloading of applications through their app store.

3MP autofocus camera

The Camera has been tuned up, now 3 megapixels to make it more competitive with other phones available on the market. iPhone users have been keen to see an improvement due to reviews of the iPhone camera in the past being sluggish with a poor ability to adjust white balance or focus. The new camera now has an autofocus with a built in feature that allows you to tap the display to focus on anything, auto white balance and a macro setting for photographing close up.

Video recording

The video recording option is another key feature of the new iPhone. You can toggle between the camera and video option, shoot footage at a rate of 30 frames per second, edit what you have recorded and share this.

Voice Control

Voice commands have always been in the background for Apple. It is built into their operating system but it’s the first time it has been incorporated into an iPhone. It will give the user the option of voice activated calls, as well as select songs from your iTunes playlists; you can even request it to play songs like the one you are listening to and automatically creates a genius playlist. Obviously this is fantastic for the app developers out there because they can make best use of this function and incorporate it into their own applications.

Digital compass

The digital compass is something that any Google map fanatic has been waiting for. Have you ever been somewhere trying to use a Google map and having no idea what direction your facing? Well this solves that problem. It gives you your latitude, longitude and precise direction – not to mention the benefits of having something so accurate that it is beneficial to any application (including gaming) that relies heavily on the iPhones accelerometer.

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In marketing, a recession is a sure-fire catalyst for refocusing everyone on the necessary. The problem is that the tendency is to focus only on what is necessary right now.

It is this issue that comes to mind whenever those behaviours, technologies, techniques, and ‘channels’ that point to what will be necessary in the future come up.

Enter stage left mobile. Quite startling data analysis has emerged  suggesting that mobile web traffic in the US is one third – and possibly a half – of ‘wired’ web traffic.

How important the iPhone has been in this shift (i.e. crucial) is irrelevant for our purposes. What’s at issue is the way that – as advertisers go thoroughly back to basics – they are in danger of being left behind by their customers [again].

While budgets might be shrunk, the amount of headspace we have at our disposal remains the same. And a good proportion of that space should still be devoted to understanding the way mobile devices are being used by customers, then the value brands might deliver as they do it.

The growth of mobile as a default access point to the internet is part of our changing digital climate, and that remains indifferent to the clemency or otherwise of the prevailing weather.

Garett Rogers of ZDNet has discovered a new Google interface likely designed for mobile. As most mobile studies reveal the reluctance of users to enter long search queries, generally limiting to just one or two words, the new interface provides a logical way forward. At least for location based queries where it is easier to disambiguate and provide a navigational structure for discovering local information.

You can have a play with the interface here http://www.google.com/m/lcb

And here’s a sequence I tried out earlier starting with a search for ‘Brighton’

One of the first things I did when I arrived at the office this morning was search for Pizza!

Not because I’m on a high carb diet or I perversely eat an American Hot for breakfast, but because I was testing Google’s Voice Local Search and wow it worked first time and gave me results in under 2 seconds!

It worked from a busy, noisy street on my mobile when I asked Google to text the results to my mobile.

It also worked from my office when I wanted the results read aloud and also to be connected to the business identified.

So that’s it then – goodbye Yellow Pages, get a shave 118118 guys.

Is it now time for mobile operators to tear down the WAP decks, demolish the  walled gardens and just let Google and others serve search results anywhere we want them.

I’d love to hear what you think.

I believe it was time to do this a year ago and the actions of mobile operators have inhibted growth. Surely they can figure out some other way of monetising the sure to explode mobile traffic, rather than the archaic data pricing that currently exists.

Cheap broadband turbocharged mainstream search.

Voice activated mobile/local search without constraint if coupled with data tariff changes would send mobile search into orbit.