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After posting about Google’s mobile search query study earlier today, I started thinking about voice-activated mobile web search.

Imagine yourself driving to a meeting but lacking some critical information about a person, place, or company. Typing, texting, or reading while driving is dangerous and potentially deadly, but voice-activated search frees up your hands and eyes for more important things like keeping your car between the lines.

My original “want” was a mobile solution for a voice-activated Wikipedia search that reads information back to you over the phone. Unlike a mobile 411 service (such at GOOG-411), this would return more than just an address and phone number. It could read back details about any topic in Wikipedia and allow for skipping around within articles.

I found a few solutions that fit one criteria or another, although there are no perfect solutions yet.

Yahoo! oneSearch with voice

I Yahoo’d a few things and found Yahoo! oneSearch with voice. It looks promising, but it is not compatible with my Blackberry Storm. In fact, it is limited only to the following Blackberry models:

• BlackBerry Pearl (8100 series)
• BlackBerry Curve (8300 series)
• BlackBerry 8800 series

All you iPhone, Treo, and conventional phone users are out of luck!

Additionally, it only returns search results in text format in your phone’s browser. This doesn’t satisfy the completely hands-free solution that I am thinking about.

Has anybody used oneSearch with voice? Please leave a comment and let me know if/how well it works.

Phonepedia

Another promising solution is Phonepedia . In the developer’s own words,

This simply combines two cool things: Wikipedia’s vast encyclopedic content and Jott’s voice recognition service. All I’ve done is make enough glue to put them together and allow us all to call up and get answers. It’s not perfect, but it’s worth playing with.

It requires creating an account with Jott, which I don’t have time to do right now. Similar to the Yahoo! oneSearch product, the results are returned via SMS and email so it’s not completely hands-free either.

Any Phonepedia users out there? Do you have any feedback?

Google Mobile Search App

The Google Mobile Search App supposedly works with my Blackberry and several other types of smart phones but I could not get the download to work, either by requesting the SMS message or visiting m.google.com. Either way, it is still only a voice-in, text-out solution. I’ll have to hold off on the review for another day when it decides to work.

TellMe from Microsoft Windows Mobile

TellMe is an upcoming voice-activated search interface for Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5+ users. I haven’t been able to sample this service yet either because the BlackBerry beta version doesn’t include the Storm 9530, but based on the examples on their site it does seem to satisfy some of the voice-in, voice-out search capabilities that I am looking for.

So far it seems to be the most promising entrant yet and I’m looking forward to trying it out. If you’ve used TellMe, please tell me! Leave a comment with your feedback.

An article in Mediapost quotes a Google study finding that smart phone users are entering longer queries into mobile search engines than their non-smart (dumb?) phone counterparts.

The results suggest that iPhone searches mimic computer-based search behavior in terms of query length — about three words per query for computer and iPhone queries, as opposed to 2.5 words per query for conventional cell phones.

I am a Blackberry Storm user, so I can relate to the iPhone crowd’s enthusiasm for mobile searching. However, my newest fascination is 1-800-GOOG-411, a free 411 service offered by Google. It is much safer while driving and the results have been accurate and reliable.

As a 411 service, it only powers business searches. It’s great for finding a pizza place or a nearby hotel while traveling, but I would like to see a general web search equivalent so that I can request search results for a person, place, or company without having to take my eyes off the road while driving.

Tips for Advertisers and Businesses

Do your customers or prospective customers fit the profile for smart phone users? If so, you should consider the following ways to improve your mobile visibility:

1. Create a mobile version of your website (or at least your company/product/service info and contact details) for mobile web users.
2. Claim and update your listings in the search engines’ local search properties: Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local, MSN/Live Search Maps.
3. Include your business address in your website template. Include a local phone number and a zip code to maximize your site’s relevance to a particular location.

I’ve had my BlackBerry Storm for 72 hours now and I think I’ve gotten familiar enough to write up my thoughts to share with some Twitter friends that wanted to know what I think of it, especially in comparison to an Apple iPhone.

First off, I’m not here to say whether or not the BlackBerry is better or worse than the iPhone. I don’t care about technical specs. Oh, and Apple fanboys, don’t bother. I work on a Mac all day long and love it. I just can’t justify the added expense and diminished cell coverage inherent in the iPhone to get a little extra emotional satisfaction from a device. My judgement criteria are purely selfish and apply to my personal situation and needs for a cellular device.

I was skeptical when I walked in to the Verizon store. But the 30-day return policy convinced me to try it, knowing I could always cancel and switch to AT&T to get an iPhone. Here, in descending order of importance, are the reasons I decided to keep my BlackBerry Storm and not trade it in for an iPhone at the end of my contract this coming May:

Service & Reliability

Advantage: Verizon. I have been 99% happy with Verizon since I got my first cell phone in 2003 after graduating college. I’m a consultant with two offices and no landline at either. So my cell phone is my one and only phone line. It just has to work. I can’t risk dropping calls with clients or not having sufficient service to send and receive emails at critical times. While I’ve never had AT&T service, my family does and several friends in Richmond do, most with iPhones. They complain about the lack of cell coverage in various parts of town and actually described dropping that many calls as “embarrassing”. This would be unacceptable.

Email / Calendar

Advantage: Tie. iPhone and BlackBerry have sufficient native email and calendar apps that sync with my Google Apps service very well. Again, these just have to work.

Mobile Internet

Advantage: iPhone This is an important feature for any internet marketer. I frequently have to search for something or look at a client site from a mobile browser while out of the office. The iPhone’s Safari browser is superior to the Storm’s, hands down. But, the Storm’s browser is surprisingly strong (much improved over previous BB’s) and performs all the basic functions I need, although without as much “sizzle”.

Cost

Advantage: Storm As any self-employed person can tell you, every incremental dollar spent comes straight out of your take-home pay. As a long-time Verizon subscriber, I got a $100 credit towards a new phone because my “New Every Two” discount kicked in. Add the $50 main in rebate and I got the Storm for about $100, compared to the $199 iPhone.

Keyboard/Typing/Input

Advantage: Tie Despite some negative press about the Storm’s clickable touch screen, I actually find that I can type more accurately and just as fast as I can on my wife’s iPod Touch (the keyboard of which gets some negative reviews as well). It takes a little practice, but I don’t see a compelling reason why either phone is superior. It just depends on your taste.

Apps

Advantage:iPhone The iPhone wins this hands-down, based purely on variety. But even iPhone users will agree that most of the available apps are crap and not worth it. I have found all the basic apps for a BlackBerry that will keep me connected and entertained while on the go, so I’m only really missing out on a few games and time wasters. Currently I have installed: Flickr, Facebook, Google Maps, Google Sync, YouTube, TwitterBerry, WeatherBug and there are plenty more out there that I haven’t installed yet. Plus, the BB AppCenter is going to keep expanding and will offer a lot more variety in the coming months/years.

What do you think? Did I miss anything?

One thing that becomes readily apparent to those of us that follow the mobile search engine marketing industry is that there is a significant lack of usage information as compared to the “traditional” web. Given the fact that the mobile phone manufacturers, service providers, and mobile browser developers are still battling it out over their proprietary technologies and systems, it’s no wonder that companies like Quantcast, Hitwise, and Compete.com haven’t sprung up to service the mobile advertising industry.

However, the folks at Opera Software publish an annual report entitled “State of the Mobile Web” based on the quantity and types of pages transcoded by their mobile browser. Not surprisingly, mobile web usage is increasing dramatically as measured by the number of unique users, page views, and data transferred.

This chart shows the rate of growth in pageviews is increasing almost exponentially.

Monthly Mobile Web Pageviews

Additionally, the most visited mobile web destinations continue to be major search and information properties. The most popular mobile websites in July 2008 as measured by unique users are:

1. google.com
2. myspace.com
3. facebook.com
4. wikipedia.org
5. yahoo.com
6. nytimes.com
7. gamejump.com
8. youtube.com
9. accuweather.com
10. my.opera.com

Does your company have a mobile web presence? Just because you have a website doesn’t mean it is optimized for mobile search engines which rank results differently than their web counterparts. Not to mention that mobile usability standards are much different than the traditional web. Smaller screens and limited input capabilities require a streamlined, organized mobile website.

If you are the type of person that sits around after a major marketing trend passes you by and thinks, “Man, if only I had been out in front of this Internet thing…” Well, now is the time to start thinking about the mobile web.

The “Big Five” search engines that we have all grown to know and love have spawned some very unique and useful mobile features. Wired Internet users might not realize that such advancements are taking place in the mobile world, but the evolution of search interfaces has produced some extremely useful tools for the mobile user.

Anybody that has accessed the Internet from a wireless device (cell phone, PDA, etc) knows that it presents unique challenges. Most mobile devices have several limitations such as tiny keyboards, smaller screen size, the inability to run Flash and JavaScript applications, and the general paucity of sites that are designed specifically for mobile browsers. iPhones aside, wireless web users have to rely on a smaller set of sites that are built specifically for them. These sites are often hard to find and function differently than their wired cousins. However, mobile browsers have the distinct advantage of ultimate portability and wireless access from nearly anywhere through the cellular networks.

First off, let’s explore the current state of the mobile search engine market. The screenshots below are simply the home pages for each engine. Future posts will cover differences in search results, unique features and personalization options.

Google Mobile (http://m.google.com/m) mimics Big G’s minimalist approach to web search interface design. The ubiquitous search box dwarfs other links that provide the ability to personalize your homepage through iGoogle. In fact, if you sign in with your Google account it will pull modules from your web-based iGoogle page. The prominence of GOOG-411 highlights their voice-operated directory assistance and might encourage people to search by speaking rather than typing.

Yahoo! Mobile (http://us.m.yahoo.com/) balances simplicity with direct access to other valuable mobile resources such as Driving Directions, Mail, and News without cluttering the home page. The “oneSearch” box provides customized results based on the type of query. Examples include stock quotes, sports scores, airline flight status, and movie listings. For many geographically-specific queries, oneSearch returns smaller sets of local results, business categories, web results and mobile web results to help users narrow their searches.

MSN Mobile (http://mobile.msn.com/) continues their portal approach by providing a lot of content on the homepage, which could increase load times over slower wireless connections and incur additional costs if your data plan charges by the megabyte. After some digging, I can’t find a way to customize the layout or choose which modules to include or exclude. But given the amount of data presented by default, nobody will accuse them of showing not enough information, especially if that person cares about the weather in Redmond.

AOL Mobile (http://wap.aol.com/) also takes the portal approach by adding content and links to other AOL mobile web properties. My main concern with AOL’s interface is the image links to each of the products (email, MapQuest, etc). Many mobile browsers turn off images or have trouble rendering them in the intended way. Text links would seem to be the best approach to quickly and reliably get visitors to their intended destination. Horoscope information seems to be a stretch as well. Surely there are features or information that could occupy that space that will appeal to a larger audience.

Ask Mobile (http://m.ask.com/) maintains the web version’s simple, uncluttered interface and even adds a few links to their other mobile properties. Interestingly, there is no search box on the homepage itself. The “Web Search” feature is still a click away. The voice-activated driving directions seems interesting and will be explored in a future post.

I surf the mobile web from a Palm Treo 700p. Your mileage may vary, but I would be interested to know if the amount and types of content that are presented vary by device, browser or operating system. Leave a comment and tell me about your opinions on the mobile search engines, as well as ideas or questions for future posts.