Worldwide Industry Segment Statistics for year 2007

I compiled the statistics for different industry segments for the year
2007. Mobile phone comes right on top, second only to radio users.

Less than 500 Million users

PDA = 85 million
iPod = 85 Million
Camcorders = 100 million
DVD recorders/ PVR = 100 million.
Gaming consoles = 200 million units (where,second generation consoles(PS2/Xbox) = 150 million )
Digital Camera = 300 million.

500 Million to 1 Billion users

People accessing internet content via a mobile phone today = 750 million
Worldwide registered automobiles = 800 million
Worldwide PCs = 850 million
People accessing internet content via a PC today = 850 million


1 to 2 Billion users

Worldwide Email users = 800 million
Worldwide email accounts = 1.5 Billion
Worldwide Fixed land lines = 1.3 billion
Worldwide TV sets = 1.5 Billion (TV is often shared. Thereach of TV is much beyond the 1.5 billion sets in use.)
Credit card users = 1.4 Billion
Worldwide users of SMS Texting = 1.8 Billion

2 to 4 Billion users

Worldwide mobile phones = 2.7 Billion
Worldwide radio users = 3.2 Billion to 3.8 Billion


Now you do your analysis ...

Mobile phone FAQ's for year 2007

• The mobile telecoms industry earned 725 Billion dollars last year.(2006)
• Mobile telecom growth in dollar terms, from 2005 to 2006, was 105 billion dollars.
• During 2007 the first cross-over from PC to Mobile phones will happen, with more users accessing via phone than PC.
  
• Phones are replaced every 18 months (and this is still shrinking)
• USA has reached 75% penetration for mobile phones
• The Western European average per capita penetration for mobile phones is already 110%
  
• Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Israel have penetration rates at about 140%
• China adds 6 million phones every month, India adds 7 million phones every month.
• Finland,
  Norway, Denmark and Portugal - each countries with 120% or more
  penetration rates - Mobilephones are less than 6 million units total.
  
• SMS Messaging Is Biggest Data App On Planet
• E-mail is opened in 24 hours and replied to in 48 hours.
• SMS is read within 15 minutes on average and responded within 60 minutes.
• 65% of e-mail is spam, less than 10% of SMS is spam.
  
• In South Korea five separate credit card services are available on the three mobile networks
• In
  South Korea almost 100% of credit card based point-of-purchase sites
  accept payment via mobile phone credit (and charge) cards
  
• Two years from launch almost 10% of South Korean phone users watch digital broadcast TV on their phones
• The Pop Idol formats have earned a windfall of over 700 million dollars out of text messaging votes
• In 2005 already half of all phones sold were cameraphones so cameraphones outsell digital cameras by more than 4 to 1 .
• 73% of the population now uses the mobile phone as their portable clock.
• 2.7 Billion phones in active use. There is a subscription for 40% of the planet's population.
  
• Global music industry earns 16% of its revenues from mobile phones (mostly ringing tones);
• Videogaming earns 14% of its global revenues from mobile.

Get Alerts Via Mobile

4INFO, Inc.,
the leading mobile search service, is providing sports news alert
through YesNetwork. YES Network is the most-watched regional sports
network in the US the past four years. For real-time scoring alerts,
text YANKEES ALERT or NETS ALERT to 4INFO.




Sports news alerts are specially suitable for mobile users. Because, sports info is most useful, when provided real time.

Another real time alerts category could be stocks.

Mozes innovative sms solution

Mozes SMS Soultion

Keyword buying And advertising
Users send a keyword by text message to 66937 (Mozes) and receive whatever message the owner of that keyword has determined. In addition to news updates on any topic, keyword owners can send ringtones and perform polls. Registering your first keyword is free and additional keywords cost $5 per month.

Answering Questions
Users can text any question they have to Mozes and their friends list will be given an opportunity to answer that questions by Google Talk IM

Saving Notes
Users can send notes to themselves by entering ".n" before any note they want to store in their Mozes account online. (.n nice hair, singer guy.)

Saving MySpace profiles
Links to MySpace and Facebook user profiles can be saved by sending the social network's name followed by the username.

Saving Book names
Amazon affiliate links to books can be saved in you Mozes account by texting "book" and the ISBN number.  

Top 5 problems faced by mobile video startups

In my view, these are the top 5 problems faced by mobile video startups.

1) No ease of viewing video on small screens
2) The tech not worth enough to justify the data charges,subscriptions charges and premium content charges
3) Battery getting drained quickly by using mobile as entertainment device
4) Not enough bandwidth available on cellur networks for streaming and downloading video content
5) Mobile handsets supporting streaming video display are priced high.

And startups in this domain are positioned by what problem they are solving.

Mobile Companies for this Week

Companies added to my Mobile company list this week.

nexidia
Voice search

joopz
Web based SMS texting/Communication

amazegps
Mobile Maps service

linkedcampus
Group messaging for college campus

minfo
Chinese mobile search provider

nuance
Voice to text, sms tool

scanr.com
scan, copy, fax ussing mobile phone camera.

letmeparty
SMS Blogging

down2night.com
post and receive notices of events that are going on at your favorite local venues


See the full list here

Mobile printing , scanning and fax

Mobile office application is imerging concept.
It not only means MicrosoftOffice like application. But also access to printing, scanning and faxing via mobile.

ScanR is filling into this overlooked area. It converts the camera phone images of Documents/Whiteboards etc. to pdf format.
"scanR will save your scans online or optionally will send them as PDF files to your email address. To send a copy to someone else, just add their email address in the subject of the message you send to scanR."

Advertising inside mobile content

Many Mobile Startups are geared towards the problem  "How to insert Advertisement inside mobile content"

Adinfuse Inserts ads dynamically when the content is actually delivered to the end user.
Interestingly, Ad Infuse has a podcast advertising product, Pod Infuse. There are early signs that Podcasting may be a big thing through mobile. Adinfuse is positioning itself as a early mover in this space.

Google recently they bought Adscape Media, a company located in San Francisco which has developed ways for advertisers to show fresh and changeable (dynamic) advertisements within video games which can be shown without interrupting gameplay.

The company holds number of patents in this area (pertaining) to gaming. But google with leverage these for video content on mobile platform..

One of particular interest to google would be,
Method and system for providing location specific advertising content within mobile platforms
 

mBlox, The SMS Messaging Firm Grows Big

The messaging interconnection firm, mBlox had the fifth consecutive year of high growth with business up 40% over 2005.


"At the heart of mBlox’s global mobile transaction network is the trusted mobile transaction platform (MTP). The MTP has been designed exclusively to manage and bill for application-to-person (A2P) mobile transactions around the world at the fastest speeds whilst remaining completely stable and reliable."

Last year, mBlox Processed about 1.4 Billion SMSs Worldwide

Uta-ken , mobile search engine that uses lyrics to find artists, songs

Uta-ken is a mobile search engine capable of searching for artists and songs titles by using fragments of song lyrics. The search engine is free service. At present, Uta-ken contains around 3,000 searchable titles and Axel Mark plans to expand its song database gradually.

Soon this service will provide download of songs/ringtones/videos which can bring in revenue. I see, Apple-iPhone to dominate in this category of search services.

PS: Google will try to enter this arena via YouTube to cause much disruption . Watch out !!!

Mobile Industry Statistics. ( Mind Blowing !!! )

Some stats from the  Tomi Ahonen's post putting 2.7 Billion in context ,

• Worldwide there are about 800 million registered automobiles
• Today there are 1.3 billion fixed landline phones in the world
• Today there are about 1.5 billion TV sets in use in the world . (TV is often shared, especially in Asia where families are also large. So you might easily have 6 or even 10 watching the same TV show. The reach of TV is much beyond the 1.5 billion sets in use.)
• Today 1.4 Billion people carry at least one credit card.
• In most countries it is illegal for under 18 year olds to have credit cards
• There are about 850 million PCs
• In total over 750 million people access internet content via a mobile phone today
• About the total PC population or about 850 million people, access the web via a computer.
• During 2007 the first cross-over from PC to Mobile phones will happen, with more users accessing via phone than PC.
• The total shipped PDA population is about 85 million, most which are replacements.
• Thre are 85 Million iPod in use
  
• DVD recorders/ PVR shipments are under 100 million.
• Camcorders, are under 100 million total shipped (many as replacements).
• Gaming consoles have shipped near 200 million units, out of which 150 million are second generation (PS2/Xbox) or newer.
• The (stand-alone) digital camera has achieved shipments of near 300 million.
• There are  2.7 billion Mobile phones shipped (technically 2.7 billion in January, not December). They sold 950 million phones last year and the total worldwide mobile subscriber base grew from 2.1 billion to 2.7 billion.
• Phones are replaced every 18 months (and this is still shrinking)
• USA has reached 75% penetration for mobile phones
  
• The Western European average per capita penetration for mobile phones is already 110%
• Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Israel have penetration rates at about 140%
• China adds 6 million phones every month, India adds 7 million phones every month.
• Finland, Norway, Denmark and Portugal - each countries with 120% or more penetration rates - Mobilephones are less than 6 million units total.
• SMS Messaging Is Biggest Data App On Planet
• On the internet there are about 1.5 billion e-mail boxes, maintained by about 800 million people.
• 1.8 billion people are doing SMS texting.
• Last year over 42% of Americans were active in SMS already
• E-mail is opened in 24 hours and replied to in 48 hours.
• SMS is read within 15 minutes on average and responded within 60 minutes.
• 65% of e-mail is spam, less than 10% of SMS is spam.
• In South Korea five separate credit card services are available on the three mobile networks
• In South Korea almost 100% of credit card based point-of-purchase sites accept payment via mobile phone credit (and charge) cards
• Two years from launch almost 10% of South Korean phone users watch digital broadcast TV on their phones
• The Pop Idol formats have earned a windfall of over 700 million dollars out of text messaging votes
• In 2005 already half of all phones sold were cameraphones so cameraphones outsell digital cameras by more than 4 to 1 .
• There are 3.2 Billion to 3.8 Billion radio users.
• 73% of the population now uses the mobile phone as their portable clock. 
• 2.7 Billion phones in active use. There is a subscription for 40% of the planet's population.
• The mobile telecoms industry earned 725 Billion dollars last year.
• Global music industry earns 16% of its revenues from mobile phones (mostly ringing tones);
• Videogaming earns 14% of its global revenues from mobile.
• Mobile telecom  growth in dollar terms, from 2005 to 2006, was 105 billion dollars.

He adds,
Data Service Revenues in mobile =
 ( Total internet content industry + Internet Advertising revenues + Global videogaming revenues + plus hollywood box office revenues worldwide + the global music industry ( combined.)

Mind blowing !!!

Schmap, Local Search Released

Schmap announced the release of Schmap Local, an innovative local search tool that recognizes and saves addresses and phone numbers on popular local search websites, including Google Maps, Yahoo! Local, MapQuest and Citysearch.

Schmap Local works by placing small icons next to local business listings on the user's favorite local search websites. When the user finds a local listing of interest -- say a restaurant, shop or movie theater -- clicking the Schmap Local icon next to that listing gives access to a host of useful options.

With Schmap Local, users can:

-- Save addresses and phone numbers as they browse the web.

-- Call phone numbers via Skype with a single click.

-- Link automatically to a map and driving directions for any chosen address.

-- Send addresses via SMS text message to a mobile phone.

-- Sync addresses via Outlook with a PDA, BlackBerry or iPod.

Schmap Local is free of charge to users, available as a browser plug-in for Internet Explorer, or as a Firefox extension. To try out Schmap Local, or to see a brief video of its use, please visit www.schmaplocal.com

Wayfinder, To provide Localised Maps for Mobile users

Wayfinder, the leading on-line mobile map and GPS-based application provider is to extend its current search information to location aware search later this year. The services will offer mobile users extensive search facilities and platforms for local information so they can choose from a database of their choice which will be offered through local providers in the country they are in.

Wayfinder offers map, direction and GPS navigation services accessible by mobile phone. From these basic navigation services, we provide mobile phone users with content services, including digital city guide books, traffic information, currency conversion and weather reports. Wayfinder's client include phone manufacturers, Sony Ericsson and Nokia, and operators such as Telenor, Telefonica and A1. The products are sold to end users throughout Europe and the USA.

Nokia Mobile Search Application

Nokia has  unveiled its new Mobile Search application that will enable mobile users find information stored within their compatible Nokia device.

Nokia Mobile Search can be downloaded for free at http://www.nokia.com/mobilesearch .

The application supports all Nokia N-series and some E -series consisting of Nokia N95, Nokia N93i, Nokia N92, Nokia N93, Nokia N91 8GB, Nokia N91, Nokia N80 Internet Edition, Nokia N80, Nokia N71, Nokia N76, Nokia N73 Music Edition, Nokia E70, Nokia E62, Nokia E60 , Nokia E61, and Nokia 3250 devices.

Mobile Video blogging

Nokia and Vox  have teamed up for video blogging. You can upload video, photos, and updates to your Vox blog directly from your Nokia Nseries device. And Vox is also giving 1 GB of upload badwidth per month for Nokia Nseries users.

Juicecaster provides similiar video blogging capabilities.

"JuiceCaster's newest feature, the JuiceCaster MediaBox, allows the user to easily capture and post pictures and videos directly from their mobile phone to virtually any online personal page, including MySpace, Xanga, Blogger, Gogglepages and more. The JuiceCaster MediaBox finally connects the consumer's mobile phone to their entire online life. In doing so, JuiceCaster provides a truly compelling, consumer-friendly application, utilizing camera capabilities on a mobile phone."

YouTube and MySpace Go Mobile

Vodafone has struck a deal with YouTube to launch a mobile version of the video-sharing website.

The deal, which will see UK users the first to be able to access a YouTube for mobile service, follows hot on the heels of Wedneday's agreement with MySpace to go mobile across Europe.

Mobile is the next frontier for the various social networking websites and web 2.0 companies, expect similar announcements from the likes of Bebo, Piczo and friends.

Promptu, voice enabled search, raises $5.6 million in VC funding

Promptu, the Menlo Park company that uses speech recognition to let you search on a mobile phone, has raised $5.6 million in additional financing .

Voice-powered search is an increasingly competitive field, especially in the hot area of mobile. Google last year filed a patent for voice search , and other players include V-Enable and Tellme. Tellme just launched a free mobile search feature .

Google Mobile Search Offerings

Things you can do using google search:

text GOOGL (46645) to get
including addresses and phone numbers, word definitions, numeric and other conversions, weather, and even sports scores.

1)Business Search:
Text-message the name of the business and its city and state to GOOGL,

2) Restaurant search:
 text something like pizza 94618 to receive the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all the pizzerias in that area.

3)Define a word:
To get a definition, text GOOGL with the command define: followed by the word (with no space between),

4) Conversions:
if you want to convert pounds to kilograms, or liters to quarts, or even find out the number of miles in a light-year, text GOOGL and enter 2 liters in quarts.
To convert foreign currency at the current exchange rate, text: $100 in euros

5) Weather Forecast
To find out the forecast for a region, text weather and the city name, such as weather Peoria, IL.

6) Sports search:
To find out how your team is doing, simply text its name.

Eric Schmidt - CEO says,

"It is clear that 2007 will be the year that mobile search query traffic grows substantially. Our current model is to use targeted text ads and we have evidence that the monetization of those ads is higher than in non-mobile uses. So it looks like the advertising revenue on a per-search query is likely to be significantly higher on mobile than on non-mobile.

As part of that, we are investing in new categories of using mobile devices. For example, YouTube content is being used and can be viewed on mobile devices in various partnerships that we're doing. Those are as much opportunistic for us, and they're not really driving revenue yet; although in theory, you could imagine a combination of video, video advertising on a mobile phone that would have the best entertainment value but also very, very high monetization rates. We're unlikely to split it out. It's not material today in a financial sense, and more importantly, it's still emerging.

We are making a significant investment in technology around mobile because of the growth rate of mobile and the ultimate scale of that business. You won't really see its financial impact until '08. "

Mobile Search Patents on Feb 08, 2007

Location-based vehicle messaging system
Company: Intel
"A system may enable vehicle operators to request information automatically along the route of travel by transmitting information requests, tied to the vehicle's current position, to a server. The server may store a plurality of informational files associated with particular global positioning system coordinates. Upon receipt of a request, the files associated with a particular position may be located and transmitted to the vehicle. The files may be stored as audio files so the user may listen to the files without being distracted while driving the vehicle."


Method and apparatus to improve accuracy of mobile speech-enabled services
Company: Intel
A speech recognition system includes a user profile to store acoustic data and a corresponding text transcript. A speech recognition ("SR") server downloads the acoustic data and the corresponding text transcript that are stored in the user profile. A speech recognition engine is included to adapt an acoustic model based on the acoustic data.

All Mobile Application Companies on one pages

Here is the list of companies operating in the mobile scene.

2010 : List of all Iphone App Development / Consulting companies

Communicate category

3jam - One to many texting
Crickee - Send & receive sms for free
Eqo - Call, text & IM your buddies on your mobile
Gizmo - Call Gizmo friends for free, or pay low rates
Grandcentral* - Get 1 phone number for all your calls
Jumpclaimer - Inform your relatives about your whereabouts thru sms
Hotxt - Skype for sms
Iotum - Sorts & processes calls on relevance
Iskoot - Call people on your online buddylists
Mixd - Text & send pix & vids to groups of friends
Mozeo - Text cast to & chat with your own group on your cell
Nimbuzz~ - Free mobile community calls, chats, IM
Pheeder - Alert all your friends with 1 phone call
Twttr - Share where you are thru your cell phone
Txtmob - Share sms messages with your friends
Juvino - Reroute your mobile calls and texting
Mabber - Mobile messenger
Soonr - Mobile2web & v.v.
Spinvox - From voice to text to Mobile or email
Tapgad - Get & reply to email thru sms
Teleflip - PC2Text – Communicate
Textmarks - Customize your own sms info service
Vicito - Group text service
Youmail - Record unique voice mail recordings for anyone that calls you
Zemble , collaborate & connect thru group text
Zlango - Icon language for sms

Office category

Bitbomb - Web2SMSs reminders
Planzo - Arrange meetings & events online & thru sms
Posticky - Place, access & share notes (also mobile)
Rminder - Text2phone reminder service

Audio category

Cingularmusicid - Have music recognized thru your cell
Enablr - Transcribe podcasts, Text2Snailmail…
Melodeo - Listen to, share, discuss & create podcast playlists, on your cell
Pocketfuzz - Create & sell your own ringtones
Shazam - Have music recognized thru your cell
Snapvine - Send audio files to & communicate with your friends, on your cell

Images category
Clicktoscan - Scan, store & share documents with your phone camera
Photocrank - Add graphics & caption to your cell cam photos & share them
Sharpcast - Synchronize all photos online & mobile
Waymarkr - Turn your mobile into a life phlogging wearable

Community category
Dodgeball - Hook in with your mobile & meet friends
Gearon - Social mobilenetwork around your cellphone's contacts
Invitika - Organize, report & share events thru your cell
Jaiku - Social phone directory showing where you are (Nokia S60 2nd ed.)
Jyve - Find, meet & interact with Skype users
Mozes - Share information & people thru your mobile
Mygamma - mobile community
Partysync - Meet & sms people
Playtxt - Socialize, flirt thru sms
Rabble - Create it & share it mobile
Saki - mobile community
Zingku - Text2website content sharing

Software category

Clicmobile - Mobile social software
Splashdata - Mobile tools for media, payments, shopping
Swarmteams - Solutions to set up & manage mobile One2- or Many2Many community communications
Tapuxmobile - Mobile fun & community content & apps
Widsets - Create widgets to get web2phone

Ecommerce category

Dsimobile - Start an mvno network
Moblee - Opt in to offers direct to your mobile
Mobsaver - Price comparison thru your cell
Tictap - Price comparison for mobile

Multimedia category

Kaywa - Publish & share multimedia on web & cell (Stealth)
Mobango - Discover & share mobile media
Mophone - Store & share mobile content
Mynumo - Create, share or sell mobile content
Pixpulse - Upload & share photos and videos on your mobile
Shozu - Upload & share photos, videos & text on your mobile
Treemo - Post, manage & share media online & mobile
Umundo - Upload & share mobile videos and pix
Winksite - Create & share mobile content
zannel - Mobile video sharing
mojungle - Mobile video picture sharing
juicecaster - Mobile video sharing


Publish category

Glue - Publish & share your website's content on mobile devices
Linknsurf - Track & share blogs on your mobile – Publish
Supcast - Publish your media online thru your cell
Wikipediamobile - Wap version of Wikipedia (by Sevenval)
Textamerica - mobile blog
Xanco~ - mobile phlog & vlog

Video category
Mobitv - Get tv & radio on your cell & laptop

Watchmedoing - Upload & share mobile videos

Portal category

Mobileglu - Web services to your mobile
Pushy*~ - Personal portal; also mobile
Plusmo - Fast, customizable way to get the web on your phone
Tiggdo - Personal mobile portal

Bookmark category

Mobilicious - mobile social bookmarking
Stufflinker - mobile and web bookmarking

Game category
Mobspray* - Create & share graffiti in places thru mobile2RFID -

Knowledge category
Mozesmob - mobile Q&A

News category
On2go - News & alerts on your mobile

Date category
Meetmoi - mobile dating

Identity category
Smartpox - Sema-encode & share URLs, phone numbers & email addresses .

Collaborate category
Socialight - Share pictures & notes with your cell phone

Micropayments category
Textpayme - mobileP2P micropayments

Search category
V-enable - mobile speech search

RSS category
Zaptxt - RSS to email, sms, messenger

Data Storages category
Zyb - Store, manage & share your cell's data
Zypsy - Post & get matches for classified ads thru cell & email
mobyko - Store cell contacts

Marketing/Advertsing
juicewireless
adinfuse
voodoovox

I will keep updating this list, on this page.

Blogosphere buzzing on impending war. Google Vs Telecom Service Providers

Within hours of the Telegraph story, its all over internet.

" The talks, will detail how the networks can create a mobile phone search engine to rival Google and Yahoo! We understand that Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison Whampoa, Telecom Italia and Cingular are all involved in the talks. Call revenues are declining and most networks are trying to find ways to make more money without having to increase prices in the long term. Most make significant income from data services but with Google announcing increased revenue from mobile advertising the networks understandably want a cut from the traffic they are driving."

Last time, ISP's lost the war with application service providers. This time Telecom Service providers are arming themself ,well in advance.
It was because Application providers won the last battle, that we have a truly free internet. Hope this time Google Prevails !!!

Visual Mobile search, players and patents

The basic idea behind a visual search is that , a person would take a picture of text/image that appears on an object with their phone, and then have the application return information to them about that.
This looks very interesting. So i will keep updating this page with new players and patents in this area

Service Providers:
mobot
" Mobot has developed a powerful, scalable, and flexible patent-pending solution which relies on image recovery, pattern recognition, and image matching capability 'in the cloud.' Cognitive science research has shown that the human brain uses blobs to recognize objects, that is, your brain does not use sharp edges to determine that a table is a table or a face is face. Mobot applies algorithms patterned after these methods to solve the problem of mobile visual search. Mobot has built a best in class solution through a combination of invention, innovation, and tech licensing. Mobot has strong technology partnerships with leading edge companies. For example, Imagen's technology and Evolution Robotics' ViPR technology are components of Mobot's visual search engine and help Mobot deliver state of the art pattern recognition. "
riya
"Riya is a new kind of visual search engine. We look inside the image, not only at the text around it. Use Riya to: Find similar faces and objects on many images across the web, Refine the results, using color, shape and texture.Riya also has a personal search service that does face and text recognition in your photos. You can use our face and text recognition technology to train the system to recognize the main characters in the story of your life, Share photos with friends and family."
DSPV
"DSPV has developed unique, patented server-side technology that provides a full camera-based visual search and retrieval solution. The mobile phone's camera is used to select an object of interest (advertisement, photo, commercial logo, URL etc.) and the relevant content is retrieved. Effectively any visual object appearing in print or displayed on a computer/TV screen can thus serve as a "banner" which can be linked to mobile content, where picture-taking replaces the ubiquitous "mouse click". Specifically designed to avoid software installation or modifications to the phones, the visual search engine works on MMS photos and 3G video-calls. On 3G handsets, the video-call mobile search provides a natural extension to present day interactive voice response (IVR)."

nThrum
The site is still accessible only by invitation. Read the interview with founder Kumar Gopalakrishnan here
"Users can access information from websites, reference books, online stores, news sources and more through the service. Users access relevant information by capturing text printed on any object such as a book, sign board, product and so on with the nThrum application installed onto their camera phone."


patents:
riya patent application
Method and system for providing information services relevant to visual imagery

Boorah, Local search

BooRah is a local search focusing on restaurants.

"BooRah's patent-pending natural language processing technology automatically summarizes a collection of online reviews from bloggers, professional critics and consumers, and allows consumers to search based on personal preferences. By capturing the community vibe and social essence of existing online groups, and comparing the results to individual search criteria, BooRah delivers unsurpassed relevance with the broadest community reach."
If you are searching for local restaurants in neighbourhood you get,
a) On Left side, list of all restaurants, with ratings, type of food served.
b) In the middle page, based on your choice the restaurant profile is displayed.
c) And then there are review, map, directions for the restaurant.

Also, you can refine your query based on 'what's open now'.

As there search tool becomes more proficient, they plan provide more services !
"Our system uses patent-pending Natural Language Processing technology to generate quantitative scores for domain specific attributes from plain English text, automatic summary from most relevant user sentiments and enables a highly customizable search based on personal preferences. This technology can be extended way beyond restaurants and will revolutionize the concept of search"

I see them evolving into a mobile search provider.

Mobile Advertisement: Evolving Strategies

The MEX blog post "Can mobile advertising evolve beyond the mission?" has raised some good points.
I am capturing the key points. ( Read the full article here )

1) Location, time available and mission are three key elements of mobile advertisement.

2) Knowing the context in which user has sent a query, is a must. For this, service providers have to datamine into users history.

3) The advertisement should by itself should be part of the solution user is searching for. Else it would be a distraction,

4) Entertainment service could be one such form of advertisement.

I do not agree much with the point that datamining into users history, is the only way. It seems too costly and un-optimised approach. But, there is little to suggest, how else this could be then done ;(

Mobile Podcasting.

Mobile Broadcasting is predicted to hit bigtime  this year.
Check out the major vendors

xandmail
melodeo
kimia
upsnap

Google starts Mobile Social Networking, via SMS service on orkut

"With orkut's new SMS feature, you can scrap your friends, look up their contact information and receive scrap notifications. Now you can send scraps from the bus, bar or bathroom, and your friends can get notified of those scraps when on bicycle, beach or bed. Along with the standard orkut features, we've included a few hidden goodies for the adventurous to find."

This is the first step towards social networking via sms. Soon with Location Enabled Services, you could be able to find friends in any area etc. There you go , Google !!!

33 Billion SMS Messages on New Year

It is estimated that there were 33 Billion SMS Messages on  new Year.
Considering that the current world population is around 6.6 Billion, that's a lot of messages.

So it seems, SMS is the communication of choice when it comes to sending greetings !

Mogmo. Search web for mobile contents

Mogmo is vertical search engine, focusing on mobile phones.
"Mogmo is the world's first search engine of mobile content all over the world. Mogmo search system offers thousands of games, office applications, wallpapers , themes, and ringtones . Mogmo Crawler scans hundreds of major mobile application provider's websites and supplements the database with novelties."

App's for mobile can vary based on the country, service provider and the handset. Mogmo is trying to cater to the demands of this market.

MobileSearching, the 411sync way

Using 411sync u can mobile search

1) using SMS (Text Message). Send SMS search queries to 415-676-8397
2) using Email. Send Email search queries to sms@411sync.com
3) using WAP. See 411Sync Mobile Web Search
4) using Toolbar. See below on details of installing 411Sync Mobile Search in your toolbar

Some other features include,

Configure SMS Reminders and Alerts and have updates sent to you automatically
Create SMS Shortcuts and get instant search results without typing anything in the SMS body. Share the shortcuts with other users.

The service comes free of cost.

The most nifty feature of the service is Keyword browsing
Create keywords while browsing and then use this keywords for incredibly fast browsing.
" When you view websites on your cell phone it can tedious to get to the section you want even if you have Blackberry, Sidekick or any other Smartphone. You will simply spend a lot of time scrolling up and down. You want to get to your content fast in just one single click. Use the Clip & Mobilize bookmark/favorite tool to highlight a section of a page and create a keyword that you want to access from the cell phone. Use the keyword from the cell phone to get the data in one click. No more XML feeds needed. Go to any website and start clipping the sections that you would like to carry on your cell phones."
Wow !

Popular mobile search keywords

The findings of mobilePeople's 'Mobile Search Trends 2006' study showed that

1)  6% of all mobile searches were for jobs and recruitment consultants just before Christmas 2006.

2)   The top mobile search categories before and during the festive perior, in order of popularity,

Taxis

Takeaways

Restaurants

Supermarkets

        Consumer electronics

Surprised Stocks/movies/buses-train time  are not there !

Zyb, the Mobile back up service grows big

ZYB is a mobile service that creates a backup of your contacts and calendar. You can share your contacts and calendar with your friends, family, sports club etc. and manage your mobile

To use this service you need to have either GPRS or WAP service.

In just six months since launching in June 2006, the company's user base has risen from zero users to 70,000 users using the free online mobile data backup service to "ZYB their mobile" and safeguard valuable mobile data.

Back up of mobile data is a concept, still in nascent stage.
But experience says, memory will keep getting cheaper and so will backup service work ?

UK local search engine yell improves its Mobile Search

UK local search engine yell updated its mobile search services yesterday.
Features include:
1) Search directory of business names, addresses and telephone numbers.
2) Free maps and directions along with search results.
3) Save the search results, into phones contacts.
4) Share the search results with other users.

UK has estimated 15.7 million mobile Internet users and yell claims to have 2 million business listings already.

Currently available for
Nokia, samsung, sony ericsson, blackberry, motorola and siemens phones

Cheap mobile phones are not the Future.

It easy to read the market and predict that, cheap mobile phones are the future.
"The demand for cell phones has never been higher, thanks to the demand for voice and text message services in emerging economies around the world. India, China, Brazil, and Africa – everywhere you look, citizens are clamoring to talk on their mobiles. They don't want expensive $500 iPhones – they want a handset that is good for SMS, voice, and maybe a few other basic features."
I beg to disagree.
The mobile phones are getting cheaper, because there are not much services available. In past 7-8 years, what innovative service have mobile phone vendors provided?
SMS/Alerts/ and of course talk. There is nothing else happening. And that's where the consumer says, "My $300 phone use is pretty much same as $100 phone. Then why don't buy the $100 phone "
That's the reason iPhone success is so important to this industry. In one stroke, they have given features, which will make consumers pay that extra. But in my view, its not the iPhone, but a open standard phone (allows third party applications), with features similiar to iphone, which will push the market. And ofcourse, how to fit the service providers into this is the OPEN PROBLEM.
Mark my words. This market, haven't started yet !

SugarMama Incentives

Intresting ways by which biz'ness are trying to pull in the mobile users

Give us a minute of your time, get a minute of airtime.


1) Watch short online video spots and give your feedback.

2) Answer questions via text message.

3) Fill out brief surveys about brands, products, and services.

I am sure there are more creative ways. Anyone ?

Voice Enabled Mobile Search Arrives: TellMe

TellMe launched there voice activitated Mobile search today.



Its like yellow pages on your mobile using voice recognition.



The 411 service provider, which includes American Airlines among its
clients, will allow mobile users to use its application for free. The
search uses a robot to help you find what you need, and it’s voice
activated. Tell your phone which city and state you’re in then say the
name of what you’re looking for and a map with direction comes up.

PS:
It seems google hold a patent over this. The patent says,

"A system provides search results from a voice search query. The system receives a voice search query from a user, derives one or more recognition hypotheses, each being associated with a weight, from the voice search query, and constructs a weighted boolean query using the recognition hypotheses. The system then provides the weighted boolean query to a search system and provides the results of the search system to a user."

Worlds First Location enabled mobile website

go2wintersports from go2 is a mobile website launched for sports enthusiasts.

They claim it as the world's first GPS-like location-enabled mobile website dedicated to providing winter sports enthusiasts and vacation resort travelers with the most comprehensive information on weather, snow and ski conditions, lodging, dining, entertainment and travel services for more than 500 ski destinations and resorts in the U.S.

"All go2 websites can also utilize new GPS-like technologies (referred to as Location-Based Services or LBS) where available by the major carriers in the U.S. LBS technologies enable mobile phone users to automatically determine their precise location at the touch of a button using their phones and carriers mobile network, facilitating go2's delivery of localized search results sorted by distance from the user's location. In addition, go2 uses its patented location management system to make it easier for users to personalize their go2 experience and utilize LBS across the entire go2 Mobile Content Network."

Getting local search on the mobile

Finding the local content using a search engine is at the heart of Mobile search.



Intrestingly there are applications like 877-520-FIND.



This is like Yellow pages on your mobile

If you are searching for a shop in near vicinity, Just sms the name shop/biz you are looking for to 877-520-3463.

And service is free of charge and Ads. So how do they make money ?



"However surprisingly it's turning out to be much tougher to find a
local pizza restaurant than it is to search the globe. There's a lot of
effort going into Local Search and it's tough to stay on top of it and
see the wood for the trees"



That sums it up.

MCN raises second round of funding

Mobile Content Networks, Inc. (“MCN”), a leading provider of mobile
search solutions, announced today it has closed its Series B funding
round led by Meritage Funds with the participation of Dentsu.com,
Netage Capital Partners, UniqueLab, Suneight and Intellect Capital
Ventures. The company will use the funds to further expand the
development and marketing of MobileSearch.net, the wireless industry’s
first real-time search management platform.



The company will use the funds to give other white-label search
providers (specifically Medio Systems, JumpTap and FAST) a run for
their money and show that an open mobile search scheme – that is, one
that doesn’t lock users or operators into search results determined by
one or two search engines



MCN Product Architecture:

"The MobileSearch.net platform is comprised of a set
of unique components, designed to rapidly deliver the optimum mobile
search experience, while keeping service providers in complete control.

The
User Interface Controller handles search and browse capabilities and
supports virtually all mobile devices, providing minimal clicks to
content, contextual navigation, and localized content. All elements in
the user display can be configured, and custom phone client software
can be easily supported.

The Query
Broker and Taxonomy Components combine patent-pending query
classification and dynamic source selection to improve relevancy, with
a highly scalable connector framework and a growing library of content
sources.

The Monetization Engine
dynamically applies your business rules to place banner ads, premium
placement, sponsored, pay-per-click, pay-per-call, and direct links to
organic and paid content anywhere in the world."

Service providers blocking url's clicks by sms? A Open problem.

One of the easiest way of sharing a link , is just send it as an sms. But some of this links can automatically download some malicious code taking down the entire network with it. And that is the reason that service providers are so wary of these features and have blocked it.



But, this is an intresting proposition for security services on mobile phones. With more and more interesting sms applications,service providers will have to open up there shackles and strengthen themself using strong mobile security services.

powered by performancing firefox

Web2.0 on Mobile ?

Web2.0 has spilled over to the mobile area.



LogicaCMG announced speedbrowsing tool for service providers. This optimises the online content for mobile users, to deliver them web2.0 ..aka..desktop like experience.



"The mobile form factor adds another complication to content delivery,
requiring it to be individually manipulated for the mobile environment.
High Speed Proxy, the product at the core of LogicaCMG’s SpeedBrowsing
proposition, automatically reformats each web page, ensuring that
everything on the users screen is optimised for the mobile environment.
In addition, the image compression engine reduces the download size of
graphics, while still ensuring that they can be properly viewed on the
recipient device"

mobile search offerings from google

Google is currently the most active player in the mobile search arena.

These are the offerings from them,

sms
web search on mobile
image search
mobile search
local search
xhtml
wml
mobile gmaps
mobile news

Some interesting information, from the faq’s

"Google automatically translates these pages by analysing the original HTML code and converting it to a mobile-ready format. To ensure that the highest quality and most useable web page is displayed on your mobile phone or device, Google may resize, adjust or convert images, text formatting and/or certain aspects of web page functionality.”

That means, your webpage may look different to mobile users.

Some inside stuff,

“XHTML (WAP 2.0) areWML (1.2) and iMode are different formats for mobile websites. XHTML is what most phones sold in the last couple years support, and will enable you to view images and text on your phone along with iMode. WML is an older format that doesn't enable you to view images.
With these formats, Google automatically translates regular Web pages into pages that your phone understands. But since these formats support different content, your Google Mobile experience will vary as follows:
With XHTML you can conduct both Google Web Search and Image Search.
With WML, you can only conduct Google Web Search.”

So look into your phone manual to find, whether it is mobile-search enabled.

This is interesting,

“No, you can't send cell phone search results to a friend.”

A Warm Welcome .

"The question of mobile search's significance is made more difficult to answer because of the complexity of defining exactly what it is. Online, we're all accustomed to a search box and a results page filled with an assortment of links with short descriptions. That interface is well suited to the large screens enjoyed by Blackberry and Treo users. But given the smaller screens of the majority of handsets, a panoply of interfaces are vying for dominance."

When you read/feel like things , you are witnessing the birth pangs of a new technology.

The purpose of creating this blog is keep following the trends to that moment, when we know mobile search has arrived.

I welcome all to join me in this journey.