Mobile Local Search: Finding the Way

With standards set by the iPhone and Google’s Android platform, a new mobile environment is upon us. How will this market be led by search giants, and what innovations can we expect to see from smaller third party application developers? What forms will location based services take, and what will be the opportunities for large and small companies to get in front of mobile users?

Moderator:

 

• Michael Boland, Senior Analyst, The Kelsey Group

Speakers:

 

• Ryan Sarver, Founder and VP of Business Development, Skyhook Wireless
• Collin Holmes, Vice President of Product Management, V-Enable
• Tom Limongello, Director of Sales, Crisp Wireless
• Kevin E. Mazzatta, Vice President of Business Development, ChaCha Search, Inc.

Tom Limongello:

What are you looking for?

Google on your phone? A hotel or restaurant or movie? News, sports and financial information?

Do you call (voice), scan, desktop to phone, enter a keyword in a mobile version of a search engine.

Do you want the closest place, the most recent news, the most relevant result to a query, other?

Ryan Sarver:

They use wi-fi to determine your location and not satellites / GPS. They have 400 people driving around sniffing out wi-fi access points! <cool slide> Another approach is cellular technology. They feel that GPS + wi-fi is superior. They power the “my location” function on the iPhone.

Ah…your tennager has just left your town on the way to the beach on a school day…<alert!><alert!>

Collin Ho,mes:

Wouldn’t it be easier to just talk into your phone instead of pushing all of those (stupid little) buttons?

Take 411 where a human operator always used to look up information for you. (e.g. the closest Starbucks, a moot point in NYC) Avg. 411 call costs $150 – $1.79 per call! Most people don’t realize that.

<colored bar charts>

<cute Mobile411 demo>

<tables, pie charts, statistics >

Keep an eye on more voice search! “Hello HAL!”

Kevin Mazzatta

The ChaCha story….the best way to get the best answer is by asking….a person!

A Perfect Storm: Mobile Devices + Mobile Web Apps + Networks = ChaCha

There are twice as many cell phones than PCs out there, and the number is growing rapidly.

Factors in mobile search: Ubiquitos / Timely / User-Centric / Autonomous / Free / Simple Answers

Three Phases: 1) hey, this is cool / funny questions. 2) Hey this is also practical / serious questions 3) This is addictive or habitual / “Google it” “do the ChaCha”?

Q&A

Is the ‘Holy Grail” of mobile search voice questions with real-time vocal answers? Is that what people want? Do you?

How would you “voice” a printer in a store? Wouldn’t you rather take a picture of it (and get a review or competative pricing) or scan the bar code.

Bottom line: Partnerships are critical!

<end of session>

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 2:16 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.