For the past few years I have been writing about the immense changes
happening in search marketing. These changes are driven by a number
of factors but the two that make the biggest difference are technological
advances and user adoption.
It has been a full decade since Netscape issued the IPO that sparked
the tech-boom of the late 90's and the popularization / commercialization
of the web. A decade does not seem like a long time in the evolution
of culture but as many have already said, we live in accelerating
times. Acceleration is based on efficiency and efficiency is enhanced
by access to what one needs whenever one needs it.
The Internet has made information both personal and portable. Each
user has their own version of the Internet; much like every person
has their own version of the city or town they live in. Over the
last decade, we the users have learned to weave a growing number
of information tools, services and applications into the routines
of our daily lives. The web not provides users with a constantly
expanding library of data to draw from; it also presents users with
their own personal spaces to store or share data with others. Understanding
this concept is one of the keys to understanding the strategies
of Google, Yahoo and MSN, along with the hundreds of large E-Commerce
businesses including Amazon and EBay.
It is the users who dictate how technology develops. While their
choices are obviously limited by the number of inventors and innovators,
users choose which technologies survive and how those technologies
will be used. Netscape withered when consumers replaced them with
the free IE browser bundled in their Windows packages. Similarly,
a substantial number of users chose Firefox as an alternative to
IE. Today, users are migrating towards Internet capable handheld
devices such as cell phones, Blackberrys and other PDAs.
The portability of a personalized information environment is what
users want, hence the relationship between local search (cool maps
included) and user-specific personalization of search results. Portability
drives the laptop computer market, which in turn drives the WiFi
market. The next natural step in the portability of one's personal
information environment brought the web to mobile phones and hand-held
devices. Search, being the only practical way to find one's way
around the web is an increasingly important resource for mobile
users.
According to a whitepaper, "Mobile Search and its Implications
for Search Engine Marketing", which is going to be released
next Monday by Lisa Wehr, CEO of OneUpMarketing, cell phone screens
and other handheld mobiles are emerging as significant user environments.
"When you merge the power of the Internet with the on-demand
accessibility of a mobile device, you're creating a perfect storm
for users and marketers alike," says Lisa.
She calls this environment "the third screen", listing
television as the first and desktop/laptop computers as the second.
While current mobile searchers tend to come from a younger demographic
group, Lisa sees several social trends that will move many of us
to adopt mobile devices, thus rapidly populating the third-screen
environment.
These third-screens are very different from computer monitor as
are the devices used to interact with them. The screen size is much
smaller and bandwidth is an important factor. The majority of mobile
devices don't have a mouse so scrolling down a page requires the
use of buttons. Mobile devices such as cell phones tend to have
limited keyboards and those with keyboards tend to have tiny keys.
These factors play important roles in how the environment is used
and how search marketers and site designers should work within it.
Lisa suggests marketers and designers should put more effort into
making their documents third-screen friendly. For example, offering
easy choice-options such as buttons along with text-links in a document
recognizes the limitations of a mouse-less device. Another suggestion
she makes is to research and target shorter keyword phrases as typing
on a mobile device is often difficult.
Most importantly, Lisa's whitepaper draws a direct correlation
between mobile search and local search. Comparing mobile search
users' behaviour with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Lisa notes that
mobile users tend to search for personal-survival needs such as
hotels (shelter), and restaurants (food) before confirming their
personal-security needs such as news, email, travel (airline schedules,
local mapping) and weather. After satisfying survival and security
needs, mobile users tend towards establishing personalized information
environments with favourite songs, shared-images and social networking
as hallmarks of that space. When Maslow's basic needs are met in
the mobile world, users tend to do exactly what one would expect;
they go shopping.
When they do go shopping, they expect information on demand, just
like they have been conditioned to expect by their search experiences
at home or the office. Their behaviours when searching however will
be different than those searching on a larger monitor. Mobile users
have time constraints and are accessing the web at much lower connection
speeds. Lisa's whitepaper goes on to describe two typical types
of mobile shopper coined "need-it-now" and "killing-time"
shoppers, and offers advice on meeting their needs.
"This shift is big--both technologically and behaviourally
speaking," Lisa says, "Therefore, it's going to require
solutions on both of these fronts."
Lisa recommends marketers and designers learn xHTML which is readable
by both WAP2.0 and HTTP browsers though she notes that mobile browsers
are increasingly able to interpret HTML more efficiently. A wealth
of information on xHTML can be found at the W3C, or at xhtml.org.
This is the first major study of mobile search, one that is sure
to provide a foundation for future research. It should be placed
on the "must-read" list for all search marketers, site
designers and online advertisers. Google, Yahoo, MSN and the rest
understand the power of the portable personalized information environment.
As users adapt to their new personalized space, mobile search is
going to be one of the next ultra-important information environments.
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