Visual search is a new concept aimed at making the overall search experience more user-friendly, interactive and quicker for the end-user.  While there are visual search engines on the traditional Web, the concept has been better received on the mobile Web- where quicker and more visual search results are more welcomed given the nature of the devices used.

To heed this trend, Searchme has been busy introducing mobile applications that bring mobile visual search to the various mobile platforms.  While an iPhone, Android and even Nokia Ovi Store version already exist, the Windows Mobile platform has lacked an app.  That’s now changed with Searchme’s debut of a beta version of its mobile app for Windows Mobile users.

Instead of a list of blue links, Searchme delivers images of web pages, videos, music and products that play right on the search result page making it easy to find and consume information on a cell phone.  Searchme offers significantly improved performance for searching on a phone because it runs as a native Windows Mobile application, rather than in a slow-rendering web browser.  Unlike other search applications, Searchme supports a full touch screen interface.

In the beginning, I have to say I wasn’t impressed with the idea of visual search.  It’s a slower process and I found it harder to find exactly what I was looking for given the plethora of media that’s presented with each search.  Text-based search results just feels more natural.  With the advent of bringing visual search into a separate mobile application, the idea seems much more viable.

Share This

Google is getting one step closer to dominating mobile contextual advertising much like it did on the traditional Web with the launch of a public beta for its new AdSense for mobile apps solution.

Aimed at providing both contextual and graphical ads for apps running on both the iPhone and Android platforms, AdSense for mobile apps is taking on niche mobile ad networks such as AdMob and Greystripe who have been serving up ads in mobile applications for quite some time now- AdMob, in particular, has done very well thus far.

The solution will work similar to Google’s other AdSense products and will display ads based on keywords, demographics and location.  In addition, advertisers can also directly bid for placement in certain apps.  The application developer can even determine the positioning and appearance of any ad displayed in their app, and can filter out any un-wanted ads if they desire.

At the moment, the public beta is limited to apps that garner a minimum of 100,000 daily pageviews, which is a small number of apps, but should be released to the masses shortly.

This is significant only because of the vast reach Google already has, as well as the fact that it will be easily integrated into Google’s other AdSense solutions.  Although it’s separate now, when marketers can check mobile apps as part of their overall AdSense campaigns, there should be a lot more bidding for those mobile ad spots within iPhone and Android apps, which will also increase the bid amounts and make the overall task of advertising within mobile applications much more streamlined.

As it stands right now, Google already has more advertisers than any other startup that’s deemed their competition (AdMob), and the solution hasn’t even launched yet.  With that kind of inventory integrated within Google’s already vast AdSense/AdWords networks, the launch will undoubtedly be a game-changer.

Share This

In mobile we have talked about “on deck” and “off deck” with the terms being all about carriers and whether or not a particular carrier was offering your content. The “new deck” is all about applications and app stores.

And contrary to what you might think, Apple’s iPhone app store isn’t the only new deck in town. Palm has announced a new application store and already has 5,000 offerings that work on more than two dozen devices including their Windows Mobile devices. Blackberry has an app store debuting in the spring and of course Google’s Android Market is already going gangbusters as well.

The proliferation of app stores impacats consumers, businesses and the mobile industry as a whole. For consumers it means that whatever your mobile device is, you can now do more with it. I predict that consumers will begin to shop for their next device based on the apps they can get and/or stick with a particular device for the apps they have already integrated into their daily life.

What the new deck means to businesses is that having an application store strategy is clearly necessary. Knowing which devices are most used by your target audience is a critical foundation step. And ignoring the application market will not work for long.

How do you think the “new deck” will impact our industry?

Share This

One open mobile operating system. Three thousand programmers. Ten minutes.

That just about sums up Google’s brief but compelling Wednesday debut of Android,� the open mobile operating system that has rallied numerous handset makers, cellular service providers, and software developers.

Most of Android’s features seemed predicated on touch-screen technology, though tracker-ball technology is also compatible. These include:
* Navigating around images of a street, thanks to a “compass mode” and Google Maps.
* The ability to lock/unlock a device by swiping a special pattern across the screen.
* A “zoom” mode that helps users magnify Web content on their small phone screens.
* A mobile version of the video game classic Pac-Man.

Savvy marketers are watching Android closely. Keeping the system open means that any developer will be able to create programs for it–and the best, most in-demand apps will prevail. That bigwigs and small fry alike are rallying ’round Android means that developers’ efforts won’t be for naught. All this, proponents say, will lead the way to standardization of technology across virtually all mobiles (currently Windows Mobile, Symbian, and innumerable flavors of Linux fragment most of the market). In turn, marketers will be able to leverage mobile tech like never before.
Read the rest

Share This

Jeffrey Sharkey has won the Google Developer’s challenge, and $25,000 for his “Scan” Android application. The main purpose of the app is to find pricing and metadata info from anything with a barcode, such as CD’s, books, and other products.

We’ve seen this technology in the past, but nothing that uses the power of Android to accomplish it. The features are quite impressive, and as I’ve always said, it took a platform like Android to really open up the feature-set to make barcode-recognition a mainstream possibility. Here’s some of the features of the new app;

• Automatic barcode recognition using onboard phone camera using ZXing
• Shows CD, DVD, or book cover along with detailed reviews from Amazon.com
• Searches over a dozen stores, both online and brick+mortar
• Highlights brick+mortar stores that are nearby, with option to call the store or get directions
• Links to online storefronts to buy online from the phone
• Track-listing for CDs, along with option to play sample tracks right on phone
• For books, searches local libraries to see if they have a copy

There’s a video demo of the app in action here. The most impressive features are the fact that it will scan local stores, libraries, etc. for the product scanned, and return those results with options to get directions to the nearest store, call them for more details, and more. If you scan a CD, you can listen to a clip with ease, and it even lists brick and mortar stores separately, for if you’re on the go and want to purchase something right then instead of online.

I’ve been waiting to see something like this, and it doesn’t surprise me that it won the developers challenge. It’s an amazing application. If you go here, you can actually listen to the voicemail from Google telling Jeffrey that he’s won. Congrats Jeffrey!

Share This

Google is serious about mobile, there’s no question.� The thing they have to do, is lay the ground work for the mobile landscape they’ve had pictured in their mind for some time, which is simplified mobile search, and simplified mobile applications that work across the board, on any device, and work quickly and efficiently.

Google is currently tapping the best resources available with new development centers in Bangalore, Beijing, Tokyo, Waterloo, Canada, Silicon Valley, and their main base in London.� Their focus is web-based and location-based services that hope to take advantage of new phones with full web browsers, great user interfaces, and flat-rate data plans, which Google calls the “winning formula.”� iPhone anyone?

Google’s engineering site director, Ann Mai Chang, said; Google prefers to avoid developing apps that require elements to be downloaded to the device, as this makes the user experience slower and less attractive.� Instead, the company can focus on innovative web applications such as Google Grand Prix: the mobile software suite that includes search, email and location-based services.

Google’s also been working on the way user’s input information into mobile devices, which has been a hurdle to overcome with mobile apps, and search.� Dave Burke, technical lead and manager for mobile engineering at Google, explained how the team has tailored their search application to work more effectively on mobile devices.� One of the main aims with the mobile search app was to reduce keystrokes due to the tricky nature of typing on mobile devices, so the app suggests possible search terms as the user types, potentially allowing them to navigate much more quickly.� Simple navigation and interaction is vital on mobile devices, and Google has always prided themselves on providing super-fast search.� It’s only natural for them to provide the same intuitiveness on mobile devices.

With all the news of Google’s mobile plans, it’ll be interesting to see if everything goes as they’ve planned.� Other key players and technologies will have to fall in line, and Google is doing everything they can to make sure that happens.

Share This

With Google’s interest in securing a section of the upcoming wireless spectrum that becomes available after the digital switch, there’s been some speculation that the main intention on Google’s mind is to offer a free nationwide wifi network based on the high-power frequencies usually reserved for television.

Not long ago, Google submitted a six-page letter to the FCC outlining processes and tests to avoid interference on the frequencies in question, which was a major concern to the FCC. Google also promised to reserve some frequencies to be used not for wireless Internet and provide free tech support for people using their WiFi.� It looks as though they’re laying the groundwork to dovetail nicely with the launch of upcoming Android handsets.� That is if the FCC and the privacy groups don’t interfere.

If Google can control the network, as well as the handset software, and combine it with their core search engine knowledge, it will post serious privacy concerns regarding the vast amount of personal data and pure information Google would control.� Since Google’s number one goal is to generate a larger footprint to incorporate it’s advertising models into, it obviously makes sense that it would want to place itself at all levels of the process, but controlling and managing that much information could cause problems.

On the other hand, the benefits are enormous in terms of both advertising revenue for Google, and the fact that everyone would have access to a completely free wifi network that’s available anywhere, anytime.� It would take a ton of testing and configuring to make sure it’s secure and stable enough for widespread adoption, but exciting to think about nonetheless.� We’ll see what happens…

Share This