I feel inclined to comment on the notion of Social Search and it’s purposed take-over of how people search on mobile devices.  While the concept has extreme potential, it won’t be realized until several fundamental aspects are addressed- aspects that will take time to evolve and make themselves known.

Aardvark recently published a comprehensive research paper entitled “Anatomy of a Large-Scale Social Search Engine,” whereby it delves into the conceptual aspects of social search and how it fundamentally differs from traditional search.  The research mirrors that of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s “Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Search Engine,” that outlines the theory of Google PageRank and the ideas that have made Google the dominate search engine it is today.

Aardvark’s research describes traditional Web search as a “library” approach, whereby results and answers are found in existing Online content.  Social search from the likes of Aardvark, and the droves of other startups eeking their way into the marketplace for that matter, describe themselves as having a “village” approach- whereby answers arise in conversation with the people in your social network.

I agree with the self-proclaimed benefits of social search through the eyes of Aardvark, which are that users can ask questions in a natural language — without having to speak in keywords — that content is generated “on-demand” tapping real people who can give more informed results, and that the surrounding ecosystem is fueled by the so-called “goodwill of its users,” but therein lies the problem.

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A new consumer survey has found that large retailers’ mobile sites have been deemed slow, unresponsive and unstable by respondents- including sites from the likes of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Costco, Dell, Foot Locker, Musician’s Friend, Sears, Target and Wal-mart.

The survey, conducted by Keynote Systems, measured the performance of ten top retailers’ mobile sites, including Best Buy, Dell and Amazon, in three key areas; homepage load time, product search and product information requests.  In the end, it was determined that improvements need to be made across the board, even with those that performed better than others.

Availability and reliability of top mobile sites were areas of most concern, with Foot Locker’s mobile site earning the top mark with 97.6% availability.  Out of the ten surveyed, only one other mobile site achieved availability higher than 90%, with three sites even falling below 80%.  To put it in perspective, the study indicated that consumers expect around 99.5% availability overall, meaning all top ten sites fell well below consumer expectations.

Load times, in terms of homepage loading, product and site-wide search, etc. was another aspect under scrutiny, with consumers surveyed expecting a mobile site to load in around 1-2 seconds total.  Of the top ten mobile sites, the fastest homepage load time belonged to Best Buy, which loaded in 8.3 seconds, while Wal-mart had the fastest search results page, taking around 4.5 seconds.  Foot Locker performed the fastest product information request at 5.7 seconds, proving overall that its mobile site was the best of those surveyed.

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I wrote recently about the concept of location becoming more important than standard SEO in terms of mobile search, but with the proliferation of mobile apps becoming a de-facto branding method for many advertisers entering the mobile channel, optimization is taking on an entirely different role.

A great article published by Patricia Brusha on HospitalityNet discusses mobile apps and their growing popularity among marketers, and posses the simple question “could apps be the new search?”  She describes the current state of mobile apps and likens it to a time 10 years ago when Websites were gaining popularity.  At that time, consumers would ask a business “do you have a website?” and usually be quite impressed when the business would say yes.  Today, not having a website means you’re really not a business, and the same concept will soon evolve with mobile apps as well.

In terms of optimization, a paradigm shift is beginning to happen in the mobile space whereby marketers are putting less importance on search keywords in hopes of driving consumer awareness of their Website, and instead are having to optimize different forms of media in entirely new ways.  Mobile apps are a perfect example.  Users usually discover mobile apps in app stores or other centralized repositories — not in search engines — and as such, those behind the mobile apps have to optimize their apps to be in a position where they’re noticed.

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The ecosystem surrounding the mobile Web is very different than that of the traditional Web, with many key differences in everything from display advertising to search- the latter of which requiring a completely different set of rules to be noticed.

With traditional search, SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is key to getting your site noticed in the seemingly never-ending reach of the Internet, but with mobile search, the methodology is far different.  While certain optimization is still needed to make sure people can find your mobile site, location is the primary attribute that determines who sees your site and when.

With emphasis taken away from overall optimization and put towards location, how does one make sure their mobile site is noticed by the right audience at the right time?  Put simply, you don’t, and that’s a mobile optimization question that’s yet to be answered.  For sites that have no location-relevance, the same SEO techniques that work on the traditional Web will work to some degree on the mobile Web as well.  For those with sites and business listings that are location-aware, such as retail locations, small businesses and local service providers, you’re more or less at the mercy of the devices your target audience is carrying.

Whether or not your target audience is equipped with devices that are location-aware, meaning one of the increasingly abundant GPS-enabled devices, determines whether the location-aware algorithms in place in search engines will serve your site or business listing.  Unlike optimization, this is an aspect that’s out of the control of the site owner.

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When it comes to traditional search, there’s really no one that can top Google’s dominance in the space.  Mobile search, however, is still fair game to anyone who makes the right moves.

Google is making huge strides to extend its reach into the mobile space, but it may be too little too soon.  What began as Google’s mass-market breakthrough into mobile search — being the default search engine on the iPhone — is coming to an end, and signaling a new kind of competition that Google isn’t used to.

It’s speculated that Apple will tap Bing to become the default search provider for the iPhone, iPod Touch and most likely the iPad as well.  With Google losing its stronghold on arguably the most sought-after mobile devices on the market, it sends a clear message that mobile search is still anyone’s game.

Apple’s partnership with Microsoft to provide Bing-enabled search on its devices will undoubtedly show the world that Bing means business- and for good reason.  Microsoft has done an exceptional job so far in developing their search engine, and in many cases, providing features that Google doesn’t offer.  Becoming the de-facto search engine on devices that everyone wants, puts Microsoft in the driver’s seat for the first time in ages.  Whether they’ll build on this momentum is the question that remains to be answered.

Focusing on mobile search, and doing it right, will be the hurdle Microsoft has to overcome to continue its insurgence into the market.  Strengthening Windows Mobile, which is a tall order in the new-age mobile landscape ushered in by Apple, will be another step Microsoft needs to focus on to keep its momentum strong.  Forging partnerships with other device and OS makers to continue to put Bing in front of users is another step forward Microsoft will have to make.

While everyone thought that Google was determined to become dominant in mobile search, Bing came from behind and seems stronger in many regards than Google to become a dominant player.  While it’s still anyone’s game, it will sure be fun to watch the inevitable war between the top players.

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GetFugu, maker of the unique “see it, say it, get it” mobile search engine announced from the National Retail Foundation show (NRF) that it will begin accepting advertisers into its global mobile-ad network beginning Jan. 31st.  What’s unique is that GetFugu plans to make heavy use of sales teams spread across geographical regions to help persuade potential advertisers.

Unlike other digital ad-networks that rely on a purely web-based interface to facilitate advertising, GetFugu’s purposed method takes a much more personal approach, much like the service itself.  Proving nothing short of aggressive, GetFugu will seek to engage 1,000 commission-based sales representatives within the first 90 days and grow to over 10,000 reps by the end of the year.

To help small and medium-sized businesses on a local level, the company plans on opening regional “coordination centers” in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Boston, Miami, Seattle, Houston and Atlanta to ease the process for advertisers that are new to mobile advertising.  Overcoming the learning curve by more or less holding advertiser’s hands during the entire process is a smart strategic step to monetizing its service.

Arguably one of the largest disadvantages to mobile advertising currently is the fact that it’s seen as a complicated and cumbersome process for most, especially smaller advertisers operating on a local level.  GetFugu obviously recognizes this and is taking steps from the beginning to help the situation.

“We have completed our initial technology build out, assembled a talented production team, launched our application on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry platforms and watched our user base begin to grow exponentially,” said Derek Norton, Chief Operating Officer of GetFugu, Inc. “It is now time to turn our focus to advertisers and delivering on the promise of GetFugu. This sales effort will generate a significant monthly recurring revenue stream for GetFugu.”

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Like Millennial Media’s monthly S.M.A.R.T report, Opera’s monthly “State of the Mobile Web” report gives an inside snapshot of how the mobile Web is being consumed around the world and how users are interacting with mobile as seen from one of the most widely used mobile browsers in existence.

In November’s report, released today, usage has once again skyrocketed over the previous month and November of last year with Opera reporting a total of 41.7 million users — more than double the amount of users in November of 2008 — and a 5.3 percent increase over October 2009.

Opera users viewed 18.8 billion pages in November, a 231 percent increase over the previous year, and generated over 285 million MB of data for operators worldwide.  It’s interesting to note that Opera compresses up to 90 percent of the data used by consumers, so without this compression, users would have viewed over 2.6 PB (petabytes) of data in November.  Overall data traffic was up 213 percent over November 2008, showing just how much the mobile Web has matured over the past year.

This month’s report also highlighted mobile Web usage and reach in Africa, where usage has grown exponentially over the previous year.  Ghana and Kenya, for example, lead the top 10 African countries in terms of page-view growth — 4,348.6% and 615.4%, respectively — while Ghana and Ivory Coast lead the top 10 African countries in growth of unique users-1,558.8% and 330.2%, respectively.  Kenya also leads the top 10 African countries in page views, with each user browsing 525 pages on average each month.

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