Yahoo’s plans to dominate mobile internet

For long I’ve been focusing on Yahoo’s growth in the mobile internet market. From innovative mobile applications to strategic partnerships with companies all over the world, Yahoo is going great guns in the mobile internet market.

Recently, I read an article on Yahoo in a PR site which explained Yahoo’s plans in the mobile world. Usually I read such press releases with a pinch of salt, as things are often hyped and there is a lot of jargon involved. But surprisingly, this was very simple and to the point. I noticed a couple of very good points which I’d like to share with you.

Yahoo’s policy as far as mobile internet is simple. It focuses on three things.

1. Offering the best possible search facility in mobile phones

2. Serving the customers with relevant, targeted, useful ads

3. Being utmost careful in handing users’ private information and take their privacy very seriously

In my opinion, this is perhaps the best possible way to reach the top spot in mobile advertising industry. In Yahoo’s case, it becomes even more important to reach the top spot in the mobile internet market, as it has a point to prove to a lot of people. Ever since the Yahoo-Microsoft deal failed, people have been skeptical about Yahoo and there is a lot of pressure from its investors too. In such a scenario, grabbing the top spot, even if it’s only in the mobile space and not in the online space, could prove a thing or two to people.

I think Yahoo has everything to become the top dog in the business. It has useful mobile applications like onePlace, oneSearch, and oneConnect, all of which have been received well by mobile users. It also has made partnerships with a lot of companies and it is now said to have the potential to reach a whopping 600 million users. The only thing that needs to be seen is how Yahoo competes with a company that is hell bent on gaining the top spot in the mobile industry – Google.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Yahoo, Mobile Web.

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Has Google lived up to its expectations?

I never thought such a day would come, at least not so early. Google is being questioned by people around the world for something which promised to take the mobile phone industry to a whole new level – Google Android. When it started, everything looked rosy. Google developed Android and promised that its source code will be made available to programmers around the world, it will help them come up with good mobile applications, and all that jazz. And it’s been quite a while since all this happened. So, developers are raising questions as to what Google is up to anyway.

Agreed, it came up with the software development kit in November, but the kit hasn’t lived up to its expectations. And then, Google came up with the announcement that the kit is a “work in progress”. Most importantly, the kit doesn’t have the source code, which Google promised would be there for everyone to see.

Now, here’s an interesting situation. The big G is taking its own time to actually deliver the goods and this has put Microsoft and Yahoo, the good old rivals, in a comfortable position. While Google stole the thunder with its Android, Microsoft has been working its way up slowly with its Windows Mobile Operating system for around five years now. Most importantly, tens of thousands of applications, which can run in Windows Mobile OS, are available in the market now. Also, Yahoo has announced a software development kit of its own which will help developers come up with apps that can run on a huge number of mobile phones. So, where does that leave Google?

Google has been put under enormous pressure to deliver the goods, and that too quickly. Microsoft and Yahoo are slowly but surely working their way up in the mobile industry and this has made people complain about Google. Now, the word “complain”, I thought, was only meant for Microsoft. What say?

Categories: Google.

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Mobile social networking could be the future

Everyone talks about mobile advertising these days and most importantly, everyone, irrespective of their knowledge in this issue, seems to have an opinion on the same. Marketing experts world over say that mobile advertising could be huge and one of the most important reasons is the rising awareness on social networking sites.

Social networking has become hugely popular all over the world. Apart from big markets like the U.S. and Europe, the numbers from countries like India and Brazil are staggering and it only shows people’s growing interest in this phenomenon called social networking. This is why mobile advertising could be huge. Social networking, by definition, is about people that want to keep in touch with their friends and share info among them by the hour. Now, you can’t expect someone to roam around with a laptop all the time and this is where mobile phone comes into the picture. If social networking sits can be made easily accessible on mobile phones, the response would be tremendous. The mobile phone is always with you and it will help you keep in touch with your friends by the minute through these sites. Already, lots of mobile applications support this facility and you also have mobile social networking sites from Facebook and the like.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt says that mobile advertising could be twice as profitable as conventional advertising, as the ads are targeted and more personal. However, it all depends on how easy the user finds it to use his mobile internet. Now, the most important thing is the quality of mobile internet. The speed needs to be improved and the screens need to be widened in order to give the users a rich experience. As of now, surfing Facebook in an ordinary phone is way difficult than doing it in an iPhone. So, the focus should be on making mobile internet access simpler for the users. The more we see phones like the iPhone, the easier it will be for the advertisers to reach out to the end users. One thing’s for sure – the future is gonna be exciting.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Mobile Social Networking.

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The French to pay taxes for their internet and mobile usage?

Well; it looks like the French President has taken my words a little too seriously. He has come up with a proposal wherein the French may have to pay taxes for their mobile usage and the internet usage. The reason to come up with this proposal – the revenue generated from this taxation will help run the two public television channels in France WITHOUT ADVERTISEMENTS.

This is really interesting. While half of the world is going gaga over mobile advertising and encouraging users to access mobile internet and other mobile applications more often, France has come up with this sort of a proposal. While he has assured everyone that the taxes levied would be “infinitesimal”, I’ll have to wait and watch.

What do you guys say? If they come up with such proposal in the U.S., like I mentioned in my last post, would you accept it? No ads, but more taxes. What; you’re asking me? Never; not in a million lives.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Yahoo launches its mobile developer platform and the latest version of Yahoo Go

Gang; it’s war time again. As we all know, Google has simply taken the mobile industry by storm with Google Android. Yahoo, in an attempt to counter attack, has come up with its own platform for mobile internet applications. It’s the Yahoo! Mobile Developer Platform. Also, it has released the latest version of Yahoo Go, which is Yahoo Go 3.0. The mobile developer platform will focus on providing developers all over the world an opportunity to develop mobile applications that can run on hundreds of different mobile sets, something that is not possible as of now.

As of now, if a developer comes up with a useful mobile application, he can make it run only on a specific handset with a specific technology. If he wants to run the same application on some other mobile, he will have to modify the application every time. With hundreds of different handsets with different technologies, it is really time consuming for developers to rewrite their applications every now and then. So, Yahoo! Mobile Developer Platform will provide a platform wherein developers can develop mobile applications that will run on a wide variety of handsets, thereby eliminating the need to rewrite them.

This is considered a great move in the industry, particularly because the applications created through the platform can run on about 250 mobile devices, which is great news for developers around the world. It is supposed to be distributed free of charge, as Yahoo plans to make money by advertising on the applications in the platform.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Yahoo, Mobile Web.

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