Yahoo dominating mobile internet

If you’ve watched the journey of Yahoo ever since it started out, it has been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride. It was once in an enviable position as far as the internet was concerned, but now it is nowhere in the competition thanks to Google. While Yahoo has been constantly trying to regain its spot in the internet, Google still is way ahead of Yahoo. Also, the recent furor about Microsoft taking over Yahoo didn’t do any good for the company as well. So, Yahoo needed to do something to reassure its customers, stock holders, and most importantly, itself. This is where mobile internet comes into the picture.

Yahoo has been making great progress in the mobile phone market, especially the high end ones. There is a lot of need for mobile browsing among people, as they always want to check out something or the other via mobile internet. However, browsing in a mobile phone is not easy, unless you own an iPhone. With this being the case, Yahoo slowly started to work on improving mobile browser experience for people. The result was Yahoo Go.

Recently, it was announced that Yahoo Go 3.0 will be soon launched in Canada. Going by the positive reviews Yahoo Go got in the U.S., one can safely assume that it will have a similar reception in Canada.

Also, this seems to be a brilliant strategy by Yahoo, as there is not much competition here. Microsoft is busy with Windows Mobile Operating System and Google is busy with Google Android, another operating system, thereby leaving a gap for Yahoo to enter the market of mobile internet and mobile browsing.

With lots of acquisitions, partnerships, and deals, Yahoo is very busy strengthening its hold in the mobile phone market. As someone mentioned, forget about web 1.0, Yahoo is aiming to become the leader of mobile 1.0.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Yahoo, Mobile Web.

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Google becomes the default search engine on Opera mobile browser

From now on, Opera Mobile users and Opera Mini users will see a default Google search bar on the start page. Opera and Google recently got into an agreement wherein Google will be the default search engine in both Opera Mobile and Opera Mini mobile browsers. In case you don’t know, Opera Mobile is the mobile browser for smartphones and PDAs and Opera Mini is the mobile browser for low-end mobile phones.

Interestingly, Yahoo was the one who partnered with Opera last year to make it the default search engine in Opera mobile browser. But now both Yahoo and Opera have called off the agreement and Google has used this opportunity to its advantage.

This would be a fruitful partnership for Google, as Opera mobile browser is used by tens of millions of users all over the world. If you remember, Yahoo became the default search engine for T-Mobile in Europe some time back, replacing Google. Now, Google has replaced Yahoo and has become the default search engine for Opera. This, as they say, is competition at its best.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Google, All things mobile phones.

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Finally, a mobile browser that’s as good as a PC browser

One of the major issues that need to be addressed to make mobile advertising more effective than what it is right now is mobile browsing. Barring the iPhone, a majority of mobile phones are not conducive for mobile browsing experience, which makes it difficult for the users to browse their favorite sites on their mobile phone, and it makes it even more difficult for mobile advertisers to reach their customers via mobile sites. Now, here’s something which could change all that.

Skyfire, a tech startup in Mountain View, California, (where else but this place? ) has come up with a mobile browser which can stand toe to toe with a PC browser in terms of features and functionality. It can support QuickTime, Flash, JavaScript, AJAX, and many other features – something that has never been heard of thus far. Most importantly, the browser is free for all.

As of now, the browser is meant only for Windows Mobile 5 and 6, but the company’s CEO promised that more versions will be developed soon. Especially, when Android and iPhone come up with their SDK, the company promises to develop unique versions for both of them.

If this mobile browser lives up to the expectations and does well in the market, this could change the way mobile browsing is perceived world over. In turn, it could mean a lot easier and a lot more effective way for mobile advertisers to reach their consumer segment. I’d really like to wish the people behind Skyfire a big success. Great job guys; this industry needs more people like you.

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

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Mobile social networking made simple - MoDazzle

If you are someone who travels a lot, keeping in touch with your friends through social networking sites can be tougher. After all, you can’t expect an internet kiosk wherever you go or even if you carry a laptop, you can’t expect to be in a Wi-Fi zone all the time. The result is – a mobile service which allows you to check out social networking sites right in your mobile phone.

MoDazzle is a company which specializes in building mobile services which offer value to the users. With MoDazzle, you can access sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Salesforce, and other online sources. Also, you can get weather updates, stock news, news updates, and so on. While I was going through their site, two services stood out from the rest.

Firstly, restaurant reviews. I really think this might be useful for a lot of people. You are in an unfamiliar area and want to find out a good restaurant to dine. Pick up your mobile phone and mention the kind of cuisine you want and the area you are in and text it to 22553. You’ll get a text message in return with all the details about the restaurant you want.

The second one, direction help. If you’re stuck somewhere and want to go somewhere, you can text the place where you want to go and the place you are in to 22553, you’ll get a reply which will show you the right direction to go to reach the place you want to go.

You can access this service in two ways – you can text whatever you want to 22553 and get a text message to help you, or you can access your mobile browser and send an email with your query to find out what you want.

On top of everything, it’s a free service. Need I say more? Go check it out and let me know what you guys feel.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

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Find what you want through text messaging - ChaCha is here

First let me throw some statistics to ya all. The U.S. boasts of a mobile phone subscriber base of about 240 million. Of them, only about 20% have mobile phones which support mobile browsing. Of them, only about 5% use that facility regularly.

There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, typing in a mobile phone is not as easy as typing in the regular keyboard and people are not too keen to use it often. But when they do, they want immediate results. But when you search for something in Google or Yahoo in your mobile browser, they don’t get you results, but they show you webpages which have results. Which means, you have to check out those webpages and find out the answer you want. And yeah; not all web pages are compatible for mobile phone. Some might not load properly and you might have problems browsing through some pages. Ok; ok; what am I getting at?

The result is a text messaging based search program which can well and truly end your worries. Now, when you have doubts, all you need to do is text your query and send it to 242242. ChaCha will clarify your doubts in a jiffy.

Some of you might have heard of ChaCha, the internet search engine, which caused quite a stir in the industry when it first came out. The unique thing about ChaCha search engine is that instead of having a program to analyze your query mathematically and come up with the results, it uses guides, who are real people who work on your search query and come up with the most accurate answers. How is it any different/better than Google? Good question. This works perfect for local queries and not-so-important queries, such as who won the game between xoxo college and xoxo college last night, which is the cheapest restaurant in xoxo area, and so on. Remember; you can’t find an answer for these types of queries in normal search engines and ChaCha, having real guides to help you out, could the perfect solution.

What does it have to do with mobile phones? ChaCha has recently entered the mobile phone search market – something which was considered the forte of Google and Yahoo. Now, if you want to search something, all you need to do is type your query as a text message and send it to 242242 and you will get your answer via a text message, or even better, a recorded voice message. Text messaging is an option that everyone has, so people using low-end mobile phones will be tempted to use this service. Also, text messaging is a far easier option than browsing through mobile sites, especially if you don’t have a smart phone, so it might find a few takers in the high-end mobile segment as well.

What this means is, you don’t have to spend a lot of time browsing through search results to find out what you are looking for. Simply text your doubt and wait for the answer. Since there are real people behind this mobile search service, you get the most perfect answers for your queries. You can simply text something like “At what time does the Mac joint in South Block, Philly close?” and you can get your answer in a jiffy, as some guide would have found out the answer by then. ChaCha has about 12,000 people working as guides and the number is increasing steadily to accommodate more and more searches from people everyday.

I personally think this is a really innovative feature and might find a lot of takers in the long run, given it gets the right kind of publicity. We’ve had Google, we’ve had Yahoo, so it’s always good to have a third dimension – here we have ChaCha.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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