The End of SEO as We Know It: Mobile is the Reason

Lots of observers note that traditional search is changing with the advent of social networks, mobile apps and other ways for people to find things without engaging with a traditional search engine application. Some would say that Apple's Siri voice recognition app is just the latest example of that trend.


That has implications for content marketers as well, a least in terms of how much time and effort to spend to search engine optimization, for example. 


In the future, it is argued, people often will bypass search altogether. Ask Siri to "find the closest Italian restaurant" and the result is based on your current location and data from Yelp. 


Clawing your SEO way to the top spot on Google for "Philadelphia Italian restaurant" won't matter.


At the very least, the importance of presence on local content sites will grow. As a result, savvy small businesses that don't rely on e-commerce will spend even more time optimizing listings on Foursquare, Yelp, Facebook Places.


Yelp recommendations are currently embedded in Siri responses, so Yelp optimization matters more than SEO, some will argue. Siri: This Is the End of SEO as We Know It | Inc.com

The choices brands make might also change, to favor recommendation sites that are affiliated with certain app environments such as Siri. 

Why Mobile Search is Different

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Google Not Dominant in Search?

Some will dismiss assertions by Eric Schmidt, Google executive chairman, that Google is not dominant in the search business, something Google Chairman Eric Schmidt recently told U.S. regulators.


Schmidt argued that Google is not “overwhelmingly dominant” in the online search market, and competes with the likes of Facebook, Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft. Google not dominant


Some will scoff at that notion, but there is a reality, namely that in the mobile domain, people do not "search" in the old way. Put one way, where traditional search is a relationship between "pages," in the mobile domain, search is more of a "relationship between persons," while the reason for "searching" changes.


In the desktop domain, search is often about information related to ideas and facts. In the mobile domain, search is more often about "things I want to buy." Google argues that leadership in desktop search does not ensure leadership in mobile search.


That has been a growing trend since the mid-2000s, one might argue. Mobile search is different


The mobile search market generated revenues of $901 million in 2010, equivalent to around three percent of total search revenues.  In 2015,  mobile search revenue is expected to  reach $8 billion, equivalent to around 11 percent of total search revenues and representing a compound annual growth rate of 55 percent. Mobile Search Challenges Google


Mobile search makes up around a quarter of total mobile advertising revenue, but this will increase rapidly and is forecast to exceed 40 percent in 2015.


Although Google already has a strong position in the mobile advertising market, a range of established and new players are challenging its dominance. Voice and local search are important trends, providing opportunities for new and established players. Operators and handset vendors have a strong position in the value chain to influence the success of mobile services.

In fact, many observers would note that Google is challenged by social networking generally, as social networks supplant search engines as the place and the way people look for things, find out about things and link to things.


So far, the historical record suggests that no firm dominant in one era of computing actually retains that same leading role in the following era.


As IBM was dominant in the era of mainframes, but DEC and others lead in the mini-computer era, while Microsoft and Intel lead in the era of personal computing, it is reasonable to expect that none of those firms will be dominant in the next era, however we come to describe it.


Some might argue that Schimdt's comments are merely a reflection of an understanding Google has that it will not, in the next era, have the market leadership it arguably enjoys today.


The issue, some might argue, is to avoid regulating based on the past, and act only when future problems actually have arisen. It might not be precisely true to argue that Google "does not" have a commanding position in desktop search.


But it already is clear that such leadership has not yet conferred on Google any ability to dominate the emerging "search" business, which is based on social networking and mobile mechanisms that increasingly are different from desktop search. Over time, in other words, Google's leadership in desktop search will be effectively challenged by other ways of using "discovery" mechanisms in the mobile and social realms.

Mobile Shopping Search Grows 181% in U.K.

In the first quarter of 2011, total retail search volumes grew by 29 percent compared with the first quarter of 2010, the British Retail Consortium reports, while mobile retail search traffic grew by 181 percent over the same period.

Mobile searches accounted for 11 percent of total retail searches in the first quarter of 2011, the BRC says.

Retail searches grew fastest for multi-channel retailers, usually those using physical stores and the internet, with search growth of 42 percent, year over year. Searches for online-only retailers grew 19 percent, year over year.

The number of overseas consumers searching for U.K. retailers grew by 27 percent in the first quarter of 2011, year over year, while the number of UK consumers searching for overseas retailers grew by 21 percent in the first quarter of 2011, year over year.

same period a year earlier.

http://www.brc.org.uk/brc_show_document.asp?id=4231&moid=7379

Google,Dominates Mobile Search

Google’s mobile search market share dominance is almost complete, according to Royal Pindgom. Google has made an incredible land grab in the mobile sector.

Compare this to the other search engines. None of them have managed to claim even one percent of the mobile search market.

Google’s piece of the mobile search pie is even larger than their already impressive share of the overall search engine market. For Yahoo and Bing, the situation is the opposite. Their mobile efforts are nothing compared to their search engine market share.

If Google firmly believes that mobile is the future (which is the opinion of CEO Eric Schmidt), they are making all the right moves. This is about as close to "world domination" (to use the tech bubble term) as a company can get.

Google, undisputed heavyweight champion of mobile search

Google Unveils Instant Mobile Search

Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as users type. Google's key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page.

The most obvious change is that users should get to the right content much faster than before because they don’t have to finish typing a full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as one types helps people formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. Users can adapt their searches on the fly until the results match exactly what they want. 

Google Instant can save 2 seconds to 5 seconds per search, Google estimates. The new algorithms also will make smarter predications about what any user might be looking for. 

link

Google Unveils Instant Mobile Search

Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as users type. Google's key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page.

The most obvious change is that users should get to the right content much faster than before because they don’t have to finish typing a full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as one types helps people formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. Users can adapt their searches on the fly until the results match exactly what they want. 

Google Instant can save 2 seconds to 5 seconds per search, Google estimates. The new algorithms also will make smarter predications about what any user might be looking for. 

link

How Big a Threat Do App Stores Pose to Search?

"The App Store is replacing the web search engine for mobile device users, at least for some searches," argues Dan Frommer, Senior Staff Writer of Business Insider. The long-term issue is just how much search volume (and therefore ad revenue) might be at risk.

Apps are good for some content, such as games, camera apps, productivity software and utilities, for example. Lots of people might also argue apps are suitable replacements for traditional websites, though many users with smartphones and decent browsers might simply say they prefer access to the "full" version, not the mobile-optimized apps, which remind some users of the older WAP-style, text-heavy experiences. That is mostly going to be a matter of end user preferences.

There might also be a developing difference between iPhone and Android users. Many iPhone users might not realize they can save bookmarks that essentially provide "app" functionality. Many Android users probably figure out pretty quickly they can do so, and can simply substitute an icon that is a "bookmark" for an icon that represents an "app."

The point is that some subset of searches on mobile devices is going to be different than search on desktop computers, which puts Google's core search business at a bit of risk. The example Frommer points to is users going to the App Store looking for a shortcut to "Facebook," when they could use a browser, go to Facebook and then simply create a bookmark.

But there are other ways to make search a lot easier on a touchscreen device. Voice-activated search is one of those alternatives.

The choices likely will be most relevant for popular web sites, games and other content experiences. Apps will be viable there, but it is somewhat hard to see general search functions being substantially replaced by apps.

link here

Google Adds "History" Results for Android, iPhone

Google has extended the "Google Mobile Web Search" feature by adding the "history" display that has been available for Chrome users on PCs for some time. The new "history" display shows a user's past searches.

To choose one of your previous searches, just tap the result. I've found the history feature to be quite useful on a PC, but on a touchscreen mobile, it is even more useful, as it means users have a sort of "passive bookmark" capability, allowing a fast navigation to a web page without having to type in the address or do a search to find the website.

Froyo (Android operating system version 2.2) just downloaded to my Evo. So far, I haven't noticed anything different, except for a few icons changing. Of course, I haven't had time to play with it.

Search history Overview : Using Search - Google Mobile Help

Mobile Users 45% More Interested In Local Search

Perhaps it is intuitive, but users on mobile devices are 45 percent more likely to enter a local search query than users on non-mobile devices, according to data from online advertising network Chitika.

Chitika’s research division came to this conclusion after breaking down a sample of more than 24 million impressions.

Local search and mobile search do seem highly correlated.

Mobile Users 45% More Interested In Local than Non-Mobile – Chitika Research

Mobile Search is Different

Google OneBox is an example of how search will change as mobile queries increase. In an enterprise setting, OneBox delivers real-time information from enterprise sources, such as CRM, ERP and business intelligence systems, based on a user's search query. In a consumer application, entering a movie title might yield a top result showing screening times for that movie at the closest theater.

The search algorithms have to anticipate what need a user has for a particular bit of information based in part on what device is used to make a query. In a mobile setting, it is a fair bet that a query for any type of product is related to some immediate need for using that product. Starbucks coffee, Italian food or bagel, perhaps.

So adapting applications such as search for a mobile use case requires more than adapting the display for a smaller screen, oriented in a different horizontal-vertical dimension and often with limited navigation tools and less bandwidth than a wired environment provides.

The reason for queries, as well as the types of queries, arguably are different in a mobile context. One is more likely to be querying a customer or inventory database in the office. One is more likely to be looking for someplace to eat when out of the office.

And then there's there the time of day, day of week dimension. People will be asking different questions on weekends than weekdays. They'll be seeking different answers after 5 p.m. or 7 p.m. than at 10 a.m.

All of which increases the value of locational knowledge and mapping. But you probably already had that figured out.

iPhone Drives Learning About Contextual Search

If engineers, analysts and marketers at Google are smart, and we would agree they are smart, lots of really important data is being gathered about what it is that mobile Web users do on their mobile browsers. The reason is that the preliminary data suggests that iPhone users are much more heavy browser users than users of other makes and models of mobile devices.

That sort of information is going to be really important as software designers at Google and elsewhere try to unravel the secrets of mobile search. So far, everybody seems to think there are contextual factors to mobile search that make it different from desktop PC search. In other words, people probably are going to be asking different questions and trying to do different things when initiating a mobile Web search. Directions have to be right at the top.

My own usage tends to be "what's the address of the place I am going to" and "where can I find the closest book store." Another favorite: "where can I find good Thai food close to where I am?"

Everything beyond that remains to be discovered.

Mobile Web: The Browser Matters

On Christmas, traffic to Google from iPhones surged, surpassing incoming traffic from any other type of mobile device, according to internal Google data made available to The New York Times, says staff writer Miguel Helfta. So apparently the design of a mobile phone brower really does stimulate high levels of usage.

The data shows that although iPhone's used to access Google fell back into a more normal range after that, levels of access still were higher than from Symbian mobiles. Keep in mind that Symbian has something like 63 percent of the installed base while iPhone has perhaps two percent.

Yahoo also saysiPhones accounted for a disproportionate amount of its mobile traffic, Helfta notes.

There might more upside for Web application developers. If they can develop for mobile-optimized browsers, rather than for the details of individual devices or operating systems, there arguably is an easier path to ubiquity.

Yahoo, America Movil 143 Million Sub Mobile Search Deal

Yahoo and Latin America's top mobile phone company America Movil said on Thursday they have struck a deal to provide mobile Web services to 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Yahoo's oneSearch service will be the default on America Movil's wireless carriers' portals. Yahoo plans to offer localized versions of oneSearch for each region, and said other Yahoo services may be added in coming months.

The partnership is the largest of the 21 search deals Yahoo has announced this year with mobile phone operators, the Sunnyvale, California company said.

Mexico City-based America Movil has 143 million wireless subscribers. Yahoo's broadest previous deal was with Spain's Telefonica SA, covering up to 100 million subscribers in several European and Latin American markets.

Google Dominates Search Even More This Year

Google accounted for 65.10 percent of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ending December 1, 2007, according to Hitwise. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 21.21, 7.09 and 4.63 percent respectively. The remaining 46 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.96 percent of U.S. searches.

As you might expect, search engines also continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Comparing November 2007 to November 2006, the travel, entertainment and business and finance categories showed double digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines.

Google Tailors Search

One of the best things about Web services is that user experiences can be personalized and customized . So it is that Google uses many signals to rank search results and in some cases filters returns based on a user's location, device or preferences.

You've probably noticed that hyphenation doesn't limit results. "T-Mobile" and "TMobile" results both come up. Helpful since hyphenation conventions vary from one document and user to the next. However, typing "+TMobile" only brings up results that do not have the hyphenation.

Google defaults to eliminating duplicate search results, which normally is desirable. There be some cases where a particular search might return multiple results from a single Web page, and a user might want those results. Typing "&filter=0" at the end of Google's URL will disable that function.

I find it useful that Google senses when I am searching from a mobile and formats the display accordingly. If, by mistake, you are searching from a PC and get the mobile version by accident (I can only say it can happen; it has never happened to me), use the "http://www.google.com/webhp" URL.

Personally, I prefer the localized version. But if you want the global version, go to
"http://www.google.com/ncr".

To get more targeted results, type "&gl" at the end of the Google URL.

Why Google Will Be a Mobile Force

Google is poised to charge the mobile Web applications for a very simple reason. Mobile advertising is an ad-supported medium it hasn't yet begun to dominate. Second, Google dominates Web applications, period, according to Net Applications.

And if you believe the mobile Web will be THE Web for billions of users, and an increasingly useful adjunct to PC-based Web apps for billions more, Google has to play.