Mobile Search – what are we searching for?
February 25, 2010In the below article from TechCrunch, the question is posed “what do you search for on the mobile web?”
(That’s a question I’d love to hear back from re: blog comments – thanks!)
What’s funny is that, despite my affinity for Bing, I oftentimes use the built-in Google Search bar within the Safari Browser just because I have an iPhone. I have a Bing app for that, but I’m lazy. Truth be told, I can’t even think of what I searched for beyond the last search on mobile web.
My last search was sitting in the car just outside Vancouver as we’d spontaneously decided to hit the Olympics on “the way home” (not really on the way) from Sun Peaks – up by Kamloops, BC.
Now, I didn’t search – I used a site I’d seen advertised on a road sign coming into the city: know before you go – TravelSmart2010.ca – so I plugged in the url and then turned off data roaming block, then we were in business. But my travel partner Reid utilized Search and did so within the Google toolbar right in the browser. I still think a great deal of Google’s dominance is due to their monopoly on the iPhone search bar. Not sure what default search is for other devices – but obviously with the Android phones, it’s going to be Google-preferred since it is a Google product. Wonder if there’s any option on those phones? or if Google would object to an Opera Browser app vs. using the default Chrome as I’m assuming that’s what’s built in.
This browser war is an interesting one. I’d be interested to see what would happen on the iPhone if the search bar was Bing as default. I’m guessing we’d see that Bing’s now 0.3% of page views would increase.
What do you search for (specifically mobile)? and why do you use the Search Engine you do?
Google Search Accounts For 9% Of All Pageviews On The Mobile Web: Opera
by Robin Wauters on Feb 25, 2010
In their January 2010 State of the Mobile Web report, Opera Software looked at social networking on the mobile Web and concluded that Facebook dominated that aspect by a margin throughout 2009, while Twitter was the fastest-growing.
This month, the company looked at Mobile Web search in the United States, and claims Google is – perhaps unsurprisingly – leading the pack.
According to Opera’s report, Google Search accounts for more than 9% of all page views on the mobile Web in the United States, outpacing rivals Yahoo! and Bing, who respectively command 4.3% and 0.03% of all page views.
Opera, as usual, also provided some numbers about the growth of its own mobile browser Opera Mini, and general page view stats.
The company says that in January 2010, 50 million people used Opera Mini, a 7.4% increase from December 2009 and up 149% compared to January 2009. Collectively, Opera Mini users viewed more than 23.3 billion pages last month, up 12.7% since December 2009 and an increase of 208% since the same period last year.
Opera’s servers processed more than 3 petabytes of data, Opera Software co-founder Jon von Tetzchner writes. That’s a gigantic amount of data, and he puts that in perspective as follows:
This means, each month, our servers crunch an amount of data equivalent to the entire repository of the Internet Archive, with a full-size copy of Avatar thrown in for good measure.
Do you use Opera Mini on your phone?
What do you use for searching the Web from your mobile?
I just bought a HTC Hero (Android) and found that I spent most of my searching time looking for apps in that could do specific tasks, like photo editing (the 5 megapix camera creates images too large to send via MMS). The web searching I did was for a mobile site for the Olympics and pizza to order while we watched (Papa John’s, as it turns out, has a mobile site where you can actually order a pizza!)
haha – ok, that’s pretty funny b/c I was just trying to figure that out tonight – Garlic Jim’s does NOT have a mobile site, btw. Stick w/the Papa! good to know
Kelly, I believe you can set the camera to shoot photos at a lower megapixel size. Then maybe they’ll be small enough for MMS.
A good deal of my mobile search is based on where I am right now or where I’m going. I’ll search for “chinese food” and it pops up with results near my location (though I might also use Yelp or Urbanspoon for that kind of search). I’ll search for a store or venue I’m planning to go to if I want to check the hours or get ticket info.
Then I also Google all the other things I would normally Google – but instantly. “Hey, what’s the name of that actress?” “What was the score in the game?” Constant access to the Google search is perfect for settling debates and winning arguments.
thanks Amy – and yes, argument-winning is often the source of mobile search queries for me as well