The mobile-search playground gets even more crowded this week, as an established behemoth expands its offerings and an infant startup tries to get onto the field.
InfoSpace Inc. this week should unveil a service that delivers business listings and maps, movie showtimes and other information based on both location and time. The company hopes to lay the foundation for an application that automatically offers information in concentric circles, allowing users to access the most relevant information with just a click or two. Movies are presented based on the next available showings, for instance, and restaurants could be displayed automatically in order of proximity to a user based on global satellite positioning.
“We feel strongly that the old world of the application silos-going to a movie guide to get a movie, then a city guide to get a restaurant-was OK a couple of years ago,” said Joe Herzog, InfoSpace’s director of emerging products. “But in the future, all that will be collapsed into one.”
With the expanded service, InfoSpace marries its primary existing businesses: Internet-based search and wireless content and applications. But other Internet giants have jumped into mobile in a big way as well. Ask Jeeves, AOL, Google and Yahoo! all offer a variety of wireless search offerings using multiple technologies. Almost all the bigger services include searches for both general Web and mobile-specific sites, as well as an option to search the Internet for images. And most offer an efficient, no-frills SMS search for local listings that deliver results to a simple query via a short code.
In addition, most wireless search providers have launched applications that search specifically for content. Instead of forcing users to drill down through endless layers on the wireless deck to access a new ringtone, they hope to allow users to quickly access content they’re most likely looking for quickly and easily. Applications could factor in user preferences, handset specifications and past purchases to present appropriate content, removing a massive speed bump in the downloading process.
But a number of newcomers are competing with the big boys in the white-hot space. Interchange Corp., a Web-based search service provider, has entered the wireless arena, and Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup 4Info is forging alliances with content partners to expand its SMS search service. Another startup, Free411.com, offers voice directory assistance for users willing to sit through a 10-second advertising message.
Aside from voice, few wireless applications are as practical-or potentially lucrative-as search. iGillottResearch predicts North American carriers with just 5 million subscribers could see $54 million in search revenues during the next three years, and operators with 20 million users could generate an additional $234 million in that period.
The latest entrant, JumpTap Inc., is looking to partner with carriers to replicate established Internet-search business models based on ad words.
The year-old company is launching a white-label service that would include advertising links to search results, much like Google, Yahoo! and other companies offer on the Internet today. Advertisers would pay carriers each time users clicked on their sites, allowing operators to further elbow their way into the wireless search revenue chain.
“Google and Yahoo! definitely have a lot in their favor; they’re already out there with their own search solutions,” said Eric McCabe, JumpTap’s vice president of marketing. “But I think this is starting to worry the carriers a little bit. They’re making moves that are directly competing against the carriers’ interests.”
Like some of its bigger foes in the arena, JumpTap brings an impressive background in both wireless and the Internet. Its management includes former executives at Comverse and Openwave as well as Web search provider Lycos and Pantera, a software developer specializing in semantic integration.
But Yahoo! also offers a white-label service and, like JumpTap, is working on an offering that would generate “call-through” revenue. Companies would pay each time a user called a number that was delivered through either a search or an advertisement, much like Google’s AdWords does for click-throughs.
While it’s far too early to discern the winners from the losers in mobile search, it’s clear that the days are numbered for $1.25-per-call operator assistance. And with the crush of outside search providers coming to market, operators who want a share of the revenues need to move fast, according to iGillottResearch.
“The need for mobile search today is real,” the firm said in a white paper earlier this year. “And if the mobile operators do not react to that need and provide effective mobile search tools, the established Internet search engine powerhouses will. If this happens, the mobile operators will fall further down the slippery path toward becoming simply a bit pipe provider.”
