(hint: you'll need a barcode scanner app that can read QR codes... i recommend Mobiletag.)

Labels: karl-ribas-consulting, mobile-search

It seems as of late that all the major search engines are eyeballing the mobile advertising market, and who can really blame them... it promises to be a very worthwhile and rewarding market. Yahoo!, on Wednesday, launched a beta version of their sponsored search program for mobile phones in the United States and United Kingdom. Of course, being in beta means that only a "select group" of advertisers will be able to test/use it. Bummer!

Similar to their current sponsored search platform, advertisers will have an opportunity to bid (in auction format) on keywords that will display their ads on the search results page. As of now, this service will work on most mobile phones and handhelds that have web-browsing capabilities.

With more and more consumers using their mobile phones to perform searches on the web, most of which are local-related, it's a great idea for companies like Yahoo! and Google to offer some sort of mobile advertising platform. There are several times when I've personally performed searches on my cell phone, typically looking for restaurant information or specialty shops, and wished for better results.

Paid ads are definitely the way to go with mobile search! Putting the information that is desired in front of those that desire it is what a search engine is all about. Adding advertisements to mobile search results is a great way for search engines to see that it continues to happen, while making a little something-something on the side.

Do you or your clients own a brick and mortar business? If so, consider tapping into mobile search advertising via Yahoo!. I imagine that local businesses, such as restaurants, bakeries, taxi services, day spas, bowling alleys, or other shopping centers and venues, are the perfect fit for such a service.

Labels: industry-news, mobile-search, paid-search, yahoo

Yahoo!, the world's largest Internet media company, announced this past Wednesday that it has inked a deal with Motorola, the second-largest maker of mobile phones. The new multiyear deal calls for tens of millions of new mid-priced and high-end Motorola phones to run an integrated set of services known as Yahoo! Go for Mobile.

Yahoo! Go, a software system designed to make Yahoo! services as easy to use on mobile phones and TVs as they have become on computers, will feature mobile versions of many of its premiere services including Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, photos, calendar, address book, web and image search, news, sports, and finance.

I had first Blogged about "Yahoo! Go" back in January of this year, but only then Yahoo! was striking a deal with Nokia, the world's largest mobile handset maker. Here's an excerpt from that post:

These new ties between Internet companies, such as Yahoo!, and hardware makers, such as Nokia and now Motorola, promise to provide consumers with easier and quicker access to personal Internet information. As mentioned in my January post... Yahoo! Go is a monster of an idea. Yahoo! has near 500 million users or more accessing their website (services) each and every month, and until now their lives have been literally locked into a PC browser. Yahoo! Go is the first step, of what I believe are many to come, in the direction of a more-mobile Internet.

With both Nokia and Motorola, the #1 and #2 companies in mobile phones, under Yahoo!'s belt I can't help but wonder what the company has in stored for future distribution of their mobile services. I also can't help but wonder how their closest competitors, mainly Google and MSN, could allow Yahoo! to get 2-up on them.

Labels: industry-news, mobile-search, yahoo

Labels: mobile-search, yahoo