Sunday, April 22, 2007

Mobile Search

Technologies are developing fast enough to make the mobile an ever better platform to mine the web for bits and pieces of information. Here's a bit from Reuters report by Daisuke Wakabayashi: "Mobile phones represent next frontier for search"

Improved voice-recognition technology and the inclusion of global positioning system chips into mobile phones open the door for new applications to help users find relevant information wherever they find themselves.

In addition, improvements in handset technology make today's cell phone capable of doing almost as much as computers of a decade ago.

Last month, Yahoo introduced a new Internet search system to deliver locally relevant answers to mobile phone users' questions in fewer steps than Google. Subjects include news headlines, business listings, local weather and links to other Web sites.

Yahoo has signed deals to feature its software on four of the world's top five mobile handset makers.

Tellme Chief Executive Mike McCue said the pace of innovations on the mobile phone was five to 10 times faster than the computer.

... Microsoft bought Tellme in a deal sources say is valued at more than $800 million, its largest acquisition in five years.

At the heart of Tellme's appeal is a voice-recognition database that allows the company to predict what information callers are seeking and decipher many different accents and dialects.

Earlier this month, Google also began offering voice-activated directory assistance. At the time, O'Reilly speculated in his blog that Google started the free service at least in part to build its own speech database.

Earlier this month, Google also began offering voice-activated directory assistance. At the time, O'Reilly speculated in his blog that Google started the free service at least in part to build its own speech database.

Industry watchers and company executives recognize the inherent difference between search on a computer and on a mobile phone. Search on a computer can be a browsing activity for research, while mobile search is more about finding information and then acting on it.

... The business model of search on a mobile phone will also differ from the pay-per-click model of a computer, he said. Users may be willing to be billed for a subscription for unlimited search.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

News Media and Mobile Naming Convention

Sources of news media are beginning to use a similar naming convention for their mobile editions:

mobile.reuters.com
mobile.washingtonpost.com
mobile.iht.com

These are no-nonsense text editions that are easy to load and read.

Mobile RSS Readers

Mobile RSS Readers have come of age.
For a list, see here.

International Herald Tribune's Mobile Interfaces



International Herald Tribune's mobile version is updated every 15 minutes, at least at the time of writing this blog.