This week Yahoo made two big announcements:
1) They inked a deal with LG Electronics to have Yahoo! Services pre-loaded in LG handsets.
2) Yahoo! is providing mobile display ads in 19 countries using Yahoo! Go 2.0.
The three big rules in real estate are location, location, location. While LG is not the largest, you can’t sneeze at being located on 10s of millions of handsets in 70 countries. The pre-loading brings many users who may not have the inkling to load the apps themselves into the mobile internet world. At the very least it makes it more convenient than loading a competing application. In and of itself though, this is not enough. Yahoo! needs to have content and applications that users will come back to. I think they have both.
Yahoo! has about as much experience in content development and delivery as any company on the web today. From international to local, they cover it. And, in a world where well targeted advertising is also content, they have the infrastructure to monetize the apps while enhancing the user experience with relevant, paid information.
OneSearch, part of the Yahoo! Go 2.0 mobile applications, has enhance search functions that can be driven off mapping, grouped logically and shared with other Yahoo! Go 2.0 users.
A run down of the features of Yahoo! Go 2.0 include: (From Yahoo! PR)
– Search reinvented for mobile consumers – oneSearch recognizes the intent of a search term and presents relevant content – not just a list of web links to PC sites – on the results page. Results are grouped by subject making it easy to read through and drill down to get more details.
– Be local, no matter where you are – The Local & Maps widget gives consumers quick access to comprehensive local directory information for businesses across the US, enhanced with ratings and reviews from the millions-strong Yahoo! community. Interactive maps feature the ability to directly search for local businesses, get driving directions and real time traffic updates.
– Rich, highly personalizable content from millions of sources – Current headlines and a breaking news ticker in the News, Sports, Entertainment, Weather and Finance widgets keep consumers connected to the information that matters to them. Consumers can customize to receive content from the millions of sources on the Web that publish in RSS.
– Photo sharing keeps consumers connected to their community - The Flickr(TM) widget integrates one of the Web’s most innovative and prolific photo-sharing communities, making it easy for consumers to upload(1) and manage images from their camera phone. Consumers can also easily share photos, view their friends’ pictures and browse or search the millions of images.
– Streamlined e-mail keeps consumers in sync – The E-mail widget allows consumers to quickly respond to, delete or compose new messages or view attachments with a single click – all automatically synchronized with their Yahoo! Mail account in real time.
What is important here is relevance. This point was made well in the Jim Leggiere interview with Adam Soroca of JumpTap, where Adam said “In practice you’ve got targetable information that’s more locally based and actionable and timely”
I know branding is going to play out here. In fact, the initial launch of Yahoo! Go 2.0 will have display ad support in 19 countries. This is Yahoo!’s initial focus (Yahoo! PR 2/12/2007):
“..This worldwide launch demonstrates Yahoo!’s continued focus on extending our leadership in display advertising and intension to be number one in mobile monetization.
Major global advertisers including Hilton’s Embassy Suites, Infiniti, Intel, Nissan, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble Asia Pacific and Singapore Airlines will launch the inaugural mobile advertising campaigns on this new platform beginning today. “
However, the real value for mobile search will be in the localized, relevant nature of the content (again, Adam’s view). If Yahoo!, Google, MSN (and others) can create the right mobile environment, while delivering targeted search content, there is a tremendous value to businesses. (Danny Sullivan did a piece on the mapping applications on 2/12/07 – demonstrating that there is room for improvement.)
The first wave of beneficiaries here should be the restaurant, auto repair, hospitality and like industries. These are logical mobile searches (I am not convinced that in depth research on “not-needed-now” goods and services are going to be the bread winners here.) What is intriguing about the Yahoo application is the ability share the information easily. Want to let everyone know where the restaurant is – no problem; search it, map it, send it. When you need to have your spouse or friend pick you up at the repair garage to which you were towed, map it and send it. The point is, these applications, and other mobile applications facilitate a mobile lifestyle and incorporate a behavior (search) that is already established. I, like many others, see this as one of the great next waves in search marketing. While 10% if the mobile hand set users use mobile web, that number will grow as will the types of searches made. We need to get our learnings in now.
hours spent on its properties worldwide. At 3,920MM hours, MS tops the next runner up (Google) by over 56%. Given the nature of these two companies, this differential should not be too surprising. Google has many contacts at smaller durations, MS fewer contacts at longer engagements.
market place reason to care.
