Mobile Search: What Users Now Do
May 3, 2008
I reported on the update to Sergey Brin’s voice search patent earlier today. ClickZ (May 2, 2008) provided a bit of color for user search behavior on mobile devices. You can read–for a short time at least–ClickZ’s item is derived from Nielsen Mobile and Nielsen Online data in a report called “Total Web”. The summary of the data is here.
The first point I noted is that high-traffic Web sites benefit from mobile users. ClickZ’s “number” is a 13 percent increase in traffic. The absolute value is less important than the uptick. More mobile users translates into more traffic. That’s a good thing.
The second point is that mobile users have some specific mobile access content preferences. I found these data somewhat surprising but upon reflection, I think the ClickZ analysis makes sense. The five services used most frequently by mobile users are:
- Weather
- Entertainment
- Games
- Music
- Email.
The first three–weather, entertainment, and games–account for usage bumps of more than 20 percent. Music and email pump up usage by 15 percent and 11 percent respectively. Shopping on a mobile device is almost a non-starter.
Search returns a mere two percent increase in traffic. The questions that these data, if we assume them to be close enough for horseshoes, are [a] What’s the impact of voice search on mobile search? and [b] If voice search doesn’t goose usage from its miserable position, what happens to business models predicated on strong mobile advertising? It’s possible that voice will not improve search. After all, who wants to browse results on a tiny display? Voice may open new usage opportunities. Then the challenge becomes the one that has long-plagued online service providers–generating money from users who don’t want to pay for information unless it’s of the “must have” variety.
Stephen Arnold, May 3, 2008
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