I saw several articles on Google’s plans for a new search service for mobile content.
My initial reaction was to contact Google to confirm or deny the story – the comment I got back was“Our statement is 'we dont comment on market rumour and speculation'.

Best wishes

So I sat down, had a cuppa and thought about Google and mobile content search service and then it hit me.
There is nothing to confirm or deny because if Google didn’t create a mobile search engine for mobile content it would be political, conventional and even unquestionable suicide. With white label mobile search companies from Medio to JumpTap to even little player UpSnap all boasting mobile content search services… Google has to create one... and fast..

On top of that – Medio boasts a bigger mobile search reach in the US than Google and Yahoo! Yahoo is rubbing shoulders with mobile content companies and it’s likely that content on Go! Also uses the placement model. AOL is showing more backbone in mobile search and last time I spoke to VP Bill Schwebel he told me to get ready for a rollercoaster of AOL mobile search products and services in the next 18 months. So everyone is on the bandwagon already and its Google playing catch-up in the content space.

I am currently writing an analysis on mobile ad-inventory and it’s a tough article to write. I have spoken to Admob, Enpocket, Medio Systems, JumpTap (to name a few) and all the mobile operators and it seems to me that this mobile search for content service is actually also about mobile ad-inventory.

How?
Basically, how do we make mobile search and advertising a billion dollar industry? We create a bank of mobile content, services, adverts and general inventory that gives choice to the consumer and ensures that ad-fill is nearer to 90% than the current 30% fill rate. Every time a mobile advert is not placed on a mobile operator portal or open Internet site – money is lost.

Recently the UK mobile operator 3 announced that it was going to open up its ad-inventory in Games and TV content for advertisers and publishers for paid placements. With Google now responsible for mobile search for Vodafone – it has to manage the same partnerships and will need to do the same.
If it doesn’t then revenues again will be poor on mobile Internet services and this is unacceptable for both Vodafone and Google.

I predict that just as the Verizon portal has two search boxes – so will Vodafone live! and all the others moving forward. One search box is an ideal scenario but with the tiered way of mobile content even clustered search services can’t produce the most relevant results for individuals all the time. The advertising model is also going to piggy back off search and in the future it’s likely that parts of mobile portals or the Internet will even offer a sponsored search engine driven purely from content placements offering free, happy hour or reduced mobile content and services to consumers.

*Search engine 1 – home page (general)
*Search engine 2 – within content streams video, tv, music etc could managed by a number of mobile search providers
*Search engine 3 – paid placement engine free to consumers driven by advertising.
Anyway – I will elaborate in The Mobile Search Analyst and The ad-inventory analysis series is coming up in The Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst out this week.