by Bena Roberts
At this year’s CTIA talk on mobile search and advertising was subdued.
Yahoo!’s bullish CES launch of Go! was replaced with zero representation; a few rumblings were heard from Google but the gPhone was not announced; AOL enforced the bullishness of branded search on the market with its new proposition and the silence of its rivals indicated that they might have peaked slightly early. Microsoft went all out on devices and its shares leap is more to do with an overall mood of evangelism from the Microsoft camp from providing community services than search.
On the white label side, JumpTap becomes an ad-server on the AOL portal; Medio is to provide search on the CBS WAP site; MCN is shortly to announce a new global territory deployment – but apart from that little else.
With regards to the biggest mobile search players it is important to note that JumpTap is pushing advertising within a branded portal that might cannibalise its own existence. On the other hand Medio is teaming up with a brand to push in-search advertisements as well. On face value I think that both deployments are interesting – JumpTap is still a trial according to AOL and Medio deployment is going live in the next month.
But what does this tell us? Has in-search advertising based on the relevancy of the search query won over banner ads? I think its too soon too tell. When I was out with co-founder of Medio Michael Luni Libes last week at CTIA he concluded that I put too much emphasis on banner ads and that search ads were the winner with the highest click through rate.
Thinking about it I still disagree; it is really too soon to tell as mobile search is still in its infancy (we are not in an online space and what is right for one market might not be right for another) and I believe that filling an ad (whether it is relevant or not) is (at the moment) more important to vendors, advertisers, publishers and brands than not serving one. So if search ads don’t push the information a competitor in the ad space will push a banner.
On the advertising side AdMob launched Tap Tap with a whimper proving that value is essential and driving traffic to publishers is vital for the ad market.
On the browser side Novarra extended an agreement with 3 Italy but InfoGin was the one with the lion’s share of new operator and vendor wins.
What does this mean? Has search and advertising peaked too early or is the taste of success OK but not profitable?
It’s a bit of both.
The Google and Yahoo! search boxes are now no longer an asset – they are more like a “me too”. This drives down the value; the position on the home page and also the need by the operator to push the services.
In return branded search engines are seeing strong results in the Internet and only blimps of success in mobile. So in order not to flog an unprofitable horse the mood shifts.
The cost of search needs to be qualified for mobile search to move forward but advertising is promising more services from a different crown prince which is making search harder and harder to assess and justify.
One thing is clear. Users want mobile services and hottest services now. Yoof are driving mobile; but they can’t afford to purchase data. Hence the lack of uptake in search. The Long Tail is not working and search providers are realising it.
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