Comments for To Beat Google, Beat Google to the Mobile Web

To Beat Google, Beat Google to the Mobile Web

2008-05-21T11:06:40Z

When I read news this morning that AOL's Platform-A would become the exclusive ad provider for Virgin Mobile's 5 million subscribers, I started to think about where web advertising was headed. While it's doubtful that we'll be permanently ditching our PCs any time soon, it is clear that more and more time is being spent accessing the web via mobile devices. So it would follow that the mobile space is going to see a lot of ad money over the next few years (indeed, analysts predict just that).

]]> We've reported that the mobile web is exploding in the US and that 58% of American adults are now using their mobile phones for things other than voice communication. The proliferation of the web on mobile and non-PC devices was one of the three big opportunities that Tim O'Reilly outlined in his keynote speech at the Web 2.0 Expo this year. One only has to look to Japan to see where mobile is heading in the future. There are more mobile web users in that country than there are PC based Internet users, and phones are used for everything from checking email to paying for train tickets.

So the mobile web is likely going to be a significant part of our future, which is good news for advertisers because there's one other thing we've been learning about the mobile web: people using the web on mobile devices are much more likely to interact with advertising. According to one publisher average click through rates are 2-8% for banner and text ads. But more creative ads are seeing response rates as high as 29% on average.

Even though full web content is now 77% of that accessed on mobile (as opposed to under a quarter of mobile content via WAP), it seems clear that the type of traditional advertising that works on the web, isn't the best fit for the mobile platform. Which brings me back to my original point: to beat Google, you have to beat Google at its own game. No, not search -- well, okay, maybe search too -- you have to beat Google at advertising. With so much advertising projected to shift to the mobile web over the next few years, the company that can corner the mobile web ad market is going to be able to go toe-to-toe with Google. Right now, it's still wide open.

Do you use the mobile web? Remember to vote in our poll below.

Comment from www.Stiriaz.com on 2008-05-21

2008-05-21T11:32:23Z

Just like a remind: The Mobile Web refers to the World Wide Web as accessed from mobile devices such as cell phones, PDAs, and other portable gadgets connected to a public service.

Comment from Faisal Riaz on 2008-05-21

2008-05-21T11:43:12Z

If you ask me... I say that it is not easy to outperform Google. Google has made a smart move in shape of Android to strengthen its footings in mobile industry

Comment from Mogilny on 2008-05-21

2008-05-21T12:26:26Z

I agree. Microsoft needs to realize this fact and stop chasing after Yahoo!! It still won't be easy because Google existing web technologies are transferable to mobile web.

@Faisal Riaz Android is a misstep. Google should have worked on a universal uber mobile browser instead.

Comment from Darren on 2008-05-21

2008-05-21T12:36:00Z

Opera 4.1 is making my browsing a pleasure. I use it all the time but I am not the average user, I think about of about 10 friends 2 most likely do use it.

time to dust of my mobile projects now there is a market for em :p

great read.

Comment from Eric J. Gruber on 2008-05-21

2008-05-21T12:42:30Z

Just yesterday I received an e-mail from Google Apps promoting their new mobile features. One I was pleasantly surprised by was Google 411.

What's this? I clicked on the icon and my phone rang an easy-to-use, pleasant-voiced 411 system, which I used to look up a local music store's phone number.

It blew me away. Beating Google to the mobile web? That's not the problem. The issue is that you absolutely can't let Google beat you at your own game. That 411 call was a better experience what what I get with my mobile provider.

Comment from Jon on 2008-05-21

2008-05-21T13:13:15Z

@ Mogilny: Huh? Android a misstep? Please elucidate, cause ya lost me there...

Comment from Sean on 2008-05-21

2008-05-21T13:31:15Z

I definitely agree that the next stage of online advertisements needs to be in mobile form. The market for mobile web advertising is going to boom in the coming years with the release of the new touch Blackberry coming up and iPhone improvements.

As wifi hotspots become more predominant as well, these devices are being able to access these site's for free using their devices wifi connection.

It's only looking up for the mobile market.

Comment from Made on 2008-05-21

2008-05-21T14:00:31Z

The use of mobile phones to browse Internet is very exciting. Mainframes -> Personal Computers -> Laptops -> Mobile phones.

In South East Asia, the price per kb of data is still relatively expensive. Shout the word 'GPRS is needed' and people's interest would be turned off. Surprisingly, in Africa, I heard rumour that people access WAP sites more often than making calls.

If mobile advertising is the way, how to collect money/payment from these kind of customers?

Comment from Mogilny on 2008-05-21

2008-05-21T15:10:00Z

@Jon Android is a nice platform. Google did a great job. It just wasn't the right move. Imagine a world without the desktop browser (another words, end of the world.), and Google apps only works for people who has OSX (Android would be blessed to get this kind of market penetration). You see the problem? Even if it is google's goal for android to dominate, it isn't going to happen. If they want to really dominate the mobile market, they should have worked with existing mobile platforms and build a kick ass browser to run its web apps mobile. But this is just IMHO, Google the Magician might have something for android hidden in its sleeves.

Comment from IdeaTagger on 2008-05-21

2008-05-21T22:24:53Z

I started to write a similar post a while back but abandoned/suspended it when it dawned on me that Google already owns the mobile web - most just don't know it yet.

I started out wondering what the killer (monetisable) app could be for the mobile web and after much pondering concluded that nothing could beat search. Now as the mobile web continues to look increasingly like the PC web courtesy of the iPhone and similar devices, users are going to notice and no prizes for guessing where they will turn for their search needs - the simple and familiar Google of course.

Comment from www.referate10.com on 2008-05-23

2008-05-23T21:43:24Z

Think the mobile web finally has some legs to it? Or think it’s a folly not ready for prime time? Feel free to take sides about my ideea.

Comment from John Wilson on 2008-05-24

2008-05-24T20:35:37Z

Anyone can serve ads. The problem with ads is that unless they are of some use to the viewer you can be as creative as you want to be with your banner ad full of Flash and Silverlight (if that ever amounts to a hill of beans) and ad content I'm still likely to apply something like Adblock to it.

As has been mentioned if you wanna beat Google you have to beat them at search. So far that hasn't been done. It may be but it hasn't been done yet.

What's so downright amusing here is that I remember when Google started serving context sensitive text ads seers and experts like Matt Asay said it would never amount to much because they were just text. Who in the TV generation(s) would click on what, for all the world, looked like a classified ad. Turns out quite a lot of us.

And why? Because they're often exactly the right ad at the moment that I'm actually interested in what they might have to sell so I'll click if it looks interesting.

It's also, and here's the other key, not being obstrusive, not covering other content I want to get at, not blinking at me or annoying me. It's just a text ad and that, alone, is attractive and says the the advertiser actually has some respect for both my time and my interests on being there to begin with.

Oh, as for Anderoid. Thing here is that it's extendable and with WebKit now widely available it will become more and more interesting to see how it all works out.

Should anyone think that Mozilla and Firefox are just waiting for this I wouldn't. They are.

Back to the fallacy that you can beat Google by serving up more intrustive wiz bang ads. People don't Yahoo or MSN when they want to search for something. They google it. That may be a violation of trade mark but it's incredibly powerful advertising, in it's way, and shows just how far Google has penetrated the culture at large. And that's what other search/ad providers are fighting, in the end.

ttfn

John