Google and Yahoo Mobile On Motorola & Blackberry
The integration of Google and Yahoo content into the mobile industry is increasing as a number of announcements were made by both of the search engines this past week which include partnerships with Motorola and Research In Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry. Whether the integration be by offering one click access to search, local mapping, personalized homepages, or convergence of PC, mobile, and TV experience; all seem to be just the start of pushing mobile search and Internet functionality over the cutting edge.
* Motorola Keypads : The week of mobile search actually started last Friday the 6th when Motorola announced that they would be adding Google and Yahoo services to their handset keypads. Starting with Google, Motorola plans to insert a Google icon button into certain lines of their Motorola handsets which would give users access to Google and its offerings with one push of the button.
Given the demand of both loyal Yahoo and Google users, Motorola is also working with Yahoo to wet the appetites of its user market. Motorola and Yahoo announced that the two companies are working on bringing Yahoo Go Mobile to phones this year. Yahoo Go is an effort by Yahoo to offer the company’s services beyond the browser and synching the mobile, desktop, and TV experience:
Example, using Yahoo Go, someone can take a photo with their camera phone and instantly view it on their computer, television or mobile phone via Yahoo Photos, with no downloading, file transfers, or emails between the three mediums.
Both the Google and Yahoo Motorola deals should help fortify Motorola’s brand and products with fans of both search & content services.
* Y! & Google, Messaging, and BlackBerry : Beyond Motorola, RIM’s Blackberry announced this week that they are also adding Google friendly services, including the support of Google Talk and Google Local Maps. Google Talk will join BlackBerry Messenger and Yahoo Messenger as preferred BlackBerry messaging services.
* Local On The Berry : Additionally, the BlackBerry friendly Google Local service will let users do everything they are used to doing when looking for local businesses and locations, including viewing maps & satellite images along with accessing driving directions on their BlackBerry’s.
* Personalized Google Mobile : Google is also taking its personalized home page to a pocket near you with a new service that reformats Google.com/ig for phones with XHTML browsers. Google IG Mobile has the same offerings as their normal version, with previews of GMail, News, Weather, Stocks, and RSS & Atom Feeds.
* Pay Per Call Mobile To add to this week’s hoopla, seems that Google may be trying to corner the market on mobile pay per click advertising optimization. Google applied for a patent for “call-on-select” functionality which determines whether or not to serve AdWords text links or Click To Call ads (where the advertiser pays for incoming phone calls) in search and content results. Kevin Newcomb at ClickZ has a wonderful rundown on the published patent “The application describes a process that takes into consideration a device’s screen size, connection speed, and input capabilities to determine if it would be better to serve an ad with a link to a Web page or one that causes the phone or other mobile device to place a phone call to the advertiser.”
