The latest “SearchInsider newsletter was about how loyal users of online search engines are (answer: not very) and compared this to people use the personalization aspects of web portals.
“You shouldn’t confuse loyal consumers and personalization users as one and the same. Your most loyal consumers are sheep–the ideal audience for mass media, but not as coveted online. Your personalization users are wolves, always on the prowl, taking advantage of all your site’s bells and whistles while spending time with your competitors.”
A lot of companies are rushing to get some mobile search action, and it seems like there’s a land rush on — because there is. One of the biggest aspects of mobile search is that the vast majority of people will use whichever search is embedded into their handset rather than go to a search-specific mobile website. Even if people do download an application to replace the search engine they got with the phone they won’t be changing it in a hurry — meaning that mobile searchers are likely to be far more loyal than online searchers, and it’s important to get onto as many handsets as possible. Hence all the deals with handset manufacturers and carriers. It also means that newcomers (those wanting to enter the market in a few years) will have a very tough time…all the deals will have been made. To compare it to the online world, Google would have had a much tougher time being such a success if it had needed to convince Microsoft and/or computer manufacturers to put its software on PCs as they went out…
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