In this article, on SEOMOZ, the blogger takes a stance that is slightly cynical with regard to mobile marketing. He thinks that mobile marketing is important, but that there isn't really a need to create a completely different mobile version of your website to be effective.
Furthermore, he says that the types of searches on mobile are very similar to those run on laptops or desktop computers-- usually local searches.
Here's the article on this week's theme of Mobile Marketing:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whats-the-future-of-mobile-search-and-seo
A few questions to ponder via this blog:
1- Do you agree with the author that most companies don't need to spend money or time in creating a mobile version of their site?
2- Why/why not?
3- Do you think that web searches on mobile devices are as similar to desktop searches, based on your personal experience?
I agree with one of the reviewers wrote that mobile search will get more popular, but it has its limit: too small screen, too difficult to type. I would use laptop or notebook if I have choice. However, I do believe mobile search can be very useful in some situations, such as waiting for the line, no laptop available, and no pc based internet accessibility.
ReplyDeleteYes, Chi, I also strongly prefer to search online via my laptop as the screen is better and the websites are easier to navigate then their online versions.
ReplyDeleteWhen I need to do a internet search I try to use the largest I can. But as for sites, I think whether they make a version for mobile should be decided based on their customer needs, meaning that if your site content could be useful to people detached from a desk, then it should have a mobile version. I think news, blogs, webpage games, informational sites (wikipedia, ratings, maps), etc.
ReplyDeleteBut the author states a reason a mobile website is not needed is because people love using apps. Well, people love using apps because most apps focus on the UI and optimize the information displayed for a mobile device. For the most part, I would be much happier going to a mobile webpage than use an app.
I read recently that Yahoo is launching a new project called Mojito (and they are really annoying about making drink jokes). The idea is that app developers can write code once and Mojito will make ports to the different mobile platforms. This project requires that the code be written in JavaScript (a language of web browsers) which is fine because their research reveals that somewhere around 85% of apps are really just mini websites that have been wrapped up in code to make them into an app!
Further, I just read now (in double-checking my what I remembered about Mojito) that Yahoo is launching another new project called Axis. It a new mobile web browser that specifically designed for mobile searches. It will communicate with your desktop browser so you can bookmark something on mobile and it will be available on your desktop; you can also have it remember mobile searches you can later perform on your desktop. It will also show thumbnails of the pages that show in search results in order to somehow help make it easier for mobile users to select the site they are looking for. I'm not sure if I get this. Anyway Axis is surprisingly only available on iphone.
But mobile searches are usually annoying; whereas desktop is fine.