Mobile Search

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What Does Mobile Search Mean?

Mobile search is a search engine querying technique that uses a wireless/mobile platform or handheld device with an Internet connection, such as a smartphone or tablet. Mobile search is typically location-specific with simplified data results, such as sports scores, versus a standard Web search.

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Mobile search is more than a desktop to mobile device transition, as it is a continuously evolving tool designed to satisfy mobile user content requirements.

Techopedia Explains Mobile Search

Most organizations tailor website content to mobile devices. Ideally, mobile search results return within 30 seconds. However, fewer than 36 percent of services deliver such results, due to device screen sizes and overall capability limitations. Mobile search challenges are shared by product designers, developers, financial media analysts, analytic engines, media planners and buyers.

Types of mobile search include:

  • Search engines optimized for mobile devices
  • Question and answer services
  • Directory search
  • Discovery search, such as recommending services or products based on user preferences and purchases
  • Mobile navigation services
  • Recent dynamic mobile selection interface services (like push-to-talk), providing thousands of screened and categorized selections in four seconds or less, eliminating standard requirements like text entry, search, results review or page scrolling

According to a June 2011 Gartner research report, global mobile advertising will double in 2011 from $1.6 billion (2010) to $3.3 billion. By 2015, overall global revenue will hit $20.6 billion, with the mobile search channel at the top of the list, followed by audio and video advertising.

Mobile search providers include Ask.com, Ask Me Now, ChaCha, Infospace, Jumptap and Texperts.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.