Search Marketing and the Mobile Lifestyle
AOL and PEW released the results of a mobile usage study recently, pointing in some very interesting directions for mobile search. Hint: map ads.

The survey report states, "in 2006, the must-have feature is mobile mapping and directions, with nearly half of adults surveyed saying they would like to have these features at their fingertips."

More numbers from the survey:
* 47 percent say that mobile maps and driving directions are a "must have" on the next phone they buy
* 30 percent of adults want to browse the Web from their cell phone

For those 30 percent AOL enhanced its local search offering by reformatting sites for mobile devices: Chris Sherman reports "Intelligent reformatting means that the most important content is identified and displayed first, regardless of its location on the web page. Graphics are resized to fit your screen. Most importantly, the main navigation for a site is identified and incorporated in a single "Quick Nav" link, rather than taking up important real-estate on your mobile device."

You can search http://mobile.aolsearch.com to see how AOL renders your site for mobile browsers - so you can see what information AOL thinks is the most important from your site.

Here's the AOL rendering of craigslist. I'm not sure AOL's quite cracked the smart formatting nut yet, but it's an interesting stab. (quick thought on this - the next site with "google-style" growth and popularity will be one created just for mobile browsers, and will likely come from a garage or college.)

So if your marketing efforts include driving people to brick and mortar locations then you had best get your site looking good for mobile browsers, advertise on maps, investigate click to call advertising and connect the entirety of your inventory to the web so that searchers know whether or not you have their products in stock.

In that order ;)

Other recent mobile/map items:
How to monetize your Google Maps mashup
Build your own Google Photo Map with a GPS-equipped camera
MSN Local Adds Send To Mobile Phone Feature
Mobile TV: How Big Will It Be?
Mobile Content's Worldwide Audience
Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive | permalink | +marktd |