Recent Ovum research shows most users neither understand nor use mobile search.  Where has the industry failed? Usability and cost are the chief barriers, according to today’s 3GSM panel of senior execs from search engine companies - including Google, JumpTap, m-Spatial- and Daniel Appelquist, Vodafone’s senior technology strategist .

However, usage may also be lagging because “asking consumers if they use it is the wrong question,” Appelquist said. “Consumers shouldn’t be aware of mobile search. They should be aware that they are finding and getting the content …they want on the phone in a click.” More than a click and users will lose interest. “The experience has to be seamless, transparent and invisible to the user.” To this end Vodafone has been experimenting with ways to deliver search without making users search. “It’s about getting to content in zero clicks …and about having the information you want when you pull the phone out of your pocket.” In his view, the operator will always play a central role in search. “As we open up and de-wall the garden and turn what has been our portal into a jumping off point into the mobile Web… mobile search becomes one of the values operators can provide. It’s an enabling technology that enables people to get off-portal.” He added that Vodafone’s re-launch of its mobile search services will “feature both on-portal and off-portal search because we believe that’s the role operators can play.”

Another barrier may be that mobile search is isolated from the other things users do with their phone. Jim Holden, Google’s director of global wireless strategic partnerships, pointed out that search isn’t just about accessing the mobile Internet. It’s also about creating an environment on the phone where users can make use of the information and content they find. “There are challenges in creating a fun engaging, fluid, rapid and highly relevant searching environment that lets people take action both off the device in terms of things they might be looking to do … [and] also take actions with respect to other things that are on the device.” Part of the solution could be enabling new, more integrated search experiences. An example is throwing open Google Maps to let developers create and mash apps around Google functionality, Holden said. “There’s no particular business model around that for us, but we do like driving the activity.”
Roundpoint CEO Trevor Schonfeld argued that the industry is held up by a mix of high prices and low relevance. “When you search, you’re paying through a data plan. So, relevancy becomes quite important… and it’s even more important that every search brings up relevant results.” Failing to do this can deter users from trying search a second time. One approach that works for Roundpoint is allowing uses to identify the number of results they want to get to a query. “If you see your going to get 1,000 results then you don’t want to see them on a mobile phone.” Giving the user that choice is crucial, he said.

Users don’t use search because the mobile industry has assumed that users want to search as a service when they really want to use search to navigate content of information, according to m-Spatial CEO AndyWalker. “It’s easy to get obsessed about mobile search and assume users want a search box visible on the phone. [But] we need to embed it [search] in people’s lives.” The tipping point for mobile search will come when “people trust their phones and search to give them useful information.” If search is at the center of the user experience, then it follows that there will be lots of different players and brands in the space, he said. “In some cases – where users want to download search to their phone or download it from a mobile Web site - then it might be most appropriate for the handset vendors to brand it.” In other cases, it might be right for operators or search engine companies to brand it. “One brand isn’t going to win because consumers are all going to do different things with search.”