Mobile search developments

There were a couple of developments yesterday in the world of mobile marketing which could be seen as pretty significant. Firstly came the use that T-mobile had awarded its mobile search contract to Yahoo! following their heavy investment in mobile technology. This further adds to Yahoo!s weight in the mobile sector as they already power the search for 3 and have mobile advertising available through the Vodafone live network. Yahoo! have obviously bought in heavily to mobile marketing and are pushing hard to make it work. They possibly see it as one area where they can get one up on Google away from the search arena. 2008 could be a big year for mobile and as always, the early bird will catch the worm and if Yahoo! can become the front runner in this field they could reap the rewards.

On the same day it was announced that five of the big mobile operators are joining forces to create a measurement system for mobile advertising. Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange and 3 have formed a working group aimed at “helping ensure that mobile advertising realises its potential for the benefit of all the players involved”. What exactly this means I am not sure but Im guessing they are plannign at setting some industry standards for advertising models and options but more importantly the technology behind it. Obviously each will have their way of implementing the models and will keep some of their ideas and technologies to themselves but from an advertisers point of view it can only be a good thing as it should speed up the developments in mobile and help it actually become the viable advertising channel it has been threatening to become for the last couple of years.