Canadian companies should prepare now for arrival of mobile searching, expert warns

Canadian companies, already laggards when it comes to integrating social media into their marketing, need to start developing plans for the next technology wave: mobile searches, warns search engine expert Jeff Quipp. Google is already leading the way with its launch in March of a free business locator “411” service that searches by voice. “We’ve been saying for a long time that search is going to be a primarily mobile function,” says Quipp, president and CEO of Search Engine People, an Ajax-based search marketing firm. “It hasn’t happened yet but I think with the new variations of the Blackberry and the introduction of the iPhone, it really is now starting to increase in leaps and bounds. Looking at our clients’ statistics, we are starting to see a lot more traffic coming from Blackberries.” Search engines are rapidly evolving from a predominately text-based nature to include new searchable functions, including voice and visuals. In the case of Google’s new mobile directory assistance, 1-800-GOOG-411, phone callers are connected to a computer which asks what kind of businesses they are looking for and in what city. The user then chooses a business from a list provided. But as Canadian companies have been slow adopters of social media for marketing purposes, Quipp worries they may yet be left out as these developments progress. The trick, he says, is to embrace these new technologies and integrate them into marketing plans. Quipp, who started his career working for Yellow Pages and later Sympatico, says Canadian businesses may still have a few years before speech-enabled search becomes widely available. For now, text-based search still rules supreme and he hints that despite Google’s dominance of the search engine market, it is still consolidating its position by working to optimize search results for clients, especially in the sponsored links field. Google has two different search results: the organic or main search result and the sponsored links result. The search engine giant uses organic search as a means of driving traffic towards sponsored links. “So the more relevant the search result, the more people they bring in, the more revenue they generate through their sponsored links.” Quipp predicts speech-enabled search is likely to increase within three to four years, along with moves towards integrating text, audio and image in search results. Google is already working on plans to introduce image-based searching, which Quipp says may be on offer for clients in the future. “They want to be able to understand images, what is in an image, because that will make those images more relevant. And if they can understand what is in one image, they can put it together and understand what is on video,” he says. Businesses also need to look at creating mobile-friendly websites, considering the growing number of people access the Internet via mobile devices, which have lower bandwidth capabilities than most fixed devices, says Quipp. These same businesses also need to understand that new social networking sites, like Twitter, work best on mobile devices, he adds. Since its launch three years ago, the free social networking site which allows users to be connected in real time, has grown significantly. It is now ranked as the third most used site after Facebook and MySpace. Although clients can reach businesses through a Google search, Quipp says there are enormous marketing opportunities on Twitter, which most businesses have yet to embrace. Unlike Google search, Quipp says Twitter offers a personal and human touch that is more convincing because clients get referrals from a network of people they may trust. “Let’s say we are looking for a Thai restaurant around Toronto. So I type in “Thai restaurant Toronto” and it presents me with a whole bunch of search results. But I don’t really know which I will like or which I won’t like. It’s not a friend saying to me, you know Jeff, you got to try out this Thai restaurant, it’s the best. But with Twitter, I can twit out to my network “what’s the best Thai restaurant in Toronto” and somebody will respond. And because I know them, I trust their opinion more,” he says. “Search is about quality content on your site,” he adds. “But it doesn’t matter how good the content on your site is if nobody knows about it. So social media gives you an opportunity to promote that content, to create awareness about it and get it out there.”

Canadian companies should prepare now for arrival of mobile searching, expert warns

Broadcast | April 15, 2009

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