Category Archives: Google Mobile

Matt Cutts on the future of search: “Mobile will be big”

In the latest GWC video on YouTube, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of Webspam team, is answering a question about the future of search in the next few years.

According to him, search as we know it today is nowhere near done.

He explains that Google’s main ambition is to index more kind of contents, such as books, online calendars, and everything “in the cloud”.

He ended the video with a few words about mobile search. Since there are more than 4 billion mobile phones in the world versus 1 billion desktop computers, he sees a lot of potential growth in that area of search. “You’re going to see all kind of changes but mobile is going to be a big part of it”.

Let’s look forward to it.

Source: Google Webmaster Central Channel on YouTube.

Building Mobile Friendly Websites: A Google Presentation

During Google Searchmasters Conference 2009, one of the presentations was about Mobile Web Design. The presentation, named “Building Mobile Friendly Websites” and held by Ankit Gupta, helped Indian webmasters understand why there is a need for mobile websites and provided guidance on how to build mobile friendly sites.

Here are some of the tips that were provided to the audience:

– Keep it simple: don’t use many internal links, minimal use cases, task oriented

– Always have a link to go back to the home page and to the previous page

– Make sure it is usable if stylesheets are disabled or not supported

– It was suggested to test your site with XHTML validators such as http://ready.mobi

Do’s and Don’t’s for a mobile XHTML website :

* Do
o Make use of accesskeys
o Resize images based on device size
o Use a good semantic structure (h1 before h2, etc)
o Make sure that the right doctype is being set
o Make sure that correct encoding is used

* Do not
o Use iframes and tables
o Use fancy form elements and multipart data
o Uploads
o Keep multiple scrolls
o Have links to unsupported doctypes
o Use pop ups

The presentation aslo talked about Mobile SEO, and explained how Google Mobile worked, that is, how it chooses which sites to include in its mobile index. Here is what was mentioned:

* Google classifies a website as mobile enabled based on certain signals like page layout, markups used, etc.

* When a user searches for “Mobile” websites only
o Only if the website is classified as Mobile websites by Google, it will show up

* When a user searches for “Everything”
o Google blends mobile websites with regular desktop websites
o Mobile websites get a boost if certain quality metrics hold

I explained in this post how Google blends mobile search results with regular web results, which you can read if you want to know more. Regarding the “quality metrics” mentioned in the last bullet above, I would have loved reading more specific details, but I would say these metrics include links and trafic.

You can watch a full video of this presentation on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05UMQjbce2o

The slides of the presentation are available here:
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=ddrxs4sv_0jfrfjh5r&skipauth=true

Google Allows Mobile Site Owners to Embed a Search Box and Share Revenue

Sometimes a company just needs to provide a new service or functionality, even if it’s a very basic one, but unique, to grab more market share and crush its competitors.

Google just did that yesterday. They announced that any mobile site owner can now embed a Google Mobile Search box to its site. By “any”, they really meant anyone, and yes, even mobile carriers. You know, the ones who accept to sign deals with mobile search engines in order to place their search box on their mobile portals, and then share the ad revenue coming from that.

Today, we’re happy to announce a new AdSense product for both mobile network operators and mobile website owners across the globe. AdSense for mobile search is a quick and easy way for carriers and mobile publishers to embed a Google search box on their mobile portals and web sites. Whether they are day-dreaming of Hawaii or trying to find the perfect Valentine’s day gift, mobile phone users will get instant access to Google search including comprehensive web search, local, image, and news results — all formatted for their phones. Mobile operators and website owners share in the ad revenue generated by searches originating from their sites.

For Google, that means an immediate increase in its mobile search market share. Should many carriers accept to embed this search box, Google would be observing its competitors trying to catch up to them while counting their mobile search dollars.

This new feature means that Google doesn’t need to have that many sales representative contacting carriers anymore to set up search partnerships: built it and they shall come.

Mobile Search Patent: How Google Would Blend Mobile Search Results

Back at the end of July 2008, a patent from Google named “Blending Mobile Search Results” has been published. It’s only until recently that I decided to read it.

You know that the new version of Google Mobile Search now by default presents a mix of generic pages and mobile pages. In this patent, Google explains how it would blend mobile search results, that is, increasing the quality score of a mobile page so that it is displayed higher in the search results.

BLENDING MOBILE SEARCH RESULTS
United States Patent Application: 0080183699
Inventors: Hu; Ning; (Pittsburgh, PA) ; Ha; Vida U.; (New York, NY)
Assigned to Google
Filed: January 24, 2008
Published: July 31, 2008

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for blending mobile search results. A method includes receiving a search query and multiple search results. The search results each satisfy the search query and have a respective search result quality score. The search results include generic and mobile search results. The generic and mobile search results each identify a generic and mobile resource, respectively. The search result quality scores include mobile and generic search result quality scores for the mobile and generic search results, respectively. The mobile search result quality scores and the generic search result quality scores were generated according to different scoring formulas. Based on one or more terms in the search query, the search query is classified as a mobile query. As a consequence, one or more search result quality scores are modified to improve the sorting of search results that include both mobile and generic search results.

Here is how Google would proceed, I have outlined some of the most important points:

9. The method of claim 8, wherein modifying the mobile search result quality score comprises:increasing the mobile search result quality score if the mobile search result links to a mobile resource that links to downloadable content for a mobile device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein modifying the mobile search result quality score comprises:identifying a first language of the search query;identifying that the mobile resource identified by the mobile search
result is written in a second language; anddecreasing the mobile search result quality score if the first
language is different from the second language.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:ranking the mobile search results and the generic search results in an order, the ranking being based on the search result quality scores; and removing one or more duplicates from the order.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein modifying the mobile search result quality score comprises:increasing the mobile search result quality score if the mobile search result links to a mobile resource that links to downloadable content for a mobile device.

So, if you have a mobile site that provides downloadable content for mobile devices, such as mobile games, ringtones, or all kinds of mobile applications, Google would improve your quality score. I wonder how Google would proceed exactly though, because on paid sites, you need to go to the billing page before being able to download a .jar file or any other type of mobile content. Or maybe if it will see if it finds words such as “download” throughout your pages…

Google also explains how it will rank a mobile page higher if it had a generic (desktop computer) version that linked to that mobile page, by actually removing the generic page:

32. The system of claim 31, wherein removing the one or more duplicates comprises:identifying a first
mobile search result that identifies a first uniform resource locator;identifying a first generic search
result that identifies a second uniform resource locator, the second uniform resource locator being the
same as the first uniform resource locator;removing the first generic search result from the order; and if the first generic search result had a higher rank than the first mobile search result, moving the first mobile search result to the position in the order that the first generic search result occupied.

I invite you to have a look at the images that come with the patent.

In the image annotations, there are also some interesting tidbits. For example, Google explains that it uses different algorithms for mobile search results.

[0034]The mobile search engine calculates a search result quality score for each of its search results (step 240). To calculate the scores, the mobile search engine uses a different scoring algorithm, or formula, than the one used by the generic search engine. Using the search result quality scores, the mobile search engine ranks the mobile search results (step 245). In other implementations, the results mixer ranks the mobile search results.

Sometimes, if the number of mobile search results for a query is too small, Google won’t display mobile pages at all, since having too few mobile sites pages will decrease the relevancy of the returned results.

[0036]As illustrated in FIG. 3, in some implementations, the results mixer first determines whether to present any mobile search results. It may do this, for example, by determining whether the number of mobile search results produced by the search query is greater than a threshold number (step 302). If the number of mobile search results is too small, then the results mixer concludes that none of the results are sufficiently relevant to the user’s search query. When this approach is used, the results mixer will only present the mobile search results when the number of mobile search results is large enough (step 304).

[0037]The threshold number may be either an absolute number or a percentage. For example, the percentage could represent the percent of mobile search results received by the results mixer out of the combined number of mobile and generic search results received.

And now comes the most interesting part of the patent. Google claims that it can increase the quality score of the mobile search results if it’s clearly a “mobile” query, that is, users willing to find content or information that corresponds to a need while on the go.

If a query contains words that Google believes are “mobile”, for example: ringtones, games, wallpapers, or even chat, news, etc, it will make sure mobile pages are ranked first:

[0038]The results mixer determines whether to modify the mobile search result quality scores (step 250).Depending on its determination, the results mixer will or will not modify the mobile search result quality scores (step 255). Modifying the scores may be necessary to make the mobile search result quality scores commensurable to the generic search result quality scores, or otherwise to improve the usefulness of the presentation of blended search results.

[0039]The determination can be made using one or more signals, including whether the query is a “mobile” query, whether the search results exceed threshold scores, the number of mobile search results, the properties of the mobile resources found in the search, or the properties of the generic resources found in the search. In some implementations, when the results mixer uses more than one signal, it will use the signals and modify the mobile search result quality scores in a non-linear manner.

[0040]In some implementations, based on one or more terms in the search query, the results mixer classifies the search query as “mobile,” i.e., whether it is likely to be intended as a search for mobile resources,e.g., pages (step 306). If so, the results mixer will increase the search result quality scores of the mobile search results (step 308). For example, if a search query includes the term “ringtones”, the results mixer can determine that such a query is likely to be intended as a search for mobile resources, because the word “ringtones” is closely associated with mobile devices. In such a case, the results mixer will increase the mobile search result quality scores. It may do this, for example, by multiplying all the mobile search result quality scores by a number greater than one. In addition or as an alternative, in some implementations, if the search query is determined likely not intended as a search for mobile resources, the results mixer will decrease the mobile search result quality scores.

Google also affirm that it may blend search results with results from other mobile search engines. For example, including search results from a mobile content search engine.

[0071]Also, generic search results may be blended with search results from other search engines instead of or in addition to being blended with mobile search results. Examples include search results from a local listings search engine for searching local listings, an image search engine for searching images, a carrier private content search engine for searching mobile web pages categorized as accessible only to subscribers of certain mobile service plans, a mobile news search engine for searching mobile web pages categorized as news, or a mobile marketplace search engine for searching mobile content to purchase.

Yahoo! to Become T-Mobile USA’s default Mobile Search Engine

Google may have teamed up with T-Mobile to launch the G1, but I heard from someone close to the matter that Yahoo! will soon be the default mobile search engine on T-Mobile USA’s mobile web portal. All phones launching from November 8th will have a shortcut button to Yahoo! OneSearch, except obviously Google G1 and the new Sidekick.

Yahoo! OneSearch will allow T-Mobile USA customers to search for on-portal content such as games, ringtones, news, etc but also off-portal content.

Medio is currently T-Mobile USA’s mobile search provider but I don’t know if it will still remain present on its deck, I should have more details on that soon.

Yahoo! was already T-Mobile partner for mobile search in Europe, with T-Mobile USA it will have the potential to directly reach 30 million subscribers.

Mobile SEO: Google Updates its Mobile Web Index

I was looking at the ranking positions on Google Mobile for a bunch of websites I’m working on and noticed what looks like a major update in the “Mobile Web” index (I’m linking to a search results page here)

If you do Mobile SEO, you’ve probably noticed the poor quality of the search results in Google’s Mobile Web index: it was not very relevant, you’d often find pages from forums with the keyword only mentioned twice, or pages from .edu sites, or even pages from YouTube (lots of them).

That couldn’t create a good mobile search user experience. That’s why I believe Google has been working hard on improving the relevancy of its Mobile Web Search Results. And it is now rewarding mobile site owners who have great content and quality links. I hope it stays that way.

You’ll notice that Google includes regular PC sites in its Mobile Web index, but these sites actually have mobile versions, so when users click on it from Google Mobile, they’ll be redirected to a mobile friendly page. So if you do SEO for your PC site, and automatically redirect users to the mobile version of your site when they visit it from a mobile phone, you have some good chances of being included in Google’s Mobile Web Index.

I manage several websites and mobile websites and they’ve all obtained better rankings today on Google Mobile, so I guess you’ll notice something for your sites too.

Google Street View Comes to Mobile

This is probably the most exciting news I’ve ever heard in mobile search: Google Street Views is coming to mobile phones. Google announced today that its Google Mobile Application now includes Street View. And it’s the same level of quality than what you can see from your desktop.

This is how it works:

“Wondering if the restaurant in your search results is the one you’re thinking of? Just click “Street View” after your search to see the storefront. Unsure about a complicated intersection in your directions? Use Street View to see a photo, so there’s no mistaking your turn. You can also launch Street View from any address where we have photography, or simply by clicking on the map and selecting “Street View”. You can browse Street View overlaid on the map or in full screen, rotate your view to see more of your surroundings, and move along the street.”

google mobile street view

Just imagine how it’s going to help you locate something when you’re outside.  To download Google Mobile Maps for mobile, point your mobile phone browser to google.com/gmm. Note that it only works on BlackBerry and Java-enabled phones.

Also check out the video that Google made to introduce Street View for mobile, it’s rather funny.