It all makes sense. According to comScore, map-based search on the PC has now peaked and is starting to erode. By contrast mobile usage of mapping applications is growing and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Apple Maps' problems notwithstanding, smartphone mapping apps offer a better overall experience than online maps. Because they're in your pocket they're available when they're most needed: on the go. And they offer location-aware/search nearby capabilities that online maps do not. Here's what comScore recently said about the decline of PC mapping and the rise of sma [...]

Related Topics: Apple: Maps | Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Top News

DuckDuckGo has added new "zero click" information from Zanran to its search results, giving users quicker access to some of the deeper web content that Zanran offers. You may remember Zanran from my profile last year, Zanran: New Search Engine That Unearths Data In Charts, Graphs & Tables -- it's essentially a search engine for data that often gets lost in PDFs, Excel documents and even images. The new integration into DuckDuckGo is about a week old, and can be seen on queries like [aircraft production brazil], [adult obesity prevalence in indiana] and [child poverty uk 2012]. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | DuckDuckGo | Search Engines: Academic Search Engines | Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Search Features: Direct Answers

SEOs focusing on Web search may have had a Panda update and an EMD update at the beginning of October, but SEOs focusing on mobile and app search have had their own share of turmoil in the last few months. In February, there was a major spam crackdown by Apple which resulted in many developers being banned from the app store for things like auto reviews. At the end of June, there was a small ranking change which weighed keywords less heavily and focused on ratings and downloads. Last month, there was iOS 6, which transformed the app store rankings into a horizontal scrolling card di [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Mobile | Mobile Search | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | SEO: Mobile Search

Perhaps it was always inevitable that Foursquare would shift its emphasis from location-based social networking to local search. Indeed, the site has been moving in this direction for quite some time, and very self-consciously for the better part of the past year. This afternoon the company is rolling out a new PC homepage for users who aren't logged in: it prominently features a search box. In doing so Foursquare takes aim at Yelp as its chief rival in the local space. And in some ways the move completes Foursquare's evolution from a more narrow and novelty oriented friend finder, game and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Features: Analysis | Foursquare | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Engines: Personalized Search Engines | Top News

It is no news that mobile devices are rapidly taking over the Web! Latest estimates peg the share of mobile traffic from 10% to 20% of the total Web traffic. Popular websites like Quora and Facebook are claiming that about one quarter of their traffic comes from mobile devices (including tablets). With more and more people having their primary Web experience on mobile devices, this platform cannot be ignored. In fact, companies that innovate specifically for mobile devices are the ones who will have an early lead for the next couple of years. Eventually, every company will have to have a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

With the launch of the iPhone 5, perhaps the most eagerly awaited electronics launch ever, speculation has been rampant on the impact it'll have on the mobile phone market, on Apple's future as an innovator post-Steve Jobs, and on the coolness of the next gadget to get dropped into your pocket. But from a mobile search perspective, iPhone 5 is pretty much more of the same. A more effective version of Siri will be standard in the new phone's iOS 6 - but that was a game changer from the iPhone 4s. iPhone 5 has certainly caused a sales storm, pushing more smartphones into more pockets. B [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Microsoft: Mobile | Mobile Search | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Marketing: Mobile | SEO: Mobile Search

iOS 6 was released yesterday and the new App Store and App Store search results are now in the hand of many iOS users. With that, Apple has changed the search results to display only one search result at a time. Yes, when you use the App Store to search for apps on your iOS device, Apple will show a new user interface that only shows you one search result at a time. Developers and users are calling this broken because many iOS users won't bother to look beyond the first result to find the best possible app. Here are screen shots of the new search results interface on iOS 6 on an iPhone 4 [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Mobile | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Top News

Wikipedia announced they have decided to give away their search data to the public for free. Yea, they would just give away search data to anyone would wanted to download it. Shortly after they announced this, they decided to "temporarily taken down this data to make additional improvements to the anonymization protocol related to the search queries." My first reaction when I saw that Wikipedia was releasing this information was, privacy issue! Imagine how people use Wikipedia. They may search for family information, medical conditions, religious beliefs, political beliefs and so on. If you [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: Analysis | Legal: Privacy | Search Engines: Wikipedia | Top News

It's no secret that Apple is ditching Google Maps on iOS6. In Russia, that decision looms large for Russian search engine Yandex, which will provide the backend for the new Apple Maps app, according to Bloomberg. Software developers in Russia that have been using the developer version of iOS6 have reported seeing the Yandex integration in Apple's new mapping app. As one developer told Bloomberg: "When you search for Vladimir Lenin's Mausoleum, it offers you to get more details on Yandex.Maps application or offers to download Yandex.Maps from App Store if the user doesn't have it installe [...]

Related Topics: Apple: Maps | Channel: Local | Search Engines: Yandex | Top News

Local search provider and ad network YP (formerly the advertising and directory services division of AT&T) released search and activity data collected from consumers and advertisers on its network in a Q3 Local Insights Report. The report contains findings drawn from its online, mobile and IPTV properties. The YP Local Ad Network represents "573 million searches and 10 billion impressions." The following are the top 10 overall local search categories: Restaurants Financial Services Beauty Services Auto Repair and Services Real estate Physicians & Surgeons Auto Par [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

It's no secret that Facebook's existing search engine is bad; that drum has been beaten to death. But you don't have to wait for Facebook to make it better; there's a pretty darn good Facebook search engine out there now. It's called Trove, and it's officially launching on Tuesday. But you can connect your Facebook account and get started now; the site had a soft launch about two weeks ago. I've been testing it, and it's easily the best Facebook search experience I've seen. There are a few missing features that I'll mention below, but Trove's potential is obvious. Seth Blank, Trove's fou [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Features: Analysis | Search Engines: Social Search Engines | Top News

Waiting for a Facebook search engine? Eventually, it'll arrive, says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But it might not be what you expect. Speaking in an interview today at TechCrunch Disrupt with Mike Arrington, Zuckerberg said that Facebook is doing a billion searches per day, "and we're not even trying." Most searches are, as we’ve heard in the past, really people searching for other people. But there are also searches for brands. "There’s a big opportunity there," Zuckerberg said, of going beyond people search. But the opportunity might not be to build a search engines as they� [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Facebook | Features: Analysis | Google: Search Plus Your World | Google: Social Search | Microsoft: Bing Social Search | Search Engines: Social Search Engines | Top News

Looking for facts about consumer product goods in the US? Open source data platform Factual has just launched its Factual Global Products with information on more than 517,000 consumer products. Records for each product include product name, brand, category , size, and UPC. Direct links to images for many products are also included as well as a Factual ID number that helps connect Global Product entries with other Factual services. Here's an example of listings in the Household Supplies category: Companies represented in the database include: L'Oreal (5635 Products) Kraft [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | Common Crawl | Factual | Search Engines: Shopping Search Engines

There's a cat and mouse game going on between developers, publishers and mobile users. The former group is often trying to "connect the dots" and gather as much data and information on user behavior and, in some cases, individual activity as possible. By contrast, mobile phone owners (especially smartphone owners) are often trying to thwart or very selectively allow that data collection. The Pew Internet Project just released survey data revealing that mobile users may be a great deal more sensitive to privacy issues than most developers and publishers think. The survey was conducted in Mar [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Legal: Privacy | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Stats | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Earlier this year Apple acquired Chomp a site and app dedicated to app search and discovery. That purchase was a signal that Apple was going to revamp its app store. That overhaul has apparently happened in iOS 6, which will become available to the public later this year. Some developers are now seeing new-look app search results (see video below) that essentially mirror the "card" layout of Chomp, which is still operating as a stand-alone site and app. However, since the Apple acquisition, Chomp is no longer supporting Android. Here's a current screenshot from Chomp: Here's a scr [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Mobile | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

Two of the major US yellow pages publishers and local search providers, DexOne and SuperMedia are merging in an all-stock transaction. After the merger closes, pending a shareholder vote, the combined entity will have 700,000 advertisers, 3,100 salespeople and revenues of roughly $3 billion. The merger was partly dictated by the need to accelerate the transition from traditional print directory advertising to digital, which is growing but still lags print revenue for both companies. The two entities also anticipate significant cost savings through the combination of their operations. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines

Google has the most complete and accurate local search database in the UK, according to data and analytics firm Implied Intelligence. Previously we've published comparable US reports by the company: Yellow Pages Sites Beat Google In Local Data Accuracy Test Bing Ties Yellow Pages Sites For Most Accurate Local Data In these earlier US tests, yellow pages sites (i.e., Superpages) and Bing beat Google for completeness and data quality. However in the UK Google comes out on top. To conduct the test (performed in May) the firm created a sample of 1,400 local business records. Each of th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Outside USA | Stats: General | Stats: Relevancy | Top News

Google is seeing huge mobile search growth and search engines are widely used by mobile device owners. However a new study confirms that search is not the center of the mobile universe, as it is online. I discuss many of the top-line findings of the study, conducted by Nielsen and commissioned by Telmetrics and xAd, in my post at Marketing Land: Study: 50 Percent Of Mobile Queries In Travel, Restaurants, Autos Result In A Purchase. In a finding I didn't talk about in that post, the data reflect that tablet and smartphone users (in Travel, Autos and Restaurants) tend to go directly to websit [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Stats: NetRatings | Stats: Search Behavior

Even though large sporting events such as the Super Bowl have seen their share of mobile traffic, the current Olympic Games are the first truly multi-platform global sporting event. During the first two days of the Olympics, smartphone and tablet searches approached 50 percent of overall search query volume according to Google. In one case, Japan, it exceeded it (55 percent). Australia, the UK and US all saw mobile (tablet + smartphones) query volumes reaching into the high 40s: 45 percent, 46 percent and 47 percent respectively of total search queries. Google said, "at some moments [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Top News

The most interesting development in digital maps may not in fact be the forthcoming introduction of Apple maps in iOS 6. It may instead be the recent launch of mapping app Recce (pronounced "rekki," which is short for reconnaissance). The company was previously called Mapply, but a trademark conflict motivated the company to change its name. Recce creates 3D maps through automated rendering. It layers in data from multiple sources. However it's only available for iOS right now. The difference between what Recce is doing and Google Maps/Earth or Apple's new 3D mapping is that the maps hav [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Search Engines: Location / Checkin Services | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Top News