America Online lately introduced new and enhanced mobile-browsing services–as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to expand its portfolio of offerings for handheld users, as the provider of online services and content competes for wireless Internet users.
According to a survey AOL conducted with the Associated Press and Pew Research Center, 52 percent of adults keep their cell phone turned on all day, everyday, and 40 percent of those aged 18-29 are likely to drop their landline once and for all. The report reveals that more than 30 percent of adults want to search and browse the Web from their cell phone, while 47 percent say that mobile maps and driving directions are a "must have" on the next phone they buy.
AOL, which built its business by providing dial-up Internet access, has been trying in recent years to expand beyond this mature market in various ways, including by boosting its mobile offerings. The new easy-to-use mobile browsing service can be used by wireless subscribers with Web-enabled phones.
The new service complements AOL’s mobile-search offering that already provides features such as Web search, online shopping, and local maps. Particularly noteworthy in the new service is its ability to resize any Web page to fit mobile screens.
The objective is to replicate the desktop-browsing experience for mobiles, said company spokesperson Krista Thomas. She explained that AOL is using software from Israeli firm InfoGin, whose mobile-trans-coding and content-analysis technologies adapt Web pages for handsets.
Demand and Competitors
As online services and content for mobile devices increase, the popularity of cell phones for accessing the Internet rises.
It is no surprise then that all major providers of portal and search services are jockeying for position in the mobile market, including Google, Microsoft’s MSN, and Yahoo, as well as AOL, which announced at the CTIA Wireless 2006 conference in Las Vegas that it is adding the mobile browsing service to its AOL.com mobile portal.
The competition for mobile search and browsing has heated up, with Google recently offering local services that deliver maps, directions, and business listings to next-generation mobile phones and other handhelds. In addition, Yahoo is now offering a text-messaging feature that provides mobile users with direct responses to requests for information about local businesses, weather, and stock prices.
User Friendly
"Users no longer have to rely on SMS for searches. All they have to do is enter a keyword or URL and they are directed to the site," AOL’s Thomas said. "It is a much better browsing experience, with all of the content automatically formatted for the mobile screen as different pages as accessed."
The convenience of mobile devices makes them a target for search companies, said IDC analyst Alex Slawsby. There has been a lot of talk about the omnipresence of these devices, and AOL, Google, and Yahoo are seizing the opportunity to take their brand recognition and technology to a broader audience, he said.
Enhancing Mobiles
AOL, a Time Warner subsidiary based in Dulles, Virginia, also announced an expansion of its partnership with Sprint Nextel to provide AOL’s mobile portal services to all U.S. Sprint mobile subscribers. AOL’s mobile portal includes a search engine, the AIM instant messaging service, AOL Mail, AOL Pictures, and news, entertainment, and weather content.
AOL’s offering is attractive because it is more useful than search services limited to earlier mobile technologies, said Yankee Group analyst Linda Barrabee. AOL and its competitors have to extend their reach to the mobile environment as new devices and network capabilities are rolled out, she said.
"And formatting pages for mobile devices is key, along with customized services such as Yellow Pages, because people want to find things near them while they are on the move," she noted.
Sprint subscribers now have access to AOL’s instant messaging community via downloadable mobile AIM applications or through the wireless Web. Features include presence awareness via the mobile Buddy List feature, IM Forwarding and two-way desktop-to-mobile (IM2SMS) messaging services.
More AOL Announcements
Meanwhile, AOL’s online mapping unit, MapQuest, announced it plans to provide a mobile service that will provide spoken driving directions to users. Called MapQuest Navigator, the service is expected to become available via U.S. cell phone providers later this year. MapQuest also announced that it now has a version of its Web site formatted for mobile devices, which users can access here.
The mobile Internet market does not currently generate much revenue for Web portal and search engine operators, but they know they have to claim a space now, says Julie Ask, a Jupiter Research analyst. It is important for them to be in the mobile game today, she says. Users are starting to form habits.
In the United States, about 10 percent of cell phone service subscribers engaged in mobile browsing in the past six months, she says. That amounts to between 20 million and 25 million subscribers. However, that percentage is expected to grow in coming years, along with the revenue opportunity, as the mobile Internet experience improves, she says.
This is AOL’s latest push in the mobile Internet space. Last year, the company launched several mobile search services, including its AOL Search general Web search engine, its Pinpoint Shopping comparison shopping engine, and its AOL Yellow Pages listing of local businesses.
Make Your Site Profitable
Simply having a website today is not enough. What about those consumers who need your services but do not know where to look? Getting your website optimized not only allows customers to purchase products or services online, your company can benefit greatly. In fact, recent research shows that most Internet users reach new sites through search engine optimization.