New effort to challenge Google & Yahoo in UK mobile market…
“AOL’s new British mobile portal is said to provide an experience closer to that of the desktop portal, and should more closely match the US version…”
London — AOL UK has launched a new mobile portal service aimed at making surfing the internet easier for users on the go, as the first step on its assault to become a major online advertising portal, which will provide users with the fullest online experience so far available on a mobile phone.
The AOL mobile portal has been designed to translate websites into a format that “makes the page render faster and more clearly.” It will give users access to email, AOL Web Surf and content channels, as well as targeted mobile banners available for advertisers.
“For example, the site now allows for pages intended for desktop browsers to be trans-coded to fit the screen of the mobile device being used.”
However, a new option called “Web Surf” would allow a user to enter a URL to be transcoded on the fly. In the US version, users can only access this transcoding feature by first using the search engine to locate the native site. From there clicking on a link activates the process.
Other features are specifically aimed at ease-of-use, including saved preferences and persistent sign-in. With the portal, AOL matches web content with the user’s phone, regardless of what handset they have. To achieve this, a news release noted, “AOL’s Mobile Portal includes dynamic mobile transcoding technology which takes web content from AOL.co.uk and optimizes it for the individual user’s phone,” meaning users can go between either services and still receive the same information.
“This launch represents AOL building on its extensive Internet experience to bring consumers superior mobile internet. AOL mobile delivers an unrivalled experience which we hope will encourage new waves of consumer to experiment with surfing on the move,” Dana Dunne, CEO AOL Europe commented.
The portal, offers the same content as AOL’s main website, including sports, weather and email, but optimized for the smaller screen on mobile devices. The new mobile site is another step in the company’s effort to reinvent itself from an ISP into an advertising and content company. As part of the plan, AOL will serve mobile visitors to the site with “unobtrusive” advertisements, said Ariel Eckstein, an AOL vice president, during a launch event in London.
AOL tried to make the portal uncluttered to make it attractive to visitors, said Tim Hussain, head of mobile for AOL UK. It features lots of white space and a three-tab navigation bar. Web pages returned from a search are transcoded using AOL technology to fit into a mobile browser.
The web services group said the portal would offer users the most “realistic interpretation of a full online experience” on a mobile to date.
The portal gives users 30 days of continuous login to their email accounts and they can also customize their homepage and content channels to reflect their preferences. “Users can choose to place content from AOL.co.uk, including Premiership club news, weather or horoscope information, directly on their mobile homepage.”
All navigation pages feature space for relevant banner ads, and key channels are broken out with sublinks for quick navigation.
AOL is now looking to attract advertisers on the offering in the attempt to provide brands with an integrated offering both online and mobile.
Chris Lock, head of European mobile at AOL, said: “This is the beginning of a very active period for us and is the beginning of us pushing AOL as an online advertising portal.”
Following the launch of AOL Mobile, the company will move its business from Ad Tech to Third Screen Media, the mobile advertising company it has acquired earlier this year, at the start of 2008.
AOL will initially offer advertisers banner advertising across its multiple platforms, including Third Screen Media networks, as well as sponsored links and alerts in the New Year.
“The new portal will be initially marketed to AOL’s 6.7 million unique users.”
But AOL officials acknowledged that the mobile web faces big barriers. So far, not many people use their phones to access the internet regularly, and browsing capabilities vary greatly from device to device. AOL’s new UK portal can be viewed on phones with the most basic browsing capabilities, according to Hussain, including even version 1 of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol).
Eckstein said, “The new portal will raise the bar of how people can expect to interact with the internet via their mobile phones.
“Throughout the process we have always been guided by the very strict principle of understanding how consumers want to experience the internet on mobile devices.
“The simple functionality and relevant and customizable content are a clear reflection of AOL’s ability to deliver simple but innovative products that respond to emerging consumer demands.”
As AOL is aiming to target consumers aged 30 and over, Hussein said, “The biggest challenge is to get to people to get fairly decent phones and get the right setting on their phones.”
He added the AOL aimed to overcome these barriers by educating consumers about the opportunities of mobile.
The browser, which can be downloaded, will also act as a personalized portal, bringing in content from channels on the main AOL website and providing it in a format suitable for mobile devices.
In order to simplify the process of navigating web pages, the portal will use tabbed navigation and clear menu systems.
The company is competing against Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to stake out a piece of the mobile advertising business, where revenue from the UK alone is expected to increase from around £64m this year to £100m next year, according to Eckstein.
Online advertising has become a key to AOL’s growth since it sold off its ISP businesses in Europe, although it still depends on selling internet access for some of its revenue in the US. AOL calls its ad sales division “Platform A.”
The company is trying to be careful about how it displays ads. For example, it found that it is better to put banner ads at the end of a news story rather than at the beginning, since users immediately scroll down past them, Hussain said.
The company will introduce other features to the mobile portal over the next year, such as video and premium content. The company promises rapid expansion of the offering in 2008 including 3GSM, music, and location based products such as AOL’s Friends Finder in Germany and customization tools such as MyAOL, which is already operating in the US.
AOL’s Dunne said: “This launch of the UK mobile portal is a very definite milestone in AOL’s development as the world’s largest and most effective advertising network as well as a leading provider of content.”
“With mobile portals operating in the US, France, Germany, India and now the UK, we are in an ever stronger position to offer advertisers original and highly targeted channels to reach their audiences.”