Mobile Marketing Magazine

Placecast Report Looks at Mobile in Retail

US-based mobile marketing firm Placecast has released a report titled ‘Retail Goes Mobile: Finding New Consumer Connections Through Mobile Devices’. The report, authored by by Kathryn Koegel, President of Primary Impact Research, focuses on the use of mobile marketing within the retail sector.
The report looks as changes in media consumption, including the shift from print to digital media with wireless access. It also considers the pros and cons of different mobile marketing tactics in the retail sector, and looks at the texting phenomenon.
“Mobile phones now have consumer penetration rates that surpass the Internet, and marketers need to grasp the implications of ‘go-anywhere media,’ which is what mobile phones represent,” says Koegel. “Consumers use their phones to do everything from research products to check competitor retail pricing – even from within store locations.”
Earlier this year, Placecast announced the launch of ShopAlerts, an opt-in program which delivers messages about sales to consumers as they enter a ‘geo-fence’ surrounding a physical location. A Placecast ShopAlerts case study, which is included in the Retail Goes Mobile report, found that 75% of users found messages somewhat to very useful, and that 73% would definitely or probably use ShopAlerts in the future.
Most recently, Placecast announced its Match API (Application Programming Interface) a free tool that enables location content providers and location-based application developers to refer to a location in any number of ways, and validate that those references resolve to one true location on the planet. The implications that ShopAlerts and Match have for the retail ecosystem are numerous, says Placecast, including an increased focus on improving location-based services and attracting marketing spend.
The report is available as a free download here.

Myxer Unveils GeoPix

Myxer has announced the launch of GeoPix, an Android application that brings geo-location technology to ordinary wallpaper images. The app enables users to choose a physical location for an image they want as their wallpaper, and then have it appear as they arrive at their destination. Users can set a location by sliding their finger around a map, or typing in their address.
GeoPix makes use of Android’s geo-location and background services technologies to monitor a phone’s physical location. The app enables users to save any number of locations, and to search and choose images from either their phone or Myxer’s wallpapers catalogue.
“This is another in a series of announcements that show our commitment to innovation and bold expansion beyond ringtones,” says Myxer CEO, Myk Willis. “In addition to developing a new generation of mobile apps, we’re expanding our consumer offerings this year to include over-the-air music downloads, mobile streaming video, and a host of other new services.”
Myxer works with more than 125,000 artists. To date, the company has enabled more than 1.2 billion content downloads and represents a powerful and active community of more than 34 million users who currently download more than 90 million pieces of content every month.
You can download GeoPix for free from Android Market, or by texting GEOPIX to 69937.

Location, Location, Location

Kevan Christmas, Digital and Mobile Consultant at The Collinson Group, argues that real-time, location-based marketing via the mobile offers a new opportunity to enhance the power of loyalty programmes  

There has been an increasing level of interest and debate in the topic of real-time, location-based marketing, and this will only increase as Google and Facebook enter the space in a serious way.
That said, I have been surprised at how little of the conversation has focused on the opportunities this new technology creates for brands with established customer loyalty and reward programmes. 
For example, the mobile social network/game Foursquare has been in the news after signing up its first national UK brands - Debenhams and Domino’s Pizza. The app detects Foursquare users’ whereabouts, and when they visit the store or restaurant they gain points for ‘checking-in’.
Brands get involved by offering deals to users based on, for example, the number of times someone checks in to their local branch. Businesses get increased footfall, and ideally, a network of brand ambassadors who will pass on recommendations. The consumer gets great deals that are relevant not only to who they are, but where they are, such as Debenhams giving Foursquare members a free cup of coffee in the restaurant when they check in

Engaging consumers
So it’s no secret that Smartphones and branded applications are an incredibly cost effective way of targeting and engaging consumers. By creating tools which engage and add value that your customer base can download and use on a regular basis, you can integrate with their lives in a way that advertising never has.
The iPhone is clearly the leader with respect to the app marketplace. While some point to the iPhone’s still relatively low penetration of the overall mobile market (at around 2%) and even of the Smartphone market (14%), it is quickly starting to grow in a market that will also continue to grow exponentially. It is also worth recognising that the iPhone already accounts for 50% of all mobile web traffic. 
At Collinson Latitude we have a lot of experience working in the travel sector, and some of the software we are developing illustrates the potential of the next generation of apps that can use a Smartphone’s GPS capabilities in a way that enables brands to hit a moving target.
We are about to release a product that offers travellers a web-based suite of services that help them plan, prepare and manage their whole journey. The capabilities include itinerary planning, destination content, check-in services, and miles management, as well as airline timetables and flight status texts – it’s a travel toolkit. It’s also enabled with an iPhone application, so travellers will be able to carry on planning and managing their trips on the move, even when offline, avoiding expensive data roaming charges.

Customer journey
The key insight here is that loyalty programmes should connect with all the different stages of the customer journey (in every sense of the word), from planning to booking, and from departure to arrival. Mobile technology can actually be viewed as a very direct way to plug in to that journey, wherever the customer may be.
What this means is that we already have a good idea of where the customer is going to be and when, as well as knowing how much loyalty or reward currency they have. This can be matched against the various outlets that reward programmes have affiliate marketing relationships with. Also, as the customer loyalty programme provider, you already have a huge amount of customer data, including payment information. As a result, the mobile device could actually be used, even offline, to facilitate some of the purchasing processes.
Say, for example, the customer uses a mobile app to find the nearest hotel where they can spend their loyalty points; they could actually book a room and check in via their Smartphone. A key principle of properly developed reward programmes is that they use as much customer insight as possible to make sure that the services and products offered are exactly what the individual wants and needs. This data should be used not just to meet customer expectations, but to exceed them.
It’s also worth noting that there is a lot of trust inherent in the relationship you have with your customer base, which retail partners can benefit from. Furthermore, because the customer’s payment details are not held on the mobile device, but rather, by you as the programme provider, no sensitive financial data needs to be transmitted. This resolves a major consumer fear and barrier to location-based marketing.
Another capability that mobile offers is to push messages onto the customer’s device. Relevance here is absolutely crucial; it’s a disruptive technique that can increase engagement with the right insight, but can easily irritate if the correct principles are ignored. There is a clear benefit, however, to being able to message a customer to let them know that now they’ve touched down, there is a restaurant nearby where their reward points are worth double.

Intelligent monitoring
This ‘intelligent monitoring’ is a key part of our development strategy. Previously, we’ve been able to narrow down the offers made to customers according to their pre-arranged travel plans, but now we will be able to target people, based specifically on where they are, with this next level of customer insight. So whilst you have a captive consumer waiting in duty-free, this can be directly integrated with your loyalty programme, offering them ways to redeem their points just as they are walking past a retail outlet you are partnered with. Moreover, based on their itinerary, specific products could be offered that are relevant to where they are going.
Utilising these highly accurate GPS capabilities will also create new data, with new patterns emerging of how your loyalty customers behave when on the move. It’s effectively an entirely new way to observe consumer behaviour, and should potentially lead to us being able to pre-empt customer needs specific to where they are.
Just as your communications with the customer must be relevant to what the customer actually wants, however, so must your offerings match your brand values and the specific objectives of your loyalty programme. That could be seeking to reward and encourage high spenders; prompting low users to spend more; motivating your customer base to use more of your wider service and product offerings, and so on.
Finally, I think there is a real opportunity for reward programmes to use peer-based social media capabilities. So instead of the app just saying: ‘Here are the five nearest car hire outlets where you can earn or spend loyalty points’, it could say: ‘Here are the top three in your vicinity according to ratings provided by your fellow Gold Card-holding members’. Providing scores, notes, suggestions, related recommendations and so on from a group of people who have similar tastes, aspirations and levels of affluence creates a great deal of trust and authority. Obviously, companies like Amazon have been doing this for years, but connecting it with your reward programme via mobile technology takes the concept to an entirely new level of relevance, utility and engagement.

McDonalds Scores with Cheesy Location-based Campaign

NAVTEQ has released the results of its first location-targeted campaign in Europe by a global brand advertiser, McDonald’s.
The campaign, powered by NAVTEQ LocationPoint Advertising, enabled McDonald’s to deliver location-relevant mobile ads to users of Nokia Ovi Maps when they were within a certain distance of McDonald’s 82 restaurants in Finland. The ad campaign promoted a McDonald’s cheeseburger for €1. Consumers who clicked on the ads saw the details of the promotion, and could receive driving or walking directions to the nearest store location.
The campaign delivered a 7% clickthrough rate, and of those who clicked through, 39% selected the click-to-navigate option, which offered ‘drive to’ or ’walk to’ navigation to the nearest McDonald’s location, using Nokia’s Ovi Maps navigation.
“Targeting consumers when they are near our locations and then navigating them right into our stores is powerful marketing for McDonald’s,” saysTomi Wirtanen, Head of Marketing for McDonald’s Finland. “We are thrilled with the results from this campaign. NAVTEQ LocationPoint proved that location targeted mobile advertising does indeed drive foot traffic into our restaurants.”
Tuula Rytilä-Uotila, Vice President Location at Nokia, believes that NAVTEQ is uniquely positioned to bridge the digital and physical worlds by combining its location assets with Nokia’s consumer reach. “As consumers turn to their mobile devices for more services, such as music, maps, and entertainment, contextually relevant advertising can enhance the consumer experience while minimizing costs of the services to users,” he says.
And Christopher Rothey, Vice President Market Development and Advertising for NAVTEQ, flags up the unique characteristics of mobile as a marketing channel. He says: 
“If you look at what the mobile environment brings to advertising, it’s two things, personalisation and location, and if you involve those in an ad campaign, you get high relevance, which is extremely valuable to both the advertiser and the consumer.
“McDonald’s is among the first advertisers in Europe to provide insight into the growing location-based advertising market. The outstanding performance of the McDonald’s campaign validates the promise that location-based ads are more relevant to the consumer and greater relevance means higher impact.”

Dating Meets Mapping with FlirtMaps

Content producer Zodiak Entertainment has announced the beta version launch of FlirtMaps, a mobile location-based dating iPhone application, which will be downloadable free of charge via the Apple App Store in the UK, US, and Italy in the coming week.
Based on a user’s current location and dating preferences, FlirtMaps will put forward a selection of “interesting” people to chat to in the area. Its functionality will also increase in the coming months to recommend local places for users to meet new friends. The application has been developed by Neo Network, the digital subsidiary of the Zodiak Entertainment Group.
“FlirtMaps is a new, smart way to meet new people on the go, making digital dating more enjoyable than ever before,” says Marco Ferrari, Zodiak Entertainment Chief Digital Officer. “It’s about real people, looking for real love!”
FlirtMaps will soon be available in Spanish and Portuguese, in addition to English and Italian, and a roll-out to 20 major countries, including Brazil, Mexico, India, Sweden and Denmark, is planned for the summer. Neo Network says that FlirtMaps seeks to connect anyone, anywhere in the world with the kind of people they are searching for, as quickly as possible.
Marco Franciosa, Chief Technology Officer at Neo Network, who designed the product, says: “We have more than 10 years of successful experience in online dating, and more than 2 million registered users worldwide. We now think that the market is ready for a new kind of product and are really excited about FlirtMaps. Not only is totally free for the user, its really easy to use, as well as being private and discrete.”
FlirtMaps’ initial monetisation model will be based on advertising revenue. It will offer a platform for geo-located advertising and encourage users to collect ‘virtual coins’, which offer them extra features, including discounts and free-access to local partner venues such as discos or pubs. When a critical mass of users is met, Neo Network says it will unleash the full potential of the product, increasing the functionality to fully interact with Zodiak Entertainment’s TV dating formats.
Blackberry, Android and Symbian versions of FlirtMaps are currently in development and Neo Network says it is already working on next steps for extending FlirtMaps applications.

Your Plyce or Mine?

Start-up Plyce has taken the wraps off its Europe-focused mobile social networking app of the same name for the iPhone.
Plyce is described by its founders as: “a social network that connects people and places”. To use it, download the app to your iPhone, then launch it when you’re out and about. It will show you what places from the Plyce database are nearby. The database includes over a million places across Europe,  and you can add new places if they're not already on the database.
Plyce has strong privacy controls. Users can decide when to check in, and with whom to share that information; either just with friends, or publicly. Home addresses and the location of other personal places are always hidden to people who are not the user’s friends. Once checked in, users can add comments or pictures to places, and share information either with their friends or with all Plyce users. If they share check-in information, either with friends or publicly, their friends, or all Plyce users, can see where they are.
"Plyce is first and foremost a service that lets you know where your friends are, and discover new places," says Plyce Founder and CEO, Martin Destagnol. "With Plyce, when you go out on a Saturday night, you can tell which friends are out nearby, and parties can get started on a whim."

Lost on a Mountain? There's an App for That

Motor insurer swiftcover.com has helped reunite two friends who became separated whilst hiking in snow-bound mountains in Sweden. The pair used Swiftcover’s iPhone app, ‘Stuck’, to locate each other and navigate their way to a meeting point.
Stuck uses geo-location technology to allow people to post a Twitter-style message, known as a 'Stuck' about the locations or situations in which they are stuck. This is then uploaded to a map of the world with a timestamp. Other iPhone users can then click on the Stuck and, using Google maps, zoom in to locate the person who posted the Stuck.
Nico Vittorio and Paul Alonso were hiking in the Sarek National Park region of Sweden when they became separated. Although they were in contact and knew they were close-by, because of the heavy snow there were no landmarks, making it impossible to identify a meeting point. The pair used Stuck’s ‘Near-Me’ function, which flags up other users nearby, to locate each other, tracking their progress until their paths met.
The app can also be used for less adventurous situations, allowing people to upload a Stuck if they are trapped in a traffic jam, caught in the rain, stuck in a meeting, or even have a song stuck in their head. The app has a range of pre-set emotions that are quick to choose and upload. Users can even communicate their Stucks to friends and followers by sending them by e-mail or posting them on Twitter directly from the iPhone.
The app was developed by swiftcover.com’s innovation lab and has already been downloaded by 10,000 iphone users in 50 countries since it was launched in January. Swiftcover’s Head of Innovation, Ambarish Mitra, says: “swiftcover.com is an innovator – we threw out the rule book and started from scratch when we created the UK’s first fully online insurer – so we wanted our first mobile phone app to embrace that same spirit of innovation and be something that would be of use to everyone, not just swiftcover.com insurance customers.
“Stuck is quirky and fun and takes social networking to another level with a truly global dimension – for the first time you can locate anyone around the world just from the comments they make. But it also has a serious application, as Nico and Paul’s experience shows.”
Future developments for the app include one-to-one communication, linking individual Stucks to events, so people posting would be alerted to activities such as concerts or sales taking place nearby, as well as providing users with information on local amenities, like hotels or garages.
swiftcover.com does have something of a reputation for firsts in the online world. In addition to online insurance, it also developed the UK’s first insurance .mobi site, designed for mobile phone users; the first mobile phone insurance quote system; as well as the ‘My Swift Space’ feature which gives policy-holders complete control over their insurance, enabling them to update or change their policy using the Internet, via a PC or mobile phone.

Placecast Secures Funds for Expansion

Location-based marketing firm Placecast has raised an additional $3 million (£2 million) in Series B funding from current investors, Quatrex Capital, ONSET Ventures and Voyager Capital, to expand its ShopAlerts location-based marketing service. The funding follows a Series B round of funding in November 2009, which raised $5 million.
Brands including The North Face, SONIC Drive-in and American Eagle have already run location-triggered mobile messaging programs on the ShopAlerts service. ShopAlerts delivers location-triggered mobile messages when consumers enter an area bound by a geo-fence, which can be created around any physical location. With substantial interest from retailers and large companies in the carrier, handset and digital media industries, Placecast says it will use the funding to continue to rollout its service to a larger network of retailers.  
ShopAlerts is a retailer marketing solution. Retailers leverage the technology to create their own version of the service; consumers choose the brands they want to interact with, and can opt-in online, in store, via text-message, mobile website, or a social network. Once ShopAlerts is activated, consumers go about their day and the service automatically alerts them when they are near a location that they are interested in, or when the brand is offering sales and specials. Using geo-fencing technology, the service enables retailers to talk to their customers when they are near a store, shopping nearby, or doing other things they enjoy. Geo-fences can be created around any location and are set to trigger a personalized marketing message to opted-in consumers entering the defined area on their mobile phones. Customized messages are created and delivered automatically to shoppers creating a trusted, one-to-one communication channel based on place and time. The service works on any phone.
“After seeing considerable momentum for our new ShopAlerts service, we’re looking forward to making it an indispensable solution for every major physical retailer across the US,” says Placecast CEO, Alistair Goodman.
According to a recent report commissioned by Juniper Research, the mobile location-based services market will be worth more than $12 billion by 2014. In addition, Juniper’s ‘Mobile Marketing and Retail Strategies’ report predicts that advertising will take an increasing share of location-based revenues in the next five years.
“While the mobile channel typically accounts for a very small proportion of marketing budget, we’re seeing clear indications that with brands placing greater emphasis on engagement and quantifiable measurement of campaign response rates, mobile is emerging is an attractive means of reaching consumers 24/7 with targeted, opt-in advertising,” says Windsor Holden, Principal Analyst at Juniper Research. “Furthermore, when the opportunities which location offers are factored in – tailoring advertising to where an individual is at a given time – then the value of such advertising rises considerably.”
You can see a video demo of ShopAlerts here.

LBS Revenues to Top $12.7bn by 2012, says Juniper

Juniper Research has released its report, ‘Mobile Location Based Services: Applications, Forecasts & Opportunities 2009-2014’. The report finds that due to a combination of Smartphone proliferation, a surge in app store launches, and new developments in hybrid positioning technologies, revenues from Mobile Location-based Services (MLBS) are expected to exceed $12.7 billion (£8.3 billion) by 2014.
The report reveals that while MLBS experienced a number of false dawns over the 2000-2007 period, improvements in handset user interfaces – exemplified by the iPhone – together with easier consumer access to an array of app distribution channels, has led to greater interest from service providers in providing MLBS applications. In addition, growth is being further facilitated by the deployment of high capacity network infrastructure and attendant increases in mobile Internet adoption, providing greater opportunities for browser-based services.
The report also notes that advertising is likely to form an increasing share of MLBS-related revenues over the next five years, and concludes that improving the user experience of MLBS on feature phones will be key in driving usage beyond the core Smartphone base. It also says that, despite the confluence of factors driving growth, deployments may still be affected by constraints including privacy and information security, while service usage will be highest in Far East & China over the next five years, with the greatest revenues coming from Western Europe.
The report provides global market forecasts for location-enabled apps sold through app stores, location-enabled apps sold through other channels, MLBS (encompassing off-board apps and browser apps), as well as mobile advertising revenues attributable to each of the above.
It also offers a detailed analysis of each of several application types, including Local Search & Information; Community Navigation; Tracking; other consumer MLBS/apps; and Business Productivity, with each sector analysed by region, channel and type of revenue.
The report considers how advances in Smartphone technology have impacted on the growth of Location-based Services; which will be the main revenue streams for MLBS; in which markets MLBS will be most successful; the likely scale of advertising expenditure on MLBS over the next five years; and how the MLBS value chain is developing and who are the main players.
There’s more information about the report here.

Lufthansa Launches MemberScout Location-based Mobile Social Network

Lufthansa has announced the launch of MemberScout, the air travel industry’s first real-time, location-based social networking solution for frequent flyers. MemberScout enables its users to instantly swap, share or exchange knowledge and ideas. The application, available as an iPhone and soon also BlackBerry application, was developed by mobile apps developer match2blue, using the Apama Business Event Processing (BEP) platform from Progress Software Corporation.
MemberScout was launched in beta to Lufthansa’s ‘Miles & More’ members in November 2009. It’s an instant information exchange through which participants offer each other help and advice, asking questions and providing information related to destinations and travel. Match2Blue created the mobile app to support Lufthansa’s customer relationship strategy, though rather than using the social network to push out information about flights, it has been designed as a ‘member-helps-member’ service.
“Our vision is to help frequent flyers connect with each other to benefit from peer group advice,” says Lufthansa Head of Social Media, Dr. Torsten Wingenter. “Ultimately, it will support engagement with the Lufthansa and Miles & More brands, but is not a sales tool – we are helping the business community that flies with us to gain the benefits of being in that community, wherever and whenever they need to.” 
Dr. Giles Nelson, Chief Technology Strategist at Progress Software, believes the MemberScout service could prove invaluable to Lufthansa customers. 
“Imagine how essential the service could become to MemberScout members,” she says. “For instance, you land in Heathrow and see updates on the quickest way into London that morning – so ensuring you make your meeting – as reported by other MemberScout members. The possibilities are limitless.”

TomTom Upgrades iPhone App

TomTom has announced several enhancements to its iPhone application, including HD traffic compatibility and Local Search powered by Google. TomTom says the new features, combined with enhanced integration with the iPhone interface, ensure optimal routing and a more intuitive navigation experience.
TomTom Traffic updates are received automatically every three minutes, providing real-time traffic speed and incident reports directly on the iPhone. As soon as a delay is found on the route, users are notified and can be automatically re-routed to an alternative, faster route. Traffic delays can be heard audibly on the device as well as displayed on the screen. TomTom HD Traffic is an optional service available for purchase on the App store.
TomTom app for iPhone version 1.3 includes additional features that are available for free to existing TomTom app customers. Local Search powered by Google provides points of interest information, enabling users to locate and route to anything from restaurants to flower shops.
Pinch and zoom capability is also supported, enabling users to pinch and zoom for a more detailed view of the navigation map. The app also incorporates TomTom's latest map, and features an automatic day/night mode which automatically adjusts the screen brightness while driving  There’s also a music fading feature which lowers the music on the iPhone during turn-by-turn instructions, and then increases it when the  instructions are complete. Finally, an ‘Add to my TomTom’ feature enables users to save locations from other iPhone apps and web browsers to the TomTom app.
Continental and regional versions of the TomTom for iPhone app are available here. The new version of the software is available for free to existing TomTom app for iPhone customers. For new users, the TomTom app for iPhone including maps of the UK/Republic of Ireland is available for £54.99. Maps of Western Europe are available for £59.99. TomTom Traffic for iPhone users is available via in-app purchase for an additional £0.59/£4.99/£11.49/£37.99 per day/month/quarter/year respectively.

Yell Adds Augmented Reality to iPhone App

Directory service Yell has added Augmented Reality (AR) to its iPhone App. The free Augmented Reality iPhone Beta App has been designed by Yell Labs. It enables iPhone 3GS users to ‘see’ local shops, offices, restaurants and other useful services through the iPhone’s camera viewer.
As the user moves the iPhone around, yellow boxes are displayed over the live feed of the world directly in front of the user. When one of these boxes is touched, information is overlayed on the business, including the address, phone number, opening hours and website. The information is taken from Yell’s database of 2 million businesses.
If the user swipes their finger to the right, a display with popular searches appears. When the user swipes their finger to the left, they can set the distance they want to see, enabling them to reduce the amount of information on the screen.
“We’re pleased with the result of our first experiment with Augmented Reality and are now working on fully integrating AR with our mobile service later in the year,” says Yell Director of New Media Product Marketing, Matthew Bottomley. 

NearVerse Launches LoKast Media-sharing App

Mobile networking firm NearVerse has launched its first mobile application, LoKast, which allows users to share media between iPhones and iPod touch devices. The app is available for download from the Apple App Store here.
LoKast, short for ‘local-casting’, aims to eliminate the need for sharing content via physical media such as CDs or DVDs. LoKasters can share certain parts of their digital profile to those also using the app nearby. LoKast allows users to discover and publically view available digital profiles of others in the same area, similar to browsing for Facebook profiles, but targeting those who are physically around them.
Users download the app and then add photos, music, videos, contacts and web links to their personalized portal.  When a LoKast user is within 300 feet of another LoKast user, the app will automatically discover the other users and allow the user to view and download their  content. 
Unlike most location-based sharing services, there is no need for 3G connectivity, so LoKast works in subways, underground and heavily congested areas such as stadiums, where 3G connectivity can be unreliable.
NearVerse says that LoKast offers fans the opportunity to distribute exclusive content they receive at shows to others, becoming, in effect, a walking media distribution hub to help spread the content to others nearby.
LoKast is partnering with music distribution companies including The Orchard, IODA and Monalis 360 to provide users with featured and exclusive content within the LoKast app. Artists including The Boxer Rebellion, The Ruse, Bazaar Royale, BlackMahal and Katia have signed up to distribute featured and exclusive music and music videos to their audiences at live performances this month. Film production companies are also using the service to promote their new films.

Don’t Sit on the Geo-fence

Chris Thorman from Software Advice, a website which has reviews of property management software, looks at the potential for location-based real estate marketing

It’s Saturday morning. Joel and Rebecca are walking their dog through a neighbourhood in Austin, Texas. As they walk, they chat about the movie they saw last night, what they’re going to make for dinner, and the big trip they have planned for next weekend. You wouldn’t know it by listening to their conversation, but the couple are also house hunting.
They cross Brodie Lane when Joel’s phone buzzes in his pocket. It’s a text message that reads: ‘3BR 2 BA single-family home w/ fireplace available at 714 Longview Rd, List price: $219,000. Come take a look!”
Joel says to Rebecca, “We’ve got a match from our real estate company. It’s only four blocks away. Let’s go see what the house looks like.”Within minutes, the couple are outside the house. It happens to be exactly the type of home they wanted, in the exact neighbourhood they wanted to live in. They call their real estate agent to set up a viewing.
How did this happen? How was the couple instantly notified of the opportunity, perfectly merging buyer requirements, location and timing? The answer involves a combination of ‘geo-fencing’, mobile phones and GPS technology.
If you’re a tech-savvy real estate agent or property manager, this powerful combination of technology represents a great opportunity to gain new clientele. Many real estate buyers do not have the time to review new listings online, travel to viewings or patrol their desired neighbourhoods for opportunities. But the vast majority of real estate buyers do have mobile phones they carry with them nearly all the time.
This technology would help real estate and property management companies capitalize on business that may otherwise slip through the cracks. Software Advice would like to see this type of mobile marketing become a permanent feature in today’s property management software systems to help advertise real estate and rental properties. Let’s see how that could be done.

Geo-fencing + Mobile = Powerful Real Estate Marketing
What if a buyer looking for a place to live didn’t have to do anything beyond choosing what features they wanted in a home? What if a buyer was automatically alerted to nearby properties that matched their needs? This is what we’re talking about with the next generation of mobile real estate marketing.
The use of geo-fences surrounding properties really drives the location-based marketing engine. A geo-fence is a virtual boundary surrounding a geographic region. When a person with a mobile phone crosses a geo-fence boundary, a notification is automatically issued to that mobile phone. Traditionally, geo-fencing has been used to send alerts when users exit a certain area, instead of entering one.
Geo-fencing has been used in conjunction with GPS technology for a while now and for a variety of uses, such as tracking senior citizens with Alzheimer’s; and monitoring hazardous cargo, to name a couple of examples.
We’re confident that someday, we’ll be able to add ‘market real estate” to that list. Here’s how we see this new form of mobile marketing working in the real estate industry.

Create geo-fences
Before real estate and property management companies set up their online portals, they’ll need to create geo-fences around all of their properties. This will ensure that if a qualified user crosses the geo-fence with their mobile phone, that user will be notified about that property.
We’d like to see geo-fencing modules built into today’s property management software, allowing companies to quickly create geo-fences around their properties by drawing them on a digital map.

Collect buyer needs online
Real estate and property management companies can create online portals on their websites, where prospective tenants and buyers set up notifications tailored to what they want in a property.
For example, a user could create an alert based on square footage, number of bedrooms, pet friendliness, special amenities, and zip/post code, to name just a few of the myriad of options available. Once they’ve entered their mobile phone number and submitted those housing preferences, all they have to do is carry their phone with them to receive notifications.
We’d also like to see today’s property management software vendors integrate these online portals into their systems. Many property management software vendors offer website design and hosting packages to their customers. A geo-fencing module could be another module that’s presented as an option to a management company when they buy the software.

Let the notifications begin
The notifications are where this entire concept of location-based mobile marketing comes together. The geo-fences have been set up. Users have entered their housing preferences online to receive notifications. All that is left is for the users to go about their normal lives, with their GPS-enabled mobile phones, of course.
When they get close to a property that matches their wants, they’ll be automatically notified on their mobile phone. Property management software can then integrate all of these contact points with customers into their CRM system, to track the effectiveness of the messages and review properties with clients. House hunting couldn’t get much easier than that, could it?

The benefits
Hopefully by now, the benefits of this unique marketing method are clear. First, since the user opts in to receive these marketing notifications, there is no feeling of intrusiveness or annoyance as with unsolicited messages. This type of marketing is perceived as a service, not an intrusion.
Second, from a marketing standpoint, notifying the right person, at the right place, at the right time about your product is powerful. It’s the holy grail of marketing: you have a desirable product; you have identified the person that wants your product; and you can automatically tell that person that your product is nearby.
Finally, this marketing method is scalable. A real estate or property management company could theoretically have dozens (or more) of users taking advantage of this service at any given time. Beyond taking calls to schedule viewings, it wouldn’t require any extra labour on the part of the management company.

Conclusion
We don’t expect this spin on mobile marketing to be installed in every real estate and property management office tomorrow. But whether through geo-fence triggers or other GPS-centric methods, the real estate industry will undoubtedly continue to make a huge effort over the next few years to connect with buyers and renters through their mobile phones. The technology is too compelling to ignore.

You can see the full version of this article, complete with graphics, here.

Cloudmade Unveils Navi Studio Navigation App Development Tool

Cloudmade, the platform and tools company serving consumers, mappers, developers and advertisers around the world, has announced the release of Navi Studio, a suite of products designed to help developers create compelling turn-by-turn navigation applications with detailed community-generated maps.
Navi Studio provides the core mapping services and software components that developers, mobile operators and handset manufacturers need, when they build turn-by-turn navigation into their applications and handsets.
Early Navi Studio partner skobbler, a spin-off of premium-navigation provider Navigon, released its Navi Studio-based navigation app to Apple’s App store and within 24 hours, it topped the sales charts. In the German App Store, it was first in the navigation category, second in overall gross revenue across all apps, and second in overall sales across all apps.
The skobbler app, which currently sells for €2.99, is the first turn-by-turn navigation app to incorporate user-editable maps, and to switch from Navteq maps to using CloudMade’s Navi Studio product. The app offers engaging 2.5D graphics, voice guided turn-by-turn directions, night/day modes, in-app iPod playback, and bookmarks for favourite destinations.
CloudMade offers commercial-grade maps that leverage OpenStreetMap (OSM) and a number of other sources. CloudMade provides guaranteed uptimes and vector based map tiles for smooth, real-time map delivery. Known as the ‘Wikipedia of maps’, OSM allows its users to alter the map or add completely new components like streets, tracks or buildings. OSM’s exponential development is vividly illustrated by its contributor figures: having relied on a mere 10,000 mappers worldwide in early 2008, there is currently a 230,000-strong community of mappers who maintain the map, looking for and correcting errors, and predictions see this figure exceeding 1 million by the end of 2010.
If a user spots an inaccuracy in the map while using skobbler – for example, a blocked road or incorrect address – they can simply correct the error by using CloudMade’s Mapzen web editor. To do this, users simply go to http://mapzen.cloudmade.com/ sign up for an account, locate the error in the map and start correcting or adding new content to the map.
“We’re extremely pleased with the high demand for our app and give credit to CloudMade’s Navi Studio product and mapping platform, for helping us achieve this success,” says skobbler CEO, Peter Scheufen. “We switched from using Navteq maps so we could provide more interaction with our users and give them a map which they could edit and update themselves. In the not too distant future, we see OpenStreetMap surpassing the legacy map suppliers in terms of quality and detail, as its vast community continues to map everything in their neighborhoods.”
Developers can find out more about CloudMade’s Navi Studio suite here. skobbler can be downloaded from the German Apple App store here.

woZZon Launches iPhone App

Search engine woZZon has launched a new version of its iPhone application. The app gives rapid access to 60,000 venues and 90,000 unique events across 15 categories. from music events, film, theatre, gigs and exhibitions to comedy, clubs, restaurants, family events and attractions. It includes a GPS location finder, interactive map view, venue and event images, as well as address, telephone number and event description entries.
The launch of the iPhone app follows the recent release of woZZon for Android phones. The woZZon search engine took the top prize in Nokia’s ‘Calling All Innovators 2009’ competition.

Alloy Chip Leverages Mobile TV for Location and Synchronization

Rosum Corporation has announced the launch of Alloy, a location and synchronization solution for indoor and urban environments. The Alloy chip, which was developed in partnership with Mobile TV chip-maker Siano, uses broadcast TV signals to provide precise frequency, timing and location information.
Rosum says the chip opens up a multitude of new commercial opportunities by enabling femtocell synchronization and location, tracking of people and assets, and localized advertising over Mobile TV devices in deep indoor locations such as shopping malls, hotels, campuses and factories, using broadcast TV signals for seamless delivery.
Prior to the launch of Alloy, says Rosum, there was no single location solution that worked across all environments, noting that traditional positioning systems are satellite-based, designed for outdoor applications and have limitations both indoors and in urban environments.
The Alloy client combines the Alloy chip with a high-sensitivity A-GPS chip in a hybrid TV-GPS solution which works across all types of environments, including rural, suburban, urban, and indoor. Broadcast TV signals enjoy a 100,000x power margin advantage over GPS, says Rosum, and this extends location and synchronization capabilities deep into buildings and urban environments.
According to Dominique Bonte, Practice Director, Telematics and Navigation, for ABI Research, the market for wireless location-based applications is expected to reach $14.5 billion in 2014. He says: “The success of these applications will depend on the pervasive availability of the location technologies that enable them.  Alternative positioning technologies such as Alloy are critical (in addressing the limitations of GPS).”
Applications of Alloy include femtocell synchronization and location, indoor and urban tracking of people and assets, and location-based services and advertising for Mobile TV devices. Rosum cites a number of use-case examples. For example, it says, Femtocells require accurate timing, frequency and location for quick start-up, interference management, and E911 (emergency services) location. It notes that competing solutions can require 60-90 minutes or more to start-up and require placement by the window. Alloy reduces this time dramatically (typically to around three minutes) and extends coverage deep indoors, where femtocells are most valuable.
Additionally, says Rosum, tracking service providers require continuous tracking across all environments – outdoor, indoor, and urban.  High-value assets and people tend to be indoors or in urban areas where GPS signals are often unavailable, but TV signals are abundant, enabling Alloy to continue to monitor assets and people in areas where GPS-based solutions fail.
Finally, says Rosum, Alloy can be used to deliver location-enabled TV services and generate new and expanded revenue streams for broadcasters and operators.
“Rosum’s technology opens a new era in location-based applications and services,” says Siano CEO, Alon Ironi. “Our cooperation with Rosum will enable every user of a handheld device to not only watch TV everywhere, but also benefit from an abundance of location-based services everywhere, even where the line-of-sight to the global positioning satellites is blocked.”

1020 Placecast Unveils ShopAlerts

Location-based marketing firm 1020 Placecast has launched ShopAlerts, which it describes as “a new way to bring customers closer to the brands they love”. ShopAlerts delivers location-triggered mobile messages when shoppers enter ‘geo-fences’ that can be created around virtually any area. The company says the service has already demonstrated promising results in trials with retail marketers across the United States.
ShopAlerts is a retailer marketing solution. Retailers leverage the technology to create their own version of the service, then consumers choose the brands they want to interact with, and opt-in at the store, online, via text-message, mobile website, or social network. Once ShopAlerts is activated, consumers go about their day and the service automatically alerts them when they are near a location that they are interested in, or when the brand is running a sale or special offers.
ShopAlerts is an SMS-based service, so works on any phone, so will appeal to retailers who wish to reach the 196 million Americans who do not own Smartphones but are interested in shopping deals, says Placecast.
ShopAlerts geo-fences are virtual boundaries that can be targeted via location-based marketing. Using geo-fencing, the service enables retailers to talk to their customers when they are near a store, shopping nearby, or doing other things they enjoy. Geo-fences can be created around any location, and are set to trigger a personalized marketing message to opted-in consumers on their mobile phone when they enter the defined area. Customized messages are created and delivered automatically to shoppers creating a trusted, one-to-one communication channel based on place and time. Click here to watch a video of how it works.
“SMS is already a very effective marketing platform and by adding location to the proposition you'll see even greater consumer response,” says Greg Sterling, Senior Analyst for Opus Research's Internet2Go program.
Since September 2009, the ShopAlerts service has run pilot programs across the US with several major retailers including SONIC, American Eagle Outfitters, and REI. Participants in the programs were surveyed with the following results:

• 60% of participants found the location-triggered messages to be cool & innovative
• 79% said it increased their likelihood to visit a store
• 65% made a purchase as a result of a ShopAlerts message
• 73% of participants would definitely or probably use the service in the future

ShopAlerts is designed to work easily and efficiently within the existing marketing structure and needs of retailers. The program is seamlessly integrated into retailers’ CRM and marketing programs; message content can mirror retailers’ existing marketing calendars, current promotions or on-the-fly events opted-in consumers find relevant.
“Geo-fence technology represents the next frontier for digital marketing as consumers expect to connect with brands at the right place and time, all via their mobile device,” says Placecast CEO, Alistair Goodman.
The ShopAlerts service is open to all US retailers. There’s more information here.

Report Analyses Prospects for Location-based Services

Juniper Research has released its report, ‘Mobile Location Based Services: Applications, Forecasts & Opportunities 2009-2014’. The report provides global market forecasts for location-enabled apps sold through app stores and other channels, mobile location-based services (MLBS), encompassing off-board apps and browser apps, and mobile advertising revenues attributable to each of the above.
The report examines the structure of the market for MLBS and location-enabled apps in terms of the key drivers, constraints and players. A detailed analysis is included of each of the following application types: Local Search & Information; Community; Navigation; Tracking; Other Consumer MLBS/Apps; and Business Productivity, with each sector analysed by region, channel and type of revenue.
The report looks at how advances in Smartphone technology have impacted the growth of location-based services. It also considers which will be the main revenue streams for MLBS; in which markets MLBS will be most successful; what the likely scale of advertising expenditure on MLBS will be over the next five years; and how the MLBS value chain is  developing and who the main players are?
There’s more information, incuding pricing details, here.

woZZon Launches on Android

woZZon has launched it search engine as an Android application. The woZZon search engine, which took the top prize in Nokia’s ‘Calling All Innovators 2009’ competition, gives access to a comprehensive event database of 60,000 geo-coded venues and 90,000 events across 15 genres in the UK, including art, film, music, theatre, comedy, restaurants, clubs, family and special events.
Someone looking for music events in Manchester, for example, can choose from over 1,000 gigs, or refine their search for any date or category from rock or jazz to electronica or celtic folk.
The app offers a GPS location finder, interactive map view, venue and event images, as well as address, telephone number and event description entires. The woZZon Android app is available as a free download from Android Market.

wagamama Launches iPhone App

Noodle restaurant chain wagamama has launched a free iphone application, which enables users can to locate their nearest branch of wagamama and browse the menu to place their order. Their selection is then transmitted straight through to the kitchen, in a similar way to the wireless hand-held devices used by wagamama restaurant staff. The app also lets users choose a convenient pick-up time if they do not want to dine immediately, and payment can be made securely with a debit or credit card
wagamama’s ever-evolving menu is reflected by the app, which automatically refreshes with new dishes and specials as soon as they are added
To coincide with the launch of the app, wagamama’s online take-out site, wagamamatakeout.com, has been relaunched with a host of new features, including a rapid ordering function designed for people ordering on the move, with an intuitive search engine to create a quicker and more streamlined experience for customers.
“We’re proud to be the first UK restaurant chain to introduce its own iphone app, and it’s great to be bringing the speed and quality of wagamama’s service to the latest in consumer technology,” says wagamama CEO, Steve Hill. “Alongside our new take-out website, it’s now easier than ever for customers to get their wagamama fix.”

Xtify Launches Geo Messaging Platform

Xtify has announced the release of its Xtify Geo Messaging Platform, an online software tool for developers and publishers to push geo-targeted messages directly to their mobile customers.
Developers of local search and discovery applications can now drive prospective customers into a retail store with a message sent only to those who are currently nearby. Publishers of travel and restaurant guide applications can send their users interesting facts and recommendations related to their actual location.
The Xtify Geo Messaging Platform includes a web-based campaign management tool for creating messaging campaigns, and a Software Development Kit (SDK) that is integrated into a mobile application to determine where and when a message should be sent and how it should be displayed.
“For the first time, mobile application developers and publishers have an effective platform for communicating with their mobile audience beyond the confines of their application,” says Xtify CEO, Josh Rochlin. “Developers have been dreaming of a solution that remains active, even when the mobile application is not. Developers (and marketers) can now communicate to their customers, with the right message, in the right place, at the right time, to drive the actions they want.”

Intersec Unveils IGLOO

Intersec Group has unveiled Intersec Geolocator – IGLOO Version 1.1, a Location-based Services (LBS) enabler.
The smart design of the product allows for the generation of push events for mass market real-time use cases. For social networking, users can get a warning when friends form their social networks are close by. It can also be used for vehicle tracking to monitor deliveries or receive real-time messages while on the move.
IGLOO can also be used for pull mechanisms for applications such as geo-fencin, in which a parent could be notified when children are back from school, and safe at home; and for  mobile advertising, to access special promotional offers when entering a “hot zone” (closer than a certain distance from a store).

Cloudmade Adds Location-based Ads

CloudMade, the mapping, developer and mobile advertising platform has integrated Location-based advertising into the CloudMade Mapping Platform. The service enables developers to display targeted, location-based advertisements in their web or mobile applications, providing them with a valuable additional revenue stream.
CloudMade’s LBA offering provides developers with the ability to tailor the advertisements they display to their application type and user location. With no additional development resources required, the company says that a developer can display ads in their application in under five minutes by inserting just one line of code into their code base.
For developers with a mobile travel application or website, this could mean choosing to display only ads from the CloudMade Travel Advertisement Channel, featuring hotels, taxi companies, restaurants, bars, and more. Alternatively, developers of more specialized applications such as cycle navigation could find that displaying only bike and sporting good stores and only those nearest the cyclist, return higher click-through rates.
CloudMade will have several Advertisement Channels that provide a wide range of options for developers to monetize.
"The number one request from our developers continuesd to be for location-based ads to be included in our platform," says CloudMade CTO, James Brown. "We´ve now fulfilled this request, coupling it with detaled analytics on user behaviour to reduce churn." CloudMade’s Location Based Advertisements will be available early Q2 2010 for all mobile platforms and the web. Native LBA framework support will be available for CloudMade’s iPhone and Web Maps Studio- Potential revenues will depend on the number of click-throughs and impressions a developer generates from their application.
Developers can be alerted to when LBA becomes available by registering here.

 

deCarta Brings Maps and Local Search to Opera Users

Opera Software has announced a strategic partnership with deCarta to bring maps, local search and travel routes to the Opera browser family. Opera users will be able to access location services directly, using deCarta’s technology, adding new functionality and context to the browsing experience.
Location-enabled services have shown dramatic growth in the past 12 months. As GPS is integrated into more handsets, many mobile services use the location to provide valuable context for the user experience. Under this agreement, Opera can refer its users to access maps, local search and travel routes quickly, localized for their region.
“Location is becoming more and more important for a full web experience, says  Christen Krogh, Chief Development Officer at Opera Software. “With this partnership, Opera continues to expand its innovative offerings to bring our users a more convenient browsing experience.”

Telmap Partners with 4th Screen for Real-time Geo-targeting

Mobile search, mapping and navigation firm Telmap has announced a partnership with mobile ad sales agency 4th Screen Advertising that will enable real-time geo-targeting for brands on a global scale, while creating new revenue streams for mobile operators and delivering a more engaging, relevant experience to consumers.
Telmap’s white-label solution, Telmap5, enables brands to target consumers on the go, in a manner that is both timely and relevant to their current environment. The solution provides mobile operators with additional inventory which generates new revenues from ad sales, while enabling advertisers to increase ROI. The solution provides localised and relevant search and a personalised mapping and navigation experience. Telmap describes it as “the world’s first personalised location companion”.
4th Screen Managing Director, Mark Slade says: “We look forward to working with Telmap over the coming months as this is truly where mobile advertising is meant to be. With the integration of Telmap5 with 4th Screen’s ad serving platform Mpression, we are offering brands the opportunity to deploy location-based campaigns to consumers on the move.”

Mobile Commerce Creates AA 'Best of Britain' App

Location-based Service (LBS) and mobile content integration firm Mobile Commerce has partnered with the UK motoring organisation and travel publisher, the AA, to create the AA ‘Best of Britain’ iPhone application. The app provides all the information the user needs to find and book a weekend, or week, away in Britain and acts as a guide locating local entertainment and points of interest.
Best of Britain offers a guide covering every aspect for planning leisure pursuits, from hotels, pubs, guest houses and restaurants, to days out, golfing, caravanning and camping. The app features over 14,000 inspected, selected and recommended establishments.  
Entries include detailed descriptions, pricing information, opening hours, more than 5,000 images, phone numbers, links to websites and detailed search options. The user is able to search around their current location or enter a location of their choice, with the results displayed on an embedded Google map.
The AA Best of Britain app is available from the Apple App Store for £4.99.

GyPSii and Telmap Partner for Location-based Social Networking

GyPSii, which describes itself as a “mobile digital lifestyle application and geo-mobility social media platform”, and Telmap, the mobile search, mapping and navigation firm, have announced a partnership to develop advanced location-based social networking as part of Telmap’s Mobile Location Companion solution. 
As part of the agreement, Telmap will introduce social networking and user-generated content to the Telmap5 Mobile Location Companion, using GyPSii’s Open API, OpenExperience. Telmap5 will offer users access to all their networks of friends across social networks including Facebook and Twitter. The companies say that the integration with GyPSii’s Open API will empower Telmap5 mobile users to connect the real world with the digital world, accessing and contributing location-aware content; sharing locations; reading and posting recommendations, videos and pictures; finding friends, events, and places; geo-blogging, and more.
They add that the new Telmap5 offers mobile operators an opportunity to introduce a richer location-enabled solution to their subscribers, arguing that a single app combining key social media, navigation, search, and mapping features provides a compelling experience for users. 
GyPSii’s OpenExperience Open API offers Telmap transparent integration of its patented technologies in mobile user-generated content creation, friend-finding and a robust suite of development toolkits that support rapid development, fast-track product enhancements, and easy app localization.  OpenExperience also delivers a contextual advertising solution for ultra-targeted commercial messages, including advertisements and coupons with a high value to the end user.
“The Telmap-GyPSii enabled offering is fully supportive of people’s desire to explore their surroundings and interact with friends around them not only while at home, but also while on-the-go,” says Telmap CEO, Oren Nissim. “GyPSii and Telmap share a vision to offer operators the ultimate location companion they need in order to maintain their subscriber’s loyalty through an excellent solution and a superior user experience, and we are sure that this new cooperation will open up additional opportunities for operators to achieve just that.”

GeoVector Updates World Surfer App

GeoVector Corporation, which develops mobile technology that links digital information with real-world places, has unveiled Version 2.0 of its GeoVector World Surfer 2.0 iPhone application, which provides enhancements to GeoVector’s popular directional search and pointing application. The app is available for download from the Apple App Store. Version 1 of the app is available from Android Market for Android handsets, with an update due in the next few months.
Developed for compass-enabled GPS Smartphones, World Surfer allows users to point their phones in a particular direction to search for retailers, restaurants and other points of interest. The app includes free text search and the ability to save favorite searches. Version 2 also incorporates camera view Augmented Reality (AR) as a guidance enhancement to help users verify the distance, location and direction of their destinations.

Level 3 and Zolmo Team Up for Cookery Videos

Level 3 Communications is working with software publishing company Zolmo to deliver caching, on-demand video content and geo-targeting services for the Jamie Oliver ‘20 Minute Meals’ iPhone application.
The app is a mobile digital cookbook, offering step-by-step instructions, full screen photography, a shopping list feature, and high-quality videos that that users can follow to create 55 healthy meals from the popular chef.
Level 3 is working with Zolmo to deliver caching and download services for the application over the Level 3 Content Delivery Network (CDN). Level 3 is also delivering token-based authentication and geo-targeting to give Zolmo the ability to customize delivery options to users. In addition, Level 3 worked with Zolmo to de-couple the video content from the application’s other content (recipes, photos, shopping lists) to enable users to download and install the application more quickly.
 “As more people turn to mobile devices for content, there is a greater expectation that the quality of the mobile experience will mirror that of the traditional online experience,” says Peter Neill, Senior Vice President of Content Markets for Level 3. “By leveraging the Level 3 IP backbone, we’re able to provide the scalability and reliability needed to ensure a first-class user experience.”
The app was developed by Jamie Oliver and London-based Zolmo, a software publishing and development company that creates lifestyle and entertainment applications for the next generation of digital devices.
“It was important to us that the application provided a clean, fast, hassle-free customer experience, and using the Level 3 CDN to deliver content directly to the mobile device is helping us to ensure that,” says Zolmo CEO, Tristan Celder. “Users now have faster access to the videos, targeted content and a great application that’s designed to work with their mobile lifestyle.”
The application gives users access to over an hour of video clips from the chef, demonstrating kitchen skills ranging from cutting and chopping to cooking techniques. The video on-demand feature allows users to choose the videos they want to store on the mobile device and delete the ones that they have already watched.
The app is available for download from the Apple App Store.

iome Signs Up Another Plotstar Customer

Digital entertainment services firm Wicoms has partnered with iome to deliver a white-labelled social event planning tool to its customers in the UK leisure and hospitality industry. The iome Plotstar service will be accessible via Wicoms’ wi-fi and entertainment networks that are available in a wide range of leisure locations, including holiday and leisure parks, stadiums, hotels and conference venues.  
The free-to-use digital event planning tool will reach a combined community of over 50 million consumers annually who reside at Wicom’s customer sites, including Pontins and the Camping and Caravanning Club of Great Britain. The Plotstar service will be individually branded for each Wicoms client, in order to match their existing corporate look and feel.
Via the Wicoms wi-fi and entertainment network, holidaymakers will be able to quickly discover new things to do, places to visit and access offers and discounts, using their PC, laptop or mobile device. An event plan can then be created and shared with friends and family on social networking sites, helping people make the most of their holiday.
“The iome Plotstar white-labelled service is a perfect fit for us,” says Wicoms Chairman, Simon Rendell. “It enables us to offer our customers a new service that will deliver real benefits to their customers. Via the existing Wicoms network, the social event planning tool will enable holidaymakers to create exciting itineraries based on their location and personal preferences. It will help them discover what is around them and also offer discounts or offers so they can save money whilst on their break.”
You can see Plotstar in action here.

Tagcrumbs Launches iPhone App

Tagcrumbs, the web platform for sharing favourite places, has launched a free application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The app can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store in seven countries, including the UK, US and Germany.
Tagcrumbs says the launch of the iPhone app is a response to the increasing popularity of Location-based Services offered by US startups such as Foursquare and Gowalla. However, the company says, Tagcrumbs is not a game with ‘check-ins’, but rather an application for travellers and place experts to create and present locations of their field of interest.
“The power of Tagcrumbs lies in the flexibility and simplicity to ‘tag’ local discoveries of all kinds, be it the newly opened restaurant, a cozy beach bar or a hidden barbecue area", says Tagcrumbs Co-founder, Benedikt Foit. "Users create their own categories with the help of tags and work on sets of places collaboratively."
The app can also be used when no Internet connection is available, relying solely on GPS. This is handy useful when travelling abroad, as it avoids roaming fees. In addition, all information is synchronized between the iPhone and website.

woZZon Scoops Calling All Innovators Prize

Events Search Engine woZZon has taken the top prize in Nokia’s ‘Calling All Innovators’ competition, which targeted talented UK developers and asked them to create the next big thing in mobile applications.
The idea behind woZZon is a simple yet effective one: to find out what’s on near you. The woZZon search engine gives easy access to a database of 60,000 geo-coded venues and 90,000 unique events across 15 genres. The data is checked by editors daily to ensure accuracy, with events ranging from large stadium concerts and matches to local village hall gatherings.
woZZon wins a cash prize of £20,000 and a listing for the app on Nokia’s Ovi Store, as well as one year’s membership to Forum Nokia Launchpad. There is also the chance that woZZon will be preloaded on future Nokia devices.
“We were looking for bold ideas from talented developers who could demonstrate a real understanding of what UK consumers want from mobile content,” says Nokia’s UK Head of Services, Rupert Englander. “The woZZon application stood out for its innovative geo-coded venues which tie to Ovi Maps, and the sheer volume of data accessible via the app. The app automatically charts your GPS position and searches for your chosen subject, so whether you are after a restaurant, cinema, Salsa club or gig you can find it via woZZon.”
woZZon is part of the Science Navigation Group and a sister company of mobile mapping and navigation solutions company,Telmap.

Mobile Commerce Launches Voda 360 LBS Apps

Following on from the launch of its applications for Vodafone S60 non-touch devices, Location-based services (LBS) and mobile content integration firm Mobile Commerce has announced the launch of a suite if applications for Vodafone’s ‘360’ touchscreen handsets, the Vodafone 360 Samsung H1 and the Vodafone 360 Samsung M1.
The seven applications, integrating handset location, have been made available on Vodafone’s UK app store, enabling customers with the new handsets to download them and use their handset location to discover information about nearby services and amenities.
The applications offer up-to-the-minute and easy-to-navigate local information to the handset, using content from Mobile Commerce’s leading brand partners. The widgets have been developed in partnership with Multimap, toptable, THOMSON Local, OAG, ITIS and the Press Association.
There are seven applications in total:

• Keep Moving Traffic: Provides information about nearby traffic incidents using content from traffic and travel information supplier IT IS.
• What’s On: Using Press Association listings, What’s On brings the latest information on clubbing, gigs, jazz, classical and comedy events.
• Bite to Eat: Offers information on places to eat.
• Flight Tracker: Content from OAG enables the user to access worldwide flight information to see if a flight has landed on time or been delayed.
• Multimap: Using the handset location, postcode or place name in the UK the widget displays a map from mapping website Multimap
• Toptable Special Offers: Displays restaurants with special offers in the local area, using listings from restaurant reservation, review and search service, Toptable.
• THOMSON local: The user can search from over 2 million businesses in the UK by name or category to find local businesses.  .

“We’ve been delighted with the success of the suite of apps so far on Vodafone’s non-touch devices, so we’re even more delighted now to be able to offer them on the first Smartphones to deliver the full Vodafone 360 experience,” says Mobile Commerce CEO, Steve Page. “We’ve combined our expertise in location-based search with our award winning content partners to create these apps for the ever-growing market for mobile applications. We’re incredibly excited to be able to offer them something that keeps us at the forefront of our industry.”

Citysearch Launches Android App

Citysearch has launched its Mobile by Citysearch application for the Google Android platform. Android device users can browse, search and share local information for over 15 million local business listings, and post reviews to Citysearch directly from their handset. Mobile by Citysearch for Android joins the family of Citysearch applications for multiple mobile platforms, including iPhone, Palm WebOS, Blackberry devices and all mobile web browsers.  
“Our mobile applications enable users to experience their city, their way, offering the best local content and features available, no matter where they are, or which mobile phone they use,” says Kara Nortman, Senior Vice President, Publishing at Citysearch. “As one of this year’s hottest holiday gifts, Android phones will now deliver an even better local experience to users, who can search, find and share local user reviews and editorial content in real-time.” 
Mobile by Citysearch for Android uses GPS to search the nearest restaurants, cafes, banks, movie theaters and other listings closest to a user's location, and provides directions via Google Maps. Mobile users can instantly connect and share a new listing with friends within the Citysearch App using email, SMS or Twitter.

Rummble Buys Total Hotspots

Rummble, the real-time social discovery service, has acquired the UK-based wi-fi community, Total Hotspots.
Total Hotspots Managing Director Alex Housley will join Rummble's founding team as VP Business, to help drive service development and key partnerships. Total Hotspots was created by Housley in 2004, while studying Business and Computing at City University, London.
Total Hotspots offers a wi-fi discovery application for the iPhone that tells users where the nearest paid and free hotspots are around the world, ans also provides personalised recommendations for those venues. Rummble and Total Hotspots partnered to launch an iPhone hotspot locator app in January 2009, utilising Rummble's mobile platform and a database of global wi-fi hotspots. To celebrate the acquisition, Total Hotspots is reducing the price of its iPhone app from £2.99 to £0.59 over Christmas.
“Alex has grown Total Hotspots from zero to profit and brings a multi-disciplined skillset to the Rummble,” says Rummble CEO, Andrew J Scott. “We've been working closely with him the last months and as Rummble grows, his energy will make a very significant contribution to Rummble going forward. You can expect to see some fantastic new wi-fi features and partnerships coming out of Rummble during 2010.”

3GVision Makes a French Connection

3GVision, which supplies mobile barcode reading solutions, has announced a partnership with French firm, Connecthings, to extend the use and compatibility of 2D barcode-reading technology to most mobile phone models in France.
Connecthings, which provides barcodes and contextualized location- and time-based content management systems, will help publishers, advertisers, government agencies and local businesses to create 2D barcode campaigns and mobile applications. The campaigns will use Flashcode technology, as well as QR and DataMatrix barcodes. Any phone equipped with a sufficient resolution camera will be able to read all barcode types, off pretty much anything, including print, so long as the user has the Flashcode reader pre-installed on their device, or downloads 3GVision’s barcode reading application, i-nigma.
The i-nigma barcode reading application can already be used in the City of Toulouse to fast-track mobile subscribers and tourists to content including directional maps and timetables, that are printed on bus shelters and street furniture. Mobile subscribers scan Flashcode, QR and Data Matrix barcodes with their mobile phone’s camera and gain instant access to virtual guides of the city, maps, real-time location based messages and multimedia content.
“We are always striving to offer the best solutions to our customers and we believe that i-nigma can provide a vital element in facilitating traditional-to-digital connections and making mobile barcodes use more attractive in France,” says Connectthings CEO,  Laetitia Gazel Anthoine. “The partnership comes amid fast-expanding use of mobile phones, including the iPhone and other Smartphones. Scanning 2D barcodes for quick and easy access to desired information and multimedia on the mobile web will give added value to mobile subscribers.”
The i-nigma end-to-end 1D/2D mobile barcode solution comprises an intuitive and simple barcode creation, campaign management and reporting platform, enabling fast and reliable web service for creating and web-linking barcodes to information and promotional offers. The solution includes tools to enable real-time tracking of ongoing campaign success, based on time; number of codes scanned and response volume by location; user segmentation; and media type.

iome Powers Independent Event-planning Tool

Independent News & Media has partnered with iome to launch a white-labelled social event planning tool on The Independent newspaper’s website. The service creates new web and mobile revenues for the publisher, as part of its 2010 digital media strategy.
The free-to-access service provides the 10 million monthly visitors to the Independent’s website with a useful tool that helps them plan their social lives and make savings via discount vouchers. 
The Independent aims to generate new revenues through the service on purchases made through the portal, such as theatre tickets and restaurant bookings, in addition to advertising and sponsorship. By partnering with iome, the Independent has been able to go to market with its new branded service in less than three weeks from inception of the project, enabling readers to start using the service in time to organise their Christmas events. 
“We are very excited to be the first business to launch this service in the UK,” says
Bill Swanson, Managing Director (Digital), Independent News and Media (UK). “It not only enables us to extend our reach to readers, but also to create new revenues via web and mobile.
“We recognise that consumers are hungry for new ways to organise their social lives through the web – this service is the first of its kind to enable people to organise themselves, make savings and interact with friends in a single location. Plus, the service has the ability to learn behaviour including likes and dislikes, giving us the opportunity to deliver highly targeted services and offers. This is a significant step forward with our digital media strategy for 2010.”
You can see the service in action here.

Locayta Creates BT Exchanges App

BT Exchanges has launched an iPhone application that enables users to search over 2 million UK business and services. The app has been designed by Locayta, which provides search and merchandising technology for online publishers and retailers. It locates businesses by category and automatically detects the user’s location using the iPhone’s in-built GPS. The user can access a list of relevant local businesses, ranked by proximity, with directions, maps, and ratings from other customers. The business can then be contacted easily by phone, email or text and its details can be saved to the iPhone.
BT Exchanges, which is part of BT Directories, already uses Locayta search technology to process over 600,000 online searches every day. For this new iPhone application, the Locayta search engine finds businesses most relevant to the user’s needs through a combination of a weighting algorithm, feedback from user behaviour and a geo-locational radiating search. 
“Key to the continued success of BT Directories is our ability to deliver comprehensive, intelligent and accurate data to our customers in a rapid and accessible fashion, whether they’re in the office, at home or on the move,” says David Gummer, General Manager of BT Directories Online. “Locayta, with their exceptionally flexible search engine, have a track record of building tailored search solutions that are specific to the needs of BT Directories’ end users and classified advertisers. This new application plays an important role in our strategic development.”
Locayta’s search engine can be integrated with many different types of applications such as ecommerce, content management systems, knowledge management systems, web servers and database applications.

deCarta Signs Up for bada

deCarta has announced a partnership with Samsung Electronics to provide developers with location geoservices on the handset maker’s new bada Smartphone platform. The partnership will enable developers to add maps, location-based search and routing instructions to any application designed for bada-enabled mobile phones. 
Under the terms of the agreement, application developers on the Samsung bada platform will have access to deCarta’s simple Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that invoke a complete set of geospatial services, including maps, mobile local search, vehicle and pedestrian routing, geocoding and reverse geocoding, with minimal development time. The services are built on deCarta’s high-volume Hosted Web Services (HWS) geospatial platform, and will be provided at no cost to developers.
“deCarta is excited to be providing the location component of Samsung’s bada eco-system,” says deCarta CEO Kim Fennell. “Because deCarta’s technology simplifies the task of integrating maps and location-based search into applications, developers can build even more compelling applications, and Samsung customers will benefit from a new class of location-enabled applications.”

Mall of America Turns to Text

Shoppers at Mall of America shopping centres now have access to last minute sales offers, in-store coupons and up-to-date event information, thanks to a text messaging service from MallCall International, called 'MallCall, The Text Best Thing'.
When arriving at Mall of America shopping centres, visitors have the option to opt-in to the service by texting a number displayed above the entrance. Those who opt in will only receive text messages during Mall business hours for the day. After the Mall closes, the messaging ends until the next time the shopper revisits the mall and opts in again. Customers can opt-out at any time by texting STOP.

deCarta Unveils Mobile Search Offering

deCarta has launched deCarta Mobile Search, a brand-able mobile local search alternative to traditional Internet search engines, designed specifically for mobile operators, directory service providers, and handset manufacturers. 
Similar to traditional search engines, deCarta Mobile Search provides maps, address finding, routing, directions, and freeform text search of local content from leading content providers.  Examples include restaurant reviews, weather, traffic, movies, events, news, yellow pages, and more. In addition, deCarta Mobile Search also enables operators, directory providers, and handset makers to add content and manage the way content is presented to users. It also offers spatial search algorithms that, according to deCarta, allow mobile users to find more relevant points of interest than traditional search providers.
deCarta Mobile Search is a full-featured and customizable application developed in JavaScript to run inside W3C compliant widget runtime frameworks, across a wide variety of handset brands, models, and operating systems. The deCarta Mobile Search widget connects to deCarta’s LBS servers to provide a full mobile search experience that can be customized and differentiated with any form of geo-referenced content.

T-Mobile Turns To deCarta For LBS

T-Mobile and deCarta have announced a strategic partnership agreement to deliver an advanced set of LBS (Location-based Service) offerings.
T-Mobile will roll out the services in Q4, 2009 according to the local needs of each market. Initially launching in the UK, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, other operating companies will follow in the future.
Under the agreement, T-Mobile will utilise deCarta’s Drill Down Server (DDS) geospatial platform to power multiple LBS applications, and also make use of deCarta’s advanced APIs to enable third-party LBS application development. T-Mobile will also deploy deCarta’s recently-launched ‘NavSearch’ location-based search, mapping, and routing capabilities for mobile phones and the web. NavSearch will be fully integrated with a Turn-By-Turn navigation application.
deCarta will provide the Turn-by-Turn navigation application through its partner Appello’s WisePilot navigation application. This can be invoked from the location search function, incorporating all relevant destination information.
All applications will be fully integrated with T-Mobile’s web’n’walk service to ensure that T-Mobile users can share information across applications such as directions and favourites, and between multiple devices.

Glopos Technology Makes Any Mobile Location-aware

GloPos has launched its software-only positioning technology that makes all mobile phones location aware, whether they are outdoors, indoors, or even underground. GloPos Technology requires only a cellular network to make all mobile phones location-aware. There’s no need for additional GPS or W-LAN hardware on the mobile on a mobile device to achieve accurate positioning.
GloPos' patent-pending, self-learning algorithms calculate an accurate position fix to within 1-40 metres, even in places where no W-LAN access points are available, and places where GPS cannot be usedm, such as subways, underground car parks, airports and exhibition centres. All the technology needs is cellular network coverage. In addition, GloPos Technology does not consume any extra battery life while operating, as cell information is already being used to stay connected. 
GloPos co-founders have over 20 years combined mobile experience with Nokia and Ericsson. CEO Mikael Vainio brings to GloPos more than a decade of executive experience with Nokia and Ericsson. Before joining GloPos, he served in Ericsson Middle East HQ as Vice President Strategy, Marketing and Communications. Vice-President Alexander Le Bell has held executive positions with leading mobile and technology companies, including Ericsson, Nokia and Philips. He was Ericsson's Director for Strategy and Business Intelligence for the Middle East. Prior to that he served in Nokia Multimedia, managing the operator business in Central Europe with some of the largest operators in the world, including T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2-Telefonica.
“By making all phones location aware, GloPos Technology is set to revolutionize the indoor positioning and social location market, including mobile search and personalized mobile advertising,” says Vainio. “This will massively expand the positioning market. GloPos is a superior solution versus W-LAN and GPS-based indoor positioning applications which today serve less than 20% of the total yearly 1.3 billion unit mobile device market.”

GeoVector Unveils World Surfer

GeoVector Corporation, which develops mobile technology linking digital information with real-world places, has launched its directional search and pointing application for mobile phones.
GeoVector World Surfer is now available for download from the Apple App Store for AT&T customers with the iPhone 3GS, and Android Market for the T-Mobile G1 with Google and the T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google. World Surfer is available for Sprint customers using the recently-announced HTC Hero, and will be available on future Android-powered devices.
Developed for compass-enabled GPS smartphones, World Surfer allows users to point their phones in a particular direction to search for retailers, restaurants and other points of interest.
Using GeoVector’s pointing technology, World Surfer users can, as the company puts it: “click on the real world” with their phones to access information.
GeoVector, in partnership with NEC and Mapion, has provided services based on this technology throughout Japan since 2006. Building upon experience gained by delivering the service in Japan, GeoVector has designed a directionally-filtered location browser which helps users to zero in on places in the real world which interest them, simply and efficiently.
After locating a point of interest, World Surfer users can visit the location's website, get reviews, place a phone call, check for pictures or YouTube videos, search Google, see the location on a map, and be guided there by an interactive arrow. They can also bookmark their favorite spots, hotel or parking garage to return after a day’s exploring.
“Other local search applications present the user with a fog of information.World Surfer totally avoids that fog, providing just the information users seek – quickly, reliably 24/7,” says GeoVector’s CEO John Ellenby.
Initial US content channels for World Surfer include Google, Microsoft Bing, Yahoo! Local, Wikipedia, Papa John's International pizza restaurants, and a Starbucks coffee tracker. The company says that several national and international retail and restaurant chains are currently in discussion with GeoVector to reach out to their customers using World Surfer.
There’s more information here.

deCarta Launches OSM Beta Program

deCarta, which supplies software and services for the Location-Based Services (LBS) industry, has announced the launch of its beta program supporting OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. The beta program makes the OSM content available for selected cities around the world. A product release that will support the complete coverage of OSM is scheduled for October 2009.
In keeping with the spirit of the OpenStreetMap community, OSM data in deCarta format will be free of charge. deCarta plans to make the product available for both server and client-side solutions to its customers .This includes self-hosted solutions using deCarta’s Drill Down Server, deCarta’s hosted web services, personal vavigation devices, and mobiles. Developers will also be able to quickly prototype and demonstrate location-enabled applications using OSM content through deCarta’s Developer Zone available to developers via the deCarta website.
deCarta says the initial product release is aimed at developers who want to develop map display, vehicle tracking, high-level routing anf pedestrian navigation applications. Future releases will include support for local search and turn-by-turn navigation, based on availability and applicability of the OSM content. In addition, deCarta says it will expand geographic coverage and depth of features, as the OSM data continues to expand and mature.
OSM has seen explosive growth since its launch in 2004. According to the OSM website, within last 12 months, the number of registered users has more than tripled from approximately 50,000 to over 160,000. In the same period, the total number of GPS track points uploaded by users has gown to just over a million. The data has over 23 million kilometers of road length, making it the largest public domain mapping database.
deCarta notes that its OEM platform technology has powered some of the world’s largest LBS Internet and mobile services, often where broad and varied geographic coverage has been necessary. deCarta’s customers can customize and brand their own map styles and services using the company’s development tools and data architecture; and only need to write their application once, even though multiple map content sources may be being used simultaneously.
Anyone interested in accessing OSM content in deCarta’s format should contact: sales@decarta.com

Mobile Commerce Powers O2 Money's 'Find Nearest' Service

Mobile Commerce, which provides location-based services (LBS) and mobile content integration, has partnered with O2 to provide location-based search for O2 Money – the new business within O2 which will seek to advance the synergies between mobile and money. Mobile Commerce is providing an SMS ‘Find Nearest’ service, enabling O2 customers to find the nearest place to top up their ‘Load & Go’ card with cash.
Aimed at young people aged 13 and over, the card gives them the freedom and convenience of a Visa card, but within a safe framework. Load & Go is designed to help teenagers to learn about money management, as well as providing a safer way to carry around their pocket money. 
Mobile Commerce’s technology enables O2 customers to find their nearest cash load point by texting a key word (e.g. LOAD) to 80202. The user will then receive a free text message with details of the nearest cash load location to their current location. There are over 20,000 locations across the country where cards can be loaded, including all O2 stores, PayPoint outlets and independent retailers displaying the e-pay logo.
“With the current economic climate, the O2 Money cards are the perfect way to help people, young and old, control their spending, and with Mobile Commerce’s SMS location service they have the reassurance of knowing exactly when and where they can load their money,” says Mobile Commerce CEO, Steve Page. “This is another example of how mobile can be integrated into areas of people’s lives in new and innovative ways to make them simpler, and another example of how our location-based search service can be applied.”

ALK Unveils Smartphone SatNav Solution

ALK Technologies, which develops mobile navigation software, has announced the launch of its CoPilot Live v8 GPS navigation solution for Windows Mobile and Android Smartphones. ALK says this is the most powerful CoPilot yet, making turn-by-turn voice-guided satellite navigation technology more accessible, portable and affordable for owners of Windows Mobile and Android phones. It is also available in UK for iPhone 3G and 3Gs users.
Key features of CoPilot Live v8 include:

• Clearer guidance at complex junctions, with lane indicator display, signpost information and realistic CoPilot ClearTurn display of motorway and major road intersections.
• Enhanced guidance. v8’s Turn-after-Turn display shows your next turn and the one after, while variable map zoom automatically adjusts the map display depending on your speed. CoPilot can also provide continuous guidance when you lose a GPS signal in a tunnel.
• Speed limit indicator. This provides adjustable on-screen and audible warnings if you accidentally exceed the limit
• 3D landmarks. Available as an option, this gives CoPilot customers photorealistic 3D images of the main landmarks in major cities, displayed on screen.
• Walking mode turn-by-turn directions to find your way around a town or city on foot, with pedestrian-specific routing, an onscreen compass and directions along footpaths
• Phone integration, allowing direct dialling to Points of Interest, location sending via text and photo navigation
• Safety camera alerts, h free database updates
• Live Local Search. This offers integrated access to location-specific Internet search to quickly find nearby products and services, for example a nearby coffee shop, business or a restaurant
• Live Traffic information. High quality, constantly updated traffic information about your route, with automatic warnings and re-routing
• Location-sharing - CoPilot LiveLink location-sharing allows you to view the location of your CoPilot friends onscreen or online, and share your location with them.

“CoPilot Live v8 provides an unrivalled satellite navigation experience for Smartphone users,” says Michael Kornhauser, Vice President and Managing Director of ALK Technologies’ CoPilot Division. “With CoPilot’s sophisticated navigation features, useful Live services and affordable pricing, the gap between Smartphone navigation and dedicated systems has now been firmly closed.”
CoPilot Live v8 is available immediately for purchase and download from £25.99 for unlimited use from copilotlive.com and the Android Market. UK customers can also buy CoPilot Live v8 from the iPhone App Store, with support for additional countries coming soon. The application will also soon be available to buy on SD card or DVD installer from leading online retailers.

First Partner Offers LBS Market Map

First Partner has released a Location Based Services Market Map, which explains the structure of the Location Based Services industry, measuring sector performance, highlighting opportunities and recent developments, and outlines the key relationships within this evolving industry.
First Partner specializes in end-to-end mobile proposition development, from market and customer insight, through the design, launch and operation of new products and services.
The map costs £55, or can be downloaded as a free, watermarked, non-printable version. The map is available for free download here.

 

Mobile Commerce Announces US Launch

Mobile Commerce, which provides mobile search and location services, has announced the launch of its Monetised Search service, which has previously been available only in the UK,  across the United States.
Mobile Commerce says its Monetised Search service offers a white-label solution that gives the publisher control and flexibility over how they want to deliver the search experience to their users, including integration with their own on-portal search results. The service delivers advertiser listings and natural search results which are all optimised for the mobile Internet. There are no costs to the publisher for using the service, and they earn revenue when an advertiser listing is clicked.
The service comes with a suite of online reports that cover in depth usage metrics and analysis. This includes a taxonomy report which groups popular search terms together into a hierarchy of categories, in addition to assimilating common misspellings based on intent. This enables the publisher to get an accurate insight into what their users are searching for. Usage reports also include origin and time of search; top search terms; advertiser position (i.e. rankings by the amount an advertiser is prepared to pay each time a link to an advert is selected); and click types, which is the number of searches and end user clicks broken down by sponsored results and mobile web results respectively.
Mobile search engine Taptu is the first company to sign up to the US service. It’s SVP, Business Development, Bob Last, says:
“(We have been) working closely with Mobile Commerce since last year. Mobile Commerce significantly improves the availability of relevant ads for our users. The US is our busiest market for mobile searches at Taptu and we are very pleased to be extending our involvement with Mobile Commerce to monetise more of this US search traffic.”