Most of our readers know there are plenty of mobile search websites out there to choose from. Add the fact that most smartphones already include a web search feature from their default interface, and that leaves a challenging environment for the newer mobile search sites to succeed.
That said, we encourage folks to give iQ Mobile Search a try. With an extremely intuitive user interface, the site provides the capabilty to search from 13 different sources, including Google, Bing, Amazon, IMDb, LinkedIn, and WikiTravel. In addition, it lets you choose your search location from 14 different countries.
Weather you are stuck in the snow waiting for a tow truck, or waiting in line shopping, there’s always something you can do with a phone and a good mobile search site. Check it out and let us know what you think.
A reader recently sent us his new mobile website that claims to be the first multi-search tool for mobile phones. It automatically detects if you are viewing from a mobile browser, and it helps to minimize typing as you search.
The majority of searches default to Google, though the image search defaults to Bing, which I found rather interesting (Is it me or does everyone like the Bing image search results better than Google’s?).
There is a shopping search function as well, which serves up results from Amazon, eBay, Shopping.com, or Walmart. That shopping search feature is very timely – check it out to see prices online before you make that holiday purchase at the mall.
The Big G released its first ever mobile application for the iPhone and iPod Touch last week. Dubbed the Google Mobile App, the application lets you search the web or your iPhone contacts, and includes many features you’d find within Google desktop search products (one of my favorites is Google Suggest).
The Google team released this video highlighting the Google Mobile App features:
It’s interesting to see Google’s investment in the iPhone platform, considering the Google Android phones are just a few months away from reality. Still, even Google knows it will take quite a while for the Android phones to knock the iPhone off it’s perch.
As mobile search usage continues to increase, so do the number of available services. The latest mobile search service I ran across is from the fun-loving folks at Taptu.
See how Taptu stacks up against Google Mobile in this video with tech blogger Robert Scoble:
Taptu is a mobile search service that runs on virtually any mobile browser (no downloads needed). Taptu goes beyond simple mobile search — they’ve incorporated a viral component which makes it easy for users to share content (pictures, videos, articles, etc.) with their friends via email or Twitter. For this reason and for its overall ease of use, Taptu has begun to set itself apart in this increasingly competitive mobile search space.
Test it against the rest and let us know what you think!
Since we last took a look at Microsoft’s Live Search for Mobile back in February, the team in Redmond has significantly enhanced it’s mobile search offering.
Through the new Products feature (in beta), Live Mobile users can now access detailed product information for a number of categories. For example, a search of the term “laptops” returned a summary view of four of the more popular laptops, including a product image, make and model, price range, and the number of stars based on user ratings.
The Live Mobile service also includes the other existing sections of results, which are included in the list below:
Products (beta)
Web
Images
News
Spaces
Local
Map
In order for the Local and Map to be enabled, the user must set their location either by entering their zip code or portion of their address themselves, or by utilizing the new “Find My Location” feature. This recently-added feature gets the location of the user through triangulation of nearby cell phone towers.
Try it out the next time you are making a large purchase and see if your price is competitive.
New: Help us test our new Text Message to India service. We are currently testing Indian carriers BPL Mobile, Delforce/Fascel, and Escotel. Try it out, and let us know what you think!
One would think that the best mobile website to search for YouTube videos would be YouTube Mobile. In this case, one would be wrong.
blueApple.mobi, a mobile video search site, offers mobile video streaming and video downloads to your mobile phone. The service searches video from other video sharing sites around the web, including YouTube, Revver, and blip.tv.
The service optimizes video for viewing on the mobile device, and works with multiple video formats, including Flash, Quicktime, and WMV (Windows Media Video).
Before downloading an entire video to your mobile phone, you can view a 20-second clip of the video on blueapple.mobi. This can be particularly useful when you are on a limited data plan with your wireless carrier.
