Because many prognosticators put such an emphasis on mobile technology becoming the primary method used future computing needs, developing a strong mobile search presence now can only be beneficial.
Has one would expect, both Google and Yahoo have approached this field with avid interest. Both parties offer SMS-based mobile searches, designed to take advantage of the wide text messaging use that is done in the mobile phone universe. These services work by users text messaging a query to the service they want to use, the service then replies with results to the query. These replies are also done in the text message format.
Now that the main search providers have established effective mobile search services, they will now begin tweaking the service by adding new features and capabilities. Such is the case with Google’s SMS service. According to the Google Search Blog, Google has added three additional search options, all in an effort to make their mobile search more robust to users.
The new features and how to use them are as follows:
movies:
by text messaging Google Mobile the word movies (or an individual movie) and the location, users will receive a text message of pertinent movie showtimes.
weather:
by sending featuring the word “weather” (including a location [zip or city and state]), users will get a response of the local area weather forecast.
stock info:
by sending a message with a correct stock symbol, users will get response of the latest financial information concerning the symbol in the query.
These features are now active and join other features like definitions and spell checker.
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for murdok. Visit murdok for the latest search news.
