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A Google exec recently said, "In three years’ time, desktops will be irrelevant." That’s debatable, but there’s no question that mobile use will have grown much more than it already has. Based on comments in a recent keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer doesn’t seem to think PC use is going to drop too much, but he did say, "Mobile queries are just going to keep going up and up and up."

Do you think desktops will be irrelevant in 3 years? Share your thoughts here.

A study released last month found that the number of mobile phone subscribers is on track to increase from 4.6 billion to 5 billion globally by the end of 2010. Another study found that consumers are getting more comfortable with mobile shopping.

Mobile Search

Google has dominated the search market for a long time, and while this still continues to be the case, it’s important to note that search in general changes with mobile. People are searching in different ways than just using their favorite search engines. They’re using different apps. They’re using their voices. They’re scanning barcodes for instant access to product information. The number of ways people are finding information with their phones is only going to keep increasing. On mobile, it’s not just about Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

That’s not to say these three aren’t still incredibly important to mobile. In fact, the search share among these top search engines may even become more greatly divided as time goes on. We’re seeing different mobile carriers and manufacturers making deals with these companies, which affect the default search options for various devices. As we discussed before, mobile search engine use may be largely dictated by device popularity, which is (in my opinion) one of the biggest things Bing will have going in its favor in terms of market share – Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 phones will come with Bing hardware keys, meaning the most convenient way to search on these devices will likely be to hit a single button taking the user to Bing. If these devices become popular, it could be huge for Microsoft in search.

As far as Google indexing and mobile sites goes, Google’s Matt Cutts says, "If you can find a way where your existing site will work well in mobile browsers, we’re not worrying about supporting two completely different sites."

To learn about this subject in more detail, read the Google Webmaster Central Blog posts: Help Google Index Your Mobile Site, and Running Desktop and Mobile Versions of Your Site.

Mobile Search Advertising

When it comes to AdWords, Google says to create separate, mobile-focused campaigns so you can optimize keywords, ad text, and landing pages for people using mobile devices. Google shared an interesting case study this week looking at Razorfish’s mobile AdWords approach. They shared the following details:

- The Razorfish team started by duplicating the existing desktop campaigns and switching the settings to target mobile devices with full internet browsers.

- Since their client had a well-known brand name, they focused on branded keyword terms with enough traffic to help them learn quickly about what was working best for their campaigns.

- To measure performance, they tracked several conversion metrics including whether a mobile user looked up the brick and mortar store location or downloaded a coupon from the website. Right away, they saw a 7.5% lower cost per conversion on mobile devices, encouraging them to test ways to optimize their mobile campaigns.

- Razorfish tested whether variations in the campaign’s landing page would affect conversion rates. The team hypothesized that mobile users might be looking to take a specific action, and by starting the user’s experience closer to that action, the client would see better results. As it turned out, for this client, they saw much higher conversion rates when the user was directed to a landing page that showed nearby store locations.

- Finally, they tested variations in the ad text. Four versions of ad text were tested, including the original copy used in desktop campaigns. Each of the three new versions provided over 9.3% lift in conversion rate over the strongest performing copy in their desktop campaigns.

When it comes to Yahoo and Microsoft search advertising, things are about to get more appealing here in general, and presumably, that includes mobile. Microsoft and Yahoo advertisers will have the audiences of both search engines to view ads once Yahoo and Bing get their integration done.

Wrapping Up

One of the most important things any search marketer can do with regards to a mobile strategy, is to simply keep up with the latest mobile trends and innovations. This space is rapidly evolving, and new apps are released frequently. Pay attention to hot apps, and how your target audience is engaging with them. What devices, operating systems, and browsers are hot? Monitor studies and surveys that delve into demographics. Try to stay ahead of the curve.

Do you have a mobile search strategy? What suggestions do you have for improving in this area? Comment.

Motorola has announced a "global" alliance with Microsoft, which will see Bing used as the default search engine on Motorola Android-based devices. The move begins in China, where obviously there is some turmoil between Google and that country, but again, this is being called a "global" alliance that is "launching" in China.

Motorola says that users will get a pre-loaded Bing bookmark on their mobile browser, and an enhanced search widget with Bing integration, though users will be able to customize their devices and select their own search provider.

"We believe that consumer choice is one of the most critical components to ensuring a rich and seamless client experience," said Christy Wyatt, corporate vice president of software and services, Motorola Mobile Devices. "Motorola and Microsoft have enjoyed a longstanding collaboration and the addition of Bing services to our Android-based smartphones in China is another important step in empowering our end-users."

"Mobile devices continue to be a critical place for customers to access location-based services such as local search and mapping," said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Services Division at Microsoft. "We are pleased to expand our long-standing relationship with Motorola to bring powerful Bing location-based services to Motorola’s innovative new mobile devices, providing consumers with more choice and flexibility in mobile search."

This is the second time in about a week Motorola has made news by offering non-Google search options on its Android-based devices. The recently launched Motorola Backflip comes with Yahoo.

Bing search and maps will be available on Motorola Android-based devices in Q1 2010 in China. No other expansion of this has been announced, but the phrase "global alliance" certainly leaves room for speculation.

With the 2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament starting next week (March 16), it’s no surprise the majority (83%) of fans will watch coverage on television, while 44 percent will go online and 10 percent will use a mobile device, according to a new survey by Unicast.

Among those planning to follow the tournament online or on a mobile device, a majority will visit ESPN.com (69%). Other branded popular sports sites fans plan to visit include Yahoo Sports (42%), Fox (24%), CBS (29%), and AOL (17%).

More than a quarter of fans following the tournament (26%) will visit NCAA.com, while 17 percent will type in the URL for their favorite team.

Fans will also gather information on the tournament via search engines (22%), social networks (18%), or newspaper/magazine sites (20%).

"On the heels of the extensive online coverage of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament offers online publishers another premium sporting event that will generate high traffic from consumers looking to follow the tournament outside their living rooms," said Bryan Hjelm, VP of Marketing for Unicast.

"Digital innovations like iPhone apps, online bracket tools and streaming video are bringing basketball fever to a growing online audience of fans.

"Sites like ESPN.com and Yahoo! Sports will dominate traffic due to their inherent sports fan user base, which make them prime real estate this month for marketers targeting the typical visitor – men aged 18 to 35."

The most popular online activities for those following March Madness include:

        *58%    Monitor scores
        *54%    Watch games live
        *53%    Check the status of brackets
        *49%    Watch game highlights
        *42%    Fill out brackets/participate in a pool

Yahoo’s line of thinking with regards to the big Microsoft/Yahoo search and advertising deal is that it will benefit both Microsoft and Yahoo’s advertisers, as well as consumers and publishers.

It will benefit advertisers because it will increase search volume, with results from both Bing and Yahoo being taken into consideration. It will benefit consumers because by combining advertisers from both properties, there will be a greater pool to deliver sponsored results from, which Yahoo says will mean increased relevance. It will benefit Yahoo, Bing, and their publisher partners with increased liquidity, participation, and relevance. That is basically the sum of it, according to Yahoo Vice President of Search Advertising David Pann.

WebProNews recently sat down with Pann and discussed these things and how the deal will affect advertisers.

According to Pann, the migration across all international markets will occur over the next 24 months or so, but they will not rush it at the expense of quality, they say. "Our focus is really about developing a plan that is smooth, seamless, and with quality. So we anticipate doing the U.S. migration sometime before the holiday season in 2010," says Pann.

In the above interview, Pann goes on to talk about how things will be split between Yahoo and Microsoft. He also addresses some privacy concerns, related to data sharing between the two companies.

WebProNews also interviewed Yahoo Sr. VP of Search Products Shashi Seth and Director of Search Marketing David Roth, both of whom talked about the deal in more detail. You can catch both of those interviews, as well as a recent keynote from SMX West where the deal was also discussed, here.

Although this turned out to be a pretty "meh" day for the stock market as a whole – the Dow and S&P 500 slipped a little bit, while the Nasdaq didn’t gain much – Yahoo investors should be feeling pleased.  Yahoo’s stock rose by a significant amount as an analyst rated it "market outperform," up from "market perform."

Sameet Sinha of JMP Securities is the man who’s responsible for making that change, and he attributed the move to Yahoo’s relationship with Microsoft.  Sinha indicated that other experts will come to think better of the company, too, as additional financial models incorporate the deal.

Then here’s another, more concrete, detail: Sinha set a price target of $21.  Since Yahoo’s stock hasn’t been that high since July of 2008, that would be a significant level.

As for the current price of Yahoo’s stock, it’s been very much on the move.  It rose 2.86 percent during the trading day, taking it from $16.06 to $16.52.

Again, then, this was a good day for Yahoo’s shareholders.  Google’s shareholders lost a small amount of money, meanwhile (its stock decreased 0.31 percent), and Microsoft’s shareholders made an even smaller amount (its stock rose 0.15 percent).

Yahoo’s approach to the mobile market is about to change in a very noticeable way.  Indeed, Yahoo’s mobile division will more or less cease to exist as a separate entity, with mobile becoming something of a company-wide concern.

One important note: no layoffs have been announced.  "We are infusing mobile throughout the organization, rather than having a specific team for mobile," Cory Pforzheimer, Yahoo’s senior manager of corporate communications, explained to Tricia Duryee.  "Mobile is top of mind for everyone, and it’s part of regional teams, business teams, product teams."

Obviously, this is a significant change, and it’s one of several that have occurred in recent weeks.  Yahoo’s introduced a dedicated mobile blog, released a new Social Pulse feature, and seen a mobile exec depart all in the last month or so.

It’s possible the dissolution of Yahoo’s mobile division isn’t the last step in this process, either.  Pforzheimer told Duryee, "The importance of mobile in Yahoo has increased and we are re-aligning the organization to do just that."

Meanwhile, a completely unrelated thing that’s also gotten the mobile world all excited is the first iPad commercial, which aired during the Oscars.

UPDATE: Pforzheimer provided an extra bit of information in an email to WebPronews, adding, "Yahoo! seeks to be the center of people’s online lives. We have more tightly integrated our mobile business into the company’s DNA as we create the best possible user experiences for our consumers and partners regardless of device or access point. As the adoption of Yahoo!’s mobile services continues to grow globally, mobile continues to be a key priority for the company."

As you know, Microsoft and Yahoo were recently granted regulatory approval on their search and advertising deal, and we’ve discussed what this might mean for search engine optimization. WebProNews stopped by the Yahoo Headquarters in Sunnyvale before heading to SMX West in Santa Clara this week, and talked with Shashi Seth, Sr. VP of Yahoo Search Products about the deal, how it will be integrated, and timing, among other things.

Seth says that the integration of Bing results into Yahoo Search will take somewhere in the range of 18 to 24 months for it to happen worldwide, and they’ll start with the U.S. first. He says the core thing users will find is a compelling set of experiences that go on top of just the algorithmic and paid results that come from Microsoft. In other words, Yahoo users will still find the Yahoo experience.

Shashi says he feels like Yahoo can surface a lot of things better on its own, simply because of the content its properties provides (local, sports, finance, etc.). That stuff won’t be going away, and it will be weaved into the experience.

One thing that Shashi stressed was that the integration of Bing frees up a lot of Yahoo’s own resources, so they can improve on other aspects of the user experience. Comments from Yahoo’s Director of Search Marketing David Roth at the State of the Search Union keynote suggested that some amount of those resources will be moved over to work with Microsoft as well, with others staying at Yahoo:

WebProNews actually spoke with Roth himself after the event as well. He thinks he has something of a unique viewpoint about the integration, as he comes from search marketing himself. He will also likely be one of the first to be able to use the integration, given his position within the company. You can hear more of what he has to say in this interview:

Reactions from marketers are still mixed about how this integration is going to play out. This point was made clear in the keynote. Misty Locke of iProspect said a lot of her clients are excited about it, while former Googler Vanessa Fox is reserving judgment, hoping Yahoo doesn’t lose "all the Yahooness." From the way Yahoo has described the coming integration, particularly Shahi Seth, it doesn’t sound like it will be losing much Yahooness at all, but the extent of integration of things like Yahoo’s BOSS and SearchMonkey features is still largely unknown.

Believe it or not, Yahoo has a market cap of about $22 billion, and the company intends to put some of that money to good use in the near future.  Carol Bartz stated at the Transformation 2010 conference that she intends to acquire more stuff this year.

In response to what could have been a "yes" or "no" question concerning acquisitions in 2010, Bartz answered "absolutely," pretty much guaranteeing that at least one purchase will take place.  Bartz then explained to Abbey Klaassen, "This year it’s about what technologies: Do we need to fill in the blanks, what analytics, what tools?"

Bartz also said, "Well just imagine whether it’s acquiring an audience – a group of female bloggers, or whether it’s acquiring some better analytics tools that help us guide campaigns with our partners, or whether it’s technology.  Last year we bought at company called Zoobut, which is better photo technology, so it let us do very modern photos in our mail.  It’s that sort of thing – audience, technology and tools."

The next few months should be interesting time for Yahoo, given that Microsoft will soon begin to exert a huge influence over the search side of its operations.  Whatever purchases Bartz is considering could provide a good clue about what area(s) Yahoo will focus on moving forward.

One last note: For the record, Yahoo’s stock is moving up in early morning trading, perhaps giving the company a bigger shopping budget.

Yahoo Mail users should find it considerably more convenient to get in touch with their friends and acquaintances from now on.  Today, Yahoo and Facebook made it possible for those users to add their Facebook friends’ email addresses to their Yahoo Contacts lists.

The benefits should be obvious.  A post on the Yahoo Mail Blog pointed out, "So when you are on Yahoo! Sports and you want to email your old high school buddy that great article on the Winter Olympics, his email address is just a click away.  Or maybe you want to forward your cousin your airplane reservations on Yahoo! Mail . . . . [n]ow you can type the first few letters of his name in Yahoo! Mail and – presto! – his email address from his Facebook profile will appear in your email."

The import process is extremely simple, too.  Users just need to head to the "Import Contacts" page, click on Facebook’s logo, enter their Facebook login info, and wait a few moments for all of the data to transfer.

Whether this development will be enough to make Gmail or Hotmail users give Yahoo Mail a chance is hard to say, but this at least represents a significant step forward in terms of user-friendliness for existing Yahoo Mail fans.

More tie-ups between Yahoo and Facebook are on the way, too, according to Andrew Molyneux, a program manager over Yahoo Mail.

Watch the Keynote live at live.webpronews.com.

At SMX West in Santa Clara, the State of the Search Union keynote is taking place today. It’s moderated by Chris Sherman, Executive Editor of Search Engine Land, and features SEL Contributing Editor Vanessa Fox, Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Yahoo Director of Search Marketing David Roth, and Misty Locke, President, Range Online Media and Chief Strategy Officer of iProspect. The official description for this keynote says:

We’ve just come through the most turbulent period in history for search marketers. Economic disruption, massive algorithm updates, the disappearance of a major player through consolidation with one of its former competitors… these events and others have reshaped the search landscape, creating both challenges and opportunities for search marketers. On this panel we’ve assembled some of the sharpest minds in search to discuss where things stand and where we’re going – you won’t want to miss the insights and recommendations from this group of super-savvy panelists.

I will liveblog the event below, when it starts 9:00am Pacific/12:00pm Eastern (please forgive typos):

Liveblogging starts:

12:00 EST: should be starting anytime now…

12:03 People are taking the stage…getting set up with audio…

12:04 Sherman: An interesting year in search. Often not a whole lot has happened, usually just Google, Google, Google. IN the past year, we’ve seen more radical change than in the past 15 years or so. no sign of change letting up…

12:05: A few questions: key question: when we were here last year, we were in the early stages of an economic meltdown…everybody uncertain….what’s going to happen…search itself was still relatively young/ what was going to happen to industry? so now, how are we doing? 

Sound problems…dave says as a search marketer, it gave oppotunities to show stuff and shift strategies. support business goals/shipping landscape. maybe used to optimize for ROI now different metric…shift back to SEO. not just paid side.

Misty: ecommerce still did well in some areas. some clients due to search, record breaking months at times. even in downturn. some marketers utilizing different techniques, driving revenue, and reoccurring customer loyalty. combined search with other marketing channels…flexible companies saw growth.

12:09: Vanessa: Super bowl – with pepsi, they decided to spend their money on social. interesing that some companies think online is a better way to go… one thing from super bowl ads…so many large brands seem to only just now understand that search is important. across the board, it was better than last year as far as big brands in search during super bowl. a lot of work left though.

12:10 Avinash:  emboss your brand on somebody’s brain (branding)..search can do this. at the end of the day. when people want to run a branding campaign…..what do you want out of it? one night stand? long term relationshiP? depending on what you want? search is a massively effective way to get to the right kind of people..

12:13: Microsoft/yahoo deal: Dave: since we got regulatory approval, the integration is on. huge project. lot of resources from both companies. proof will be in the pudding. advertisers start to migrate…i’m yahoo the advertiser. we’re going to continue to innovate around the customer experinece around search. products tah live outside of the index….

12:14 Sherman: anomisity? integration with cultures? Dave: just beginning. large amoutn of resources at yahoo to be moved over and work with MS. will be a portion of yahoo that stays at yahoo. a lot remains to be seen. clearance still to new…people hard at work. everybody on the project understands that this is critical. it absoultely MUST work.

12:15: Misty: clients excited about deal. allows viable number 2. may not drastically change how they upload campaigns, but it does allow to shift focus stategy for bing….60/40 time split between google and bing…excited about volume…reach….

12:16: some changes in showing results will open up some new ways to utilize Bing to advertise. new customers…cashback is a big driver. marketers in geneal have been slow to adopt….

12:17: Sherman: 2 major players: shrinking? couple of giants? no 2 strong players. market growing. Avinash: competition is a good thing. gets everybody to innovate. important to realize…prudent to have portfolio strategy with acquistions. think about content network, youtube ,search, doubleclick. poeple get far too obsessed between microsoft, yahoo, and google. you should have already had a very effective strategy across all search engines.

12:18: Avinash says a blog post of his got way more traffic from bing for the word analytics than google.

12:19: You will find new customers and use dollars more effectively with the portfolio strategy.

12:19 Vanessa: waiting to see how things shake out with integration. searchmonkey? boss? waiting to see how it works out…yahoo did try to make a play for innovation. don’t know how much they’ll be motiviated.. it will be great if they do. reserving judgment.

12:20 Vanessa: hopefully we won’t lose all the yahooness.

12:21: Caffeine: rolled out after holidays? no. still just one data center. sherman talking to vanessa: what impact is caffeine going to have on SEO? is Google going to continue in spirit it always has to provide tools/insight…Vanessa: changes – social, real-time,local, etc. things will ramp up more and more. caffeine specifically. i don’t know it’s going to impact seo that much. just back-end. on their side, a better way to crawl the web. their hope is just to do it better. that’s a benefit for site owners. it’s not a rankings impact, except in more of an indirect way. i don’t think from an SEO perspective, there’s much you need to do. I hoep they  keep reaching out. when i was there i loved being able to go out and see what people needed. don’t see a reason why they would stop doing that. they have kept doing it. 

Avinash: if every googler woke up and for the entire day, they would answer questions for webmaster, it wouldn’t answre all questions. how can we help people at scale? webmaster tools. a number of tools thag google puts out. just a few more releases for wm tools over the last six months. you’ll continue to see google keep puting out tools that allow this kind of self help at scale. help you make better decisions with search data. orgasmic about amount of data google has put out there in terms of your ability to make better decisions. love access you have to google’s organic search data….insights for search, ad planer….etc.
 
12:26 with google ad planner you can look at certain demographics and sell to them, but who have done a particular search….target with very relevant display ads using search data. we’ll continue to put tools like this in your hands.

12:27 Sherman: back to dave on microsoft/yahoo: Dave: yahoo’s staying committed in search. in sales side, very experienced in search and display. maintain high touch with big customers. small businesses and self service customers more directly managed on microsoft side.

The goal is to work on the acenter platform and make it the platform of choice on microsoft as well as yahoo.

12:29 Sherman: Yahoo search in dna? Dave: rich data from search, now idea is what can we do with the data we have and the assets to create a better ad for the consumer…behavioral, targeting, etc. teams of people focused on new ad products…

12:30: Sherman: social media – replacing search as the way people interact on the web? i don’t see it, but Facebook has huge stats. what’s happenign with that and what can search marketers do? Vanessa: reporter last week said search is so old news, so why still do search? she said people are still searching and they’re searching more and more. and thy’re going to keep doing so. doesn’t mean don’t think about social media, but it’s about audience. it’s not an either/or thing. misty agrees.

12:32 MIsty: with social you can do traditional things outside of search. boundaries are dissolving between different marketing strategies…

12:33: Misty: social/real-time can drive search volume. marketers will find new ways…it’s a new beginning for search.

12:34: Dave: big companies look for search marketers for expertise in this. Avinash: media loves all stories, facebook/google/twitter/…world’s is all about one thing or the other ….video killed the radio star…it’s not like that here.  once said twitter was the dumbest thing on earth….now he uses it and thinks its the coolest thing since sliced bread.  important to realize that as you think about different elements, you use them for what they’re good at. the worst strategy is the tv strategy…to shout at peopl…thats why most big brands have pathetic number of followers…they’re not having conversations like danny sullivan.

12:36: Sherman: Managing info overload? how to make advertising legitimate business? will search be absorbed? siloing? Avinash: what we do today is try to influence people….there are many ways now to do that…one emerging way is to have these conversatiosn (is it going to survive)….single greatest reason for google’s success is relevance……….advertisers (madmen style)…that way is dead.

12:37: Avinash: when i work with some of the largest companies….the small ones will use search to get people to raise money, brand awareness…very broad range…Dave: Siloing? exactly the opposite. social media is finally…we used to talk about the promise of engaging with a consumer. social media is the first channels that’s accomplished this. it’s forcing the breaking down of the silos. who should own social media in your organziaton? Who owns the paper in you organization? It’s breaking down the silos.

Misty: everybody wants to own a piece of that because it can be so influential. PR, marketing, brands, search all involved. all can communicate more effectively. in the end we’ll win, because w’re tapping into what the consumer is truly looking for. customers can tell stories for us…make the pieces of our brand that they love more accessible to them…

12:41 Vanessa: we have to go the opposite way of silos. If you think about the data side, if all the areas of marketing can share data, there’s going to be so much more engagment…

12:42: Sherman, people are engaging and being social…but we’re still in the young, naive days in terms of black hat use…unethical marketers using data? What’s gonna happen if gov. steps in and says privacy is an issues…we don’t understand the issues, but will legislate it anyway:

12:43: Misty: thanks the gov. for paying attention to privacy (over healthcare,etc.). Avinash: talks about spam comments in egyptian tombs….spam has been a problem for a very long time and will continue to be…just try to use intelligent ways to surpress it as much as possible and provide incentives to do the right thing.

12:44: Misty: yes there will always be spam….marketers are always going to find a way to use/exploit media…years ago it was different people screaming "you’re a black hat"…now it’s the users who are policing the good/bad. consumers can sniff out the authenticity. the hard part is being so authentic that you don’t get called out by the consumer…

12:46: Dave: regulaton – a fair degree of risk…double edged sword. potential to do unehtical and criminal things. ….mentions recent product from Google that raised privacy concerns (doesn’t blame google necessarily)…not enough understanding in regulation to deal with it….some degree may be needed, but capitol hill’s understanding of the internet is frightening…..education is required…. fears that legislators aren’t up to speed.

12:48: Sherman:  shift from US perspecitve to global. what is the opportunity for search marketers to go global, and how do you deal with restictions in other countries like China…..Vanessa: you’ve always had to understand your audience whree they are. it’s not just about geography/translating…understanding the culture. government stuff is a whole other set of issues…starts with understanding the market before you go into it.

12:49: Avinash: there tend to be very sophisticated marketers in other countries. those that are doing web are sophisticated….just not enough of them. many countries extrememly young. opportunities in these countries…like vanessa’s point…you have to truly engage and understand the market. Misty: some other countries are doing more cool and unique things in social….

12:52:  Dave: a lot to be learned from other countries. some are leapfrogging…some not even using email, but going straight to Facebook, etc.

12:52: Mobile is here, but maybe it’s not what we thought it was gonna be….we’re about to see things change very drastically…iphone was a game changer…heading very quickly in a direction we didn’t anticipate a few years ago…

12:53 sherman: changes for search marketers? Avinash: story about being with his kids wanting to see something and using his nexus one….used google search and transcribed what he said through voice search, used location, gave him driving directions fast….i wonder as SEOs/marketers, if we’ve thought of this as the use case. sites optimized so they can do these things….for their business….not just on google….i really think…i have to rethink my search strategy…not even a fragment of marketers in search business are thinking about that as search. encourages marketers to think of mobile like that…not just a WAP version of a web page.

Misty: are all your local listings up to date, ready for navigation, prodcuts easy to access? then think of advertising things…usability of site in mobile…

12:56: Vanessa: Avinash is right. ubiquity in mobile opens door for a lot of new opportunities. it’s not that new ways of searching will replace google, but it’s just presenting different ways. people don’t think about using some things as searching, but it is….urbanspoon, etc.  Look at where the new opportunities are.

12:57 Sherman and audience thanks panel. It’s over.