Anyone in the search marketing industry will be well aware of the importance of mobile search, and while it is still widely regarded as an emerging search platform, it is undoubtedly becoming a force to be reckoned with. The past holiday season saw more consumers using their smartphones and tablets to search for purchases than ever before; and naturally, the world’s leading search engines are adjusting their algorithms to better accommodate the rise of mobile search.

In September last year, search giant Google announced that the mobile optimisation of a website would officially be a core factor used to determine ad quality scores. Unsurprisingly, the majority of searchers will not return to a website if they have even one bad experience when trying to access it from a mobile device and consequently, keyword ads with landing pages optimised for mobile search will now perform better in Google AdWords than those without.

Social media has taken the internet by storm with the social media platform Facebook having the third largest population in the world. With the advancements in mobile technology, more people are accessing social media sites via mobiles than via desktop computers. Companies offering search marketing services are realising the power behind social mobile and are gearing their budget spend more into mobile advertising rather than into traditional advertising.

Social media statistics from a recent study showed that mobile users spend 91% of their time socialising compared to desktop computer users who spend 70% of their online time socialising. People almost always have their mobile phones with them whereas they are not always near a computer. It is much easier to check or update social media websites on the go via a mobile, which is another reason why social mobile is becoming so popular.

Mobile marketing is on the rise as more people access the internet via their mobiles than via a PC. Nielsen Online has conducted a variety of surveys to provide us with greater insight into the rise of mobile marketing from the beginning to the end of 2010 and beyond. The following mobile marketing trends were discovered.

Mobile marketing statistics show that in 2008, around 7.3 million people accessed the internet via their mobile phones, while in 2010 this figure has increased by 25% to over 35 million. The studied showed Google to be the most popular site for those accessing the internet via a PC, while BBC News was the most visited site by those using mobile phones.

In September this year, search engine giant Google created a stir with the release of their newest search enhancement, Google Instant. This led to a great deal of speculation about the implications for search engine optimisation, Pay per Click and Google marketing. Now, a few months down the line, it’s clear that Google Instant has not spelled doom for SEO as some predicted, and while some searchers have been quick to adopt the convenient autocomplete technology of Google Instant, others are content with the previous Google search suggestions.

In the past week, Google Instant has taken the next step and gone mobile; iPhone and Android users in the US now have access to a beta version of Google Instant search functions. Google describes this latest innovation as “pushing the limits of mobile browsers and wireless networks”.

If any of you have seen an image online or in a magazine or newspaper that looks like something that is a mix between those optical illusion posters that you used to have stuck to your wall when you were little and an alternative version of Pacman then this rather strange image you are witnessing is no secret code but rather a QR code. The QR (Quick Response) code is making its mark (literally) as a way for brands to entice the public to access their information and ultimately visit their site.

Once again I am delighted at yet more free stuff from Google, with Google Buzz gracing our smartphones (albeit some fairly sever privacy issues, and corresponding lawsuits)! I have an Android phone, made by HTC, and have been absolutely loving it! I can safely say it is the best phone I have had and it is very much down to the freedom that the operating system offers. Google integration is naturally seamless – enter your account information once when setting up the phone and everything thereafter just works. Whether I am on my desktop computer or out and about, it all just comes together (I can hear the voices out there muttering “But what about privacy!” but actually I am not that perturbed – in my opinion it means I need to wade through less cr@p and get targeted stuff instead)!

Google has been all over the mobile market in the last few months. It has launched one assault after another trying to make its mark on the mobile market. Opera’s State of the Mobile Web report was recently released and reveals that mobile Internet search is growing rapidly in the UK. Facebook has just toppled Google as the most viewed site, with Google slipping to number 2 in the mobile space, but it is still the mobile search engine of choice in the UK, and most regions in the world.

So what have they done lately?

Google has partnered with HTC, the Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer to create a new social networking mobile phone known as the “Hero”. The phone is touted to be a real Apple iPhone beater, and according to industry insiders is a giant step up from previous iPhone rivals. This has been said before, but there is a feeling that technically, the HTC is superior, but aesthetically, it is quite an ugly piece of work when compared to the iPhone.

It seems Google is determined to leave no stone unturned in its quest for omnipresence. Google has apparently begun to advertise on apps downloaded from Apple stores. Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land captured this image in his related blog.

Here, we see that the “Urbanspoon” app has an advertisement for Pizza Hut that appears on top of the actual page.

If you click on the link, then you are immediately taken to the pizza hut page on your iPhone browser.
This follows the already extensive work that Google has put into using the iPhone as a marketing platform. For instance, Google will attempt to use sophisticated software to deliver search results using iPhone’s new voice search option.

Google’s Adsense ads have been available on the iPhone’s browser. The appeal of the iPhone as a marketing platform is that it fully supports HTML, which makes it an attractive target for digital marketers interested in mobile marketing.