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Are consumers and corporate users happy with the quality of mobile search available today? The answers is a big no. If you dont believe when your colleagues and friends complain, listen to what experts have to say. Unfortunately, there is little joy of use in the current mobile search user experience, says an analyst at Ovum.

The interesting thing is that search quality at the desktop Internet, which is growing much slower than mobile Internet, is far superior. Google or Yahoo search on the desktop is an exhilirating experience and a frustrating experience on the mobile phone. Try navigating through a long search chain on your mobile phone that has a little screen and not very comfortable keypad. Mobile search needs a completely different approach and therefore, a new solution.

Poor mobile search will have a far reaching impact. Telecom operators who now hope to make money from content and value added services will have to wait. Many of these operators have now offerings for business customers that will just not take off. Guys in content and VAS business will get stuck. Vendors selling mobile devices are likely to see a slow down. And enterprises might not be able to reach out to their mobile customers.

While traditional search companies, telecom equipment, handset vendors, and operators are at it, there is another approach that should be explored. Can CIOs and operators join hands and see what best can be worked out with whatever is available. For instance, can Airtel or BSNL offer a special package to all courier companies in Indialarge, medium or very smallwhere all courier packets can be tracked online and an SMS delivery report can be generated to the satisfaction of the customer. Today, this facility is available with just a few courier companies and that also does not work half the the time. I have often heard industry members complain that mobile applications are really not the priority for CIOs, and whatever applications and network capabilities are currently available, they are not really being used.

I am confident if just this can be taken up, the benefits will be immense, and will give a major thrust to a mobile application that is likely to touch thousands of lives every day. Let us try and push these small and apparently mundane services, and we could see the big landscape of mobile services getting galvanized. Pressure on higher value and advanced services like mobile search will automatically go up.

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