Infoserve Group

With predictions that almost 30% of the global mobile users will be using local mobile search services by 2013, Windsor Holden, principle analyst with Juniper, has summed it up perfectly:

The beauty of the mobile is that people have the handset with them all the time. From a local search perspective, that is almost a gold-mine.

Gone are the days when you have to be stuck at desk at home or work to be looking for local services and businesses on the internet, so it comes as no surprise that more and more people are relying on their mobiles to find local information.

So what are the next steps?

It will be interesting to see how many businesses target their advertising and optimise their websites for mobiles. If it’s true that response rates to advertising supporting mobile local search will be significantly higher than on general mobile web search, such forward thinking businesses will find they could gain a considerable head start on their competitors.

Yet the report is tinged with caution.

Despite predictions that local search is expected to account for 43% of mobile search advertising revenues between 2008 and 2013, the report refers to advertising overload and that;

In the end it will be the quality of the user experience that will be of paramount importance.

This could be the biggest stumbling block of any progress. Mobile handsets are not ideal devices for local search and attempts to format web for mobile phones are not yet up to scratch. Connections are poor, downloads are slow and with the information rarely presented in a mobile friendly format, “user experience” could hit an all time low. Hardly a glowing reference is it?

Don’t get me wrong, local mobile search is undoubtedly one to keep an eye out for in the future and with the strength of the content of locally based directories being tipped as the key to success, we’re well prepared for the challenge already. I just wonder how long users’ patience will last until technology catches up with the latest demands.