ISEdb.COM

nternet visionary and Google evangelist Vint Cerf says cell phones
are going to drive future growth of the Internet. As part of a much
longer conversation with reporters in Bangalore India, Cerf suggested
that mobile devices, primarily cell phones, will push programmers to
design for handheld units. (source: CIO.com article, Feb21, 2007)

According to Cerf almost half the world’s population uses mobile
communication devices of some sort or another. With 2.5 billion users
globally and rapid growth in China and India, the mobile market is one
of the fastest growing sectors in tech. Logic follows it is likely to
become one of the hottest markets in search marketing.

Cerf said that one of the key benefits to the IP packet layer is
that a packet is a unit of information that can be separated from the
medium it is being displayed on. Unlike telephones connections and
television transmission, Internet packets can be carried across
multiple platforms and rapidly transferred in tiny byte-sized bits.

BusinessWeek.com reports on The Battle for Mobile Search
in its Feb 20, 2007 edition suggesting that Google and Yahoo might face
a run for the money when it comes to serving search on handheld
devices. There is a lot of money to run for. According to BusinessWeek,
by 2011 the mobile advertising market is expected to be worth $11.4
billion.

Though they lead in monthly mobile search subscribers, the major
search engines face competition from other players. Currently, search
function for cell firms such as T-Mobile, Verizon and Amp’d Mobile
Services is being provided by Seattle based Medio Systems Inc. and the
market is said to be wide open.

Website designers and search engine marketers should take note of
WAP design standards. They should also read up on and think strongly
about how the small screen and slower connectivity of Internet enabled
mobile devices will affect they way people use the Internet on their
handheld devices.

There is no question that the world of personal computing devices is
getting much smaller. Information is easily moved from point to point
either via the web or via a datastick. My five-month old laptop is
actually stronger than my much heavier but older desktop is and I can
easily move it around. What is really important is that the information
I require is portable. Even if I had to forsake my laptop, rely on
web-based storage and carry a massive datastick, a cybercafé in Come By
Chance, Newfoundland offers virtually the same services as those in
Berkley, California would.

If I can connect reliably and get information I need using a mobile
device, all’s the better. In 2007, a critical mass of North American
consumers is likely to come to a similar realization.

For the first half of the age of the Internet, (1994 – 2000ish),
users were literally tied to their desks by numerous cords, wires and
peripheral pieces of hardware like scanners and printers. The laptop
sort of freed us from our desks but until the installation of open
public WiFi, could not guarantee ubiquitous freedom from wires. Today,
forward looking cities are finding ways to provide public WiFi in
downtown and business areas. Many universities have WiFi available
on-campus and throughout student housing units.

No longer attached to the nearest dataport, we are now free to lug
our cumbersome laptops around with us and get Internet access almost
anywhere we want. Virtually any student or traveling business person
would agree that public WiFi is a great leap forward. At the same time
practically every one who uses them will also testify that their
laptops, no matter how small, get heavier and more burdensome by the
day.

While amazingly useful in transit, traveling with a laptop promotes
strained shoulders, bruised busted backs and the portliest of poor
posture. On a crowded commute and on airplanes they also present the
danger of getting elbowed in the ribs by a frantically working seatmate.

Mobile, handheld computing vs the laptop? It’s rather like carting a boom-box with headphones in place of an iPod. Learn WAP now.