Mobile Innovation

One of the ideas that quite a few companies seem to be looking at is the ability to leave virtual notes, readable via your mobile, for other people to find when they arrive at a defined location.

In other words, you may want to leave a note for a friend (and only discoverable by them alone) that you’ve changed the venue for a meeting from under the clock in the station to a local bar - though you’d probably just send them an sms in real life or call them. Or another use case is attaching a message for all and sundry to discover, that reviews the restaurant you’ve “attached” it to.

I have to say, that I love this whole concept, where people can use their mobiles as a way of linking the real world with digital space. But I haven’t really come across a scenario where it makes a compelling application, let alone a business model. Perhaps a real world Wikipedia is the nearest my thinking has come to a possible scenario.

As far as localised messaging is concerned though, I thought this was interesting, as re-discovered by Pasta and Vinegar - I present to you, the Notificator.

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Posted by Mobile Innovation at 01:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Douglas Adams famously envisaged a fish that you stuck in your ear, which then miraculously allowed you to understand all languages simultaneously, including truly awful Vogon poetry. Cool Gorilla’s new mobile app doesn’t go quite so far, but it is a sign of things to come.

Talking Phrase Books are a downloadable application for mobiles and provide spoken French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese and Greek - and I’m sure a Vogon version is in the planning stage. Once you’ve downloaded, installed and opened the app, you simply click on the phrase you want to say and the phone says it out loud. In my case (Nokia E61) it uses the loudspeaker setting, so you don’t even have to try to repeat it yourself.

A deal with LastMinute.com means that it’s offered as a free download, so visit www.coolgorilla.com from your PC or Mac (for sideloading) or www.mobilephrasebooks.com directly from your mobile.

One day, I’m sure that the phone will be able to provide the full Babel Fish service, so give this a try and let your imagination do the rest.

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Posted by Mobile Innovation at 01:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Local.com, the Irvine, CA-based local search firm, has got a patent approval for a “method of responding to enhanced directory assistance inquiries using various protocols including voice-enabled and SMS systems. The patent also covers an associated referral advertising model, which is designed to monetize those local searches.” This follows another related patent the company announced last week, for location-based search.

The new patent seems to be in direct conflict with an existing patent, one from Jingle Networks, says ClickZ. This means litigation and consolidation in the industry.
Greg Sterling: There’s the looming Geomas local patent that has both online and mobile implications. There’s also a lesser-known local search patent that Microsoft owns through its acquisition of Vicinity Corp. in 2002.

More details in release.

Posted by Mobile Innovation at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Fast Search & Transfer, the Norway-based B2B search firm, has acquired US-based AgentArts for an undisclosed amount. AgentArts, based in San Francisco, has a personalization and recommendation engine which has been used on the mobile side, and has clients including Infospace Mobile and Telstra Big Pond. The company was started in Australia in 1999, but moved to U.S.

AgentArts' technology provides the ability to understand online and mobile user habits and to recommend content and promotions based on user patterns, as well as enabling social recommendation. The capabilities will be added to Fast’s search services.

More details in release here.

Posted by Mobile Innovation at 01:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)