Nielsen: Mobile Search War Not Over

Google appears to be winning not just the desktop search battle, but the mobile search battle as well, with over 60 percent of the mobile search market, MediaPost reports. But Nicholas Covey, director of insights at Nielsen Mobile, said it’s still too early to pronounce Google the winner.

“The battle for mobile search [is going] to be more complicated and less decisive than online search,” Covey said in the article. “Audiences for several categories of mobile search are simultaneously growing: mobile Web, SMS, carrier-portal and even 411 are each going to keep an important place in the mobile search ecosystem.”

Covey said that location-based search (GPS-enhanced or not) is the lifeblood of mobile. “More mobile data users search for local listings than search for content, Web sites, or scores and other information,” he said in the interview. “Consumers are simultaneously getting used to the idea of using their phone as an entertainment vehicle and an information vehicle, and I believe consumers will warm to the latter more quickly.

“Given access to that information anywhere, it should come as no surprise that when consumers pick up their phone to make a search, most often it’s for a local listing.” Check out the article for the complete interview.

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