74 per cent of mobile portal content is invisible Over one click too far
By Tony Dennis
Sunday 04 February 2007, 17:48
BY APPLYING AI techniques to in-depth research of mobile portals, Irish specialist Changing Worlds has discovered that 76 per cent of content held is invisible to users.
That's because only 26 per cent of content can be reached with 30 seconds of visiting the portal's Home page, Changing Worlds says.
The company argues that a longer wait than 30 seconds crosses the typical user's boredom threshold.The research is even more frightening when translated into what Changing Worlds calls 'click distance'. It's simple – click distance is the total number of clicks required to reach a particular item.
What's your threshold? An ordinary person would probably stop searching after say three or four clicks. A bit more of a mobile phone aficionado could probably last five or six clicks.
When Changing Worlds surveyed 20 leading mobile portals, guess how many clicks it took on average to reach a piece of content? 16. Yes, Changing Worlds says the 'mean click distance' is 16 clicks.
Obviously Changing Worlds has an answer which is technology it calls ClixSmart. In essence, it uses AI techniques to dynamically alter the location of content so that what interests a particular mobile surfer is less clicks away.
ClixSmart isn't new. Vodafone has been using it on its portals for years. What's changing is the whole mobile online scene.
Take advertising for example. What screen do young people look at most? The PC's? The TV's? Or the handset's? Well the handset is looking increasingly like a front runner.
So how do advertisers reach the right audience on their mobiles? If mobile phone users start to tailor their whole online surfing experience, it will be easy to identify their interests.
Plus mobile has one huge advantage over the PC. Location. If thousands of people are connecting to a bunch of cell sites in the wilds of Somerset, then you know they're into music.
This whole thing can get a bit Big Brotherish so ClixSmart offers users the chance to opt in and opt out.
The frightening thing is Changing Worlds' next target. Mobile search. A search engine which knows which Jaguar you mean according to whether you an Apple Mac person, a sports car fan or an animal lover.
Now that would be useful.
