December in the search world means two things: predictions for next year and a review of this year. If you haven’t seen Yahoo!’s review of the top ten mobile searches and you’re interested in how mobile users search, give it a look: http://ymobileblog.com/blog/2010/11/30/2010-year-in-review-%E2%80%93-top-mobile-searches-of-the-year/
Not an in-depth study of mobile search behavior, but another indicator that mobile users search a little differently from desktop users– both in the keywords they use to search and the frequency of the searches for each topic:
“While the search topics aren’t vastly different on mobile than PC (five out of 10 were the same, but in different order), we do know that what varies is the type of content consumers want. People use their phones to search for quick, bite-size information on the most popular news of the day: NFL scores and stats, Justin Bieber lyrics, American Idol winners and the latest news on Sandra’s and Rihanna’s personal lives. It’s about getting just enough information to keep us informed on the latest trends while we are out and about.”
I’ve said it before I’ll say it again: mobile user experiences require mobile keyword research and probably mobile information architecture. If you’re just transcoding your desktop site or applying mobile stylesheets, you may have something usable, but probably not something that’s optimized for mobile.