Mobile search engines - problems, solutions and usability

These days people are starting to acclimatise to the idea of having the world in their pockets - the mobile web means people can look for the things they want online from virtually anywhere. But can they always find what they are looking for?

Mobile Search - the current limitations

A fundamental flaw of many websites is revealed when you start searching from your mobile. Many don't feature an internal site search - this is a search feature that allows users to search all the internal pages within a website.

Additionally, a key limitation for many users browsing the mobile web is the size and functionality of the keyboard on their device. Many new mobile phones do have a full, albeit small, keyboard, but others still require multiple button presses to achieve the desired character.

Imagine you want to search for a phrase such as 'edinburgh zoo address'. Typing this phrase into a search engine via a typical mobile phone keypad could require a massive 45 keystrokes.

Put in that context, it is extremely time consuming and laborious to enter this form of search term on your mobile. It is equivalent to typing in the following in a search engine:

"I really like chocolate. It makes me smile when I eat a big bar"

Not particularly finger-friendly, you'll agree.

[Ed - Got a bigger referring search term? Screengrab it and send it to us at hello@bigmouhtmedia. com with a reference to this article.]

How can engines make searching on the mobile web easier?

A fantastic innovation that has only really emerged with the developments of AJAX and XML combined is predictive search. Yahoo! and many other search engines currently use predictive search to present you with a list of potential search terms as you type. This can be great in preventing spelling mistakes and can save lots of time.

Major search engines such as Yahoo!, MSN, Ask and Google are no doubt already defining a way to decipher mobile search patterns, so that they will have the capability of providing users with predictive search terms when they query a specific engine via the mobile web.

See below for an example of Google's current predictive capabilities - it is services like this that are sure to be rethought for mobile devices and will breathe new life into the usability of search engines when the masses jump on the mobile web bandwagon.