As I mentioned in a previous post, local search is about finding the things we need that are tangible and near by. Local search is more about the physical facts — and tends to be less exploratory than web search. In that sense, local search is more impatient and is less qualitative than web search.
For example, imagine yourself in the middle of a strange town and you have a need for something very specific. You use your mobile phone to search for stores that are nearby that have what you want. It’s that simple. You really don’t care about which web pages have the best SEO, the most inbound links, and the highest google page rank. You’re mobile, therefore you’re local, therefore you’re more inclined to search on your phone in the context of locality.
The Mobile Web and Local Search Are A Classic Combination
The mobile web is absolutely exploding which means that more and more consumers will be using their phones to search for and find products and services in a local context. This classic combination of “mobile” and “local” is precisely the reason why The Kelsey Group announced today a new advisory service called Mobile Local Media that will be led by @Mike Boland. Mike is a very smart guy and he deeply understands the strong correlation between local search and mobile use cases like the one above.
It will be interesting to see how his program evolves — but he’s already revealed some powerful findings:
- The percentage of mobile searches that have local intent will increase from 28% in 2008 to 35% in 2013
- Currently there are 54.5 million mobile Internet users in the US, representing 25% of all online users
- Approximately 15% of iPhone applications are local
If you’re at all hungry for this type of information, then I suggest you pull up a chair. Should be some good eating.
