GoMo Mobile Search News

GoMo News update

Rating: edgy wireless news, yeah baby!

GoMo News is a daily, edgy wireless news service, run by founder Bena Roberts and Annie Turner, who describe themselves as analysts and agitators. Annie Turner has been writing about mobile for longer than she has any intention of owning up to, but thinks this is the most exciting time ever for the industry. In particular, mobile search, advertising, marketing, social networking, recommendation and communities will be key links in the evolving ecosystem. However, it is clear that Darwin isn’t always right as some dinosaurs and ossified thinkers are still alive and thriving. If GoMo News doesn’t kill them off, it won’t be for a lack of trying – ably assisted by Tony Alton, Tony Dennis, Rob Knight and various guest bloggers.

GoMo News CTIA Blender

Rating: Edgy, man, Edgy!

Well.......we've not even been going 12 months yet, but so much has happened. Our quest to bring the best edgy mobile news has certainly been eventful and fun By way of a thankyou and to meet some new and old faces we thought we'd have a drinks 'blender' at CTIA - a chance to meet and mingle with some of the key players in the mobile community, put them all together and see what happens...

CTIA Blender
GoMo News

DATE: Wednesday October 24th
TIME: 4.pm to 6.30pm
LOCATION: Jillian's of San Francisco
Jillian's is conveniently located just steps away from the Moscone Center. Featuring California fresh cuisine, Jillian's is sure to please any appetite.
http://www.moscone.com/site/do/ads/advertiser/view?id=50

WHY?: A perfect chance to mix with other Edgy GoMo readers, discuss all things mobile, enjoy some food and drink

and
Once a big thankyou to MUSTARD PR who are helping with this event and also co-sponsoring it with us.

If you want to join - sign up on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5610013459

or email me or andrew@mustardpr.com

Big Mac, fries to go and Wifi

Rating: free is good

Fast food company McDonald's has announced that it will offer free Wi-Fi in its 1,200 UK outlets by the end of the year. This will make it the numero uno hotspot provider in the UK and the only one offering WiFi for free. T-Mobile has a similar relationship with Starbucks but pay as you go rates are from GBP 5 for one hour.

GoMo News Newsletter Update

Rating: We are back!

This week the new sleeker GoMo News Newsletter will go live once more.

We have new sponsors and a cleaner platform and design. (HUGE evangelistic post on new sponsors to follow on the new launch date) - so if you want to sponsor our newsletter - phone me now!!!

Thanks for your patience and from now on the newsletter will go live 2x per week. We are flexible on the dates – Monday – Thursday or Tuesday – Thursday. If anyone has any preferences let me know but this week it’s probably out on Wednesday.

GoMo News Newsletter

Rating: I’ll be back

The GoMo News Newsletter is back in Alpha. Subscribers will be without it for the next few weeks; because due to recent events we are completely re-structuring.

But please sign up for our RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GomoNews

Sorry about this but it is for the best and for your benefit.
Also we have just announced our CTIA Blender at GoMo News – sign-up on our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4745051437

Running the Gauntlet final words

Rating: yes, I have read about Yahoo! Coveo and Double Click – blogs on this and everything else will follow tomorrow….I am off to have (much deserved) cocktails with my mate Louise in Café Café in Harrow on the Hill…

But … just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has helped me the past few weeks with GoMo News seeking investment… especially Annie Turner my lovely guru partner, Tony, Rob (please get better we miss you blogging on GoMo), clients that have pitched in with quotes on our greatness, Mustard PR for help with the business plan and that's it!

I promise – blogs, news, reviews and a sexier GoMo News are to come.
Bena

Running (for my life) sorry I mean the Gauntlet part 2

Rating: she flicked back her hair and gazed glowing into the eyes of five dragons….

There was a moist burst of saliva on her lip as ran her perfect front teeth across them. This was her moment. She knew it. She stopped, she signed and then she stopped again. The opening of her pitch had to be perfect. She wanted the dragons unquestionable attention - longing and desire. She was waiting, chin up, back straight and chest high ready for glorious cash to be thrown her way by eager, bushy, high energy investors longing to be part of GoMo News.

Ummm. Well not quite. My pitch took about five minutes and it went really really well. I was happy with it and I thought I was to the point and direct.

Running the Gauntlet – GoMo News seeking investment highlights part 1

Rating: I feel like Britney

I had a really tough day today – facing not one, not two but five investors. It was in a word awful.
But where there is bad – there is good and I got a lot of excellent information and advice for free. This almost made up for the torment of having to bare my soul and business and to them all.

So what happened?
I had an good night but woke up at 3am to get a flight to London to get to the meeting. I didn’t wear my chosen outfit for a number of reasons and I turned up at Running the Gauntlet two hours early.

Running the Gauntlet investment update

Rating: now I am starting to get nervous

Here are two YouTube videos the first features one of the investors that I am facing.

Google Custom Search for business

Rating: clean, simple… brace yourself

I might not be the biggest fan of Google in mobile; but everyone sit down. This might not happen again.
Google custom search (online) for business is the dogs *****.

I have tested it for a while but now am falling over myself as its greatest. I even feel like shouting “I am not worthy” but am holding myself back.

BKI Media is Running The Gauntlet and in the final 50!

Rating: Dragons Den

This has been a really exciting week for BKI Media’s GoMo News.
About two months ago I got an email from a client asking me for the company postcode. I gave it to him and thought I am probably going to receive a letter or something. But I didn’t. He immediately sent me a link to Running the Gauntlet and said, “Bena. Apply. You have a great chance and GoMo News is a volcano waiting to explode?”

At that time I had no idea what Running the Gauntlet was and no idea what he was talking about. About a week later, I finally found the time to take a look and…

Running the Gauntlet is an initiative from the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) its an investment competition and education programme.
About the programme and its leaders:

GoMo News Update

Rating: tagged, man

First of all we are delighted to welcome Millennial Media as a premium sponsor of GoMo News. Please check out the services by clicking on the banners.

Secondly, Tony Alton is our first male blogger on GoMo and he is doing a great edgy job – thanks Tony and welcome.

Our daily newsletter is finally coming out of BETA and we now boast 500 readers. You can sign-up in the panel menu above. All in all GoMo News is getting bigger and stronger and all in six months. We are very proud of ourselves!

Parent company BKI Media has also hit a milestone boasting several new subscribers in the mobile operator, entertainment and search markets. (We wanted 40 companies to subscriber by the end of the year - but we already made it!) Because of the increased competition in the advertising space we feel that the Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst title doesn’t reflect the thought leadership that it provides in the UGC, mobile IM, mobile coupon and gaming space – So in September we are going to re-launch it with a new brand name.

Lastly I have been tagged by Paul Ruppert on his new blog Mobile Point see: http://paulrruppert.typepad.com/blog/2007/07/8-random-things.html
I met Paul in the US at the Orange Partner Camp and I enjoyed spending time with him as he has a vibrant personality. He has tagged me to write 8 random things about myself. OH GOD. That actually sounds easier than it is and then I need to ping 8 additional bloggers? I am not sure that I even know 8 more bloggers….. Hmmm.

So in an edgy way: I’ve two kids; love dogs, eat lots of chocolate; used to own a company called Rate Your Night; have 80 mobile devices; speak several languages; have a house in Germany; keep losing mobile phones.

Tagged: Annie Turner; Tony Alton; David Dalka; Helen Keegan; dlethe; cromei; brough

Stupidvideos.com chooses Quattro Wireless to go mobile

Rating: mobile mADness

By Tony Alton

Stupidvideos.com has announced a deal with mobile platform provider Quattro Wireless to take their 25,000 clips of dogs on skateboards and chubby dancing kids mobile etc; Quattro will provide Stupidvideos.com, one of the biggest players in the humorous website market, with a mobile version of their site which will serve up ads to the lucky viewer.

From the press release:
Greg Morrow, president and co-founder of StupidVideos.com said, "Quattro Wireless brings together the unique combination of innovative software tools, a diverse base of advertising inventory, deep mobile expertise and the ability to extend StupidVideos' reach to the mobile masses."

What we think:
Before the official post-mortem of the press release I would like to say that any company that claims to have ‘an
industry-leading mobile workbench’ like Quattro does is OK by me.  I thought these mobile technology companies were full of pinstriped power punks chewing Cohibas; the fact that they employ good old-fashioned craftsmen is a pleasant surprise.

The news?  Well it’s good to see that stupidvideos.com are not just relying on their stupidvideos to make the money and are making sure they have a coherent mobile advertising strategy in place.   It’s one thing to port a truckload of content over to mobile, but it shows good business-sense to ensure the revenue stream has been taken care of by ensuring mobile advertising is involved from the start. It seems to me that choosing companies like Quattro is a good way of taking websites mobile, allowing busy online execs to skateboard in and demand an ad-supported mobile implementation, whilst leaving them enough time to bid for those Converse All Stars on EBay.

GoMo News Update

Rating: GoMo GoMo Gooooo Mooooo

Sorry that GoMo was down for the most of the weekend – but we were do very important upgrades.

1. Now when you look for GoMo or type in http://www.gomonews.com it should still be GoMo in the URL at top. This is important as some publications quoting us weren’t sure of the name because of the URL.
2. This change is probably going to kill our Alexa ranking –but – its something we have to do – but we are proud that we went from an Alexa ranking of 8 million to 307,000 in six months.
3. GoMo News is live and kicking and we are ready to employ a couple of more people so if you are in mobile and want a freelance blogging job and can write edgy articles – please contact me! (gomonews@yahoo.com) Subject: JOB
4. GoMo News is six months old…. We have 400 readers of our newsletter and which we launched 16 days ago and we are growing rapidly…

CNN website re-launched

Rating: news, man, rocking, hot news

As the edgiest bloggers around we admire companies that advertise with us (as we don’t offer disclaimers) and those that eagerly want us to test their new products and services as only honest reviews get posted.
CNN website has revamped and we beta tested the first mobile site and we were asked to beta test the website re-vamp too.

What we think?
Well its cleaner the white background looks fresh and it’s a lot less messy than the original.
Hot new features included being able to get the story via a number of different means on the same web page. Basically news stories can be seen in text, image, video on one page and users have the choice how to view or interact and recommendation is in place with a similar stories feature.

What we find funny is that online there is a Google search box and on mobile it’s a Yahoo! Search box – its not one search on mobile just search. Two search strategies online and mobile with the two market branded leaders. Personally a CNN branded search on both the website and mobile would have offered a stronger branded and usability experience. But we do think that this proves that the Google has a weaker mobile search solution on mobile than Yahoo!

Forget Shakespeare GoMo News lost phone saga ends happily thanks to Orange, SonyEricsson and Sagem

Rating: Is this a dagger I see before me?

by Lady Bena Macbeth Roberts

A few weeks ago I lost my mobile phone, then I lost another one and then another one after that. In 3 months I lost three phones and was out of GBP 900 in pocket. I am completely fuming with O2 for being so useless and handling my case with about as much tack as Ruby Wax.

Then I lost my 3 device and lucky 3 has a good PR agency and Anthony D’Alton managed to soften the blow with a free SIM replacement and is working on getting me a new mobile device (not the refurbished crap originally offered to me by 3).

Then Orange stepped in and Edelman's Georgina Hart and Parule Amin sorted a phone out for me to test all the Orange services on for the next month. I have just received it and am examining the Samsung i600 device and OMG it’s GREAT. I mean – I have had Nokia’s for years. I never thought I would like or even consider another mobile device especially a Samsung. But I feel as though I am going through a learning curve as it’s the best windows mobile device I have had. My HTC device is a brick in comparison and the keyboard looks all squashed and scary but it’s actually really intuitive. So the problems I have when typing in URLs on to a mobile device disappear. (Full test of the services and Orange World on the way).

SonyEricsson (Polly Fegen) have also helped with another mobile device fully loaded with every music search and discovery application offered by the company to enable me to test the services for The Mobile Search Analyst. Again this is only for one month – but it’s a fabulous opportunity for GoMo and BKI Media to improve the analysis with live testing on the right devices.

Just as I was counting my blessings and thinking I only needed to purchase two handset replacements not three – in comes Sagem. Mustard’s Andrew Durkin offered me the latest Sagem 3G device for free – no questions asked. Bonjour Sagem! Bonjour! Merci. Out of courtesy I will blog about the new device when I get it this week. It’s apparently a Vodafone branded one so I can complete my analysis of the new Vodafone Mobile Internet (really imaginative name by the way Vodafone, well done..).

So Nokia and Motorola – where were you in GoMo News moment of need? We still need one more device for our O2 SIM. All offers accepted.

But really, Andrew Durkin, Georgina Hart, Parule Amin, Polly Fegen and Anthony D’Alton … you rock!

GoMo News vMTV Competition...Medio…..and the winners are

Rating: Congratulations

So first of all thank-you for everyone that took part. This is our first every affiliate marketing event on GoMo and as more of a B2B blog – it proves that all business users are indeed also consumers!

The first winner is from Telefonica Moviles and is Laura Ortisi she wins a special edition bright pink exclusive ladies vMTV t-shirt.

The second winner is from the Microsoft/ Accenture Joint Venture Avanade and is Hendrik V and he has won an exclusive vMTV baseball cap.

Secondly, the white label mobile search pioneer Medio Systems is our current headline sponsors and Medio is also sponsoring a mobile advertising event in New York in June. Anyone interested in attending can use the promotion code in the banner to receive a USD 100 discount.

Related articles on Medio here:

http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/05/dinner_with_med.html
http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/05/the_mobile_adve.html
http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/05/medio_systems_t.html
http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/03/theres_a_long_w.html
http://pushingthebarrier.typepad.com/pushing_the_barrier/2007/03/medio_systems_d.html

GoMo News promotion update

Rating: vmtv.com freebie
OK – I have had 36 complaints that signing up and creating a Pimp My Ride car to send to me is too difficult and requires a monster download…

So the next few people to sign-up for the GoMo News Newsletter will win. Fill in your email from the menu section.

Winners annouced on Monday...

GoMo News and Newsletter Update

Rating: “annie brings the Go and Bena puts the Edge into GoMo” reader quote!

Our test newsletter is nearly ready to go and we have added a subscription box to the menu on the top right of GoMo News. If you want our edgy news in your inbox please sign-up. We currently have a few hundred GoMo News subscribers all primarily in the US market, one in Brisbane, three in India and 8 from the Far East. So please sign up for our edgy daily and we are trying to spruce it up with something special – but that is still in the pipeline.

We have also added MyBlogLog picture widget to the bottom of the page. So avid users of MyBlogLog and GoMo can boast their picture on our site…

Don’t forget our sponsored collaboration with vMTV – please create a Pimp my Ride car and sign-up for the site for the chance to win some exclusive MTV goodies.... also a blog dedicated to you on GoMo on Monday

Thank You
Bena

GoMo News runs vMTV free giveaway promotion

Rating: virtual MTV, awesome, man

So MTV is working with GoMo News to run a promotion to push its new virtual MTV (vmtv) service.

Because GoMo News’ Bena Roberts LOVES cars we are offering two unique vMTV goodies to the man or woman that designs a virtual ride.

Sign-up at vMTV.com and create your dream car and then let me know about it.
This promotion ends on Monday – when I will announce the winner – so sign-up for vMTV today and get pimping.

Just email gomonews@yahoo.com with your name, address and link: good luck!!!

Introducing GoMo News Edge and GoMo News is five months old

Rating: yowzer!

by Bena Roberts

One entrepreneur that I admire greatly said, “if you want to be taken seriously with GoMo News then start fighting with the big boys”.

We are going to do just that!

Our daily or weekly newsletter is under construction and the fact that 90% of people that have signed up for it are from the US – we realize that the newsletter must be a US centric phenomena. A button will soon appear on GoMo News allowing you to sign up instantly.

GoMo News Edge will be our interviews, questions, insight and juicy tit bit section. Free at first and if we can get it sponsored great otherwise a small yearly fee for access to an information database of thought leaders. The first one is below with mPortal.

GoMo News Mixer is coming in September. We are going to have an evening in September in London where we support the mobile search and advertising or community market with a social, yet informative application download driven event. Annie is a guru at things like this and if you want to sponsor us please let us know. We are sitting on lots of hot potatoes to make the event truly unique.

Drop me an email if you want to know more or sign-up for our newsletter … gomonews@yahoo.com.
Thanks again for reading GoMo News, your interest and support!

GoMo News Newsletter - Alpha

Rating: let’s give it a go

We have had several requests of late for a newsletter from GoMo News either daily, weekly or three times a week. We are trying to decide as a team if it’s necessary and we are going into Alpha mode.

If you would like to receive a newsletter and test it in the Alpha stage with us – Please sign up here:
http://www.bkimedia.com/contact.php

It’s the Receive Updates box on the right hand side under the comments box. Please just type in your email address.

GoMo News Edgy Wireless Headlines

GoMo News Goes From Strength to Strength, Offering a Unique Advertising Opportunity and Press Release Repository
MCN mobile search takes over in Thailand
Mobile phone marketing set to explode...Get ready for mobile phone adverts as Acuity and Acxiom combine to provide pop ups
Google Rumours.... again
LocatioNet ands DigitalGlobe imagery to amAze mobile navigation application
Motorola gets in on the music act
Bharatmatrimony goes mobile – sort of
Radio stations move towards ad-supported interactivity
New 3 Italy services with bells, whistles, flatrates and Novarra browser
Meffys Shortlist out
Social Networking on Mobile; no-thank-you; I’m over 30
Clear Channel text message radio station

GoMo News Goes From Strength to Strength, Offering a Unique Advertising Opportunity and Press Release Repository

Press Release Press Release

May 22nd 2007 London, UK– GoMo News, the fastest, edgiest mobile news site from BKI Media, today announced two new services for those wishing to connect with some of the mobile industry’s most influential and innovative professionals.

Just four months after launch, GoMo News is attracting over 300,000 unique monthly visitors and on average some 800,000 to 1.2 million visitors view GoMo’s digestible, powerful and insightful news every month. GoMo News was also nominated in the technology shortlist for the Ask.com / Metro Best of British Blog Awards 2007 – an amazing achievement for such a new site.

From today, organizations are offered a range of advertising packages to suit both startups and established players. BKI Media has employed established marketing agency STONK Media to handle enquiries.
Since its launch in January 2007, GoMo News has become essential daily reading for thousands of people in the mobile industry, as well as in media, advertising, marketing, venture capital and the investor community.
Additionally, again by reader demand, GoMo News has launched a ‘post a press release’ service, which, after being vetted for suitability, enables an organization to post its most up to date news. Because of the popularity of GoMo News and its highly optimized structure, a company posting press releases can be sure its announcements will attract significant interest.

Bena Roberts, founder of BKI Media said, “GoMo News has exceeded all of our wildest dreams in terms of feedback and shear numbers visiting the site. Responding to demand, the launch of our advertising packages gives our site a new dimension, but not a new focus - we remain committed to delivering the most insightful and agenda setting mobile news available.”

GoMo News is available across a number of platforms: from WAP, to mobizine, to on device portal and of course online.

- ENDS -

Notes to advertisers:
To request an advertising pack or to discuss your requirements, please contact adam@stonkmedia.com or call + 44 (0) 1628 502604.

About BKI Media
BKI Media stands for business knowledge and integrity. Its mission is to deliver challenging and thought provoking analysis of mobile search, social networking, advertising, marketing, recommendation and communities.

BKI Media works on the principle that deeper analysis provides better business intelligence. The mobile Internet is a complex, fast changing place that needs to be monitored constantly to bring insight and understanding to those striving to succeed there. BKI Media’s experts are proven initiative drivers, who are passionate about mobile technologies and offer outstanding, compelling thought leadership in the wireless space.

For press information please contact:
Andrew Durkin andrew@mustardpr.com

GoMo News Edgy Wireless Headlines

myCorner launches mobile video user generated social and networking service
Onyomo offers mobile search in india
ESPN PodCenter
SiRF and Openwave collaborate on AJAX Widgets
Medio Systems teams with End2End for a mobile search managed service
comScore says podcasts dominated by men

GoMo News Edgy Wireless Headlines

Nuance to buy VoiceSignal
AOL buys Third Screen Media, finally
Virgin Mobile Mobile Music Magazine
Obopay and AOL’s AIM
Swisscom invests in kyte.tv – becomes swisscom.kyte.tv
Ask Mobile GPS hype
Prada phone out in South Korea this week
HP OpenCall Mobile Video
Ya.com, DT and Vodafone
Nuance Voice Control on Rogers Wireless with Blackberry
Young Hispanics are ripe for mobile advertising

ADVERTISE HERE.

GoMo News gets quality interest and hits for your site and services. GoMo News boasts 300,000 page views a month. But its not about the number its about the quality. We are read by thought leaders and pioneers in mobile.

Vista is great!

Rating: Microsoft has the same problem with too many names as in the mobile space

by Bena Roberts

I am all Vista’d up and I have to say its easy, fast and simple. I am using Vista Business.
The one thing that I noticed is that there are about 6 different types of Vista – just as there are several brands for MSN, Hotmail, live, windows live search...

Branding and too many different brands must be a companywide problem at Microsoft.
But despite that Vista rocks.

NeoMedia enables 85 more models to work with qode

Rating: about time too

(by Louise Wells)

NeoMedia Technologies reckons that more than 130 mobile phone models from
manufacturers including Motorola, Nokia, Sony-Ericsson join Panasonic and
BenQ-Siemens can run its qode technology.

The qode suite of applications includes qode reader and qode window. Qode
reader works with camera phones, letting users Œclick¹ on two-dimensional
smart codes for a direct connection to desired information, discount
coupons, maps, contest entry forms, and so on. Qode window allows consumers
to enter a key word, phrase or unique product code for the same reasons.

Martin Copus, president of NeoMedia Mobile, says 85 more handset models have
been made qode-ready in the past two weeks, all Java MIDP 2.0­based. Mr adds
that qode now runs on some of the most popular Java and Symbian-based
handsets from leading service providers in the US and Europe.

Free downloads of NeoMedia¹s qode mobile software are available over-the-air
direct to the handset by entering http://get.qode.com in the device¹s
browser.

About time too ­ this should help Europe and the US consumers catch up their
Asian counterparts where the combination of smart codes and camera phones
have taken markets by storm.

For details of all the phones that can use qode see and then the url

http://www.neom.com/press_releases/2006/20061102.jsp

Bango seeks to remove uncertainty from mobile downloads

Rating: sensible rather than sexy

(by Louise Wells)

Bango has launched what it calls a safe subscription service, seeking to overcome users’ wariness concerning downloads. The new service will ensure that consumers see the terms and conditions, by going to bango.net, before confirmation of any payments so they understand what the service costs and the frequency of the payments.

Bango reasons that this integration with the payment flow in a mobile internet session overcomes the problems of a disparate SMS message based approach where the terms and conditions are separated from the payment experience.

Common experiences are for consumers to find they unwittingly sign up for regular payments or don’t receive the content they paid for because they mistyped a message or their handset could not use the service. Through Bango they can see the details and status of all their active subscriptions and with a single click cancel payments. Also, Bango will alert customers if an application won’t work on their handset.

The Bango subscription service, due to go live in Q4 2006, is part of Bango’s global mobile payment platform so users can pay for content on their phone bill, using PayPal or credit/debit card. Content providers can offer subscription options along with a single one-time charge, one-time payments for defined periods and free access.

The damage done to consumers’ confidence concerning payments and usability is sustained and serious, and is going to take some fixing. Ironically, the one-click-to-stop is probably it’s strongest selling point: the amount of pain that mobile users are prepared to put up with is astonishing, but whether their pain threshold will include adding an extra step into the download process remains to be seen. The real solution is for content providers and network operators to smarten up their acts, encouraged by some regulation with teeth. This is an honourable attempt to patch up a deep wound.

http://bango.com/news/pressreleases/130_safesubscriptions.aspx

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