Apple Apps Store Offers 150+ Search Tools
With Peggy Salz
From Music Search To Local Search On Steroids: Apple Apps Store Offers 150+ Search Tools; Does It Play In Favor of Yahoo BOSS?
Apple’s new App store that launched today on iTunes is the hot topic.
A browse through the 554 reveals a whopping 154 mobile search tools and counting! They range from AskPeter.Info Mobile Search (an Answers-like service from Germany’s P & T Software Development) to zabihah (a search tool from Halalfire Media LLC that allows users to find and map restaurants in their area that conform to Halal Muslim dietary code standards).
Tools are on offer that can help you find a lawyer in the U.S., pick a perfect property in the Czech Republic and even browse for books and ebooks in University Library Graz, Austria. And the list goes on… (You can check them out here.)
Indeed, the Long Tail of vertical search engines that I have tracked and profiled from the start on MSG and now on AltSearchEngines (ASE) has arrived. In fact, Charles Knight, my colleague and friend at ASE, reckons I’ll have a full-time job just profiling the made-for-mobile (or should I say iPhone?) search services on offer for our sites. And that’s not including the scores of online Alts (alternative search engines) - such as Powerset, Summize, Earthcomber and Sputtr - that have developed a mobile service.
To start off, let’s take a closer look at midomi mobile from search and sound recognition company Melodis Corporation.
In a nutshell, the search app lets users to find songs and artists by singing, humming, speaking, typing or playing original music sources into their iPhones. Once a user discovers a piece of music, midomi mobile leverages the iPhone’s interface and to provide one-click access to iTunes and YouTube, where users can purchase the music or watch related videos. In addition, midomi mobile gives users one-stop access to a wide range of music-related content, including photographs, biographies and complete discographies of their favorite artists or bands.
The music search is sits at the core of a music sharing social network, but more about this after I have had a briefing tomorrow (yes, Saturday) with Melodis CEO Keyvan Mohajer. Thanks again to Donna Candelori at Candelori Communications for setting this up on such short notice!
Another search service that caught my attention (partly because it’s already one of the most popular in the App store) is Wayfinder Power Search from Wayfinder. The technology - which I’ll call local search on steroids - lets users search across a multitude of databases (White Pages, Yellow Pages, etc…) through a single unified search box.
How it works
Read the entire post on Peggy’s blog MSearchGroove HERE.
