+ Mobile News from InfoSpace, V-Enable, and ZenZui (via Screenwerk)
ZenZui is a new mobile service that Greg Sterling describes as offering “widgets” (they call them “tiles”) to make accessing services easier on mobile devices. Btw, Greg Sterling mentions “tiles” for several services that already have versions optimized for mobile. They are Flickr Mobile, Traffic.com, Amazon.com (several country and languages), Kayak, and ABC News. While it’s true than an app or “tile” might be able to offer more functionality and ease of use, the challenge is getting users to know about the service and then to download and try. This is versus simply typing a URL or clicking on a bookmark.
See Also: Hands-On with ZenZui Mobile UI

The application itself will be first deployed on the Windows Mobile platform and go into beta this summer. They hope to have a J2ME version in beta a short time after the Windows Mobile version and will eventually support Qualcomm’s Brew and Symbian’s operating system as well.

+ UpSnap and MuseGlobal Bring Metasearch to Mobile
Use a single interface to search multiple databases. Saves time and effort, both issues when it comes to mobile searching. Look for more of this type of thing. Here’s a results page from UpSnap using Muse technology. All sorts of features including saved searches and alerts.
See Upsnap WAP Site

+ New from OCLC: New Gadget for Google Customizable Homepage Offers Worldcat Search
OCLC also offers several other tools.
+ Place a Worldcat search box on any web page.
+ Toolbars available for Google, Yahoo, and Firefox.
+ We’ve created several toolbars (various types of searches) to search Worldcat and just about any other engine with Add to Search Bar. It’s an add-on for Firefox and requires no coding skills.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 and is filed under Info Management and Retrieval, Information Industry, Search News, Technology and Internet, Web 2.0, Wireless Web and Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.