Mobile Universal Search

When the word universal is thrown around it usually suggests high hopes and intentions of finally having something that works everywhere and does everything - a panacea of sorts. The quest for Universal Search on mobile phones fits this description. After all, don’t we want exactly the results we are thinking about presented on our phone screens - in a way that is easy to use and navigate. Yes, use and navigate, because there are always a number of results associated with each search even if we are only interested in one specific result. It is finding and making that specific result available that is the crux of the matter.

All searches start with some type of search intent, often derived from a texted term or spoken word. This term/word can be augmented by knowledge of interests, demographics and maybe location information, time of day, weather or time of year. A good search function will blend these together in a meaningful way and deliver a search query to – well a search engine that magically delivers results back. But what do these results look like?

• A list of mobile web sites?
  
• A list of videos?
  
• A list of mobile applications?
  
• A list of web sites?
  
• A list of sound bites?
  
• A list of music?
  
• A list of RSS feeds (yes, that highly usable format on mobiles)
  

- Or, maybe a very long list of all of the above in which the result the user is really looking for is well hidden. What is clear is that major mobile companies are hiring people and pouring resources into finding out how to improve mobile search and delivering results with a better user experience.

At mJetz we believe the problem has two parts:

1. Generating search results from multiple sources
   
2. Delivering these results in a way that makes it easier for the user to find the specific results they are looking for.
   

Based on this we augment the user’s queries and deliver several types of results from multiple sources. These include:

• Apps
  
• RSS (yes, that highly usable format)
  
• Mobile web (from multiple search engines)
  
• Real web (where results are categorized for ease of use)
  

But the real value of mJetz is to deliver the results in a way that makes it easy for the user to navigate and select what they want. mJetz fluid and expanding navigation takes care of that. Pictures are worth more than a thousand word so here is a look at mJetz search results for 'Universal Search'


But the real value of mJetz is to deliver the results in a way that makes it easy for the user to navigate and select what they want. mJetz fluid and expanding navigation takes care of that. Pictures are worth more than a thousand word so here is a look at mJetz search results for 'Universal Search'


And each result category opened up with mJetz easy to navigate fluid user interface:

Universal Search Applications


Universal Search RSS results


Universal Search Mobile Web results - notice choise of search engines


Universal Search Web results - notice categorization

As you can see, Mobile Universal Search is here today with mJetz