AOL tests Pinpoint Shopping Search for mobile users
America Online Inc. is testing services that will give mobile users access to its Pinpoint Shopping Search and other services. Mobile users wishing to participate in the beta test—which also includes AOL Search and AOL Yellow Pages—can get instructions at http://beta.aol.com. “We’re trying to make it easier for people to experience search on their cell phones,” an AOL spokeswoman says.
AOL’s approach to mobile search differs from those of Google and Yahoo, which require users to type in a numerical code to send in a query, the spokeswoman says. “Ours is very similar to what you do at your desktop,” she says. “You go to a URL that you can bookmark in your mobile phone, click the URL, enter a search term, hit search, and get your results back.”
Mobile Pinpoint—which is powered by BizRate—gives users access to about 50,000 merchants and 25 million products. AOL will share revenues with BizRate on a cost-per-click basis, the spokeswoman says.
Mobile AOL Search Services uses an algorithm developed by InfoGin Ltd., a mobile technology provider based in Israel. InfoGin’s transcoding and content analysis technology automatically adapts web pages that were designed for the desktop so they can easily be used on browser-enabled phones.
The test is open to mobile users, regardless of whether they are AOL members.
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