MSearchGroove joins with mobile industry authorities & academics to offer Mobile Search Masterclass

Reveals performance analysis of voice-enabled mobile search services from search giants Google, Yahoo! & ChaCha

London - June 26, 2009 - MSearchGroove, the leading source of analysis and commentary on mobile search, mobile advertising and social media, will deliver a mobile search masterclass on June 30th in London. This course is delivered as part of The City University London's Masterclass series, a collaboration between the giCentre and the Centre for Interactive Systems Research at the University and is endorsed by The Mobile Data Association. This will be the second successive year the will be held following tremendous feedback from previous attendees.

MSearchGroove joins an impressive roster of industry authorities from companies including AmbieSense Ltd., a provider of ambient search services; Microsoft Research (Cambridge); g8wave Ltd., a mobile marketing company; and Mobile Commerce Ltd., a provider of location-based services and "enablement" technologies which provides deep insight into the search queries and subsequent results passed through the operator portals in the U.K.

During a series of expert led interactive sessions and presentations, the event will provide attendees with insight into a range of topics and market developments, including mobile search statistics and surveys; key trends and developments; location services and search; user interfaces and usability; and the range of content and advertising monetization models involving mobile search.

During the masterclass, Peggy Anne Salz, MSearchGroove Founder and Chief Analyst, will present an in-depth view of the mobile search landscape and the 10+ categories of mobile search gaining significant traction including multimodal (voice/visual); mobile vertical search (music/games); and social search, a people-powered search approach that effectively infuses human preferences and human judgments into computer algorithms to pinpoint relevant information and better answers.

Salz will also reveal the preliminary findings of Pump up the Volume: An Assessment of Voice-Enabled Web Search on the iPhone, a performance analysis of voice-enabled mobile search services slated for publication in July by MSearchGroove. As the first collaboration between Salz and Peggy Albright, the study's lead analyst and principal author, the research is based on interviews with 18 queries representatives of six typical mobile search categories (Navigational, Directions, Information Local, Information General, Social, and Long-Tail).

Initial insights from the report include that ChaCha, the fastest growing SMS mobile search service in the industry, "proved superior" to two other voice-enabled search options for the iPhone: the Google Mobile App with Voice and Vlingo for iPhone,  a voice enabled application that allows users to direct their spoken queries to Google or Yahoo!

Registration for the event is £295 and to book tickets please contact Mark Firman: mfirman@soi.city.ac.uk . for more information visit:
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/organisation/is/research/giCentre/courses/masterclasses

About MSearchGroove
MSearchGroove is a leading source of in-depth analysis and commentary on mobile search, mobile advertising, and social media. Through primary research and exclusive C-Level interviews, MSearchGroove is the essential read for companies seeking ways to monetize their digital assets, drive mobile advertising revenues and harness the power of empowered consumers. Peggy Anne Salz, Founder and Chief Analyst, is an authority on mobile search and content discovery technologies. She has established a successful consulting career based on vision, insight, versatility, and over 15 years of industry experience.

For more information, please visit www.msearchgroove.com.

About Peggy Albright
Peggy Albright, owner of Albright Communications, is a veteran writer in the wireless industry, having covered the industry since 1996. She has contributed to leading U.S. and international publications including FierceBroadbandWireless and FierceWireless, the IEEE Computer Society, numerous Informa Telecoms & Media titles, MSearchGroove, Wireless Week, and others.  Through her business, Albright Communications, she provides research, writing, and editorial services to businesses and individuals in the wireless and high-tech sectors.

About the Centre for Interactive Systems Research
The Centre for Interactive Systems Research (CISR) is world renowned for its research and expertise in the area of information retrieval (IR). This covers a wide variety of aspects from user needs, searching algorithms, indexing, and retrieval. Current search engines employ some of the techniques resulting from members of this group's work. The Centre has built up its profile since its inception (1987), and its work has been a significant contributor to the Department of Information Science being top-rated for research over the years.

About the City giCentre
The City giCentre is made up of global research leaders in the field of GeoInformatics and Geographical Information Science. The centre is dedicated to the development of novel ways of understanding the world through digital geographical information to achieve new insights about society and the environment, and to enable access to information in ways that are beneficial and effective.

For media enquiries, please contact
Peggy Salz, MSearchGroove Founder and Chief Analyst
Email peggy@msearchgroove.com
Mobile:  +49-172 245 1028