Videos: Robert Scoble interviews and demos Taptu, a mobile search engine

In this first video Robert Scoble talks to Bob Lastt from Taptu about search engines on mobile phones. It is quite long so if you want to go straight to a demo of the Taptu service just watch the second video. Back to the first one, Taptu argues that typical users stops using a mobile website if it takes them more than 12 clicks to find what it is they’re looking for. While I have to agree, I’m not really a fan of the service. I got an opportunity to beta test Taptu before it launched and to be perfectly honest I was not impressed. I’m not saying Taptu is a bad service, it just isn’t something for me. I’ve been using Google (NSDQ: GOOG) for so long I know exactly what I have to type into that little box to get the results I want.

Something to note is the fact that Bob was using a really crappy Samsung mobile phone with the very poor Net Front browser. Why not go ahead and download Opera Mini? Version 4 just came out today and I love love love it. Maybe Scoble should see if he can get a trip to Norway to check out a company that is truly innovating in the mobile space, but gets little coverage here in the states. Why do I prefer Opera Mini to Taptu?

All Taptu is, when you get to the core essentials, is nothing but a fancy way to take your query (Penny Lane in the demo) and search Google for “Penny Lane Wikipedia” and “Penny Lane Images” and then parse those results into a UI that is more mobile friendly. Hardly innovative I say, but good for people who don’t know how to use a search engine that well. After all, a search engine is only as good as the queries you type into the box, a computer doesn’t know what it is you’re trying to find.

One more thing, please buy a USA Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95 Scoble. You should never have to suffer an EDGE connection again, you get more RAM and the battery life is much longer. My coworker Will linked to a sale on Tigerdirect where they have it for $600, but I’m sure you just have to call Nokia and by the time you finish saying your last name a box would be leaving Finland with your name on it.