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 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 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.