Author Archives

Greg Sterling is former program director and senior analyst with Opus Research. He also the founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, a consulting and research firm focused on online consumer and advertiser behavior and the relationship between the Internet and traditional media, with an emphasis on the local search marketplace.

Before leaving The Kelsey Group, Sterling ran its Interactive Local Media program. Prior to The Kelsey Group Sterling was at TechTV where he helped produce the first national television show dedicated to e-business and the Internet, “Working the Web.” Prior to TechTV he was a founding editor and executive producer at AllBusiness.com, a leading small-business ASP and Web site. Before joining AllBusiness, Sterling was a practicing attorney in San Francisco.

  • Shop Online, Buy Locally: A Closer Look at Recent Survey Data

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    Last week, two studies described how Internet search is used by the large majority of consumers as a research tool before buying locally. The Web has now overtaken all other media, including printed Yellow Pages as a primary source for local business information. Directory assistance and cell phones were only used 3% of the time as a primary source. However, Local Mobile Search (LMS) expects that will change over time.

  • Ingenio-Harris Mobile User Survey: Mobile Web to Grow, Ad Outlook Mixed

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    A recent Ingenio-sponsored survey by Harris Interactive explored a range of topics pertaining to mobile voice and data usage, as well as consumer acceptance of mobile advertising. The results show consumers are quickly expanding the use of mobile phones beyond voice-only capabilities, but monetizing those activities through mobile advertising remains an uphill battle.

  • Conversations on Mobile Search

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    In a vaudevillian display of man versus machine at last week’s Conversations customer and partner event in Orlando, Florida, Nuance effectively demonstrated speech recognition as the most efficient and “intuitive” interface for wireless phones. By outpacing the world’s fastest text messenger, Nuance showcased the potential in speech-enabled mobile search [SEMS] – a critical competitive battleground that includes the Internet heavyweights (Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL) and represents the next “disruptive” opportunity. With billions at stake, there are opportunities for first movers to differentiate and adopt go-to-market strategies with voice as the interface or a key component of a mobile-search offering.