Nestoria Interview - Prashant Agarwal - oneInternet

For years now we've been hearing "the future of the internet is mobile", especially here in Europe. As such, we thought it would be interesting to speak with an expert in mobile / web convergence: Prashant Agarwal, author of oneInternet a blog that charts the overlap between traditional internet and mobile consumer experience.

 

Prashant was a product manager at Yahoo! Europe where he developed innovative mobile services for instant messenger (IM), World Cup 2006 and search. Before that he founded a mobile IM start up, launched Techdirt Wireless and consulted for music and mobile start ups. He's currently an advisor to Techdirt and Option3

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Prashant, thanks for taking the time to talk with us.

 

1. Explain a bit about why you believe mobile and desktop are merging?

 

I got interested in mobile back in 1999 after 4 years of working in online media and e-commerce. I wanted to take my online experience with me. That's what drove the first wave of mobile internet services. But the online and mobile ecosystems and platforms were just too different. As a result the desktop internet and the mobile internet diverged with specialist players in each area. The web moved towards UGC, communities, video, AJAX, etc. While the mobile industry borrowed some internet concepts and operators developed walled-garden mobile portals with some information services, but they mostly just ended up selling ringtones and games.

 

There have been a number of important trends over the last couple of years that are driving the convergence between the web and mobile. First, there is more bandwidth and the devices have good color screens, decent browsers and support java applications. Secondly, operators are looking to drive data revenue from mobile search, which will help grow off portal services. Thirdly, users are heavily invested in online services such as Yahoo, Google, and Myspace. They want oneInternet because they expect ubiquitous access to these and other online services they access every day on the desktop.

 

There are two big challenges left; raising awareness with users that they can surf the web on their phones and continuing to make that experience better. The entire mobile industry is going to get a lift from all the marketing that Apple is going to throw against the iPhone and its mobile internet capabilities. On the user experience side, the industry is getting better at this through trial and error. All the product launches to date have been learning experiences and there is a well understood body of best practices and developers with the right skills.

 

 

2. Can you provide some examples? Who are the innovators taking advantage of this trend, especially here in the UK?

 

3 and T-Mobile UK are doing a great a job of teaming up with internet brands to promote mobile data services and moving towards flat rate data pricing. 3 is working with Yahoo, MSN and Skype to name a few. Start ups Reparo and Refresh Mobile have good mobile apps that provide a wide variety of internet services and content in rich java applications. Mobyko is doing some interesting things to help users manage their on device content from the web. Shozu has a great application to upload your camera phone pictures to your blog or Flickr account.

 

3. What are your thoughts on the developments in the property search sector in the last year? What implications does your "oneInternet" worldview have for this category?

 

I think the concept of property search is pretty new for most users. They are used to calling up estate agents and being shown properties in an area. Nestoria does a great job of providing more context and helping to find properties that meet specific criteria.

 

Nestoria is a perfect oneInternet candidate. I want to be able create a shortlist of interesting properties on the web site and take a map of them on my phone when I go to check them out over the weekend. And since I'm already a Nestoria users on the desktop I have a trusted relationship with you. So when I'm out and about in a new area, I want to able to access your site on my phone and get a list of properties that are available in that area. We all see the for let/sale signs all over town. It would be great to be able to easily get the details for that property by sending a text to Nestoria with a code from the sign.

 

 

4. What are the challenges you think a vertical search engine for property like Nestoria faces?

 

Like any online or mobile business the biggest challenge is driving users to your service. We know how to build great services that solve user problems. But communicating that to users is the really tricky part.

 

Thanks Prashant, lots of food for thought. I can't reveal an immediate timeline for Nestoria mobile services, but I can say it's an area that we track closely.

 

past Nestoria interviews: Paul Carr, Steve Coast, Joel Burslem
Who would you like to see interviewed next? Let us know.

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