*Jumptap* mobile search

As a gesture of goodwill towards the excellent mobile company Jumptap, which has been an occasional visitor to our blog, please take Jumptap's mobile search technology for a spin. We found a link for Jumptap mobile search here courtesy of the DigitURL founder, Andrew Gray, who since we last blogged about his efforts has moved on to launch Firxt.com, a customizable mobile web search portal that is unlike any other AND that's soon to be compatible with the iPhone. Firxt has links to tons of mobile search engines.

A marriage in mobile cyberspace: URL redirection utility meets dotcom wordnumber

A URL redirection utility startup, Shortify, stands out in the very crowded field of TinyURL clones and look-alikes. Shortify attempts to make it easier to shorten URLs both on a PC and a mobile device for use by those two types of computing devices.

The folks at Shortify registered their dotcom wordnumber, 74678439.com, which resolves to shortify.com, which is dual-optimized for PCs and mobile phones. The slightly spelling-challenged website allows users - via mobile or PC - to enter any URL to be shortened to a numeric ID (the site, however, requires a full http:// prefix to accept URLs). Users who have recorded in some way or another that ID, also called a Shortify URL, can retrieve websites via their mobile device by visiting 74678439.com and entering the Shortify URL in the search box and clicking enter/return, or by plugging in 74678439.com/[ShortifyURL] into their mobile browser. We created a Shortify URL of 6124 that resolves to DigitURL.com when accessed like this 74678439.com/6124. Unlike some URL redirection services, Shortify's 'tiny' URLs are permanent.

Shortify is the first URL redirection service that we know of that employs the wordnumber concept. Shortify differs in this way from an earlier entrant into the mobile URL redirection market, DigitURL. It differs from DigitURL also in another way: its numeric Shortify URLs are generated sequentially - the very first code assigned was 1000 and subsequent codes were 1001, 1002, etc... (There is a user-oriented flaw with this shortURL generation method; can you guess what it is?) DigitURL, on the other hand, assigns a random 11 number array (11 numbers provide a built-in capacity for 100 billion potential URLs) as the 'DigitURL' which can be utilized 3 ways including attaching that 11 digit code as a suffix to the domain digiturl.com (i.e., digiturl.com/12345678901).

If you visit Shortify's website, you'll notice that the site generates not only a numeric Shortify URL but also a duplicate alphanumeric one similar to the type you find at TinyURL.com. You'll also notice that if you try to 'Shortify' a URL, like Google.com, that someone 'Shortified' previously, the website takes you to a page that says 'http://www.google.com' has already been shortified' and reveals the Shortify URL, in this case the very first code assigned: 1000.

You can visit Jamptap by remembering the Shortify URL of 6125, or visiting 74678439.com/6125.

DigitURL goes 2D

Read DigitURL's blogpost about 2d barcodes

The many uses of 2D barcodes:
http://www.scanlife.com/whatAreEZcodes.html

DigitURL. Meet Pa.am. Pa.am is much prettier.

DigitURL, the URL redirection utility for mobile phone users, has met its match. And it's match is a whole lot prettier.

Introducing Pa.am, which uses a very simple approach to alleviating keypad pressing woes on your mobile. Pa.am uses the 'alphabet' of mobile-optimized letters on a phone keypad to create short URLs that are exceedingly easy to type. This alphabet comprises the first letter assigned to each numeric button (from 2 to 9) and contains only the following: A, D, G, J, M, P, T, and W. This innovation, of using the one-tap-only letters for mobile URLs, isn't new: Ameritrade was smart in registering amtd.com, which is a cinch for mobile phone users to type in, and amtd.com went to Ameritrade's mobile site for many years. What Pa.am - which requires only 4 taps (w/o the dot) from the user - does is make creative use of third and fourth level domains to assign a 'tinyURL' that is mobile friendly. We created the shortURL of 'dwm.j.pa.am' to get to DigitURL. That URL is just 8 taps (w/o the dots). Other URLs generated via Pa.am are even shorter. Certainly Pa.am's utilization of the '.am' tld - dot am is the ccTLD for Armenia - is a vast improvement over '.com'.

Now, if you're a mathematician, you'll probably be quickly figuring in your head that Pa.am could only work for a few thousand URLs if they were to keep the total domain length short (8-10 digits). All of them would be used up in a few weeks. What Pa.am does to solve this problem is an expiration date, of either 48 hrs or 'single serve.' Per the site: 'Single Serves last just 30 seconds after first use, with a 15 minute maximum.'

If the expiry feature was not a problem, then Pa.am just beat WordDial and DigitURL at their game. Any URL can be shortenend to 8 or 9 digits (w/o dots) or less; and that cannot be outdone.

But expiry is a problem. Users want perpetual, easy access to the popular sites they frequent without bothering with typing in lengthy mobile URLs. Pa.am is more likely targeted to users who want to one-time share a site with a friend, or friends, via an email link. Dotcom wordnumbers are a better solution for perpetual, easy access to popular mobile sites.

DigitURL hack #1

When you thought that it couldn't get any easier, think again. DigitURL gives mobile users a way to create tiny, easy-to-tap numeric codes in place of long web addresses. These numeric codes are tiny-urls that are signficantly easier to type out on a phone keypad than the URLs for web destinations such as youtube videos or myspace pages.

DigitURL also doubles as a jumping-off platform to the mobile internet; all you need to do is type out the numbers on your keypad in place of the letters of the URLs for most web destinations. You can do this at the DigitURL website or via its free downloadable application. You don't even need to bother typing in '.com.' Try visiting DigitURL and enter in 6977223, which is MySpace in numbers. Press 'Go' and you're one click away from MySpace mobile!

There's a nifty hack we learned to make typing in 'wordnumbers', or the numeric spellings of a words, even easier. When typing in medium-length wordnumbers, like 466453(Google) or 92466(Yahoo), simply enter the first 2 digits and press the number 1 at least three times. For longer wordnumbers, such as 6977223(MySpace) or 9688823(YouTube), just enter the first 3 digits and at least three 1's.

So, Google would be 46111. And Youtube would be 968111.

You can actually replace the '1' with any number. There just needs to be 3 of any number. (This is where life gets really easy.) You can even hold down the last number in any sequence three times - for instance: 968888(youtube) or 46666(google). It is important that you make sure you entered in 3 extra numbers.

For rather long URLs like Slashdot, you have to enter the first 4 digits then 3 of any number. Wikipedia requires the first 5 digits then 3 numbers. Craigslist requires the first 6 digits followed by any 3 numbers.

So, instead of spelling out an entire wordnumber, in most cases you just need to spell half of the wordnumber and add three wildcard-numbers. Especially for the longer wordnumbers, this hack makes life easier.

The above hack, however, only works for domains that are listed on the Short DigitURL list.

Users will stumble upon their own shortcuts in time that will rival even this hack.

Did you mean...Were you looking for...

It was too good to be true. DigitURL's 'were you looking for' wordnumber translator is not anything like Google Number Search and it appears that DigitURL's webmaster is using a manually created database. We assume they downloaded a list of the most popular 1 million or so websites accessed in Australia (which includes many non-Australian web destinations too). Then they parsed out and translated the SLDs (second level domain; the brand name before the .com or ccTLD) into wordnumbers, sorted the wordnumber-domain pairs, and put the database up on its server. So, when you search using wordnumbers consisting of 2 or more digits via DigitURL, the wordnumber in your search query is being matched against the wordnumber translations for the brands of the top 1 million or so ranked websites based on Australian usage.

How is this not Google Number Search? GNS, first of all, operates in conjunction with a search engine not a database (and it helps that Google operates the top ranked search engine). Second, whereas DigitURL provides shortcuts to a finite number of web destinations, GNS provides the ability to use wordnumbers to substitute for any search term, including phrases and names and so forth, to 'Google' all pages on the internet. There is an infinite number of combinations of wordnumber search terms that will generate meaningful results. GNS accomplishes this with a very high success rate of wordnumber translations. In a nutshell, GNS is Google search but via an 'invented' shorthand for typing search queries. There still is no comparable webservice out there. The only caveat is that GNS is still linked to an outdated lexicon (from about the year 2000).

Creating such a database that DigitURL has put together may be simple enough. Website ranking companies provide free and not-free lists of the top 100k or million most popular sites. The not-free companies also provide ranked lists by geography (country).

The problem with DigitURL's 'were you looking for' script is that it is a limited search tool. By having a database of wordnumber translations for a static - or even updated - ranked list of the top 1 million or so websites, then websites for smaller, upcoming, tech startups will nearly always be inaccessible by DigitURL during their infancy. If one thinks of the target audience of DigitURL, it would make more sense to get a ranked list of top websites for the Y generation or tech sites or of Web 2.0 properties, etc... Many of these web destinations will not be accessible until they reach some threshold of popularity. Many mobile phone users want to be 'better than that.' They want to be on the crest of the wave. Not watching the wave from the beach.

DigitURL takes on short wordnumbers

DigitURL now provides users with a near replica of Google Number Search translation for short wordnumber (numeric) entries. It has done this without the use - so it appears - of a manually created database of urls with their wordnumber translations.

Take for instance the string '222.' DigitURL returns every popular brand associated with that wordnumber. You get ABC. You get BBC. You get CBC (Canada Broadcasting Company). And ALL within 4 keytaps of opening the DigitURL app or bookmarked link. Compare with typing out BBC.com, an incredibly long 14 taps (w/o the dot).

This is precisely the type of search query that, of all available web-services, only Google Number Search could handle (until now). View, for comparison, what results GNS provides for the same search query of '222': http://www.google.com/search?q=num%3A222

What is significant is that both services provide results for short wordnumber strings that are meaningful - the results for 2 or 3 digit wordnumbers are ranked in a similar sort of way that search engines provide. That is a pretty difficult task considering that any 3-digit wordnumber, for instance, could be associated with 27 dotcom domains (more for the numbers 7 and 9 which have four letters assigned to them) - assuming that every LLL.com is regged. The situation gets even more complex when you think of all the other cc TLDs. There is significantly less competition for wordnumbers (including dotcom wordnumbers) that are four or more digits in length. Yet DigitURL does both just fine - most major brands with URLs of a medium to long length are represented by their wordnumber (6977223 is MySpace) and wordnumber search queries for brands with tiny URL lengths go to the popular brands you know.

The problem - and it may be intentional - is that there is a local bias that we're experiencing using DigitURL, which is based in Australia; Jamptap is based in the U.S. A trial of the wordnumbers for the 3 digit domains listed in Alexa's top 100 sites in Australia work perfectly - but those in the U.S. top 100 don't. For instance, several domains (of brands that are 2-3 digits long) in the Australian Alexa top 100 including go.com (#50), NSW (#52), VIC (#65), IGN (#70), qq (#76) and even HI5.com (#85) are represented in the results (assigned with accesskeys) when their wordnumbers are entered. This is not the case with the Alexa U.S. top 100 - the brands of many wordnumbers aren't shown in the results.

This begs the question, is DigitURL positioning itself as an internet company primarily targeting Australian consumers? This was the initial posture of WordDial, which began with a near exclusive New Zealand base of users, and since has been building an international clientelle and user base. Without knowing how DigitURL completes its wordnumber translations, it is difficult to suggest how its results could be improved. It is our assumption that DigitURL's algorithm is linked to a search engine with local bias for Australia - we could be wrong about this. If this was the case, then changing that association to a 'global' search engine would be better - at least if maximizing profits is the goal of their business. Certainly DigitURL could do their own geotargeting based on users' ip addresses and provide search results accordingly.

Update1: DigitURL's algorithm also works on some 4 digit or longer wordnumbers - the algorithm is easier to test (and more impressive) using 2 and 3 digit wordnumbers, of course. We found success with the wordnumbers for nearly every single major brand/website in Australia and also for generic words such as 'match', 'money', 'chat', 'love', 'mobile', 'ymail', and others that aren't mentioned on the Short DigitURL list. In sum, DigitURL has stumbled upon an early-stage all-purpose DNS (DigitURL Number System) made for Australians. What about the rest of us?

Mobile-savvy Slovakians on holiday - Undoing geotargeting of mobile users

A long time ago (in internet years), Google bought the domain 466453.com, which is the dotcom wordnumber for Google. Although Google didn't buy 466453 in other cc TLDs, typing in 466453.com within the internet networks of most countries will forward the user to the locally biased version of the Google homepage formatted for that nation/language.

Yahoo is a slightly different story. Yahoo bought 92466 in nearly every TLD - except for 92466.com, which is owned by WordDial - and also for a significant number of cc TLDs. All of those are forwarded to Yahoo's error page - 'Sorry, the page you requested was not found' - that eventually forwards the user to the Yahoo.com homepage.

Currently, no major search engine provides the capability for mobile users to easily conduct (mobile optimized) searches in a different localized portal than the one the cell phone user (his/her IP) is currently located. Let's say you're in the U.S. and want to search Google Greece on your cell phone. What to do? Certainly there are solutions, such as bookmarking google.gr or multi-tapping 17 times (w/o the dot) for that long url. In the opposite situation - if you were in Greece - you could use 466453.com/ncr (an url that forces a 'no country redirect' to go to Google.com, which is considered the 'global' Google). But there is an even easier solution. DigitURL now provides access to Google of nearly every available language and nationality with numeric-tapping access. Simply go to digiturl.com/466453, or better yet type in that Short DigitURL (466453) on their free downloadable mobile application, and choose the localized version of Google by the nationality you prefer. There aren't enough numbers on a keypad to enable accesskeys for each version of Google, but pressing the down button will get you to Google for many countries, including some that you probably never even heard of.

Google and Yahoo may not be seriously pondering that there are cell phone users who are thinking and researching in terms of global markets, or that a mobile user travelling by air through airports far away from home (i.e. in Iceland) would desperately want to surf on their favorite Google portal (i.e. Google Hungary). Google does provide a link on virtually every localized page (i.e. Google Canada) to go to Google.com, but that is not exactly the solution to our scenario(s).

Yahoo, owing to the fact it owns 92466 in many cc TLDs, has the capability to develop a local unbiased mobile solution to enable a user to 'break out' of 'geotargeting.' Unlike with Google, Yahoo could provide its users with the capability to access Yahoo in any geography by typing in 92466 and the ccTLD. Certainly Google could develop an easy solution (or buy up 466453 in every ccTLD) and most likely has a more commonsense solution in the works. Until then, DigitURL, preferrably via its free mobile software, is the easiest means for mobile-savvy Slovakians on holiday in Budapest to do some currency conversions the only way they know how - on google.sk.

Update1: At least one of Yahoo's 92466.[cctld] properties doesn't eventually get forwarded to Yahoo.com. 92466.cn redirects to Yahoo's typical 'Sorry, the page you requested was not found' error page in English, however suggests 'You may also want to try cn.yahoo.com' and after a considerable wait actually forwards to that url.

A mobile tapping contest

Although they are apples and oranges in terms of their niche services, WordDial and DigitURL, two Southern Hemisphere internet companies, may actually be in stiff competition to lure in the average mobile surfer. WordDial, somewhat of a yellow pages or huge Yahoo directory for mobile web destinations, provides a much needed free service: aside from its thousands of themed mobile portals, it gives users quick mobile access to the email and search properties of the search engine giants including Google and Yahoo. And, now, so does DigitURL. Both give users the ability to do this via number-only keypad pressing, a method that rivals any other (method) of mobile web surfing.

At WordDial, the way to access Yahoo or Google mobile search is to enter 732724.com on your cell's browser and click your favorite search engine from the list. To access your email account via your mobile, WordDial's 36245.com page will take you to the most common free email services.

DigitURL, however, gives WordDial a run for its money. DigitURL, accessed via a mobile app or its mobile website (digiturl.com), will get you to pretty much the same destinations with arguably less effort. Whether via the mobile app or opening its site via your 'favorites,' a user can get to Google or Yahoo search by typing in either wordnumber (Google=466453, Yahoo=92466) and clicking options 2, 3 or 4 to choose your mobile page formatting preference, a service that WordDial doesn't provide. Gmail is accessed via its wordnumber 46245 and 924666245 goes to YahooMail. The problem is that DigitURL sends the user to a page that is viewed through Google's mobile optimizer unlike WordDial's links to true mobile urls.

So, who's the winner of the competition thus far? Let's be fair and only count the length of the wordnumbers used by these services to get to destinations. We're not taking into account most of the other tapping required: a user may or may not need to tap out the '.com' in the WordDial urls mentioned above (perhaps you've set a hot key to plug in '.com', or your IPhone has the '.com' button already there) and a user may be accessing DigitURL from its app or a bookmark. Perhaps a penalty on WordDial's side of the court is that it provides a set of results on its themed portals that aren't linked to with accesskeys, which DigitURL does use expertly. To get to Yahoo on 732724.com, the user needs to press the 'down' button several times and click 'go/enter'; that's a big penalty that we're not counting as taps in our 'tapping contest,' but something WordDial might want to rethink.

For search engine access, DigitURL wins by a slight margin (of about 1/2 click, on average). For email, WordDial is ahead, however if DigitURL creates a Short DigitURL of 96245 for YMail then it'd be a tie.

There is a shortcoming, however, with these companies' offerings: both fail to provide the user with the ability to easily access any and all mobile destinations using wordnumbers. WordDial hopes that you'll choose the category of your destination (email, 36245.com; search, 732724.com, etc...) and choose the result on their mobile-friendly listing. However, not every major brand or service is listed, only those that paid for listing (in most cases). DigitURL rivals WordDial in the sense that users don't need to brainstorm which category does a certain website fall under and prompts the user to simply enter the wordnumber. The problem is that its webmaster hasn't flushed out all the major brands and services as Short DigitURLs. True, bookmarking any mobile destination (i.e., bookmark > Gmail.com) would be quicker but the point of these webservices is to provide quick access to (nearly) any and all websites out there on the web. Think of all the web properties you'd like to visit on your mobile. These destinations are potentially (provided a webservice develops this potential) less than 10 taps (on average) away and don't require any tapping out of letters.

Jamptap feels that the 'winner' will be the service that is an one-stop mobile web surfing solution, a website that allows quick 'jumps' to virtually any mobile web property using wordnumbers. Even if we threw Google into the ring, it would probably place third. Any programmer could configure a mobile page with a search box that forwards the query (a wordnumber) to Google search using the operator allnum. This way a user just needs to type in a wordnumber, let's say 924666245 and be sent here http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allnum%3A924666245&btnG=Search or a Google mobile optimized page with the same result. The user simply needs to click on the top search result. The problem though is that Google's allnum operator is linked to GNS (Google Number Search), which currently uses an outdated lexicon - the wordnumbers for most brands launched after 2000 won't be recognized. Try Obopay for instance.

We're not criticizing any of these above three webservices. They are thriving well so far in their own niches however, at present, we feel they don't address the overarching need of mobile users we outlined above. Apparently, they're all converging on the solution, in their own ways. The question is who will get there first.

DigitURL

Most internet users know about the webservice TinyURL.com, which allows users to create url shortcuts to lengthier ones. Tinyurl web addresses consist of a random code, usually 6 digits in length, appended to the end of the domain http://Tinyurl.com (i.e., Tinyurl.com/dw2f9k). A new webservice to address the keypad pressing woes of mobile internet users has popped up. It's called DigitURL and its concept is pretty much the same. Like Tinyurl, it is a URL redirection utility. Accessed via its mobile-friendly webpage or its mobile app, DigitURL allows users to create a numeric code to represent a web destination (perhaps a youtube video address); the code is always a random set of 11 numbers. Obviously, using numbers instead of a letter-number combination, as used by Tinyurl, makes more sense from a mobile phone keypad point of view. The main difference between 'DigitURL' and 'Tinyurl' is that DigitURL doesn't expect you to type in a full url (i.e. DigitURL.com/466453). The expectation is that you will remember in your head (or copy and paste) the DigitURL, the 11-digit numeric code, and enter that code in the DigitURL mobile app on your phone or bookmark DigitURL's website and plug in the numeric code there.

Users are given the opportunity to create their DigitURL for whichever address they please, however the numeric code they get is always a random array of 11 numbers and never the wordnumber. For instance, I decided to create the DigitURL for Craigslist.com and got this http://digiturl.com/85834397256 and got this http://digiturl.com/39767443628 for Furl.com.

Clearly, the concept of creating a DigitURL is not for common brands/major websites. For those, the webmaster has complete control over the assignment of wordnumbers as Short DigitURLs. And, so we must mention the 'Short DigitURL' list. The website states:

Short DigitURLs are for major sites and correspond to the letters on the phone buttons. To obtain a short DigitURL for your website/blog and get it included in this list, please include a prominent mention of DigitURL.com on your site and then contact me.

The moniker 'Short' is employed because using wordnumbers for DigitURLs will result in numeric arrays that are most often - though not always - shorter than 11 numbers long. Furl would be 4 digits and TDAmeritrade would be 12 digits.

At the time of writing this, many major web destinations aren't listed on the Short DigitURL list including Craigslist.org, which we singled out for no particular reason as an example. Is the webmaster expecting Craiglist's CEO to post a prominent mention of DigitURL.com at Craigslist.org and email him to get Craiglist's wordnumber set up as the DigitURL to be posted on the Short DigitURL list? I'm guessing DigitURL has decided to already set up some of the most popular destinations since I doubt CNN, ebay, ESPN, etc... all jumped through the hoops since the website was launched in November.

It seems the smarter concept would be to assign all the wordnumbers for major websites right away as Short DigitURLs - and show ads on the launch page (known as the URL Preview page). This is what mobile users need most. Why? The greatest impediment to mobile web surfing is that walled gardens don't allow users easy access to all their favorite websites and those websites have incredibly long urls to type with a tiny mobile phone keypad. The vast majority of brand dotcom wordnumbers are held by a small number of investors and one New Zealand company called WordDial. Until those domain properties are recognized for their value, purchased or leased and set up by major companies, there is no easy way to access urls on the mobile web. If all major brand wordnumbers as Short DigitURLs were all set to go, then more users would frequent the site, business would boom and ad revenue would soar. These DigitURLs would be most often shorter than 11 digits and would not require memorizing or cutting and pasting from emails random DigitURLs (like the ones for Furl and Craigslist above). Wordnumbers don't require memorization; all they require is the rote pressing of the number on your keypad that corresponds with the letter. Google once had such a solution and Google could put the Short DigitURL List out of commission in a second if it wanted to relaunch a version of that mobile webpage.

Certainly problems will creep up with DigitURL. How will multiple brands vie for the shorter DigitURL wordnnumbers such as 222 or 3776 (esso, espn, etc...). Who will win out when ABC and BBC both want the DigitURL 222?

And this gave me chuckle
I seem to recall that you don't need a URL redirection utility to access Google on a mobile phone. Google owns its own dotcom wordnumber; Google = 466453.com.