Darby Sieben - » iphone

Mobile Applications Bring Local Relevancy to Gluten-Free Restaurants and Drive iPhone Sales?

Darby Sieben — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:52:22 +0000

I have a very close friend of mine that was diagnosed with Celiac’s disease. In case you are not aware, Celiac’s is a is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages from middle infancy onward. Read more at Wikipedia or Celiac.com.

The way to manage Celiac’s is to go on a strick Gluten-Free diet (or the removal of all wheat product from your diet). If my friend eats food with gluten in it, it can put her in bed for a couple of days and can be quite painful. On a personal note, I have also moved to a gluten-free reduced diet with my wife since the fall of last year.

Since my wife and I started our gluten-free reduces lifestyle we find the web is a pretty good place to go for generic information on going gluten-free. One of the challenges is looking for for gluten-free restaurants in cities. Not saying that it does not work but here are my specific issues with using the web.

Try – “gluten-free in XXXXX” where XXXXX is any city. You will usually end up with links to information sources on celiac’s or gluten-free and some resources of Gluten-Free restaurants. Some local businesses who have done a good job of optimizing for this keyword will rise to the top, but in a lot of cases, I notice businesses who say they have gluten-free options which does not mean they have a specific gluten-free menu. As my friend pointed out, it can be extremely frustrating to find details on either gluten-free menu’s or restaurants that cater to people with Celiac’s (which BTW cross-contamination can be a big issue).

So my specific issue with the web:

1) results for a city are usually a hodgepodge or results of “information” sites and some local sites

2) some of the directories have way to many restaurants come up under gluten-free but there is no information as to specific gluten-free menus or how they prevent cross-contamination. Net effect, not really relevant.

3) I need to be in front of computer. This can be a real challenge when you are on the go to have to boot up your computer. My mobile phone is always on me and trying to surf the web on a mobile phone can be challenging at best.

I have recently discovered a really cool application for my iPhone called Celiac Feed. In a nutshell; a user generated application that works based on the location of your iPhone to provide you with a list of restaurants/bakeries in your area that provide gluten-free options. The locations only make the list when one of the users recommends. In the Celiac world I have found out that people love to share information and really support each other. Therefore, the level of trust from these recommendations goes way up.

This application was probably one reason why my friend decided to purchase her iPhone as opposed to a Blackberry. She was on the fence for awhile in terms of which one she would buy. After I showed her this application (and although the information in Canada is limited) and the user base seems pretty small at this point, she decided on the iPhone and has been active on this application every since.

This got me thinking about the major shift that is happening to mobile. Was this one case where the application drove a sale of hardware and how many times a day is this happening now? Not sure if you agree this is a profound as I think it is, but I find it very interesting that a tiny niche application can drive a $500+ sale. For me, this is transformative as more and more devices become ubiquitous, it will be the utility of the device that will drive sales.

For niche local based applications, smart phones are far more superior than trying to search on the web. As an example, this morning at the Bed and Breakfast we are staying in (The Cottage in Qualicum Beach, BC) the owners knew we had people coming with a gluten-free intolerance and actually went out and purchased Gluten-Free bread for us. The bread itself was amazing, it actually tasted like real bread. They bought it at a place called Village Bulk Foods that has in it a Silly-Yak Bakery (a gluten-free kitchen) where they make breads, muffins and more.

So I immediately added this a recommendation to Celiac Feed along with my comments for everybody in this community. This was easier that trying to go to the web to post and is now immediately available to this mobile community.

If you have a gluten-free intolerance and an iPhone, I strongly recommend you download and Celiac Feed application it works well. More people need to use and contribute to it to make it really rock in Canada.

Here are some screenshots of the application from my location in Qualicum Beach, BC.

Have you tried other gluten-free applications for your smart phone? Please comment below with your experiences in using mobile in a niche way.

Which is the Best Canadian ‘Mobile Web’ Local Search Product for the iPhone?

Darby Sieben — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 04:57:41 +0000

Well it is Friday night and I had another week of travelling. This week I was down at the Chirp Conference (first developers conference for Twitter) in San Francisco. The team at TechCrunch did a great job of covering the conference, here are some articles to check out if you have not already:

– Twitter has 105,779,710 Registered Users, Adding 300K A Day
- Twitter Adds Places To Its Geo-Tweets, Just Don’t Call It A Check-In
- Live From Chirp: Twitter’s Platform Roadmap
- Ev Explains Twitter’s Move Into Mobile Apps: “Otherwise We Are Failing Users”

So enough about Chirp, this has been covered extensively this week.

While I am waiting for my wife I was playing with my iPhone, actually wishing I had an iPad (after the Chirp conference and speaking to a number of people about their iPads, I am convinced that I need to buy one, but that for another day). Back to my iPhone – I was playing with Mobile Web, not iPhone applications and I got to wondering about the Mobile Web experiences for Canadians?

So here is what I did.

I visited the following sites through my Safari browser on my phone. Google.ca, YellowPages.ca, Yahoo.ca, and 411.ca. I tried to visit yelp.ca, but it gave me their actual website, not their mobile enhanced so they are not included.

I then entered the exact search term “restaurants toronto” for each site and was presented with their results. The screenshots below are the results page for each of the above websites. Check them out yourself.

So here is what I want to know? Based on the screenshots below for the search “restaurants toronto” and nothing but the screenshots below, which mobile application provides the best results? I am going to leave it as best results, you decide whether best results mean content, look and feel or brand loyalty.

In alphabetical order:

411.ca

Google Web

Yahoo Web

YellowPages.ca

One more screenshot from an application that I am testing on my iPhone (it is not available to the general public yet) called Urbanizer, mood based searching. This application is going to rock. You can subscribe to get notified when it is available in the app store.

Urbanizer

If we are missing your favorite mobile web application, put the URL in the comments, I would be happy to add it to this post.

New YellowPages.ca Mobile Application Available

Darby Sieben — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:52:54 +0000

Available as of this morning in the iTunes Store is the brand new YellowPages.ca mobile application for finding businesses and people with some cool new features, such as auto category selection, map based viewing of results, more added content and a completely brand new user interface.

Here are some screenshots of the application:

In November I posted on my blog and update on the fact that there were over 1/2 Million downloads and 3 reasons why Canadian love this application (click to read the original post). This release of the application stays consistent with those 3 reasons which include;

Simplicity – this version of the application remains true to its core of key functions that allow a user to get to the information they need.

Content – with a focus on videos, photos and more content coming soon, it displays the information that users want to see to help them make better decisions

Usability – with this upgrade comes a more user centric focus.

What do you think? Does this application hit the mark? Would be interested to hear your comments.

Canada’s Yellow Pages(TM) Mobile App, over 1/2 Million Downloads and 3 Reasons for its Success

Darby Sieben — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:02:48 +0000

If you did not have a chance to read the press release for Yellow Pages Group 3rd Quarter Results this past Wednesday, there is one paragraph that is interesting for local search enthusiasts:

The priority in Directories continues to be the introduction of new products. During the quarter, YPG launched a new version of its popular YellowPages.ca™ local search application for the Apple iPhone. The latest version features advertiser video content and continues to put the power of Yellowpages.ca in the hands of on-the-go users. The YellowPages.ca™ mobile application remains in the leading free downloaded apps since launching at the iTunes App Store. To date, the company reports over 500,000 downloads of the iPhone and Blackberry® apps.

I originally posted about Canada’s First Integrated Business and People Search App back in April 2009. At that time, the application was #7 most popular free application within the first week.

Fast forward 6-months and the YellowPages.ca application is still in the top 20 free applications, here is a screenshot from this morning:

So What Makes This iPhone Application So Successful. I get this question alot in discussions with local search experts around the globe. I have summarized the success of this application to the following key points:

1) Simplicity

This is a under 1mb download that gives Canadian’s access to a Business Directory, People Directory and Reverse Look-up where a user can search by City, Landmark, Neighborhood or GPS. This follows in line with the new YellowPages.ca launched on October 12 – check out my post 15 Local Searches I have a Comment On, to see some example hyperlocal searches. The user ratings on iTunes as well as our user feedback prove this with over 200 of 500 ratings given it 5-stars and an average rating of 3.5. Here is the screenshot:

Note: many of the 1-star ratings are from a competitor of this app who have decided to use multiple user names to say negative things and promote their own application. Personally, I think it’s a pathetic marketing strategy that consists of flaming a ratings/reviews engine, but to each their own. There are some legitimate users who have bashed this application and I can assure you that YPG reads your comments and will act accordingly.

2) Content

This application has a boat load of content including up-to-date business and people information, tens of thousands of videos and hundreds of thousands of pieces of enhanced content like hours of operations, payment types, etc. There is more content coming, but as a starting point, there is no other application in Canada that boosts such an impressive array of local content.

3) Usability

There has only been 2 iterations of this application since its launch. The second version of adding video was a very common user request and YPG is working on some new features that users are asking for. Stay Tuned.

Why is this significant. Many local applications release half-baked features (mostly in the hopes of getting some PR value) that either don’t work, work sporadically, have limited usability on a mobile platform, or simply don’t have enough content to be functional.

The YellowPages.ca application is a highly efficient app that delivers value by giving user what they want and when they need it. It delivers on a simple promise to connect buyers and sellers and this seems to resonant with Canadian mobile users. Sometimes simplicity can actually be the most efficient user experience.

What are you thoughts on the local mobile space? Will “cool” beat “functional”? Like the web, is content the king on mobile as well? What features would you like to see on a local application?

iPhone 3G Tethering Speed vs. Roger’s Portable Internet Stick

Darby Sieben — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:22:11 +0000

The latest download 3.0 software from Apple gives you the ability for Tethering your internet connect through your iphone to your computer. Here is the summary from the Apple web site, “If you travel with a PC laptop or Mac notebook, you know it can be difficult to find a Wi-Fi hotspot. With Internet tethering on iPhone, you don’t need one. Now you can share the 3G connection on your iPhone with your computer and connect to the Internet anywhere. When your iPhone is tethered, you can still send and receive data and make phone calls.” Link to Tethering on Apple website.

Since I have both a portable Internet stick from Rogers (Novatel Wireless Ovation MC9500D) I wanted to conduct a test to compare the upload and download speeds using my iPhone 3G and my Internet stick. Since both devices are using the 3G network from Rogers, my assumption that the speed tests should be fairly close. For the speedtest I used the Shaw Speed Test tool, available here.

I started by conducting a speed test using my wireless connection running Shaw’s High-Speed Internet. Here are the results of that speed test.

Here are the results from the Portable Internet Stick.

Here are the results from using my iPhone 3G connected with a USB cable.

Here are the results from using my iPhone 3G connection via Bluetooth.

As you can see from the results above, I was quite surprised at the lack of performance when comparing the iPhone 3G with the Portable Internet Stick. In both the download and the upload speeds, the portable internet stick clearly out performs tethering with the iPhone. This is interesting considering both where using the Roger’s 3G network.

Based on this test my conclusion; in a pinch tethering using your phone for quick connections would be completely fine, however, if you are a power portable user I would not rely solely on tethering as the speed is simply not there.

NOTE: this test was performed in the order listed above on July 3, 2009 between 11:30-11:50am MST.

My Blog is Fully iPhone Compatible – Thanks to WPtouch: Mobile Plugin

Darby Sieben — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:52:34 +0000

Today I am officially announcing that my blog is iPhone compatible. I really could not take my credit for this, rather I need to give the credit to Brave New Code for developing the WPtouch Mobile Plugin. Here is what they say about their plugin – “More than just a plugin, WPtouch is an entire theme package for your WordPress website. Modeled after Apple’s app store design specs, WPtouch makes your WordPress website load lightning fast on touch mobile devices, show your content beautifully, all while not interfering with your regular theme.” Read More.

Okay, so how is this. First, you download the plugin, then you install it through your wordpress control panel and fully your customize it by adding analytic code and even Google Adsense code to get mobile advertising. That is pretty much it and you are up and running. If a user types if your blog on their iPhone, they will see a nicely formatted blog.

Here is an example of what the home page of my blog looks like on the iPhone,

If you want to see an snippet of the posting, you can click on the down arrow key beside the title to see a preview of the entire article:

The plugin very nicely displays images from within your blog posts:

Finally, you can read all the comments as well as post new comments directly from your iPhone:

Overall this is one of the best plugins and an absolute must for anybody who has a blog and wants to ensure it is compatible with the iPhone or the iPod touch.

Quick update regarding the YellowPages.ca Application in iTunes, as of this afternoon, we are now the #4 most downloaded application in iTunes Canada. See my original post introducing Canada’s Only Integrated Business and People Search for the iPhone. Check out the screenshot below:

Canada’s Only Integrated Business and Person Finder for the Iphone Is a Hit

Darby Sieben — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:55:08 +0000

Well it has been a very busy week in the world of mobile applications for Yellow Pages Group. We were the first to launch a Canadian Business Directory Blackberry Application on April 1 and then we followed that up on April 2 with Canada’s first integrated business, people and reverse lookup for the iPhone. Read the official corporate press release – Yellow Pages Group Launches Mobile Search Applications For Blackberry® And iPhone™

In 7-days we have managed to become the 7th most popular application in iTunes (screen capture done on April 9). See screenshot below:

So in the last 7-days, here are some of the comments about our application YellowPages.ca iPhone Application:

Read Warren Fray’s review over at TechVibes – Yellow Pages challenges Canpages for iPhone dominance, here is an excerpt:

It’s not that the Yellowpages app is in any way badly put together. In fact, in terms of presentation, the overall design feel is somewhat slicker than the Canpages app. The Yellowpages.ca app doesn’t have speech-driven search and it isn’t as feature-rich as the Canpages app, but by keeping things simple it actually succeeds. Read the full article.

Mike Boland weighs in from a business perspective on the importance of mobile applications on the Kelsey Blog. “The name of the game for directory publishers these days is to build up traction and traffic through their own branded mobile apps as well as listing distribution on other mobile local search apps.” Read the rest.

Sebastien Provencher on this blog comments, “happy to see that directory publishers are releasing new mobile apps. Obviously, in the medium/long term, it is a critical component of the distribution mix.”

Finally, here are some comments within iTunes about what people are saying about this application:

Overall it has been a pretty exciting week on the mobile front for my team. One last comment, many of you might be wondering about traffic and the growth. Although I cannot disclose specifics, I can tell you that so far the doubling of traffic almost daily has been truly amazing to watch. It is glad to see that Canadians love it.

iPhone Application – Canadian People Finder Now Available

Darby Sieben — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 02:54:04 +0000

Canada’s original find a person website, Canada411.ca is now available on through iTunes for your iPhone and iPod. Just like your white pages, this application allow you to search for any person in Canada, coast to coast.

Features include:

- two search boxes, who and where (search by city keyword, neighborhood or GPS search)
- search businesses nearby a person’s location
- save information in your MyFavs or your Address Book
- application features business search with additional enhanced information
- Canada’s only integrated business and people Reverse Look-up Feature

Available for free. Click here to launch your iTunes.

Local Search in Canada Using the Apple iPhone – a Visual Comparision

Darby Sieben — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 02:18:42 +0000

As the iPhone becomes more and more popular in Canada I decided to take a look at 4 local web products, YellowPages.ca, 411.ca, Canpages.ca, and Google Maps.

I selected these as they all have iPhone compatible versions of their websites. Google Maps is a standard icon on the iPhone by default.

For this particular test I decided to focus on a popular generic category search (dentists in Toronto) and a very specific landmark search (restaurants by Eau Claire Market). For those of you who don’t know, Eau Claire Market is a popular destination located in downtown Calgary. I believe that landmarks would be important search criteria for mobile products.

In terms of ranking, I have decided not to rank the results. For the landmark search I indicated success or failure. You be the judge in terms of your personal preference. Please feel free to add a comment on your favorite or suggest other sites in Canada that have iPhone versions.

Let’s start with what happens when you bookmark the websites above and put them on your iPhone desktop.

From left to right:

Maps (Google) - this is default on your iPhone. One issue that I have is that Apple or Google have failed to customize this icon for regions – notice the US highway signage.

YellowPages.ca – In Canada, Yellow Pages(TM) is a registered trademark and when you bookmark you get the logo on your desktop.

411.ca- They have a unique icon and tell you 411 at the beginning of the text string. The ouch! at the end is a little weird though.

Canpages.ca – No custom icon, uses a screenshot that clearly tells the user nothing.

Let’s look at each property individually based on my two search queries.

First we try Google Maps – “dentists in Toronto” search on Map view.

The same search done via list view.

Here is the screenshot of the details of the business listing.

Finally we will conduct “restaurants by Eau Claire Market”. This search failed as the results are located in Toronto. Google did not recognize this landmark.

Second we try YellowPages.ca here is the screenshot for the “dentists in Toronto” search. NOTICE: with YellowPages.ca you also have the ability to switch to find a person in Canada using Canada411.ca.

Here are the results of this search.

Here is the details of a business listing

Finally we will conduct “restaurants by Eau Claire Market“. This search was a success, landmark was recognized.

Third we try 411.ca here is the screenshot for the “dentists in Toronto” search.

Here are the results of this search.

Here is the details of a business listing

Finally we will conduct “restaurants by Eau Claire Market”. This search failed as the results are located in Ontario. 411.ca did not recognize this landmark.

Fourth we try CanPages.ca here is the screenshot for the “dentists in Toronto” search.

Here are the results of this search.

Here is the details of a business listing

Finally we will conduct “restaurants by Eau Claire Market”. This search failed CanPages.ca did not recognize this landmark.

If you want to see another comparison - check out Taking a Look at Local Merchant Pages in Canada - a post from last December.