Fixed Mobile Convergence

Dublin-based mobile web technology developer dotMobi (News - Alert) has claimed that it has been selected to act as a vendor for GetMo program, a Google Inc’s initiate aimed at helping British businesses increase sales by “going mobile.”

The Getmo scheme offers tools for companies to build an effective mobile site, and also information on mobile consumer trends.

Mobile is not desktop made smaller. It's a different medium and needs a different approach. Google’s (News - Alert) program will enable companies to see for themselves how good their website would be seen on a mobile handset. The tools it is going to offer will optimize their websites to fit on a relatively small mobile screen.

Google launched a similar service in November last year for businesses in the United States.

The reason for launching such a scheme in the UK is because a past survey by Ipsos CT showed that 93 percent of smartphone owners in the UK use their handsets to access the Web looking for local information.

Google wants to make money by helping companies increase sales there.

dotMobi's goMobi mobile website builder has already allowed some businesses to create sophisticated mobile websites with an easy-to-use cloud service. Now it can expand the business further by partnering with the search engine giant.

Google stated that during last Christmas there was 166 percent increase in mobile searches in the UK for top retail brands. However, some 79 percent of large UK online advertisers had no mobile site to serve that traffic.

Now as much as 15 percent of online traffic comes from mobile. So Google says “not having a mobile site is like closing a website one day a week.”

Currently, goMobi is available to businesses at a 40 percent discount through UK-based Easyspace, with a "try it for free" option.

Other partners for GetMo include Boost Communications, Incentivated, InfoGin (News - Alert), Lumata, Madmaker, Mediacom, Movement, Imano, Psycle Interactive, Pure Agency, Sayu, Somo, Sponge and Wapple.