On a very basic level, your mobile device is like a bumper car. When you turn it on, it reaches out and connects to an information grid above your head. A simple connection to that grid allows you to cruise along, receive information, and contact other drivers.
On a much more complex level, your mobile device is like the most informative bumper car ever made. While receiving information from the grid above, it’s also creating information of its own. For every turn, it notes which way you turn the wheel, how hard you turn the wheel, where you turned. For every pedal press, it knows which pedal, how hard, where you were when you applied pressure. For every contact with another car: the impact, the duration, the location. And so on.
Historically, technology businesses focused on desktop computing looked at online interactions like simple bumper cars. For example, a user would prompt Google for information, and Google provided suggestions based on that prompt. There was no need to interpret any more information than the user provided directly.
However, with the rise of mobile usage, the game is changing quickly and drastically. Over the course of a given day, a mobile user interacts with information in a variety of different ways. Making meaning of those interactions is new ground, and the tech giants are still trying to adjust to the new and complex rules of the game.
A Tangled Web
Your mobile device is one of millions. Wireless Intelligence estimates that the average mobile subscriber in the U.S. has 1.57 devices. If you take into account the behaviors of each mobile user—every search term, GPS direction, interactive game, email, message and so forth—then you get an extremely dense and complicated cloud of information. There are an infinite number of ways that users can interact with content and connect to each other.
Interpreting those interactions and predicting behavior is important because it transforms the potential for advertising and service. If a search company can suggest a burger joint within walking distance, at the exact instant I type “burger” into a search form, I just might walk there. What if a competing burger joint could send me a coupon to beat the price of the first burger joint? Such opportunities are valuable propositions for burger slingers, but exponentially multiply that prospect out across all industries. The immediacy of the information, coupled with the depth of information returned, is a potential advertising goldmine.
Advertising hasn’t figured it out yet. Money just isn’t going to mobile advertising—yet. The proof is in the excitement surrounding events like Facebook’s recent earnings report, and in the interest surrounding Yahoo’s evolution and new focus on mobile.
Mobile on the Move
The game-changing element of the mobile dynamic is the fact that the users are moving. Search queries on a mobile device, unlike on a desktop, have a sense of urgency. (Where is the nearest gas station? Where can I get lunch? How do I get there from here?) This is why people continue to harp on Apple Maps. When Apple dropped Google Maps, iPhone users suddenly couldn’t expect reliable, on-the-go directions from their default map app.
Supplying relevant map-based information to moving users is a difficult and data-heavy operation. A story from The Atlantic notes that the Google Maps team publishes more data every two weeks than Google had total in 2006. The process of making accurate Google maps includes analyzing satellite imagery and Street View data, as well as extrapolating information that tells users about one-way streets and upcoming exits. In its pursuit of more information, the team has even started surveying the Grand Canyon to map walking trails. To companies like Google, the ability to offer relevant content in real time is worth the effort.
Opportunities in Big Data
New or evolving technologies can create vast amounts of data and reveal new, unforeseen ways to interact with and contextualize that data. Some companies work on making meaning of data, and other companies are working on keeping and managing it, which is a problem all its own. Oracle president, Mark Hurd, warns that the world is “drowning in data,” which has grown eight fold in the last seven years. The need for access and interpretation is spurring new, more-easily-accessible technologies from data-analysis companies like Cloudera.
Technologists are working continually to allow greater and faster access to the cloud of information above our heads. Google announced its $249 Chromebook, which offers 100GB worth of online data at no charge for two years, and researchers recently showed that using better algebra to increase the efficiency of data-packet sending can increase the bandwidth of wireless networks without new infrastructure. Our expanding needs for data equates to a lot of work behind the scenes—hidden from the typical user unless an issue occurs. For example, on Monday, an outage at an Amazon cloud computing center caused several large websites to go down, so for several hours, users of sites like Reddit, TMZ, Foursquare, and Pinterest were unable to access content.
The need for more bodies and specialists in the world of big data is very clear. Gartner, an IT research and advisory company, estimates that 4.4 million IT jobs will be created by big data by 2015—1.9 million of which will be based in the U.S. All told, in all industries, Gartner estimates 6 million jobs will be created in the U.S. to support big data.
Amid the constant buzz about new mobile devices, just remember: bumper cars. Regardless of added innovation, there will always be a group of people—mechanics, operators, engineers, manufacturers, scientists—hidden in the shadows, making sure the ride doesn’t stop.
Images by Basketman and Simon Howdon / freedigitalphotos.net
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