• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 12, 2008

Marketers tuning into search and the mobile Internet will take the medium more seriously when they realize that the millions of people in the U.S. who surf the Web on smartphones can't be ignored. That's according to Greg Sterling, founder of Sterling Market Intelligence and contributing editor at Search Engine Land, who participated in a panel discussion Thursday on trends that marketers will see in 2009.

A look into search trends reveals that the mobile Internet will play a bigger role in campaigns next year. Marketers will not likely discount the marketing power behind the nearly 170 million smartphones that iSuppli estimates Apple, BlackBerry, Research in Motion, Samsung and others will build this year. That number jumps to nearly 195 million in 2009 and 315 million in 2010, according to the El Segundo, Calif. research firm.

Aside from Sterling, Chris Sherman, executive editor, Search Engine Land; Dana Todd, CMO at Newsforce, and SEMPO chairperson; and Jeffrey Pruitt, EVP at iCrossing and SEMPO president also shared predictions for 2009 during the "Search Marketing 2008: What We've Learned, Where We're Headed" webinar sponsored by Marin Software and Webcast by Third Door Media.

Sterling said mobile technology would bridge the gap between the Internet and the point of sale for retailers by allowing people to use smartphones to compare prices, show coupons to clerks at checkouts, and respond to surveys via SMS.

While mobile might have an impact on retail store prices, the impulse shopper, the one who needs the television or the sweater at the moment they see it on the shelf, won't go away. These are the consumers marketers will target based on their location and demographics through cell tower and triangulation technologies built into browser like Google Chrome and the next versions of FireFox and Microsoft Windows 7.

Google on Thursday removed the "beta" label on its fully baked version of Chrome Internet browser, which the search engine believes is faster and plays video better, although it still doesn't have a version for Apple Mac owners.

"When technology can tell where I live and shop online, advertisers will target me using location as a proxy for demographics because all the data about income and household demographics is available to the public," Sterling said. "It can be layered into the backend of search marketing platforms and people can start using select cities to target. It makes search into a different animal tied to location."

Mobile will prompt marketers to integrate search "thoughtfully" into campaigns. Historically, measuring return on investments (ROIs) has been the biggest challenge when integrating online and offline campaigns, but mobile should provide additional tracking capabilities. People will begin to get smarter about deploying a "patchwork of methodologies" to support campaigns, according to Dana Todd, president and CMO at Newsforce.

Todd said companies such as Microsoft Atlas have begun to collect tons of data on shopper to determine some kind of order from the chaos in managing ROI for campaigns. "We'll be able to get a better grasp on tracking within the next 10 years," she said. "Freakishly, though, it's a little scary if you think about it. They match up your buying habits in grocery stores with what you do online."