Mobile Search: The Need for Content Feed and Metadata Standards

The current explosion in mobile content exposes the need for search engines to enable its discovery. Simple browsing and manual entry of URLs are not efficient discovery mechanisms. To facilitate discovery, content must be organized and identifiable for ingestion by search engines. In particular, the ad hoc methodologies of content catalog formatting currently employed by mobile content providers must give way to standardization. This document details a proposed approach to content feed standards. A simple set of best practices and basic but flexible standards will greatly assist those seeking to deliver content through mobile search engines to wireless users.