Wednesday, January 5, 2011

In-Car Search: Waiting on Google

During the much anticipated Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday (1/4/11), Toyota unveiled Entune. According to Toyota's website, "Entune is a revolutionary in-car experience that keeps you and your Toyota connected. It’s never been easier. Just download the Entune mobile app to applicable phones, and you can access a variety of in-car applications from your phone. You can control the applications by using the touch screen or voice commands." See the Entune website for additional specifications: www.toyota.com/entune

Or check out the video:


To some, the interconnect-ability (made up word :) ) is a no-brainer. With the rise of smart phones and other devices that enable users to access the internet, it seems like surfing the web or syncing your mobile devices to your vehicle should have occurred a few years ago. But, as we collective IS829-ers found out today, Ford and GM have only made minor strides towards synchronization.

Toyota's unveiling of Entune established a partnership with Bing: named the "first deal to provide in-car search capabilities," according to Search Engine Land.

Bing has struggled in the Search industry where they have 10-15% market share (if they're lucky). The Toyota partnership is most recent in Microsoft's attempt to compete with search-giant Google. On August 24, 2010, Microsoft partnered with Yahoo! to establish the Search Alliance which resulted in Bing-powered organic and paid search results that appear on both Yahoo! and Bing search results pages. Check out the Search Alliance for more information.

Bing was the first "in-car search" mover. What do you think Google is up to?

Google always seems to be at the forefront of technological innovation and I am certain they have something up their sleeves. I wouldn't be surprised to see an Android-based platform for automobiles that allows a user to sync their Android phone with the vehicle's OS. Google could seek a partnership with GM but the auto-industry giant may be conflicted given GM's OnStar service. Google's GPS navigation app could eliminate OnStar's popular turn-by-turn feature.

Whether Google partners with GM or not, they better have something brewing.

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