Google’s Three BI Behavior Groups?

In an Information Week article called “Google Lays Out Its Mobile User Experience Strategy”, Stephen Wellman writes about Google’s latest steps in their mission to “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”:

…Google breaks down mobile users into three behavior groups:

A. “Repetitive now”
B. “Bored now”
C. “Urgent now”

The “repetitive now” user is someone checking for the same piece of information over and over again, like checking the same stock quotes or weather. Google uses cookies to help cater to mobile users who check and recheck the same data points.

The “bored now” are users who have time on their hands. People on trains or waiting in airports or sitting in cafes. Mobile users in this behavior group look a lot more like casual Web surfers, but mobile phones don’t offer the robust user input of a desktop, so the applications have to be tailored.

The “urgent now” is a request to find something specific fast, like the location of a bakery or directions to the airport. Since a lot of these questions are location-aware, Google tries to build location into the mobile versions of these queries.

The categories work well for corporate use of BI. “Repetitive now” is clearly equivalent to production reporting and dashboards. “Urgent now” describes a power user responding to an executive request. “Bored now” doesn’t quite translate, but it could be considered the equivalent of an analyst digging for trends when not busy responding to urgent requests.

Just as personal search has ushered in new interest and investment in corporate search and text analytics, I believe that personal and mobile BI trends will have a great influence on corporate BI in the future.