A taxonomy is disclosed for describing mobile electronic services (MES) comprising a tree structure for organizing descriptive characteristics of the MES, wherein the tree structure includes: a root level for identifying an environment to which the MES is directed; a service model level for identifying a plurality of service categories; an entity level for identifying a plurality of accessing entity categories; a platform level for identifying a plurality of available component platforms; a class level for identifying a plurality of application characteristics; and an application level for identifying a plurality of specific MES applications; and metadata for identifying additional information relevant to selection of the MES.