Yahoo Revises Search Service for Mobile Devices

Yahoo recently unveiled its latest weapon in the ongoing battle with Google for Internet search and advertising supremacy.

The software is called Go for Mobile 2.0, and was released shortly after Google made a partnership announcement with Samsung Electronics. This partnership means that most Samsung cellphones will now be equipped with Google's own brand of mobile software. (Source: mobile-tech-today.com)

The Go for Mobile 2.0 service is an upgrade from software Yahoo introduced last year. The new revision makes it easier for users to move among various online services and have easier access to news information, sports scores, weather reports, movie clips, photos, maps and email.

The Go for Mobile 2.0 software will also be equipped with a search service called oneSearch. The new search feature interprets the user's intent more accurately than in previous models and will truncate search results accordingly. (Source: mobile-tech-today.com)

For instance, if a user is searching for the "Miami Dolphins", oneSearch will assume the user is interested in updated scores, team profiles and the latest news affecting the team specifically. The oneSearch service also intends to greatly reduce or entirely remove irrelevant search results altogether.

Internet services on mobile phones remains a surprisingly small market in the United States. Nevertheless, industry analysts are confidant that the demand for Internet services on mobile phones will eventually surpass the market for computer-based Internet services as the capabilities of cellphones and the bandwidth of wireless networks continue to improve at a rapid rate. (Source: nytimes.com)

The attempt at securing a leading position in mobile service software is especially important for Yahoo. The company has struggled in years past as Google continues to cement its lead in Internet search while far surpassing all other competition in online video service with its acquisition of YouTube.

Yahoo has been continually criticized for lacking the initiative needed to be a major player in Internet search, while also failing to capitalize on the rapidly popular forms of social networking, now dominated predominately by MySpace and Facebook.

The Go for Mobile 2.0 software is currently available on approximately 70 handset models and is expected to be on 400 devices by the end of 2007. Yahoo has also recently signed a number of agreements with handset makers that would soon make the Go for Mobile 2.0 service available at a higher volume, though the exact details of these agreements have yet to be released to the public. (Source: nytimes.com)