Amid rumors of a Google phone that some believe could optimize the mobile  search experience, Yahoo is making its mobile intentions crystal clear. The prince of search on Tuesday took its new oneSearch service to the mobile Web with a bold claim of reinventing search.
Yahoo oneSearch, the service that initially launched in Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0, promises instant answers on a mobile device. Yahoo is drawing from its desktop search technology and relationships with content partners to offer what it calls an "unmatched mobile search experience."
"We are delivering the results consumers want with just one search, not a list of Web links," Marco Boerries, senior vice president of connected life at Yahoo, said in a statement. He claimed customers are raving about the mobile search service, which is now accessible through more than 85 percent of mobile phones, according to wireless market research firm M:Metrics.
Search: Round Two
The way Yahoo sees it, Google might wear the crown in desktop search, but the former search king isn't going to stand idly by while its nemesis takes over the all-important mobile search platform. Indeed, Yahoo and Google seem prepared to duke it out in this new search arena.
Yahoo oneSearch focuses on offering quick, relevant results, such as news headlines, images, business listings -- right on the page -- instead of a list of links that users have to click through to find the answers they are looking for.
If a consumer is looking for movie times, for example, he or she would type the name of the movie into the search box. The results would call up the movie, and include a user rating, local theaters at which the movie is playing, news headlines related to the movie, and other content. To see all the movies playing at a specific listed theater requires simply clicking on the theater name.
In its current iteration, Google's mobile search demands that users click on several additional links to get the same information . In essence, Yahoo is starting the search process by defining neighborhoods on the basis of zip codes and limiting the results to those parameters, according to Avi Greengart, a principal analyst of mobile devices at Current Analysis.
"Yahoo is taking a more local approach," he explained. "They are trying to limit the number of search results because of the limited screen real estate on the cell phone." (continued...)
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