Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Oct. 10, 2008

Yahoo has announced that OneSearch with voice is now integrated into a shortcut on some models of the Nokia Series 60 wireless devices.

Now, Yahoo says end-users can either type or speak queries right into their phones.

“The oneSearch shortcut for Nokia Series 60 is one of the ways we’re helping make search more discoverable, simplifying it so it’s front and center the first time you log on,” said Yahoo spokesman Cory Pforzheimer.

Yahoo is targeting the wireless market through three avenues: mobile phone carriers, device OEMs and direct to consumer channels.

Unlike Google, Yahoo’s strategy is to simply not get involved in creating an operating system or mobile handset because the market already is incredibly fragmented, Pforzheimer said. Instead, in order to reach the masses, it’s about making features compatible across handsets and above the layers of fragmentation.

He added "while Apple talks about getting the iPhone into millions of hands, we’re talking about getting our services to billions.”

“Wireless is an area we feel we are dominant. We have an early and aggressive lead, both in search and advertising," he said.

Overall, Yahoo has more than sixty partnerships with operators all around the globe. It announced the launch on AT&T’s portal in September, making AT&T the first U.S. wireless carrier to integrate Yahoo's mobile search service directly into its portal.

With Yahoo Blueprint, the Number Two search company is offering tools for mobile developers so their apps will work across a broad range of mobile handsets.

Yahoo will still certify applications to run in Yahoo Go, but it also is now allowing system integrators to use its development tools and distribute through their own chosen methods, so no certification from Yahoo is needed in such cases.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.

Source: T-Mobile USA.