Digital Design Blog

Yahoo Raises Mobile Internet Bar With oneSearch 2.0

Yesterday at the CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas, Yahoo introduced the new version of their Mobile search. This latest incarnation of mobile search lets Web Publishers integrate search into their mobile sites. In my opinion, Yahoo is the leader in the mobile web application department. At least for now.

After using it a few times, I have to give it thumbs up. Search results grouped by category in a single page works great. Search assist is pretty neat, nothing new here but well executed. It is refreshingly simple and easy to use. Yahoo also released oneSEARCh Voice which lets you speak your search query and it finds the results for you. I was unable to test this feature, as the current supported phones are only the BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry 8800 series. What I am most interested in is the adaptive voice feedback. The more you use it the better it would work. It also includes suggestions on similarly sounding words.

All in all it’s great to see that larger companies can take charge in mapping out the future set of mobile computing. It might be that Yahoo is in a tight spot right now that they don’t mind taking risks.

I always say, “When it comes to invention. Failure is always an option. It keeps you from being an implementer of yesterday’s big idea.”

For more information mobile.yahoo.com
*images courtesy of Yahoo