Yahoo! launches mobile search portal in India

The mobile service portal, OneSearch, debuts in seven Asian countries, including India, soon after the US launch in March 2007

Yahoo! has launched OneSearch beta, its mobile search service, in India. Yahoo! oneSearch is available on its exclusive web portal, in.m.yahoo.com. The service was launched in six other Asian countries, including Malaysia and Singapore, as well.

OneSearch is a keyword search on the mobile web, which can be accessed on a mobile browser with a GPRS connection. The service is available only on GSM phones for now, and not on CDMA.

Users can access content on news, finance, weather, images and Flickr on the OneSearch portal. According to the company’s statement, Yahoo! has tie-ups with content providers to offer better search results using its own search technology.

Describing the service, David Ko, vice-president, president and general manager, Connected Life Asia, Yahoo!, said in a statement, “It understands what busy consumers are looking for when they are on the move and brings up relevant answers in the first screen.”

Yahoo! will also open up the portal to advertisers in the form of sponsored links and display advertising, according to a company spokesperson. The ads will let users interact by visiting their sites or landing page, or by connecting to them through a call. The advertisers include Yahoo’s global clients such as Pepsi. Yahoo! opened up its OneSearch portal to mobile publishers in March 2007 in the US, where it is accessible to 85 per cent mobile phones.

Prior to this launch, Yahoo! Go mobile was available to mobile users in India as a downloadable application, providing access to services such as Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger.

© 2007 agencyfaqs!