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Follow UsYahoo!’s oneSearch SMS service is based on keywords and includes stock quotes, weather and local business listings
Yahoo! India has launched keyword based SMS search following the launch of its GPRS-based search portal earlier this year. Mobile subscribers can send keywords for city, movie, company name, business name and news to Yahoo!’s short code (58242) to get weather information, movie timings, stock quotes, local business listings and news updates. The SMSes will be charged at premium rates up to Rs 3.
This is the first SMS search service launched by Yahoo! for any Asian country, says Manish Dalal, senior director, mobile products, at Yahoo! India. Dalal says it is essential in SMS search for the right information to be made available in the first response. “In SMS, you can’t be very interactive, so the first SMS we send should make sense. We also provide useful WAP (mobile Internet) links for additional content.”
The SMS service is available in four cities – Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore, and the company plans to add four more top cities by the end of 2007.
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Yahoo! India has also recently added a SMS feature on its email service. Dalal adds, “We are looking at more integration points across properties.” The idea is to make available on the mobile the same information and services that Yahoo! offers online.
In terms of advertising, Yahoo! India does place banner and text ads on its oneSearch search engine on WAP, but there is currently no advertising on SMS search. “Advertisers are not completely convinced about the mobile, and SMS advertising needs more thought and understanding. What we need right now is to build awareness about mobile search and increase its usage along with other mobile services like email,” adds Dalal.
The company has also added more content to its WAP portal. This includes flight information and content from its Q&A site, Yahoo! Answers. Dalal adds that Yahoo! plans to expand on the content, including Wikipedia and local business listings on WAP. “At a later stage, we could also look at adding user reviews and ratings,” shares Dalal.
