T-Mobile dumps Google for Yahoo

EUROPEAN mobile phone giant T-Mobile is to end its relationship with Google as preferred search provider, instead signing a strategic partnership with rival Yahoo.

From March 30, Yahoo will become the preferred search provider for T-Mobile in Europe with the companies cooperating on developing industry-leading mobile search solutions.

T-Mobile said Yahoo’s oneSearch quickly and easily delivers relevant results and instant answers to search queries, removing the need for consumers to navigate through a sea of PC Web links.

“This cooperation agreement offers significant advantages to our mobile Internet customers, and creates the foundation for successful cooperation in the future,” T-Mobile International chief executive officer Hamid Akhavan said.

“With Yahoo, T-Mobile has entered into a partnership with a true Internet pioneer,” he said.

T-Mobile is also expanding partnerships for its social web services by cooperating with communities such as YouTube, MySpace, Flickr and bebo, the company said.

“Cooperation with YouTube, MySpace, Flickr and bebo allows T-Mobile customers to develop and expand their personal networks whenever and wherever they like,” T-Mobile International Group Product & Innovation Officer Christopher Schläffer said.

For more e-Marketing news, click here.



For more Digital Content news, click here.

Yahoo revs mobile search engine

YAHOO has unveiled expanded its search service targeting mobile phone users that delivers locally relevant results to search inquiries direct to the handset.

Yahoo said its new oneSearch service for mobile effectively reinvents search. Instead of delivering a page of Web links as the search result, the oneSearch service delivers deeper information at a local level.

The service is currently accessible to about 85 per cent of mobile phones in the US through the mobile Web. Yahoo said the service would be rolled out to international markets and different language versions in the next several months.

“Yahoo! oneSearch has already started to change the mobile search game by fundamentally improving the way consumers' access and use the Internet on their mobile phones," Yahoo senior vice-president Marco Boerries said.

“We are delivering the results consumers want with just one search, not a list of Web links,” he said.

Localised search is expected to become the next big money earner for the search community. The oneSearch system is set up to deliver deeper information based on the location of the mobile phone user.

For example, if a consumer wants to go to a movie this weekend, they just need to type the name of the movie into the search box. The search results would first list the movie, including a user rating, local theatres where the movie is playing, and news headlines related to the movie and more.

To dig more deeply into the results, the phone user would click on any item or category. For example, to see all the movies playing at a specific listed theatre, they would just click on the theatre name.

The company said the oneSearch mobile web site will have sponsored search results and display advertisements built into the service – extending the reach of Yahoo's advertising services to the mobile environment.

For more e-Marketing news, click below.

Google, Yahoo get seriously mobile

IF there was any question about the mobile web being the next battleground for search giants, both Google and Yahoo answered it yesterday in separate announcements targeting mobile search.

On the same say Yahoo kicked off a recruitment drive to entice mobile content publishers to use its oneSearch system, Google opened its mobile search service to the public, inviting them to “take it for a spin.”

Yahoo yesterday launched it Mobile Publisher Services, a suite of tools designed to let publishers increase the “discovery, distribution and monetisation” of their content on mobile phones.

The new services include Yahoo Mobile Ad Network, Mobile Content Engine, Mobile Media Directory and Mobile Site Submit.

“By bringing together the global audiences of Yahoo!'s popular mobile services with those of participating publishers, Yahoo! will create a combined pool of valuable inventory,” the company said.

The company said the Mobile Publisher Services went live across 19 countries yesterday, but not in Australia. It is expected the service will be launched in Australia through a separate initiative involving the Yahoo7 joint venture partners.

Google meanwhile, has opened its mobile search functions to the public.

“The next time you visit Google.com on your phone, you'll see a link that will take you to a mobile search experience that's more tailored to your needs,” Google product manager Yael Shacham was quoted as saying in US reports.

For more Digital Content, Telecommunications and E-Marketing news, click below