Yahoo oneSearch for Phones Goes Local

Yahoo aims to leapfrog Google's mobile offers with oneSearch, which delivers locally-relevant search results to mobile phone users.

Internet giant Yahoo wants to prove it can out-do rival Google in the mobile Internet search arena, today taking the wraps off oneSearch, a new Internet search application available for any Internet-capable mobile phone. What makes mobile oneSearch different? Yahoo claims that most Internet searches executed from mobile phones are looking for local area information…so that’s exactly what oneSearch provides, presenting search results with a bias towards information specific to the searcher’s location and area.

“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,” said Marco Boerries, Yahoo’s senior VP of connected life, in a release. “Consumers that have tried oneSearch love it, telling us it’s easier and more helpful than any other mobile search services they’ve used. We are delivering the results consumers want with just one search, not a list of Web links.”

Yahoo oneSearch carries sponsored search results and displays in-service ads—so while search results may be tailored to your location, some of your limited phone screen real-estate is going to be consumed by come-ons from Yahoo partners and local businesses. But oneSearch users may not care, if they can get the results they want on the first try, rather than having to burrow through pages of search results or carefully crafting queries using little more than a thumb and an ounce of hope. As an example, Yahoo says that if someone wants to go to a movie, all oneSearch needs is the movie’s name: oneSearch will list the movie, user ratings, local theaters playing the film, and news headlines related to the film. Results are presented in categories, instead of by assumed relevance, making it easier to find specific types of information. And Yahoo says oneSearch works with any Internet-capable phone with a Web browser: just point the browser to m.yahoo.com.

Yahoo oneSearch is currently available in the United States; the company plans to launch the service in international markets later in 2007.