Yahoo! Aims for Lead in Mobile Search Space

In a bid to restore investor faith and aggressively drive into the mobile search market, Yahoo will announce a new version of Go, its mobile phone search software, today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. About 500 million people use Yahoo services via their PCs, where it is second to Google in Web search. However, as mobile phones outsold PCs by about 4-to-1 in Q3 of last year, Yahoo has opted to plunge into the mobile search market. Go's oneSearch function classifies queries by type to provide the user with a more efficient search. Yahoo will use Web ads to encourage users to download the software themselves, rather than relying on mobile service providers or handset manufacturers. The company will announce partnerships with Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Research in Motion under which the software will be included with handsets. Competition should be fierce: Apple is working on a mobile phone and Google has introduced mobile versions of its services.

• Sources: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg
• Related commentary: The iPhone Will Probably Be Released In 2007: Who Is Apple Up Against?, Yahoo!'s Reorg: Has Anything Actually Changed? . Conference call transcripts: Q3 2006
• Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO). Competitors: Google, Inc. (GOOG), Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL). ETFs: Internet HOLDRs (HHH), First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index (FDN)

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