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Yahoo Takes Mobile Search Wars One Step Further

Yahoo expanded the number of handsets that can use its oneSearch service to more than 85% of mobile phones in the United States. The search function is available on Yahoo's mobile web page or through its Yahoo! Go platform. Is it better than Google's mobile search?

In testing Google and Yahoo's mobile search functions, I found them to be comparable. The stand-alone version of oneSearch that's at the top of Yahoo's mobile web page worked well. Performing a mobile Google search for "metallica" (don't ask) delivered 24.4 million results to my handset, the first of which was Metallica's official site. The same search on Yahoo delivered an unnumbered set of results that were a mixed bag of pictures, news articles, and more. Though the official Metallica site was was the first "Web" result, it was actually the seventh item down, following three images and three news articles.

Performing searches for "pizza", "bmw", and "espn" yielded similar results.

Yahoo! claims its oneSearch is designed to make searching for and finding information as quick as possible for consumers by providing relevant results right on the page such as news headlines, images, business listings and more as well as easy navigation to other websites. While this may be true of the stand-alone version, using oneSearch as part of Yahoo's Go for Mobile service is altogether different.

The Yahoo Go application takes forever to launch. For. Ev. Ver. We're talking up to 2 minutes. The problem is, it syncs all the latest headlines to your handset, and no matter which handset I've used it on, the app just takes an eternity to get going. Once it does initiate, oneSearch is the first option on the Go home page. From there, it provides the same results as the regular web version.

So, if you're in need of quick answers, try the stand-alone version of Yahoo's oneSearch first.

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