Yahoo’s oneSearch beta, their user friendly mobile search offering which has changed the way that I search via my mobile phone, is expanding into Canada, the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
Yahoo oneSearch is quite hot right now, especially in local, as the local results are served automatically based upon user location. So, if you’re in New York searching for just “pizza” (not “pizza new york”), you’ll still be served local results to your area based upon the location of the provider tower you are connecting with. Fly to Miami and the same search delivers locations in the Miami market.
This expansion is large for Yahoo Search, but possibly even larger as it adds numerous new marketplaces to Yahoo’s mobile advertising services; pay per call, pay per click in sponsored mobile search results, and display advertising. To test out Yahoo oneSearch on your PC or to use it on your mobile, simply go to m.yahoo.com.
In March I reviewed Yahoo oneSearch:
In a mobile form of what reminds me a bit of the content driven Ask.com Smart Answers, Yahoo! oneSearch has the primary goal of bringing mobile web searchers exactly what they want on their mobile device : instant answers. The idea is to bring the most relevant and useful information to the mobile user in the most efficient time and space available, making best use of the small mobile browsers and judging the intent of the searcher.
The assumed intent of the searcher is the factor in deciding which Yahoo! content is served first during the oneSearch mobile experience. Yahoo oneSearch keeps track of current trends to deliver such targeted end results to the user, so a search for ‘300? would result in movie information while a search for ‘pizza’ would list local pizza joints automatically instead of web sites about pizza.
For example, if the mobile user wants to go see 300 at the movies, 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 theaters the movie is playing at, news headlines related to the movie and more.
