• PC World
• »Phones

Web search on a basic cell phone can be challenging for various reasons--a painfully slow connection, a poorly designed interface, irrelevant search results, or a combination of these factors. Though performance will still depend on your phone and the data connection it can achieve, Yahoo aims to improve the experience on the software and service side of things. The company brings two mobile applications that are designed to run on handsets: Yahoo OneSearch and Yahoo Go 2. OneSearch is an online search engine you can access from a cell phone's Web browser, while Go 2 is an application that integrates Yahoo's free Web apps (including OneSearch, e-mail, instant messaging, and photo sharing) into a single portal that runs on certain compatible mobile devices.

Curious about how these applications work, I met with Yahoo's vice president of global mobile products, Ojas Reje, at the company's headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Nestled in an office park where its neighbors include Lockheed Martin, Yahoo occupies several multistory gray buildings. Inside a nondescript conference room in Building D, Ojas and I talked in depth about Yahoo's latest mobile services. Here's the scoop.

OneSearch

Yahoo's OneSearch mobile search engine is designed to present instant answers in a format suitable for a 1.5-inch or smaller screen. In general "people aren't doing research on their cell phone," says Ojas. So the goal is to provide localized information such as shops, restaurants, weather forecasts, and traffic reports. To get local information, you must first enter a zip code or a city and state. If the phone has an integrated GPS capability, OneSearch can automatically recognize its location. When I entered my zip code in the search field, OneSearch responded with links to a local city guide and 'Today in the city', which includes weather and traffic information.

OneSearch uses recent, popular searches to serve up relevant results. It consults Yahoo's database of search queries and then provides what it thinks are the best possible answers for the mobile user. If you enter a generic word such as "pizza" or "apple," OneSearch will spew out information about local pizzerias and Apple stores, respectively--things that you're likely to look for while on the go.

The system tries to figure out the context of the question, too. For example, searching for "300" might generate all kinds of things. But because the search engine keeps the on-the-go user in mind, Ojas explains, it provides details about the current movie 300, with links to local theaters and show times.

Depending on the phone and its Web browser, the results page may be text-centric, may contain one or more pictures, or may require additional clicks. On the Windows Mobile-based smart phones that I used--Verizon's Motorola Q and HP's iPaq 510 with a Cingular SIM card--the results page contained details in associated categories such as news and local merchants. On the "300" search, for example, it provided links to the movie trailer and to the Internet Movie Database, along with random photos (somehow associated with "300") from Yahoo's Flickr service. On the Java-based phones that I used--T-Mobile's Motorola Rizr Z3 and Sprint's Sanyo SCP-7050--I received a stripped-down version of the results page (which is not surprising, given the small screen) showing the top-level answer (with an associated image, if available) and links to related categories.

Results for local businesses (for example, pizzerias) weren't listed in any discernibly logical order--not alphabetically, by proximity from my zip code, or by star rating--and there was no option to change this. When I selected a restaurant, I got an option for driving directions, a link to the restaurant's Web site, and user reviews.

OneSearch works on any mobile phone that has a browser and a data plan. You can access it in either of two ways: by launching your handset's browser and entering m.yahoo.com in it, or by visiting the OneSearch page from your PC and entering your phone number in the designated boxes. Yahoo will then send a text message to your phone with a link to OneSearch.

Yahoo Go 2

Yahoo Go 2 is the streamlined upgrade to the company's mobile Web portal. It's a one-stop shop for many things Yahoo--Flickr, Mail, Messenger, and even the new OneSearch search engine. In addition to Yahoo's familiar services, you get local information (such as city guide and maps), news (including user-defined RSS feeds), sports (with an option to add your favorite teams), finance, entertainment, and weather (set up your city and other towns like travel destinations).

There are two ways to install Go 2 on your phone: You can launch your handset's browser, enter get.go.yahoo.com in the Web address field, and download the program. Or you can visit the Go 2 page from your PC and enter your phone number in the designated boxes, after which you'll receive a text message on your phone with a link to download the app.

Using Sprint's BlackBerry 8703e, I downloaded the program by entering get.go.yahoo.com in the browser. The process was straightforward and within minutes, the Yahoo Go 2 icon appeared on the BlackBerry's home screen. When I fired it up, I signed in to my Yahoo account (it remembers your log-in for next time). To use the application, you must have Web access, so make sure you stay within your allocated data plan.

On most cell phones, the Go 2 home page lists the categories, which are shown as widgets (similar to icons), at the bottom of the screen. Scroll left to right to find the topic you want. On the BlackBerry 8703e, the widgets appeared on the right side of the screen, complementing the vertical scrolling action of the BlackBerry's thumbwheel. Scrolling up and down--from 'Entertainment news' to 'Weather' to 'Local & Maps'--was fast and responsive. On Go 2, Yahoo's OneSearch is expanded to include 'Today in My City' and 'Popular Searches'. Drilling down to 'Today in My City' served up useful local info, including the four-day weather forecast, area traffic, a couple of local news headlines, and cultural goings-on.

To view my Yahoo Mail, I went through Settings to include it in my selection of categories. Ojas Reje says that Go 2 pushes and synchronizes your Yahoo Mail to your device. On Sprint's BlackBerry 8703e, I read and composed e-mail messages without a hitch.

Ojas also brags about Go 2's streamlined menus, which reduce the necessary clicks to remarkably few. With Flickr embedded on your camera phone, for instance, you can upload photos to an existing Flickr account from the phone. Simply select the photo and click Upload Now. Head over to Yahoo's site for an interactive tour.

At press time, only the (close-to-final) gamma version was available; and it was compatible with only a very limited selection of multimedia handsets (including Samsung's Sync from Cingular and Nokia's 6136 from T-Mobile) and a few BlackBerry models (including the Pearl and the 8703e). Some Windows Mobile smart phones--among them the Motorola Q, the Treo 750--and a host of standard phones weren't supported yet. People who use handsets that run on the BREW (which covers many Verizon phones), Linux, or Palm platform, are out of luck, too, because Go 2 won't run on these operating systems. Yahoo says that it continues to look at areas to expand with Go 2, but the company did not say whether these OSs will be supported in the near future. Visit Yahoo's site to see whether your phone will run Yahoo Go 2.

Next month, I'll take a closer look at Google's mobile services and see how it stacks up to Yahoo's. Stay tuned...

Got a favorite mobile search tool? Tell us about it.