News Categories
	World Iraq Business Technology Sports Entertainment Health Science Politics

	T-Mobile's Web2go Will Use Yahoo's oneSearch (NewsFactor)
	Yahoo has won another wireless carrier for its mobile Internet search tool. The company joined T-Mobile in announcing Thursday that oneSearch will be the search utility for T-Mobile's web2go service. Yahoo said more than 70 mobile operators worldwide are now using its mobile search tool. T-Mobile said oneSearch will provide web2go users a better Web-browsing experience "by making it easier to view and navigate the Web through a customizable home page," as well a simplified shopping and download experience. Grouped Results oneSearch enables users to search for a variety of information on the Web. It also allows users to find content on the T-Mobile store, including ringtones, wallpaper and games. The search results will place relevant ads at the customer's fingertips, with either sponsored search results or display ads. Since a mobile user's display space is limited, the Yahoo tool has been designed to provide results grouped around a given search term. For instance, a search for a movie title returns theaters with show times, reviews, information on the actors, and related articles. Or a search on a sports team returns relevant scores, schedules, profiles for teams, news, and a link to the team's Web site. 'More Easily Digestible Content' The basic idea is that, rather than having to use a mobile device to drill down into search links as one might do on a computer, the most common collection of related data comes to the top on the first search. This approach, said T-Mobile USA Chief Development Officer Cole Brodman, "delivers a more intuitive mobile experience that places the most relevant information at the fingertips of T-Mobile customers." Sean Ryan, an analyst at industry research firm IDC, noted that efforts have been ongoing to determine the most useful way to search on a mobile device. "It's limited, of course, by the small screen, alphanumeric and function keys" and other factors, he said, so just shrinking the search results isn't the best solution for mobile. Originally, he said, there was an attempt to try to have the content a user would most likely need "on deck" with the carrier, but people wanted access to unlimited content. He added that Yahoo's approach provides "much more easily digestible content" up-front, so there are fewer subsequent searches to find the information you're looking for. Ryan noted that he's also seen oneSearch coupled with a speech-recognition tool, so users can use voice instead of a finger as the input mechanism. Taken from here