Yahoo! Go! For! Windows! Mobile! Now! Available!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 07 March 2007 22:17

Your IT - Entertainment

In a bid for dominance in the mobile search space, Yahoo! Go 2.0 is now available for million of Windows Mobile devices including a deal to pre-load it onto HTC smartphones.

With Microsoft’s ‘Windows Mobile’ Smartphones an undoubted success in a world of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung cell phones, Yahoo! has decided that it’s a market they can’t afford to ignore, and as a result have made their Yahoo! Go 2.0 available for the Windows Mobile platform.

While the original version of Yahoo! Go was derided by some as hard to use, Yahoo! Go 2.0 is a much better version that delivers a truly useful mobile search – and more – experience.

Although already available for other brands of cell phone, there are over 175 Windows Mobile smartphones capable of running the new Yahoo! Go 2.0 software, with over 100 models on sale in stores today.

Marco Boerries, the senior vice president of ‘connected life, Yahoo!’, said that “Consumers have been clamoring for us to bring Yahoo! Go 2.0 to Windows Mobile devices since we launched the service less than two months ago. There are millions of mobile phones on the Windows Mobile platform in the market today and consumers with these devices want to use the most advanced, exciting services available. Our innovative Yahoo! Go 2.0 service finally brings the open Internet to the mobile phone and gives consumers the compelling experience they have been looking for."

Microsoft are also naturally excited, with John O’Rourke, a general manager at Microsoft Corp. saying that “Yahoo! Go 2.0 includes an exciting set of features that helps people access their favorite Internet content while mobile. The combination of this application with a Windows Mobile powered device will allow our joint customers to get quick access to the Yahoo! experiences they want -- from news to e-mail to photo sharing -- all from a single, powerful device.”

Of course this begs the question to Microsoft – where is your similar service? After all, Microsoft offer the Windows Live search engine, and should be somewhat ashamed that Yahoo is setting the pace in the mobile search space. Still, Microsoft wouldn’t be where it is today without plenty of hardware and software partners, and with the whole ‘embrace and extend’ policy, we can be sure that a ‘Microsoft Mobile Search + More 1.0’ is on the way.

Yahoo! have also done a deal with major Taiwanese Windows Mobile device manufacturer HTC, who supply smartphones to major cell phone companies worldwide, and who also partly own the Dopod brand which sell HTC devices exclusively. HTC make millions of Windows Mobile devices and this will be very helpful to Yahoo! in getting their search software used by millions of people worldwide. HTC are also racing to be the first company to release a smartphone powered by Windows Mobile 6.0, as most devices are still loaded with the now-older Windows Mobile 5.0 OS.

Peter Chou, CEO of HTC said that “HTC is always seeking new ways to keep people connected to their community of friends and personalized content while mobile. With high resolution displays and breakthrough designs, HTC's products are the ideal platform for Yahoo! Go 2.0. We are pleased to offer users the ultimate Yahoo! Go 2.0 experience on our innovative devices.”

So, what are the key features of Yahoo! Go 2.0 for Windows Mobile? Please read onto page 2 to find out!