Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0 Beta Released

Yahoo! has launched a beta version of Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0, a customisable mobile search application designed to help users find stuff fast.

Image Spam Creates Growing ProblemEmploying a carousel-style interface, the application comes with Yahoo! Go ‘widgets’ offering e-mail, local information and maps, news, sports, finance, entertainment, weather, photo sharing and search functionality.

New for version two is Yahoo! oneSearch, a new mobile search service designed to give fast answers to perambulating punters.

Yahoo claims that oneSearch can recognise the ‘intent’ of a search term and present relevant content on the results page and not just a stream of links.

Image Spam Creates Growing ProblemYahoo! Go also makes it easy to get to other websites, without the need to faff about with al that fiddly http://www stuff – just type in the name of a website and you’ll be taken to the site.

The included Local & Maps widget looks to take on Google’s marvellous mobile mapping application and offers speedy access to interactive maps, driving directions and real time traffic updates, backed by local business directory information across the US, with ratings and reviews from the Yahoo! community.

Users can input their location and get relevant info, with local guides offering updated ‘what’s on’ listings with details of popular places to nosh, shop and visit.

Image Spam Creates Growing ProblemNews, Sports, Entertainment, Weather and Finance info can accessed via various widgets, with the ability to add new content via customised RSS feeds.

There’s also a Flickr widget to let users upload and manage snaps from their camera phone.

The Yahoo! Go 2.0 beta can be downloaded from their site, with support for over 70 other mobile devices, but not Palm (*shakes fist).

Yahoo! To Go

Yahoo! Scoops Motorola Deal

Yahoo! Scoops Motorola DealYahoo! and Motorola have cuddled up in their synergetic beds and fluffed up their co-branding pillows to announce a new deal that will see Yahoo! Go pre-installed on millions of Motorola handsets next year.

The deal sees the search engine further consolidate their market-leading position, with the company already having a deal with Nokia under their belts.

Thanks to an exchange of besuited handshakes earlier this year, Yahoo’s mobile services will also come pre-installed on many of Nokia’s new 60 series and “N” class multimedia phones.

Yahoo! Scoops Motorola DealWith two of the mobile phone big boys onboard, we reckon there’s been a fair amount of backside-kicking going on at arch-rivals Google, who must be well miffed to see Yahoo grab such a huge chunk of the market.

With the two dominant mobile handset players now signed up to Yahoo, Google will have no choice but to seek out second tier manufacturers, or dream up a new take on the mobile market.

Yahoo! Scoops Motorola DealWith more and more phones offering internet access, punters want to be able to easily access services, search the web and grab their mail on the move.

The Yahoo! Go software includes Yahoo! email, search and address book with a simplified interface designed for small screens.

With Yahoo! having their mobile software pre-installed on the two biggest handset manufacturers, the company are set to dominate the market, if only for the short term while the likes of Google and MSN work out a response.

Yahoo! Go

Yahoo Trip Planner Launches

Yahoo Launches Trip PlannerNow rolling out of its beta bed and arriving at the office for work is Yahoo’s new Trip Planner service, designed to let users plan their trips online and learn from fellow travellers experiences.

After a lengthy nine months in beta, the planner is designed to push all the Web 2.0 buttons by combining online travel shopping with social networking, photo sharing, search and interactive maps.

The service lets punters plan trips by rummaging through a Yahoo database of recommendations for lodging, restaurants, sights and other choices, with the option to let others offer feedback on your planned two week stay to, say, Grimsby (“Don’t go!”).

Visitors to new places can use the Yahoo Trip Planner to ask for local recommendations or search the Yahoo travel database of recommendations and come up with a list of interesting attractions and businesses, with the ability to knock up a schedule for taking in the sights.

Yahoo Launches Trip PlannerWeb-addicted types are invited to whip out their laptops and PDAs while on holiday and share their experiences via blog items, reviews and photos (personally, we’d rather be on the beach or downing dubious cocktails in the bar than fiddling about on Yahoo’s site, but each to their own).

Naturally, Yahoo Trip Planner ties in nice’n’tightly with the company’s other services, offering integration with their social-networking site Yahoo 360, the photo-sharing service Flickr and travel-shopping site FareChase.

Jasper Malcolmson, director of Yahoo Travel, declared the beta test a roaring success, saying that users had contributed “hundreds of thousands” of travel plans for places all over the world.

New for the service is an interactive world map with icons that link to user-contributed trip plans for each location.

Yahoo Launches Trip Planner“It is effectively a system to peruse the world for travel inspiration,” gushed Malcolmson.

Of course, Yahoo aren’t offering this new service purely out of the goodness of their search-engine enabled hearts.

By offering new compelling goodies, the company hopes that users will spend more time on their site, shell out for linked goods and help boost advertising revenue.

Yahoo Trip Planner

PayPal Exclusive Wallet On Yahoo: Wide-ranging Deal

PayPal Exclusive Wallet On Yahoo: Wide-ranging Deal PayPal is to be the exclusive online wallet across Yahoo’s product and services. In a wide-ranging, four component, business arrangement announced today, eBay and Yahoo will be stroking each other commercial departments.

In their words, PayPal will be “deeply integrated on the Yahoo! site and will receive prominent positioning when users purchase Yahoo! services.” Beyond this PayPal will also be offered to Yahoo’s merchants and publishers, including the Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo Search Marketing, Yahoo Merchant Solutions and other small business services.

Yahoo exclusive graphics ad provider to eBay
Additional details of the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” big dollar deal include Yahoo being the exclusive provider of graphical advertising on eBay.

PayPal Exclusive Wallet On Yahoo: Wide-ranging Deal Interestingly Yahoo will also be offering sponsored search for complementary products on some eBay.com search results pages in the U.S.

Click-to-Call Advertising “being explored”
As we’re sure you know, Click-to-Call will let the user click on an icon on an advert and speak directly to the advertiser, without touching the phone.

PayPal Exclusive Wallet On Yahoo: Wide-ranging DealFor us, this part of the announcement is a bit of a strange one. Yahoo has Yahoo Messenger with Voice and eBay has Skype, so who would provide the voice services in which circumstances is pretty unclear, and we would have though, an area for friction.

What they’re saying about it is, “Yahoo and eBay do not expect this relationship to have a material impact on their financial results in 2006. Both companies will incorporate any financial impact for 2007 and beyond when they deliver their business outlook for those periods.” Make of that what you will.

Internet Useful For Shopping (Non) Shock Report

Internet Useful For Shopping (Non) Shock ReportYahoo have released a report with communications company OMD today that looks into how the Internet influences peoples shopping habits. Not surprisingly it covers online purchases, but far more interesting is how people are using the Internet and other technology to inform their ‘real-world’ purchases.

They describe it as follthows

The Internet offers a collaborative environment where consumers turn for advice and the experience of others in weighing brands, discovering alternatives and distilling prices, as they weigh their purchase decisions

We think what they mean to say is people have a look around online and read stuff, helping them to make up their minds.

They found three things that are looked up online before people cough up the cash

  • Trusted information. Consumers say the Internet is the most trusted shopping information source (54 percent), followed by magazines (34 percent) and TV (23 percent). Seventy-four percent of people use trusted, familiar Web sites when purchasing online, and 55 percent opt-in for e-mail marketing messages from companies they trust.
  • Internet Useful For Shopping (Non) Shock Report

  • Choices. On average, consumers consider three brands before making a purchasing decision. Many “comparison shop” using the Internet, but 38 percent of consumers still want to be able to see and touch products before they buy. The Internet helps narrow down options before they purchase either online or offline. In addition, 61 percent agree that Internet search engines are one of their favourite tools for finding product information.
  • Price. The research shows that 61 percent of people consider themselves to be serious bargain shoppers. The Internet is changing the concept of fixed pricing by enabling consumers to search for the same product at myriad prices, as well as actively monitoring a product for price discounts or finding coupons and rebate offers.

Other tools in the consumers tech-arsenal
Interestingly they’ve found that camera phones and text messages are powerful tools in the consumers tech-arsenal. Shoppers are now text messaging each other, sending pictures of merchandise and using Internet-enabled phones to compare prices, all from the point of sale (shop to you).

One of the ‘old fashioned’ methods that we’ve often used, is to call up a mate who you know will be in front of a Browser and ‘speak to them’, asking if they can check something online for you while you wait. Perhaps they didn’t mention it because it wasn’t hi-tech enough.

They also found that this has ‘given consumers a new kind of “social empowerment”‘ Oh, but of course.

Internet now first point of reference
The surprising shift is towards the Internet being the first point of reference to find out stuff. Surprising because it’s above friends and family which were always the golden choice. Less surprising is that offline reviews and traditional media sources are losing out, perhaps because people generally don’t even believe the news that they print.

Internet Useful For Shopping (Non) Shock ReportHaving come from a communications agency, this report, “Long and Winding Road: The Route to the Cash Register”, won’t surprise you in using all sorts of language in a way that hasn’t ever been seen in English before. They’ll also grab hold of words that you have heard before and use them to create comfortable categories. Oh and tell you things that really are patently obvious but wrap them up in a different way ….

Consumers Travel Four Distinct Paths

The findings from the Long and Winding Road research can help advertisers connect with consumers online at crucial stages of the decision-making process. The study uncovers four distinct paths that consumers take on their way towards making a purchase:

  • QUICK: This path involves little consideration. Consumer packaged goods are often quick paths.
  • WINDING: Comparison shopping between different channels, including online and offline retailers, typifies this path. Retail goods are often winding paths.
  • LONG: This path involves researching various options over an extended period of time. Technology purchases are often long paths, particularly if the price tag is high.
  • LONG AND WINDING: This path requires investing a considerable amount of time researching across several channels. Many big ticket items — including automobiles and financial services — follow a long and winding path. These paths offer marketeers the most opportunity to impact and possibly sway a purchase decision in their favour, because consumers of these products are the hungriest for information.

That’s funny
We found it pretty funny that a ‘worldwide media communications specialist’ that OMD proclaim themselves to be, is the third search result for omd on Google, behind ’80s UK pop phenomenon Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) and the On-line Medical Dictionary.

Soak yourself in the delicious detail.

Yahoo Tech Shopping Site Launches

Yahoo Launch Tech Shopping SiteSearch engine big-boys Yahoo have unveiled a shopping site for consumer electronics backed up by expert advice and user-contributed reviews.

Shoving their size nines into a market long dominated by CNet Networks, the new Yahoo! Tech shopping and advice Website will offer hundreds of thousands of products with user ratings and reviews.

Spod-free advice, no anorak required
Yahoo is hoping that by offering a site free of the spoddy techno-jargon of gadget enthusiast sites, consumers will warm to their no-nonsense, straightforward approach.

“What we are trying to do is to make it simple to choose and use the technology that is easiest to use,” said Patrick Houston, general manager of Yahoo! Tech, formerly editor in chief at CNet.

“We built Yahoo! Tech for people who might not have the time nor inclination to learn about bits and bytes,” he added.

Yahoo Launch Tech Shopping SiteThe magazine-style site will use Yahoo’s tried and trusted community tools to help users find information about products and prices and share their opinions with friends, family and other consumers.

Using an attractive and simple interface, products can be sorted and filtered by price, brand and expert rating with the option to compare online prices for the best deal.

Where consumers are looking to spend money, advertisers are always ready and willing to slap up enticing banner ads, and Hewlett Packard, Verizon Wireless and Panasonic have already signed up.

Yahoo Launch Tech Shopping SiteContent
Yahoo will be populating the site with content from “trustworthy publications from around the Web who may or may not be official content partners,” as well as their own staff editors and writers, and Yahoo! users.

A weekly video clip called ‘Hook Me Up’ will dish out ‘geeky wisdom’ to haul heel-dragging technology Luddites into the bright electronic age, aided by Yahoo’s ‘Emergency Makeover Technicians.’

The company is also reported to have licensed reviews from the “Dummies” series of How-to books, Consumer Reports, PC World and PC Magazine.

Yahoo Launch Tech Shopping SiteThe new Yahoo! Tech is currently focussed on the U.S. market, with Houston saying that there are no imminent plans to expand into other countries.

http://tech.yahoo.com/

Yahoo! Launches Go Services

Yahoo! Launches Go ServicesYahoo is launching a new service aimed at making it easier for users to connect to Yahoo Internet-based services through multiple Web-connected devices, including mobiles and TVs.

Announced by Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the new Yahoo Go service consists of the Yahoo Go Desktop, Yahoo Go Mobile and Yahoo Go TV interfaces,

Each of the interfaces is optimised for the screen of the specific device, with Yahoo Go automatically serving up the appropriate interface.

Yahoo! Launches Go ServicesSo long as the device is connected to the Internet, users will be able to access their personal Yahoo content such as photos, email and address books.

Stating the flaming obvious, Semel commented: “We think the Internet is not a Web page or desktop, [but] an infrastructure and delivery vehicle for communication, experiences, entertainment and any kind of data you use on the Internet.”

“The next generation is about ease of use and open platforms that connect the Internet to any device that you all will be manufacturing. Yahoo is in the perfect position to be a great partner to all of you who are working on devices in the future,” he added.

Yahoo! Launches Go ServicesYahoo! will be rolling out their Go TV service in the next few months, with the service enabling users to access various other Web based services for TVs, including local movie listing search and personalised MyYahoo! functions.

If you’re a heavy Yahoo! user, we can see the attraction of the new Go services, with the universal internet database ensuring that personal info is synchronised across all your devices.

Even better, the remote storage concept means that your data will be safe if a device is misplaced or stolen.

Yahoo! Go.

Search Engines Challenge Email As Most Popular Web Activity

Search Engines Challenge Email As Most Popular Web ActivityUsing search engines has become the second most popular activity for Web users, according to new research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The figures put search engines second only to email as the numero uno Net application, with reading the news registering as the third most popular Web activity.

The research reveals that an average 41 per cent of Web-connected Americans use search engines on a typical day, a sharp 55 percent rise from the middle of 2004.

In numbers, this equates to a jump from 38 million daily search engine users in June 2004 to around 59 million users in September, 2005.

As expected, email remains the Web’s major attraction, with 52 per cent of Americans checking mail on any given day, up 45 per cent from June last year.

The Pew project looked into the demographics of Web users and discovered that those spending the most time on search engines tended to be in their 30s and well-off.

Search Engines Challenge Email As Most Popular Web Activity‘Gen X’ surfers (29-40 year olds, not the Billy Idol-fronted band) were online the most (51 per cent), followed by ‘Gen Y’ users (18-28 year olds), ‘Older Baby Boomers’ (51-59 yrs old), ‘Younger Baby Boomers’ (41-50), ‘Matures’ (60-69) and, finally ‘After work’ (70+). We wonder who makes up these daft categories?

The report commented, “Those who use search engines on an average day tend to be heavy Internet users. They are much more likely to have broadband connections than dial-up connections; to log on to the Internet several times a day; and to have spent considerable time online during the day.”

With Google recently claiming to have trebled its index of 8bn pages and Yahoo! claiming 19.2bn pages, it’s not surprising that the search engines are getting a hammering.

What is interesting, however, is the rise in people searching using ‘local’ qualifiers, like postcodes or addresses, to narrow down their search results.

Google still rules supreme as the king of the Web search tools, registering 43.7 per cent of local searches, with Yahoo! lording it over Internet Yellow Page search sites (where users type in data such as location and business type) with 27.6 per cent of searches.

Pew Internet & American Life Project report [PDF]

TiVo, Yahoo Deal Connects

TiVo, Yahoo Deal ConnectsTiVo and Yahoo are linking up to provide a reasonably extensive collaboration.

TiVo Series 2 users will be able to program their TiVo over the Web, from anywhere with an Internet connection. Simply by browsing Yahoo’s TV episode page, TiVo users will be able to click on ‘Record to my TiVo box’ to setup a record. Next time the TiVo connects to receive updates, the Yahoo service will instruct the TiVo to record the program.

Programming your Tivo over the Internet has been possible since the first generation TiVo’s, but it required the hardware upgrade of adding a network card inside your TiVo and a small amount of fiddling with software. This deal makes it a simple point and click operation.

TiVo, Yahoo Deal ConnectsWe understand that both companies see this as a cross-promotion service, so moines haven’t been exchanged. Proof of the promotion for TiVo are see at the bottom of the Yahoo page explaining the service, where non-TiVo owners are given the chance to buy a machine for $49 after rebates.

We’d imagine that the possibilities of a deal between these two companies could be quite substantial, giving Yahoo a direct connection to the living room, something they’ve had strong desires on for quite a while.

For a long time there have been a number of rumors about TiVo being bought/swollowed up by another, more in fashion (therefore more monied) company.

TiVo, Yahoo Deal ConnectsThe programming your Tivo remotely part of the deal mirrors the deal they did with AOL a number of years ago, but as we mentioned, gives Yahoo an output in peoples TV rooms.

After pioneering PVR’s along with the now non-existant ReplayTV, TiVo has been slowly slipping from dominance as other players realised that they could achieve pretty much say as they had done. This has been mainly true, excepting the excellent User Interface that TiVo has triumphed with.

Yahoo/TiVo service
TiVo

Yahoo Podcast Search Site Launches

Yahoo Podcast Search Site LaunchesKeen to get their size nines stamped all over the fast-growing podcasting revolution, Yahoo have launched a spanking new podcast service designed to make it easy for punters to rummage through the zillions of audio files available and find the stuff that interest them.

The beta Yahoo Podcast service aims to let folks search podcasts by keyword, categories or user-generated topic coding (‘tagging’), with the home page flagging up notable podcasts, based on popularity, user recommendations and ratings.

Yahoo Podcast Search Site LaunchesSurfers will also be able to listen to or subscribe to RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for individual shows, episodes or entire series.

“We intend to be the most comprehensive source for podcast content,” said Geoff Ralston, Yahoo!’s chief product officer.

Yahoo Podcast Search Site LaunchesThe service will offer a unique feature that lets users find content quicker by speeding up playback without the the broadcaster’s voice sounding like Mickey Mouse on helium.

As Geoff Ralston explained in an interview with PodTech, “You can hear someone and understand someone talking at a much higher speed. The problem is that when you speed it up naturally the pitch goes up, but we done some work to lower the pitch down. So it actually stays relatively normal and much more comprehensible.”

Although Podcast search services aren’t new – companies like AOL, Blinkx, Odeo.com and Podcast.net already offer services – Yahoo’s heavyweight clout make this move significant, with Ralston commenting, “We feel like we are really getting ahead of the curve with this.”

Yahoo Podcast Search Site LaunchesUnlike rival Podcast search sites, Yahoo! isn’t bundling in tools for creating podcasts at the moment, although that’s likely to happen in the future, with Joe Hayashi, Yahoo!’s director of product management saying, “This is all about discovery for now. Step One is all about growing the ecosystem.

With search engines constantly trying to dream up new advertising revenue-boosting services to retain and attract punters, it can only be a matter of time before the other Internet big boys respond with their own Podcast services.

Yahoo! Podcast