Yahoo! oneSearch Shortcut: Now with Auto-locate, Improved Search Assist, and Windows Mobile Client
The Yahoo! Mobile team works every day to make mobile search faster, easier, and more relevant for millions of Yahoo! oneSearch users worldwide. Today we’re launching several new features for the Yahoo! oneSearch Shortcut, including an auto-locate feature that uses cell tower triangulation and Wi-Fi to detect the user’s location, enhanced Search Assist that incorporates the user’s recent search history, and a Windows Mobile client.
Last August, we launched the Yahoo! oneSearch Shortcut to provide one-click access to Yahoo! oneSearch, making search easily accessible on mobile devices. With today’s launch, we’re making Yahoo! oneSearch Shortcut available on Windows Mobile devices in the U.S. With an integrated voice search you can speak or type your query directly from the home screen of Windows Mobile devices. We’ve also added an auto-locate feature on select devices to deliver local search results based on a combination of cell tower triangulation and Wi-Fi hotspots. You no longer need to type in your address or zip code to access local listings – Yahoo! oneSearch can provide results based on your location.
Finally, since we know it can be challenging to type on mobile devices, we’re improving our Search Assist technology on BlackBerry devices by incorporating the user’s search history. This will enable faster and easier input, delivering contextual recommendations and predictive text completion alongside the user’s previously searched terms. Simply type in your query and your recent searches or similar queries will display on the screen as a prompt. For example, while typing “Sus” in San Francisco, you may be offered Sushi Groove if you previously searched for it, or you may see “sushi recipe” as an assisted suggestion.
In this launch, we have also made the Yahoo! oneSearch Shortcut available on some of the latest Nokia, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile devices. It is also now available on select devices in Australia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Click here for additional information on device/country support.
For more information and to download the applications, Nokia and Windows Mobile users can visit our PC site or http://m.yahoo.com/shortcut from their mobile device. BlackBerry users can visit this website or direct their mobile phone browser to http://m.yahoo.com/voice. We hope you will try out these new features and let us know what you think in the comments below.
Joy Ghanekar
Yahoo! Mobile
I do really wonder why Yahoo Search, being so innovative, is losing the race to Google in the search market. Improvements like SafeSearch and Search Assistant should really give you an edge but most people simply does not seem to know these features even exist!
On my N73, the shortcut application conflicts with google search shortcut. Eats up enough memory so that the browser crashes on “not enough memory”. After one search the pencil button stops showing it. Probably should not have been released for the earlier S60’s
Oh and the location feature put me 25 miles away from where I was (cell tower, I have no wifi and no GPS). Well I guess coverage of Israel is not that great yet, but Google maps gives me excellent locations based on celltower.
I’m not sure yet if Google is competing with Yahoo…
Google is mainly a search engine, Yahoo looks like a comprehensive online directory, at least that’s what you could tell when viewing their main pages… am I right? :)
Someone needs to coin a phrase that more distinctly separates “local search” functions from “search engine” functions… what everyone seems to forget is that “local search” doesn’t apply to web sites at all anymore – it’s about the individual on the street, in the car, new to a neighborhood, or on vacation, looking for a PLACE – they intend to GO there physically, not virtually. Maybe we should have REAL search and Virtual Search?
I agree I think this needs promoting more. Cannot have Google dominating mobile phone search too. This will be a huge area in 5 years time and worth the investment. Spend more yahoo! and promote these applications.
THANKS, did not realize all the many uses for searches. Recently I had to search for a friend but for that I used a service I never even knew existed. Word of the day “search” :)