Another Operator Win for Yahoo oneSearch Mobile Search Service; Telefonica Takes It To the U.K., Ireland & Latin America
By James Cameron
Chalk up yet another one for Yahoo. Telefonica and Yahoo have announced a partnership deal making Yahoo oneSearch the primary search application on Telefonica’s portals in the U.K., Ireland and Latin America. The deal means oneSearch has the potential to reach a whopping 100 million users across 15 countries.
Yahoo’s oneSearch application improves the mobile search user experience by delivering results directly onto the first screen, reducing the number of click-throughs needed for users to reach content. (We’ve covered Yahoo’s ability to “intuit” user preference and intention here.) Users will be able to access news, financial information and weather as well as Yahoo Mail and Flickr photos. The inclusion of Flickr – a feature aimed at encouraging social networking and user-gen content sharing – lets users view and share photos as well as search more than one billion images posted on the Flickr service using their mobile phones.
Advertising also plays a role in the partnership, and provides both parties with a revenue stream generated by the services. Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo’s Connected Life Division, said in a statement: “Together we can grow usage of mobile Internet services and create new revenue streams through mobile advertising.”
The announcement follows hot on the heels of last week’s news that Telefonica in Spain (a geography not included in today’s oneSearch deal) teamed up with white-label search engine company JumpTap to deliver mobile search and advertising to Telefonica’s Movistar portal. In line with this agreement JumpTap will manage and provide contextual banner ads and sponsored links. No more proof needed to confirm Telefonica’s commitment to mobile search and advertising. (Source: Press release)
