By MAY WONG, AP Technology Writer
Yahoo Inc. is expanding its presence beyond the PC, moving onto
Web-enabled cell phones and other mobile devices so users can access
their customized content while untethered.
Yahoo Go Mobile, a new service set to be launched Friday at the
International Consumer Electronics Show, is the latest example of the
growing trend of get-your-information-anytime-anywhere.
Many of the features and services that Yahoo has been amassing in
recent years, beyond the e-mail already available on many so-called
smartphones, can now follow its 400 million users wherever they go.
Anyone with a Yahoo account can have their customized data they now
get through the Web portal load itself into whichever device they
carry. The information -- from news to restaurant reviews to personal
contacts and appointments -- will be synchronized through whatever data
network they may be using -- cellular or Wi-Fi, for example.
Yahoo Go Mobile will work on any cellular network, but for now, only
on Nokia's Series 60 line of smartphones. Support for additional
mobile devices is planned.
The product encompasses a new user interface designed to fit on the
small screen of a smartphone.
Instead of the plethora of links now viewable at once on a user's
personalized Yahoo home page, Yahoo Go streamlines the main menu
content into major categories such as search, mail, news and calendar,
which users could then scroll through.
Yahoo's music and video services is not yet available through Yahoo Go
Mobile but may be added later, company officials said.
The Yahoo Go application is downloadable for free at Yahoo's Web site.
However, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet giant says it has also
signed a deal with Nokia Corp. so the cell phone maker will be
pre-installing the Yahoo Go program on select mobile devices. Cingular
Wireless also plans to promote Yahoo Go.
Yahoo is also working with Motorola Inc. to bring Yahoo Go to those
phones, said Marco Boerries, senior vice president of Yahoo's
"Connected Life" division. Bringing the service to Java-based phones
will come later, but Boerries could not specify when.
Another version of Yahoo Go for PC-connected televisions, called Yahoo
Go TV, will be launched in coming months, the company said. It will
similarly let Yahoo users access much of their personalized Web data
as long as the TV is connected to the Internet.
Unlike Yahoo Go Mobile, the TV version of the service will also
include music and video content from Yahoo.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
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May Wong (ap@telecom-digest.org)