Yahoo Mobile Web Search Unveiled in Las Vegas

By: Katie Cook
Staff Writer
Published: Apr 2, 2008

Yahoo's web mobile includes a feature that makes searching instant on many cell phone idle screens and will accept voice commands.

Yahoo's mobile Web search service, oneSearch 2.0, was unveiled in Las Vegas that can search by voice. The renowned company is also releasing a feature that makes searching instant on many cell phone idle screens. This feature is anticipated to be available in the second quarter.

Yahoo said the new function actively allows users to search by speaking what they're looking for, and can also switch between talking and typing at any time to refine their searches.

The new oneSearch 2.0 feature became available Wednesday for some BlackBerry smart phones, including the 8800 series, Curve and Pearl devices in the United States.

The search engine company anticipates rolling out search with voice on more devices and in other countries in the coming months.

The oneSearch service will also open up to publishers, so they can integrate content with it, and expects open search results will begin in the second quarter.

Another feature to be added is called Search Assist that includes predictive text to speed up the search query typing process. The feature became available for Apple's iPhone on Wednesday and is expected to become available on some devices in the coming months.