Yahoo! Inc. debuted version 2.0 of its mobile oneSearch service today at CTIA, featuring voice-recognition browsing and expanded content results.
During a keynote speech on Wednesday, Marco Boerries, Yahoo!'s executive vice president of connected life, said the new features are an effort to differentiate itself in the soon-to-be lucrative mobile search market, where it is in a pitched battle with onetime suitor Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc., both of which have voice-search strategies in place.
Yahoo! launched its mobile search about a year ago and since then has managed to win a search contract with T-Mobile away from Google.
"We don't believe any one company, neither Microsoft or Google or Yahoo, or even one carrier, can drive it alone," said Boerries. "We're trying to carve out a niche for ourselves."
That effort also includes optimized search results that deliver more than just hyperlinks. For instance, if you search for a city, a map widget may come up. Searches for people may return Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Wikipedia results.
Other enhancements include a search box that will predict what you are typing, integrated into the home screen.
OneSearch will go live this summer. In the meantime, Blackberry users can download a trial at http://m.yahoo.com/voice.
Yahoo! Also copped to a $20 million investment in the provider of the voice-rec technology in version 2.0, Vlingo Corp.
