Google vs Yahoo: Battle moves to the mobile

Yahoo added a search feature for cellphones on Wednesday, just a few weeks after rival Google launched one of its own.

While Google SMS uses text-only messages to deliver its results, Yahoo's new mobile service offers localised search results, maps and website icons that let people point, click and make a call.

The two companies took their most significant steps yet into the cellphone market within a few weeks of each other, showing just how eager the web search industry is to expand its reach.

Yahoo chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig said during a keynote speech on Wednesday at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment trade show in San Francisco that the mobile internet industry is at a "tipping point". As mobile use continues to grow, he said, more customers will want access to their Yahoo services.

"The Internet has become essential. The industry is ready, and mobile usage is exploding," Rosensweig said.

But the cellphone industry still poses some challenges to search providers. US customers typically prefer to use the internet over a wired connection, although in Europe and Asia using a cellphone to access the web has become popular.

However, the mobile web also represents a new revenue source for Yahoo, Google and other traditional internet companies. While Yahoo has no plans for display or commercial search ads yet, the company hasn't ruled out commercial search in the future, Yahoo executives said at the trade show.

Yahoo's mobile search is available now to AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless and Sprint subscribers. Meanwhile, Google's SMS test product works with the top five US operators.

Ben Charny and Jim Hu write for CNET News.com.