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Yahoo! opens up to existing mobile platforms
…sites get mini and widgets grow

By Reuters

Published: Tuesday 08 January 2008

Yahoo! will create versions of its mobile internet services to run on various phone platforms, potentially including Google's phone software and the Apple iPhone, a top executive has said.

Yahoo! is ready to demonstrate its commitment to mix and match services of its own with those of rivals in a more open strategy, mobile chief Marco Boerries said.

By offering internet services that work on existing phones, rather than seeking to compete with mobile phone software of its own, Yahoo! can reach hundreds of millions of phone users, Boerries said.

Yahoo! announced a series of enhancements designed to make Yahoo! internet services more easily accessible for existing mobile phones.

Over the last two years, Yahoo! has struck deals with carriers and handset makers to place popular Yahoo! web services on phones in many markets.

The plan includes allowing outside companies to create mini-websites that can be featured on Yahoo! pages, in a bid to expand the number of consumers using Yahoo! as a starting point to the web.

Viacom's MTV and News Corp.'s MySpace, and eBay are among the companies creating these mini web features - known as widgets - to run inside Yahoo! pages.

Yahoo! is ready to create versions of Yahoo! Mobile Widgets to allow users to keep tabs on their favourite websites on phones running Apple, Google, Microsoft or Nokia-backed Symbian software, Boerries said.

He said: "Our job is to make sure Yahoo! Mobile Widgets run on any platform that creates a good user experience."

Boerries added: "[Google's] Android for us is another mobile operating system like Windows Mobile and [the Nokia-backed] Series 60 that we plan to support once it becomes a reality."

In November, Google announced the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 partners ranging from component suppliers to handset makers to network operators. Several of these partners have said they expect to introduce phones based on the Google Android phone software by the middle of 2008.

Developers stand to make money from running advertising when users click on their widgets inside Yahoo!. Yahoo! will supply both brand advertising and web search ads to developers. Widget creators also have the option of running other ads.