Yahoo extends SMS search

Following Google's lead, Yahoo has extended its search service with an offering that allows mobile phone users to receive query results via SMS.

The service allows users on the road to find services by using so-called shortcuts. A query for 'post office San Francisco, CA' for instance results in a return message with the addresses for post offices in the city. Using a zip code will narrow the search area.

Available shortcuts lead to popular search query results including Wi-Fi hotspot locations, weather forecasts, stock quotes and dictionary definitions.

The web portal also unveiled an updated version of its existing Search on Mobile engine that adds support for the extensible HTML format, used on WAP 2.0 handsets.

The mark-up language formats data for a browser to fit on a phone's screen. The service previously only supported regular HTML.

In addition to the mark-up language support, the mobile browser based search option has been expanded with the same shortcuts available for the SMS search.

Google launched a SMS search technology similar to Yahoo's late last year, as well as an XHTML based version.

The Yahoo technology is currently available only to users in the US. A demo can be viewed here.