Yahoo is
preparing to launch a version of its web search software that can be downloaded
to mobile phones.
The company previously released its Go software in deals with phone
manufacturers
Motorola
and Nokia, but
the latest version bypasses the need to pre-install the software on handsets.
However, Yahoo stressed that it will continue to partner with Motorola and
Nokia, as well as signing up
BlackBerry
maker
Research
In Motion and
Samsung,
according to reports in the Wall Street Journal.
Yahoo hopes to capture the mobile market to help it fight
Google's
domination of the search arena.
In related news,
Yahoo
China has announced that it will focus on developing its business search
operations.
Stiff competition from search companies
Baidu and
Sina are
forcing Yahoo to specialise in business searches in the region, according to
Jack Ma, chief executive at Yahoo China's parent company
Alibaba.
"If Yahoo is going to win, it has to do so in a new way," Ma told
Associated
Press. "What's the point of building another Sina.com?"
Yahoo has also announced a new version of its
Messenger
system that works with
Windows
Vista.
The software will use the Windows Presentation Foundation system within Vista
to create additional animations and functions.
New features will include larger avatars, easy ways to change the Messenger's
colour, emoticons that stretch outside the normal window before shrinking back
to a regular size and tabbed messages.
Yahoo expects to release a beta version of Messenger in the second quarter of
2007, with the full release candidate following four to six weeks later.
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