mocoNews - Yahoo's New Homepage Goes Live On Mobile Web; Available As iPhone App

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has officially rolled out its mobile homepage Yahoo! Mobile on the mobile web, and as an iPhone application. The service, first introduced in February at Mobile World Congress, ties together its various mobile offerings into one place including its search product, Onesearch, its social networking product, Stay Connected (formerly OneConnect) and its content management product My Interests (formerly known as OnePlace).

It also allows users to bring in outside applications?a big distinction from its previous homepage, which only allowed in Yahoo products. Users, for example, can access Gmail or Hotmail, and not just Yahoo Mail. The mobile web version is supported by more than 300 devices, or those capable of supporting HTML-enabled mobile browsers. Both the web version and the iPhone version is available in eight countries, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. More country versions are expected to roll out over the next few months.

Yahoo plans to derive revenues from the product through display advertising, including both banners and rich media ads, which will allow users to send to a friend, locate a dealer, of click to call the advertiser directly, among other capabilities. There will also be the ability to offer more integrated advertising. For example, an advertiser could sponsor a ski report app that could be placed near its weather content, or a brand's spokesperson could be used to provide unique content that could be placed near the relevant category. Charles Sword, Yahoo European head of mobile advertising said that at launch, however, no brands have yet taken up these new ad opportunities. He expects the first advertisers to come on board in the next few months, but that the current focus was to offer the most "optimal" mobile experience for consumers, and to ensure that they had created a user base that advertisers found compelling.

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