Yippee Yahoo
Yahoo has rolled out Mail and messenger Apps for Android, as well as a search widget, while introducing faster sites for iPhone and iPod touch using HTML5 technology.
The introductions and enhancements are designed to provide Yahoo's millions of Mail, messenger, Search and News users with a more integrated mobile experience.
Intended to allow some 300m users easy access for sharing information on Android phones, the Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger apps are free and available to phones supporting OS 2.0 or newer.
The mail app provides push notification of emails as well as allowing users to send emails to Yahoo contacts and those on their native phone address book, search messages by sender and subject keywords, plus organise mail in folders and filter spam.
Users can also upload photos as attachments directly from the phone's camera or gallery, view and download attachments plus toggle between the Yahoo Mail and Messenger apps.
Much like its PC counterpart, the Yahoo Messenger app lets consumers manage their friends plus check their statuses and availability. They can also send SMS text messages, photos and text rich formatting to contacts, as well as multitasking with the app running in the background, providing push notifications.
Yahoo has also launched its Search Widget that puts a search box on the home screen. There is also a voice search option, plus Search Assist for suggestions and auto-locate technology to find local results. However, the widget is only currently available in the US.
The firm has not overlooked Apple users, building on HTML5 to bring consumers faster and more sophisticated browsing. The upgraded Yahoo Mail for iPhones and iPod touch offers a speedy and reliable service, even with demanding rich content in 28 languages.
Yahoo Mail now lets users view HTML messages, compose rich text messages and access and use emails while offline. It also lets consumers manage and create folders and sync with Yahoo mail on a desktop.
The firm has also revamped its Yahoo News offering, adding a new layout with animated visuals and navigation that uses touch gestures. Adding photos, slideshows and video features to stories, the service is currently only available stateside but there are plans to extend its reach.
Yahoo has recently boosted its integration with Facebook, allowing users to create an update on one service and automatically share it with friends across both networks. The firm is also expected to announce a partnership with Nokia to pre-load its search, news and mail propositions onto their handsets.
It seems getting into bed with Facebook and Microsoft (of which it shares a search partnership) may help it challenge Google's search and general service dominance.
