Yahoo has unveiled a dynamic bookmarking tool for mobile phones that will enable you to personalise search queries and keep track of your favourite web content.
Called OnePlace, the new tool is essentially a portal that allows you to bookmark your favourite pages, newsfeeds and searches, which OnePlace will then update at regular intervals.
It builds upon Yahoo’s expanding portfolio of mobile products, and is designed to work closely with two very similar Yahoo apps: OneConnect and OneSearch.
Slew of mobile apps
Launched barely a month ago, OneConnect is Yahoo’s social networking aggregator tool for mobile phones. It allows you to keep abreast of what all your social networking peers are up to, feeding a list of updates through at regular intervals.
OneSearch, meanwhile, is a tailored search engine service for mobiles that is closely tied to Yahoo’s one-stop mobile portal: Yahoo Go.
Yahoo Go, now in its third build, offers you direct access to some of Yahoo’s most popular services on a mobile – including Yahoo Mail and Flickr. In addition, it also allows you to populate the page with direct links to personalised content and news feeds.
The rush of new mobile applications is an indication that Yahoo views the mobile search market as an important step towards recovering market share, which it hopes to corner through an aggressive schedule of new product launches.
Gokkle of Google Gears
However, Yahoo still faces stiff opposition every step of the way, not least from arch-rival Google, which only yesterday announced a mobile beta version of its Google Gears offline browsing app.
Yahoo is clearly pinning its hopes on being able to offer mobile users quick and easy access to the full range of Yahoo services from their mobiles, while also affording them the opportunity to customise their mobile browsing experience with personalised content.
At face value that sounds like a solid approach to winning both loyalty and market share. Our only concern is that Yahoo could be overestimating the importance people attach to personalised entertainment and information on their phones. Even more crucial is the price people are willing to pay for such potentially data-heavy services.
In other words, if you are obsessed with Facebook zombies or dancing babies on YouTube, it won’t be long before your monthly phone bill doubles in size.
