Samsung to begin offering Yahoo services

Samsung to begin offering Yahoo services.

Samsung, a maker of mobile phones, and Yahoo, the global Internet company, yesterday announced a strategic partnership to distribute Yahoo's services on millions of new Samsung mobile phones in more than 60 countries.

Samsung will start pre-loading Yahoo services - including Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0, Yahoo oneSearch, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger - on its phones by the middle of the year.

It has already launched its first mobile handset, the SGH-E570, pre-loaded with Yahoo Search.

Samsung plans this year to greatly expand the number of its mobile handsets with pre-loaded Yahoo services and will roll out Yahoo oneSearch after it goes live globally in the coming months.

"Samsung recognises consumers' need for Internet access through their mobiles anytime, anywhere," said Kitae Lee, president of Samsung's telecommunications network business.

"Samsung mobile phones with Yahoo services will provide consumers with fast and convenient access to the Internet, even on the move. Our successful partnership with Yahoo builds on Samsung's continuing efforts to enhance consumers' mobile experience."

Through the relationship the companies will also help drive consumer adoption of mobile Internet services by making it easy for consumers to get more done while on the go, such as using the new Yahoo oneSearch to quickly find the answers they need, he said.

Yahoo oneSearch will also include high-quality sponsored search results, enabling Yahoo advertisers to reach consumers on their mobile phones.

"Yahoo has always focused on partnering with leading companies to bring our mobile services to consumers' fingertips and this new strategic partnership with Samsung is a vital component of that strategy," said Marco Boerries, a senior vice president at Yahoo.

Samsung will pre-load and prominently place Yahoo branded services including Yahoo Go 2.0, a new application "that redefines the mobile Internet experience for consumers through a unique product design, ability to personalise with content from the entire Internet, and a reinvention of mobile search".

The carousel design makes it simple for consumers to navigate the selection of Yahoo Go widgets for e-mail, local information and maps, news, sports, finance, entertainment, weather, photo sharing and search.

Also loaded will be Yahoo oneSearch, a new mobile search service designed to recognise the intent of a search term and present relevant content - not just a list of Web links to PC sites - on the results page.

Results are grouped by subject, making it easy to read through and drill down to get more details.

Yahoo Mail will offer easy access and management of e-mail messages through the Yahoo Mail messaging inbox on the phone, including the ability to reply, delete and compose new messages.

E-mail messages can be stored locally on the device to allow for offline access.

The Nation
Thursday January 11, 2007