Information giants Google and Yahoo both intensified their moves to mobile platforms last week. Among the goals of both companies is to provide anytime, anywhere data to information-hungry sports fans.
Both companies see mobile information search capabilities as a huge advertising opportunity. Spending on mobile ads is expected to rise to about $1.5 billion this year and at least double in size by 2010, the Associated Press reported.
At CES in Las Vegas, both Google and Yahoo announced deals with Samsung Electronics for software applications on its mobile phones. Yahoo also made deals with other leading handset makers, including Motorola, Nokia and RIM, maker of the Blackberry.
At MacWorld in San Francisco, both companies partnered with Apple for it’s new iPhone mobile computing device. Yahoo will offer free e-mail to iPhone users, while Google will integrate its Google Maps and other services. The new Apple device offers full Web browsing and audio and video capability.
With its oneSearch service, Yahoo is seeking to make information searches quicker and easier. The company said its latest search application already works with 70 different phone models. Google has a similar goal, despite the fact that mobile search engines have so far failed to catch on with the public.
