Yahoo Go 2.0 WM review

Yahoo recently announced the final version of Yahoo Go 2.0. Designed for a variety of phones from Symbian OS to Windows Mobile, Yahoo Go offers a mobile portal experience.Yahoo provides a variety of widgets and applets designed for the small mobile form factors. They include Yahoo Maps, Yahoo Mail, Flickr and the new Yahoo oneSearch.


I decided to take Yahoo Go 2.0 for a spin. I previously installed version 1.0 last year and wasn’t terribly impressed. This version offers more features, accoutrements and tighter integration to other Yahoo services. Most notably, I like the Flickr integration. My test platform was the Motorola Q running on the Verizon’s EDVO network. The cab installer downloaded and installed without problems on this Windows Mobile device. At first launch, the UI was coherent and pleasant to look at. However, the eye candy wore off pretty fast. The apps were slow and at times a bit clunky. In the following paragraphs, I will comment on some of the widgets.


Mail is the most stable and most responsive widget. I actually like this version of Yahoo over the mobile WAP version. Attachments are not supported in this widget.

Flickr is my favorite widget in the entire suite. You can add comments, upload photos and search. Overall, Flickr works great on Yahoo Go 2.0. It browsed my entire device including the removable miniSD card. I was able to upload a file, tag it, and give a description in one shot.

Besides Flickr and Yahoo Mail, I wasn’t impressed with anything else.Yahoo Maps was slow and crashed a few times. Compared to Google Maps, it failed to find specific POIs (Points of Interests). The routing was very slow and unintuitive. Google Maps on the iPhone running EDGE was several times more responsive than Yahoo Maps running on Verizon’s EDVO. When I tried to do a search for an intersection “Van Ness and Geary” in San Francisco, Yahoo Maps would return nothing. Google Maps would always find an intersection.

The most important widget is the Yahoo oneSearch engine. It simplifies searches into categories such as Movies, Products, City, Companies/Finance, News, Celebrities (if you’re into Hollywood gossip) and the web.

Like Google mobile on a WAP phone, Yahoo Go attempts to reformat web pages for the small screen. The results are often time disastrous. On a Windows Mobile device, Yahoo Go should use PIE to render the pages. Here is an example of how Ebay Motors and Craigslist appear in Yahoo Go 2.0.

In conclusion, I wanted to like Yahoo Go 2.0 but was a bit disappointed with the slowness and sluggishness. It felt like a really slow Java midlet instead of a native WM application.At times, I would whip out my iPhone just to get something done while Yahoo Go would process an event.

Rumor has it that there will be an iPhone version coming soon. Yahoo should simply make an AJAX web version so it can run on the iPhone, Symbian S60 and newer mobile devices that support rich Web 2.0 capabilities.

You can find out more about Yahoo Go 2.0 at http://mobile.yahoo.com/go/

Yahoo Partners with Microsoft for Mobile Service

In a deal designed to expand the reach of its "Go for Mobile 2.0" service, Yahoo has signed a deal with Microsoft that will make its offering compatible with significantly more devices, according to MediaWeek.

Go for Mobile 2.0 is a Yahoo initiative to bring most of its web services to mobile users. The partnership will allow that service to run on 75 more Windows Mobile-powered devices, bringing the grand total to 175. The deal is huge for Yahoo, which now can allow its users to access their email, photos and other accounts wherever they are.

It also gives Yahoo a foothold in the smartphone market, which is becoming more attractive to content creators as well as advertisers because those phones can handle rich media more easily.

Under a separate deal, Yahoo Go 2.0 will be pre-installed on devices manufactured by HTC.

HTC and Yahoo! Announce Strategic Mobile Partnership

High Tech Computer ("HTC"), the world's leading provider of Microsoft Windows Mobile-based smart devices, and Yahoo!, a leading global Internet company, today announced a new strategic global partnership to preload and distribute Yahoo!'s industry leading mobile services on millions of HTC devices.

Yahoo! services, including Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0 and Yahoo! Mail will come pre-loaded on many of HTC's smart devices. The recently launched Yahoo! oneSearch, an entirely new search experience designed to give consumers instant answers on their mobile devices, will also be included.

"HTC is always seeking new ways to keep people connected to their community of friends and personalized content while mobile," said Peter Chou, chief executive officer of HTC. "With high resolution displays and breakthrough designs, HTC's products are the ideal platform for Yahoo! Go 2.0. We are pleased to offer users the ultimate Yahoo! Go 2.0 experience on our innovative devices.

"Since we launched Yahoo! Go 2.0 less than two months ago, there has been strong demand from the Windows Mobile community to get this innovative service on their mobile devices," said Marco Boerries, senior vice president of connected life, Yahoo!. "By partnering with HTC to put Yahoo! Go 2.0 on its mobile devices, we are bringing the true mobile Internet to an even broader audience around the world.

"The recently launched Yahoo! Go 2.0 service redefines the mobile Internet experience for consumers through a unique product design, ability to personalize with content from across the Internet and a reinvention of search for the mobile phone through Yahoo! oneSearch.

The innovative carousel design of the service makes it simple for consumers to navigate the selection of Yahoo! Go widgets, personal channels for e-mail, local information and maps, news, sports, finance, entertainment, weather, photo sharing and search. As a result, users of an array of HTC's smart devices will be able to easily use Yahoo!'s innovative services to stay informed, entertained and in touch with their Internet community.

Through this new partnership, the companies will focus on extending their leadership in the mobile industry. HTC mobile devices with Yahoo! services will be available to consumers through both mobile operators and direct distribution channels.