On the heels of news that Yahoo temporarily put the [brakes on its Java-based mobile app](/dev-news/article.php/3821336/Yahoo+Scales+Back+Mobile+Apps+for+iPhone+Focus.htm) development, the company just announced voice-enabled oneSearch services for its Yahoo Mobile iPhone application and for BlackBerry devices. The promise is that phone owners can search for flight numbers, local restaurants and Web sites by asking for it.
In addition to using voice to conduct a search, the Yahoo Mobile iPhone app lets callers customize the “My Interests” tab by voice as well. This is done by clicking on the “add anything” button and saying the topic of interest, and then selecting the relevant content to add.
The oneSearch with voice is also now available for BlackBerry devices including the Bold, Storm, Flip and Javelin. It is also available on for phones running Windows Mobile and on Nokia phones.
The Yahoo oneSearch with voice application is currently available on more than 80 different devices and, in addition to the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms, is also available for Windows Mobile and Nokia phones.
The search portal company also rolled out the Yahoo oneSearch shortcut for Windows Mobile in 21 countries. The Windows Mobile client came out in the U.S. in February and offers several shortcut features, such as an auto-locate feature on select devices to deliver local search results based on a combination of cell tower triangulation, GPS and Wi-Fi hotspots.
