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Yahoo links local search with mobile phones
By Juan Carlos Perez

Yahoo Inc. on Thursday rolled out a new feature in its local search service that lets users send results from their PCs to mobile phones, the company said.

At Yahoo Local, which is a directory of business listings, users can search for restaurants in Denver, Colorado, or for dentists in Philadelphia. Now, they can send Yahoo Local results as a text message to their mobile phones directly from their PCs by clicking on a new "send to phone" button that accompanies every listing.

The service is available only in the U.S. to subscribers of mobile services provided by the recently merged Cingular Wireless LLC/AT&T Wireless, Verizon Communications Inc., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc., which are in the process of merging. Phones have to support SMS (Short Message Service).

Yahoo will not charge for the service, but the carriers may apply fees on their end for receiving the text messages. In October of last year, Yahoo introduced a service for querying its search engine, including Yahoo Local, from mobile devices.

Posted January 27, 2005 08:13 PM |