Yahoo! is adding text ads that appear when people use its search engine from their handsets in Japan, and the company is auctioning off spots on its mobile travel Web site in Britain, Senior Vice President Doug Garland said.
The way that Yahoo! is going to stay relevant and essential is by extending our services beyond the PC browser to all devices that consumers use, Garland, who runs Yahoo!’s mobile group, said in an interview at a conference in San Francisco.
There will be a paid search market that develops
The trials mark Yahoo!’s first experiments with search advertising on phones and may provide an avenue to sell more ads to companies seeking to reach younger consumers. Yahoo! started offering travel ads on mobile phones in June through Orange SA cell phones in Britain, Garland said.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo! is hiring engineers and crafting products for cell phones, which now outsell personal computers more than 3 to 1.
Handset sales will exceed 779 million units this year, compared with 207 million PCs sold, according to Stamford, Conn.-based market researcher Gartner Inc.
The company is competing with Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN for products that let cell phone users find restaurant locations, movie show times and stock quotes.
Ads also appear on Vodafone Group PLC phones, and Yahoo! has signed sponsorship agreements, including Web site providing news and scores from the Wimbledon tennis championships that was sponsored by American Express Co.