San Francisco — Yahoo Inc.’s oneSearch and AT&T Inc., the largest provider of telephone services in the United States, entered into a planned partnership on Monday to deliver the search engine’s mobile-centric search platform to the carrier’s customers.
AT&T Inc. has become the nation’s first carrier to commence featuring Yahoo Inc. search services through its Internet portal of mobile handsets used by its base of up to 70 million U.S. customers, a collection of Yahoo’s oneSearch mobile Web services including links to news, financial information, weather as well as Flickr photos via the phone, both companies announced on Monday.
AT&T has operated with Yahoo for a while, existing since 2001 when the company endorsed a shared-revenue agreement for the telco’s broadband services in select areas.
This deal expands a previous partnership the companies announced earlier this year where Yahoo provided search and advertising services to AT&T’s broadband computer, Internet TV and mobile phone customers. AT&T’s YellowPages.com will deliver local search information to customers as part of the new deal.
The Santa Clara, California-based company said it has partnerships globally and already provides oneSearch to about 60 overseas carriers that will reach almost 800 million mobile phone users. Yahoo is the exclusive cell phone search provider in Europe for T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom.
Yahoo’s oneSearch will be the primary search engine on AT&T’s MEdia Net cell phone portal, which is used on many of the company’s Internet-enabled phones, but it does not include Apple’s iPhone. Yahoo will also provide the mobile-sponsored search advertising.
“Our customers want mobile search to be convenient and intuitive, and Yahoo oneSearch is an important step for us in delivering that level of experience to them,” said Michael Bowling, AT&T’s VP of converged services, said in a statement.
oneSearch blends all of the search engine’s different services into one application. Users can search for information based on a location, the search engine is designed to return the most relevant results to mobile phone users, and it will search through news, financial information, weather, Flickr photos, and more. The search will also show relevant content like ringtones and games from AT&T’s MEdia Mall within results.
In another deal, Yahoo extended its contract with Verizon Communications Inc. on a similar broadband computer deal to deliver Web services to Verizon computer broadband and Internet TV users. That deal does not cover mobile phones.
Rival Google Inc. is in discussion with Verizon to become the preferred Web search provider for Verizon mobile phone customers. Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. mobile operator, is on course to surpass market leader AT&T once it receives regulatory approval to purchase rural wireless provider Alltel later this year.
“Yahoo! oneSearch has proven to be one of the leading mobile Internet search products on the market, and Yahoo! has been successful in partnering with carriers globally,” said Scott Ellison, vice president, Mobile & Wireless Communications, IDC.
These deals stretch across Asia, Europe and Latin America. With AT&T now live, two-thirds of the announced deals have been put into effect. oneSearch is seeing heaviest usage from two Philippine carriers, Smart and Globe, a Yahoo spokesman said.
Search queries are also strong in Britain and across Europe through carriers’ deals with T-Mobile, France Telecom’s Orange and Telefonica SA’s 02.
“This partnership with AT&T will enable Yahoo to reach tens of millions of mobile Internet users in the United States and provide advertisers with reach and scale,” Ellison said in a statement from Yahoo.
As customers increasingly surf the Web from a mobile handset, the search portal is becoming an important component. As more handsets feature built-in GPS capabilities, experts expect the mobile search market to become very lucrative due to location-based advertising.
Today, the mobile search market is dominated by Google, which holds about 61% of the space according to Nielsen Mobile. Yahoo is in a distant second with 18% of the market, but more strategic partnerships with wireless providers could help it cut that gap.
Google already is the exclusive search provider for Sprint handsets, and reports said the search giant and Verizon Wireless are close to sealing a deal for mobile search and advertising.