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ZDNet / Google / Story
Yahoo to help Facebookers fidget on mobiles
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social network, mobile, gsma, google, wmc, iphone, blackberry, yahoo, loopt, msn messenger, google talk, oneconnect, sprint, nextel, boost
Yahoo has unveiled OneConnect, a new tool that allows mobile phone users to aggregate their social-networking updates and messaging in one spot on their phones at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The service integrates directly with a phone user's address book and allows people to share status updates and messages from a variety of messaging and social-networking platforms. This means it can provide status updates from Facebook or MySpace as well as provide access to e-mail and archived instant-messaging chats.
Yahoo demonstrated OneConnect at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. (Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET Networks)
Using GPS tracking, cell tower triangulation and/or near field communications like Bluetooth to get a fix on the cell phone user's exact location, the service can be set up to let people know if their friends are in the same area.
A similar service is offered by California-based startup Loopt. It also allows people to track their friends using GPS and last year the company announced it had integrated the service with cell phone users' address books. But the Loopt service is only available through two carriers in the U.S., Boost and Sprint Nextel. It also costs an additional $3 a month and can only be used on certain handsets.
OneConnect should be able to run on most mass-market phones that have a browser, said Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Connected Life at Yahoo. Boerries also said the company is working on versions of the service for Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry. The service can also be accessed from any Internet browser through Yahoo Go 3.0.
Within the past year the company has gotten more aggressive about rolling out new mobile services and striking deals with carriers. Today, Yahoo has partnerships with 29 operators, who combined have more than 600 million subscribers, according to its press release.
Yahoo's hope is that it will become the default access point for mobile phone users accessing the Web.
Google is also entering the mobile market, but many experts say that even though Google dominates on the desktop, the company seems to be lagging Yahoo in capabilities on mobile devices.
The two companies have taken different strategies in addressing the mobile market. Google is building its own mobile phone software in an effort to integrate its services into devices.
Yahoo is attempting to address the current phone market and is integrating its competitors' services on the OneConnect platform, which will aggregate Google talk and MSN as part of the platform.
Also on Tuesday at Mobile World Congress, Yahoo announced that its OneSearch service will be the exclusive search tool for T-Mobile's European customers starting in March.
Google said Tuesday that its search tool will be embedded on the four phones Nokia introduced on Monday. Google search has previously been available on Nokia Internet tablets, and last year Nokia announced that the N95 8GB supported YouTube, the video-sharing platform owned by Google.
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