Virgin Mobile in U.K. Prefers Yahoo! oneSearch
Virgin Media and Yahoo! have agreed that Yahoo! oneSearch will be
available for Internet search on Virgin Media’s enhanced mobile portal,
which will come for consumer access on Dec. 8. It’ll carry content
including news, music, video, games, and entertainment.
Yahoo!
oneSearch is specifically designed for the needs of a mobile user,
intuitively returning results directly in the first screen, removing the
need for consumers to navigate through thousands of links to find the
information they want, says Yahoo!.
Yahoo!
oneSearch will provide Virgin Media’s mobile consumers with information
on different topics –- from news, financial information, weather
conditions, Flickr photos and lottery results, to Web and mobile web
sites, travel information, integrated information from Wikipedia and
Yahoo! Answers. It’ll also display relevant ringtones, wallpapers, games
and other content within search results.
Yahoo!
and Virgin Media plan to deliver mobile sponsored search results and
contextually served sponsored listings within the Virgin Media mobile
portal early 2009. With a focus on creating the monetization engine for
the mobile Internet, Yahoo! is enabling advertisers to reach their
target audiences at large scale and with impact. The company is
delivering a consumer service via Yahoo! oneSearch that will help
marketers connect with mobile consumers.
Graeme
Oxby, managing director of Virgin Mobile said: “Our new Virgin Media
mobile portal brings the web to consumers’ pockets. A great mobile
search service is a crucial part of this and by integrating Yahoo!
oneSearch into the portal, we are ensuring our customers have all the
information they need at their fingertips.”
Launched in 1999, Virgin Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator in
U.K. and uses T-Mobile's network. With 4.4 million customers, Virgin
Mobile is part of Virgin Media and the group offers 'quadruple play' to
customers covering mobile and fixed line telephony, broadband internet
and television.
In a
similar partnership,
T-Mobile USA and Yahoo! had recently agreed to
provide Yahoo! oneSearch to T-Mobile's new web2go service. It allows Web
browsing on mobile phones through a customizable home page.
