Virgin Media and Yahoo! today announced that Yahoo! oneSearch will facilitate the Internet search on Virgin Media's new mobile portal. The Virgin Media mobile portal will be available to consumers on the 8th of December, and will offer news, music, video, games and entertainment, as well as Yahoo!'s mobile search.
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.
For instance, when a search for a football team is entered, Yahoo! oneSearch returns the latest scores, fixtures, team profiles, news, images and a link to the team's website Alternatively, if a user searches for a film, Yahoo! returns showing times at local cinemas, reviews, news articles and information on the cast.
Yahoo! oneSearch will provide Virgin Media's mobile consumers with relevant information on virtually any topic – 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, and much more. Yahoo! oneSearch will 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 monetisation engine for the mobile Internet, Yahoo! is enabling advertisers to reach their target audiences at large scale and with impact. Yahoo! is delivering a compelling consumer service via Yahoo! oneSearch that will help marketers connect with mobile consumers.
Commenting on the partnership, 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. Whether you're checking the Saturday football scores or your favourite web services, you're guaranteed to find what you need with ease."
"Working closely with our 70 mobile operator partners, Yahoo! oneSearch is a starting point for mobile consumers globally, revolutionising the mobile search experience by delivering relevant answers to queries that mobile users have while on-the-go," said Mitch Lazar, managing director of Connected Life Europe, Yahoo!. "Together, Virgin Media and Yahoo! are enhancing the user's mobile Internet experience in the UK while creating unique opportunities for advertisers to reach a highly-engaged audience of mobile consumers."