Yahoo joins battle for mobile services

Depending on your perspective, Yahoo is either playing catch up or consolidating its first mover advantage with the release of its Go 3.0 platform for web services on mobiles. Well before Apple and Google made mobiles the hottest of all tech areas Yahoo had released its suite of mobile specific products. But as Google and others swept by with their bold announcements to change the face of the industry Yahoo seemed to be again stuck in an early 2000 time warp.

The announcement at CES of a new mobile portal page, a revamp of its GO suite of mobile web services, as well as the opening of its mobile platform to third party widgets, confirms Yahoo definitely does not want to be left behind in the scramble for mobile user time and more particularly the $1.8 billion in advertising expected this year, predicted to grow tenfold over the next five years.

The question not answered is whether Yahoo will launch a mobile VoIP phone application, leveraging either current partner eBay's Skype or an enhanced version of its own Yahoo! Voice product. Yahoo most definitely needs a mobile web voice play if it is serious about being a major operator in this space and was a curious omission from its CES release.

For more:
- As Google Zigs On Mobile, Yahoo Zags With 'Go 3.0' Article [1]
- Yahoo take baby steps towards Phone 2.0 Article [2]

Related articles:
Can Yahoo reinvent its mobile web business? Article [3] 
Yahoo predicts mobile web will overtake PCs Article [4]