InsideGoogle

Opera Mobile Switched From Google to Yahoo

Opera Watch reports that both the Opera Mobile browser (for smartphones and PDAs) and the Opera Mini browser (for mobile phones) are switching the default search provider from Google to Yahoo, ending a one-year agreement with Google for default search. New downloads of Opera Mini contain the Yahoo search, and older versions are also being switched over (and not all of them are pleased with the change).

(Found on Findory)

The new browser for the mobile browsers is new itself, Yahoo’s OneSearch (picture on the right). OneSearch works interestingly for mobiles by examining the search query and showing a set of results based on the type of search query. In the screenshot, since you are searching for 49ers, you are getting sports scores, stats, photos and news, while a search for iPod would default to shopping search and a search for a city would include weather, traffic and local news.

It’s a good idea, similar to what Ask X does in its sidebar, but I’m not sure I’d want to rely on it as my main search engine. Most of the time, I know what I want, and I know how to use search verticals, so I like to get the regular search engine to make my own decision. However, other searchers, just typing stuff on the phone’s screens, may find this to be the perfect solution for their searching.

January 18th, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Yahoo, Search, General | one comment