CompuWorld

Yahoo is one of the biggest rivals of Google. Ofcourse Google is the leader of desktop search but Yahoo has been making good attempts lately to hit back hard on Google and OneSearch, as Yahoo calls its mobile phone service, differs from how computer Web search delivers raw sets of links. OneSearch delivers locally relevant answers, instead Yahoo serves up a list of actual information, such as news headlines, images from Yahoo's Flickr photos site, business listings, local weather and links to other Web sites.

Rather than showing popular movies or critical reviews, for example, Yahoo search lists local theaters playing a particular movie, user ratings of the film and news headlines related to the movie. Users only need to enter a zip code or city name for Yahoo OneSearch to begin delivering local search results.

Google takes a user several more steps to reach the same information as Yahoo OneSearch.

OneSearch runs sponsored advertising tied to Web search results and display advertisements, or mini-banner ads designed for mobile phone screens.

Starting in the United States, with international markets to follow later this year, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said it planned to take advantage of the inherently local nature of many Web searches performed on phones. Alarm bells for Google are ringing.