Yahoo, the world's biggest mobile search provider, will today announce six new Asian partners for its search function.

David Ko, managing director and VP of Yahoo Connected Life Asia, said the cellcos would exclusively carry the Internet firm's OneSearch function.

He said 18 operators and 60 worldwide now use OneSearch, reaching 750 million subscribers under contract, Ko said.

He says the availability of one-click search has also helped drive demand for mobile data.

"A lot of customers don't know how to find what they want through their handset.

"It used to be that it would take five to seven clicks to find what they were looking for. Because of that experience, they don't do it again," Ko said.

OneSearch optimizes the results according to the location of the user and the nature of the search query, he said. "It's different from desktop search. We don't give you 60 million results."

He said operators were abandoning their walled gardens and "coming to the recognition that you have to be more open."
Carriers were putting OneSearch "front and center" in their portals and were integrating their saleable content – such as ringtones – into the search results.

Yahoo will also make an announcement today on a voice search app with English speech recognition localized for Singapore and Indian accents.

Source:CommunicAsia Show Daily