• by joe.h , Bob Heyman , January 19, 2007

Yahoo has been especially active over the last month, announcing several initiatives in local and mobile search.

Yahoo is partnering with Dash Navigation to put Yahoo's local search technology into Dash's new Internet connected automobile navigation system. The technology will roll out in California this spring and nationally in the fall. Dash's GPS technology will provide location data that Yahoo will use to narrow search results for nearby businesses. Drivers will have "the ability to do local search on the device and to immediately then navigate to the results of that local search," according to Dash CEO Paul Lego.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo announced new software, called Go for Mobile 2.0, that makes it easy to move among various online services providing news, sports scores, maps, weather, movies, photos and e-mail. The free ad-supported services will be tailored to match a user's settings, like ZIP code and stock preferences, on Yahoo's existing online services. The software will also be equipped with a search service, "oneSearch," that will interpret a user's intent and deliver results accordingly. When a user searches for a sports team, the service will make a bet that the user is interested in the latest scores, a team profile and news related to the team, and return those first. More general Web links, like those returned in typical Internet searches, will be de-emphasized.

Yahoo has signed agreements with handset makers to preload or distribute the software and is also encouraging users to download the software directly onto their devices. "We view the mobile Internet today as entering an era where the PC-based Internet was in '96 or '97," said Steve Boom, Yahoo's senior vice president for broadband and mobile. "It is just on the cusp of taking off." The service is already available on about 70 handset models and is expected to be on some 400 devices by the end of the year, according to Boom.

And speaking of "Boom": Surely you've seen the TV ads for Eons, billed as the search engine for Baby Boomers, that features founder and CEO Jeff Taylor yelling "boom, boom, boom, boom." Hardly subtle, but don't underestimate Taylor, who founded Monster.com. On Eons' Web site, he proclaims "My new company, Eons, is all about celebrating life that begins at 50. Be loud and be proud about your age. Let's Live to Be 100 (or die trying)!"

We can all say "boom, boom, boom, boom" to that.