Y! Mobile Blog
Yahoo! Mobile

Pam Woon, Yahoo!’s Web Trend Expert, talks about top iPhone apps that are getting users what they want, and where they need to go this summer. In addition to an app that enables you to track your outdoor fitness activities and one that offers weight training and exercise guides, Pam also highlights Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search, a free app that lets users easily find a restaurant in their area by simply drawing a line or boundary on the phone’s map with in the app – users can then sort results by cuisine, ambience, or price.

Hear about Yahoo! Sketch-aSearch in this video broadcast, courtesy of KPIX Eyewitness News.

The Yahoo! Mobile Team

Just in case you missed it, we recently released an updated version of the Flickr App for iPhone, specifically targeting the new, shiny features on the iPhone 4: Multi-tasking and support for HD-video uploads.

The version 1.2 adds multi-tasking and allows users to upload their photos and videos in the background. After tapping the “Upload” button, you can simply do something else; no longer do you have to watch the progress bar until it’s finished. When multi-tasking, we’ll always bring you back to the same place where you left the application.

We’re also introducing a new Twitter sharing feature in the iPhone app (not just for iOS 4 users).  This provides the ability to upload a photo or video to Flickr and simultaneously post the photo’s short flic.kr address to your Twitter followers. To use this feature you just have to link your Flickr account with your Twitter account here: http://www.flickr.com/account/blogs/add/twitter.

The brief video below shows the multi-tasking and the Twitter feature in action.

In addition to the cool features, we enhanced the overall user interface, provide the option to clear your recent searches and developed an even better full screen browsing experience – once you swipe to the next photo the navigation controls disappear and you can enjoy the photo. Not sure how to enter the full screen mode? Just tap the photo on a photo detail page in the app.

Flickr for iPhone 1.2 is available for free in the App Store http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flickr/id328407587?mt=8

Markus Spiering

Flickr

Whether they’re searching for “Copa do Mundo” in Brazil or “Piala Dunia” in Indonesia, mobile users around the world turn to Yahoo! to check scores and schedules and get updates on their favorite teams and players when they are on the go. Mobile World Cup searches grew 211% week over week globally for the first matches, and jumped another 75% the following week.

Mobile searches for specific matches represent more than 10% of global World Cup search trends—in fact, Team vs. Team patterns grew 150% from the first week of the tournament to the second. People searched for all games, not just the favorites (or those with the biggest home audiences). The top-searched games of the first two weeks of the World Cup were:

1. Argentina vs. Nigeria
2. USA vs. England
3. France vs. Uruguay
4. Denmark vs. Cameroon
5. Algeria vs. England

The top-searched team countries didn’t necessarily coincide with their ranking or performance—it was all about the drama, fan loyalty, and upsets. The top searched countries included:

1. England
2. United States
3. Brazil
4. Mexico
5. Argentina

As for individual players, Lionel Messi might arguably be the No. 1 footballer in the world, but he is #2 when it comes to mobile searches — Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is the clear winner there. Landon Donovan scored big on the field and in searches, finally putting soccer front and center in the U.S. Argentine coach Diego Maradona is in a league of his own compared to other queried coaches, grabbing 50% of the searches over Capello, Dunga, and Domenech, to name just a few.

Globally, almost 80% of the mobile World Cup-related searches are for general queries like “world cup,” “mondial,” and “south africa 2010.” For some American soccer fans, the World Cup teams ignited an interest in geography, with searches on “where is algeria,” “where is slovenia,” “where is cameroon,” etc., popping up throughout the games. Additionally, U.S. fans turned to Yahoo! on their mobile phones for answers to other questions about the world’s most popular sport: “what is offsides in soccer,” “what does the yellow card mean in soccer,” “how does world cup scoring work,” “what is the buzzing noise at the world cup” (ah, the beloved vuvuzela), and of course, “why is football called soccer.”

If the volume of searches is any indication, we can tell you that the 2010 World Cup games are a huge hit all over the world and interest continues to grow week after week. That’s all for now.

Yahoo! Mobile Search team

With three million iPads sold¹, it appears that sales aren’t slowing any time soon. In our first look at Yahoo! iPad users, we revealed who these users were, what their interests were, and the properties they were visiting on the Yahoo! network. This time, we’re going to answer the following questions:

1. Two months later, does the demographic makeup of the U.S. Yahoo! iPad user look the same as it did in the first few days of the iPad’s release? Are their behaviors and interests still the same or have they changed?
2. With the launch of the iPad in nine new countries on May 28, do these latest users have the same demographic profile and behaviors/interests as the Yahoo! iPad Early Adopters in the U.S.?

An update on the Yahoo! iPad user in the U.S.

We are calling the users we looked at in our first-round analysis “Yahoo! iPad Early Adopters” because they were visiting the U.S. Yahoo! network on the iPad within the first nine days after the iPad launched. These users skewed heavily male, affluent, and strongly interested in finance and sports — much like early adopters of high-priced tech products.

In the second phase of our Yahoo! iPad user analysis, we were particularly interested in learning if there were any meaningful shifts in the user base — especially since we’ve observed a 7x increase in the number of users visiting Yahoo! services from the iPad during the first two months after the iPad launched.

The chart to the left illustrates this rapid growth, which also resulted in a shift in the percentage of women who are now Yahoo! users via their iPad. The user base continues to skew male, but is becoming more gender-balanced; the male to female ratio moved from 2:1 to 3:2.

Another notable difference is which properties these users are visiting on the Yahoo! network. While Flickr, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! News, and Yahoo! Sports are still popular; Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Shopping, and Yahoo! Travel increased 28%, 25%, and 22% respectively, compared to the Yahoo! iPad Early Adopters. This likely indicates that the behaviors of the user base are shifting.

What has stayed the same between the Yahoo! iPad users more than two months after launch and the Early Adopters is that the sweet spot for this user base continues to be in the 30–54 age range, and that about half of the Yahoo! iPad users have been using Yahoo! for at least six years (see charts below).

As the iPad user base on Yahoo! has increased, the interest in business/investment topics among these iPad users did not decrease. On the contrary, it grew 46% compared to the Yahoo! iPad Early Adopters, or 130% more than an average Y! U.S. user. The search category also has the highest penetration rate index; these Y! iPad users are 2.8 times more likely to search for investment-related information than the Y! U.S. average.

The International Yahoo! iPad Early Adopter

With the May 28 availability of the iPad in nine countries across three continents, we were able to track international users for the first time, and compared the characteristics of the international iPad Early Adopters to the Yahoo! U.S. Early Adopters (see charts below).

Yahoo! iPad users outside of the U.S. show similarities in demographics. In general, the male skew is the same internationally as it is in the U.S., though it is stronger in Japan, where male users outnumber women 4:1. Similarly, the 35–44 age cohort is the largest among all international iPad users on Yahoo!.

Unlike the U.S., interest levels in technology were substantially stronger in all nine countries, with the U.K., Australia, and Germany showing between 3–4 times higher interest than the U.S. On the Search side, technology and finance searches on the Yahoo! network were the strongest.

Ashley Cheng

Yahoo! Insights

¹ Apple press release titled “Apple Sells Three Million iPads in 80 Days” – June 22, 2010

Today, Yahoo! debuted Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger apps for Android, a Yahoo! Search Widget for Android, and launched an amazing new HTML5 mobile mail and News experience for iPhone and iPod touch. These exciting launches represent our continued efforts to develop sophisticated mobile experiences for leading platforms, reaching a broad audience of highly engaged mobile users. We’re keeping consumers connected to the people and things that matter to them most – wherever and whenever they want.

Yahoo! provides a seamless, integrated experience across all screens; from PC to mobile phones, tablets, TV, and beyond. These latest apps are optimized for three hero Android devices–Motorola Droid, HTC Incredible, and Google Nexus One–and are available for download globally, via the Android Market for Android OS 2.0 and above.

Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger operate as standalone applications, but are also integrated to provide an optimal Yahoo! communications experience. We include the best of Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger, including rich text formatting, Yahoo! emoticons, and access to the Yahoo! Address Book, in apps that are designed from the ground up for the Android platform.

With the new Yahoo! Mail App for Android, consumers can:

• Receive push notification of new email messages
• Send emails to contacts from the Yahoo! Address Book as well as contacts in the native phone address book
• Search email messages by sender, recipient, subject and keywords in the body of the email
• Upload photos as attachments directly from camera or the photo gallery
• View and download attachments
• Insert emoticons and rich text formatting into emails
• Effectively manage and organize their Yahoo! Mail messages, folders and manage spam
• Toggle between the Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger apps with ease

With the new Yahoo! Messenger App for Android, consumers can:

• Easily message friends, check friends’ status updates & availability as well as update their own status & availability
• Send instant messages to friends via SMS text messages*
• Stay connected with full support for multitasking allowing the app to work in the background; with push notifications consumers can easily catch new messages and friend requests
• Full use of emoticons and rich text formatting
• Send photos to friends directly from the phone’s camera or the photo gallery

A smarter, faster, and richer mobile mail experience leveraging HTML5

In related news, we’re launching our innovative new HTML5 Yahoo! Mail web app, offering users desktop-class features, lightning-fast speed, and an engaging rich-media experience. With close to 300 million Yahoo! Mail users worldwide, we are constantly looking at ways to innovate the communications experience, whether on the PC, mobile device or tablet. Using the cutting edge capabilities of HTML5, the new Yahoo! Mail is our most advanced mobile web experience yet.

This new webapp offers users a webmail experience that is:

• Faster and more reliable: off-line mail access and local search enabled by local caching capabilities give consumers access to their mail anywhere, even out of network coverage
• Smart: find the message you need, whenever you need it. With our Full Search feature, personal folder creation & management and Smart Folders with messages from key contacts
• Rich: view rich photo and video attachments in full, or as preview directly in the inbox, as well as HTML messages
• Seamless & unified experience with Yahoo! desktop Mail

This optimized mobile web mail experience is available globally in 28 languages, in over 200 countries. It is optimized for the Apple iPhone, the iPod touch, and is expected to be available via other Webkit-enabled browsers in the near future.

This experience is available to preview on an opt-in basis. We expect to upgrade all eligible users to the new version shortly. Get started by visiting m.yahoo.com/mail on your iPhone browser, and tap on ‘Preview the new Yahoo! Mail’; alternatively, you can click here from your iPhone

Let us know your thoughts and comments about the new products below.

Andreas Nordin
Product Manager, Yahoo! Messenger

Lee J. Parry
Product Manager, Yahoo! Mail

*This feature is currently only available when sending to numbers in Canada, Indonesia, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.

Today, we are thrilled to announce the availability of the Yahoo! Messenger One app in beta at CommunicAsia 2010.  Yahoo! Messenger One was conceived on the premise of wanting to create an integrated and easily accessible communication experience for new-to-net mobile users, offering them a central point for their communication and content needs while on the go.

The beta launch of Yahoo! Messenger One represents a refreshing approach to all your communications needs.  How so?  Simply put, this all-in-one universal address book and communications hub enables you to find, connect and communicate with friends the way you want, whether it’s email,  instant messaging or SMS – it’s your choice!  What’s more, it’s packed with a slew of user benefits including:

• Mobile registration: You can sign up for a new Yahoo! ID right from within Yahoo! Messenger One app.  No PC/laptop needed. How convenient is that!
• Unified inbox: Now you have all your email, IM and SMS conversations in one easy-to-use-and-access inbox, you can always keep track of all your conversations, hassle free.
• Native address book syncing: Simply upload your contacts to Yahoo! so you can access them from one place, anywhere.
• Message archive and search: With all your conversations stored in the cloud, you will never have to worry about losing your messages or having to delete them ever again.
• IM and SMS chats: You can still chat with you contacts even if they are not on Yahoo! by using SMS (presently supported for Indonesian and US mobile contacts only).
• News Content: Lets you always stay up to date with the latest news, and you can share articles with your friends.

Yahoo! Messenger One will be rolled out first in Indonesia and available in Bahasa Indonesian (the local language).  Indonesia does not require any introduction.  Still, this is the world’s fourth-most populous country with more than 230 million people and about 30 million Internet users.  With its mobile phone customer base having more than doubled to 165 million users in less than three years, and with  popular devices like Blackberry smartphones and low cost clones growing at a fast rate, it is not all that surprising mobile users have outpaced active Internet users by more than 5-to-1.  Clearly this is a nation on the move and we are bringing Yahoo! Messenger One right to the users.

Yahoo! Messenger One is currently available for Blackberry 9000, Blackberry 9700, Blackberry 8900, and Blackberry 9630 devices. Just direct your mobile browser to http://m.yahoo.com/one to download the app and try it out. In future releases, Yahoo! Messenger One is expected to support additional devices and platforms. We’d also love to get your feedback so we can keep innovating and improving the user experience.

Karen Yeo

Product Marketing, Apps

Now that people have gotten their hands on a shiny new iPad, how are they using it? Whether it’s a reflection of the economy or just a little belt-tightening after a major purchase, the top searches over the last few weeks tended toward the thrifty and economical.  EBay and craigslist topped the list of shopping-related iPad searches (possibly from gadget geeks looking for a quick sale of outdated PDAs or laptops to raise cash). Walmart and Target followed close behind as shoppers scouted for bargains to stay within their budgets. Home improvement giants Home Depot and Lowe’s rounded out the list for do-it-yourselfers looking for the tools and materials to fix up what they’ve already got.

Even old-favorite websites are new again as top online destinations release special apps just for the iPad. It’s probably no surprise that Netflix and Flickr topped the list of “app-able” searches, video being a great use of all that screen space. Other highly searched media sites included ABC, NBC, Hulu.com, Justin.tv, and Pandora Radio. FarmVille was the No. 1 Facebook game, with Club Penguin and Chatroulette heading the list for online connections.

Consumers who are still on the fence about the iPad, or who might be close to purchasing one, drove Mobile searches up 327% for “iPad reviews” and 138% for “iPad cost.” Once the initial “new toy” excitement is over, it will be interesting to see how the top queries change from week to week.

– Yahoo! Mobile Editorial

Last month, we ran the first of a new class of Rich Media display advertisements featuring Shrek Forever After. These new mobile campaigns use HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript for animation, interaction and analytics to bring a more compelling ad experience to mobile devices. We’ve just launched another new creative campaign in collaboration with Fidelity Investments as we continue to explore the potential of designing advertisements which are integrated with specific properties on Yahoo! Mobile.

The Fidelity creative will run for a month across a range of Yahoo! Mobile sites and in contrast to the Shrek overlay which was designed as a high-impact, short-lived, experience this campaign uses an in-page animation anchored by a fixed banner. If the user changes the phone orientation from portrait to landscape the creative just shows a short animation around the banner itself.

“Fidelity is constantly looking for new ways to leverage digital channels to reach investors in innovative and engaging ways on their mobile devices,” said James D. Speros, chief marketing officer, Fidelity Investments.

As the Smartphone market continues to grow we will see more mobile publishers adopt the HTML5 standard to develop interactive and animated display advertisements on high-end mobile devices. So, what separates Yahoo! with its competitors? As Yahoo! is both the publisher, technology provider and ad-provider for display advertisements we are able to design and build unique experiences, like we have done with Fidelity, which run within specific spaces of Yahoo! properties to create a fun, engaging and highly integrated advertising experience for both our users and our advertisers.

As the June 11 kick off approaches for the 2010 World Cup, Yahoo! users are turning to their phones to track the action. Mobile searches for “World Cup” shot up 23% over last week. We’ve also been looking at top searches for footballers. Here’s what we found, and why these players might be interesting to watch.

Most Watched: Lionel Messi – Argentina

Though his team, FC Barcelona, lost to Inter Milan in the Champions League in the semis, they sealed the championship on the last day of La Liga, the Spanish competition.  Overall, Messi represents more than 60% of all searches for the top five players listed here.  At the World Cup, Messi should receive plenty of help from national teammates Gonzalo Gerardo “El Pipita” Higuaín of Real Madrid and Inter Milan’s new superstar, Diego Milito. Argentina will play Nigeria, South Korea, and Greece, and there’s little doubt they’ll advance.

Biggest Buzz: Didier Drogba – Ivory Coast

Didier Drogba excelled on May 8 by scoring for his club, Chelsea, during the Cup final at Wembley. Drogba kept his excellent track record at Wembley by scoring his third goal in the endgame of the world’s most-watched Cup matches.  Chelsea also recently won the Premier league. Mobile searches shot up 60% over the last 2 weeks, even though Chelsea didn’t advance in the Champions League. Drogba is hitting his stride just in time for the World Cup. Ivory Coast will need it when they face Brazil, Portugal, and North Korea. Unbelievable—and only 2 teams will advance!

Most Controversial: Franck Ribéry – France

The attacking midfielder for France and Bayern Munich, Franck Ribéry is known for controversy on and off the field. He sat out the Champions League final against Inter Milan, due to a red card that seems to correspond to fan interest: Searches were down almost 100% compared to April. Ribéry, at 27 years old, needs the World Cup to show his true worth after extending his contract (and football future) with Bayern Munich. France will play Uruguay, Mexico, and South Africa. Anything less than second round would be a disgrace for this proud team.

Hometown Favorite: Arjen Robben – Netherlands

The Dutch star of Bayern Munich just won the double in Germany: the cup and the championship. And Bayern played and lost the Champions League final in Madrid. Robben scored some beautiful goals at the Champions League, and mobile searches peaked for both goals against Lyon (semi-final)—up 45%—and against Manchester United (quarter final). In June, the Netherlands will play Cameroon, Japan, and Denmark. The Dutch team, though never without controversy, should advance to the second round.

Most Likely to Cheer from the Sidelines: Wayne Rooney – England

England’s key player for both Manchester United and the national team, Wayne Rooney is extremely popular among fans. He represents more than 30% of the searches compared to the other four players. England will need him, but after a few injuries this year, let’s just hope his body will hold up for the World Cup. England will play Slovenia, Algeria, and USA.

Soccer fans in Europe searching for footballers on their phones can now see up-to-date stats on a new players profile page. Try it now using this search for Arjen Robben and clicking on the “Profile” link: http://uk.m.yahoo.com/w/search?&p=arjen+robben.

Fans around the world now get special World Cup coverage of teams and matches. Try some of these searches out on your phone (for instance, “uk slovenia” for match info) or visit m.yahoo.com to view mobile search results on your desktop.

We’ll bring you more on these players as the excitement progresses in South Africa this summer. For more World Cup updates, check out the coverage on Yahoo! Mobile or Yahoo! Sports.

–Yahoo! Mobile Search

Without question, this year’s World Cup in South Africa is going to bring an unprecedented number of fanatical football (soccer, for those of us in the U.S.) fans to their TVs, PCs and mobile phones. With over 5,760 minutes of soccer to be played in nine cities and 10 stadiums, and millions of fans around the globe watching, there are going to be a lot of matches, highlights, and commentary to keep up with.

When you’re on the go, Yahoo!’s brand-new mobile World Cup site keeps you connected to all of the action. We’re providing you with one of the most comprehensive World Cup mobile experiences — including up-to-the-minute scores, schedules, standings, news, player profiles, and more. The mobile site launches today in 40 markets covering 13 languages, and is optimized for more than 4,500 different types of mobile devices.

Visit m.yahoo.com/worldcup from your phone for one of the most comprehensive mobile sites for the World Cup.

We’re also optimizing Yahoo! Search for mobile for the World Cup, making it even easier to find the information you’re looking for. If you conduct a mobile search through Yahoo!, http://m.yahoo.com you’ll be able to see quick results for matchups, standings, and countries as well as the latest scores, news, and analysis. As soon as the games go live in early June, we’ll introduce a World Cup module on the mobile homepage, providing at-a-glance scores and matchups.

For additional information on the 2010 World Cup, visit: http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/ and http://mobile.yahoo.com/world-cup to learn more about the mobile site.

Juan Gomez De La Vega
Yahoo! Mobile