Yahoo! Mobile has teamed up with the second largest mobile applications store, GetJar, to integrate mobile apps into its search engine results. Starting now, users conducting searches on their mobile phones via m.yahoo.com, will see a separate section called “apps” which will feature relevant results from GetJar’s collection of over 75,000 downloadable applications.
Using Yahoo’s Mobile App Search
For example, if a user was to search for the keyword “sports,” Yahoo would return app listings for “Sports Brush,” “Sports News” and “CBS Sports Mobile.” When a user taps one of those results, they’re taken directly to GetJar’s download page for the application.
In this example, a user searching for “YouTube” would be directed to the link of the appropriate YouTube application for their device.
?For now, the Yahoo/GetJar partnership is being tested in the United States, but it will expand to other countries in 2011.
Because GetJar is an independently run, third-party application store, it’s able to host all the different versions of a particular mobile app across all major platforms, including everything from smartphone apps for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian all the way down to simple mobile Web applications which can run on feature phones.
GetJar is also able to detect what type of phone a Web surfer is arriving from and then serve up the correct download link for their device. This is helpful for the less technically savvy mobile customer who wants apps for their phone but may not know what mobile operating system their device runs or their device model. And for those who do know these technical details, device detection is just a great time-saver.
GetJar Partnerships: Yahoo, AT&T
Yahoo isn’t the first big-name mobile player to partner with the up-and-coming application store. Earlier this month, GetJar won a deal with AT&T, which involves having its application library made available within the carrier’s “AppCenter” store. The partnership brings GetJar apps to approximately 50 different AT&T handsets, from high-end Blackberry devices to feature phones. However, iPhone users are not able to download GetJar to their devices (although they can browse its mobile website).
It wouldn’t be surprising to see more carriers following AT&T’s lead here, as they all attempt to fill out their own application marketplaces with content.
