Google has long been offering iPhone-optimized sites for most of its services, as well as a dedicated search application for the iPhone. Yahoo, however, had mostly been lagging behind with respect to dedicated iPhone offerings. Now, Yahoo has unveiled a dedicated iPhone version of its search service, which, among other things, integrates results from SearchMonkey modules and also does a good job at displaying Flickr photos or movie showtimes in the results.
One of the best features of the web application is Yahoo’s Search Assist, which suggests completed search terms as you type. Also, if you are logged into Yahoo already and if you have activated any SearchMonkey extensions, those will also work in the iPhone web application.
Nothing Special
Overall, however, the Yahoo web application, while nice, can’t compete with the native Google app (iTunes link) or Google’s mobile sites for Safari. Just like the Yahoo web app, the native Google application also suggests search terms, but besides that, it can also display results from your contacts and it can display the actual search results as you type. The Google app also features dedicated searches for images, news, shopping, as well as a Wikipedia search, something that is missing from Yahoo’s offering.
Yahoo’s iPhone-optimized search does what it promises to do, but it is far from being an exciting service. If you are a dedicated Yahoo Search user, then this new site is for you, but overall, we don’t think this will get any Google users to switch to Yahoo for their search.
