A day after Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Yahoo! and Google will be available on the company's new iPhone, the two Internet search engines announced their service can be had by users of Samsung mobile phones.

But Yahoo may have gained an upper hand in this battle of Internet giants by offering more than Google.

According to Google, Samsung users will be able to access its search, email, and map products.

However, Yahoo is taking a more aggressive stance by packing some mobile-centric features for mobile phones into Yahoo! Go 2.0.

Although still in beta, it will allow users to quickly find things they need, such as email, weather, sports scores, local information and maps, and photo sharing, for example.

This service, named oneSearch, seems very significant, because it delivers search results that are more likely to match what cell phone users are want, as opposed to those who are doing more leisurely, research-oriented searches on their home computers.

Yahoo! also said it has agreements to deliver its services to Nokia and Motorola handsets and Research In Motion's BlackBerry. In addition, many consumers can download Yahoo! Go 2.0 for their own phones.

At stake is a growing market as people continue to use more features on their mobiles. The related advertising opportunities are there, too -- the numbers that many news services are throwing about state expectations for 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in mobile advertising this year, and at least double that by 2010.

If Yahoo! Go 2.0 proves as useful as it sounds, maybe Yahoo! has one-upped Google for the first time in ages? It remains to be seen how the battle pans out, but with so many people focusing on Yahoo!'s weaknesses here lately, investors should pay close attention to the company's aggressive moves into this high-growth arena.

Source:Xinhua/Agencies