Yahoo adds voice commands to Web search on phones

By Sinead Carew and Eric Auchard

LAS VEGAS/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Wednesday unveiled new features to make Web search easier and more relevant to mobile phone users, the latest step in its battle with Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in the next frontier for Web use.

Yahoo mobile chief Marco Boerries said his company aims to make millions of Web links more accessible on phones, by tapping deeper into the sites and by enabling consumers to use voice commands to search the Web.

"This is really a sea change. This is not about simple Web links any more," Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo's Connected Life unit, said in an interview ahead of a keynote speech at CTIA, the annual U.S. wireless showcase.

Yahoo unveiled the latest version of its oneSearch service as it forges ahead with its mobile Internet strategy in the face of an unsolicited Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) takeover bid.

The Sunnyvale, California-company has struck deals with dozens of operators around the world to reach a potential 600 million phone users with mobile Internet services. Yahoo has said it is targeting deals to reach 750 million users.

Yahoo is opening up the way it finds search results for mobile phone users by allowing publishers to provide highly categorized information that gives them more control over what content users see and how it is presented.

This lets Yahoo understand more about the information inside a link rather than just the link itself, Boerries said.

This open approach is, in technical terms, a form of semantic Web search, which essentially means that computers recognize and categorize the type of information that appears on a Web page. It will be ready for network operators to offer to mobile phone customers this quarter, he said.