Yahoo improves mobile suite

Yahoo will upgrade its free software suite for mobile phones, improving such capabilities as search, mapping, e-mail, and photo management, the company announced on Tuesday.

Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0, which has been in test mode since its introduction in the U.S. in January, will shed its test tag on Friday.

That day, Yahoo will also launch beta versions of the suite in 13 other countries. Those versions will be “localized,” meaning their user interface will be in the countries’ local languages and that other default data will reflect local settings for things like weather and time.

In related news, Yahoo plans to announce on Wednesday at the CommunicAsia conference in Singapore that six mobile operators in the Asia-Pacific region have agreed to make its oneSearch the exclusive search engine of their mobile Web portals.

The deal gives Yahoo access to a combined universe of almost 100 million mobile subscribers in those markets. The operators are Globe Telecom in the Philippines, Idea Cellular in India, LG Telecom in Korea, Maxis Communications Berhad in Malaysia, PT Telekomunikasi Selular “Telkomsel” in Indonesia, and Taiwan Mobile.

Yahoo, like other major Internet players, is busy porting its software and online services for mobile devices, which are fast becoming the preferred Internet access vehicle for millions of people around the world thanks to improvements in mobile bandwidth and hardware.

In the U.S. and the other 13 countries, the Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 suite, which is free to download, will be available for more than 200 different mobile phones by the end of July and for more than 400 by the end of the year, according to Yahoo.

It will also be preloaded on some new devices from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG Electronics, Research In Motion, and High Tech Computer that will ship later this year, saving those handset owners from downloading the software.

The new version of Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 operates faster than its predecessor with lower page loading times, including in its Flickr photo management service.

Its Yahoo Mail capabilities have been expanded as well. Previously, it could open plain text and image attachments, but the new version adds the ability to open Adobe’s PDF files and Microsoft’s Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents. Also new is the ability to access Yahoo Mail folders.

The Yahoo Maps/Local service now shows satellite image maps, as well as so-called hybrid maps, which combine the satellite images with the traditional cartographic representations. Also new is the display of real-time traffic conditions on the maps and better overall performance for the service. It also provides GPS services on some devices.

The suite’s new version also makes it easier for users to search contacts in their Yahoo Address Book and initiate calls or get driving directions from that interface.

Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 also has the oneSearch service and mobile versions of other Yahoo services like Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Weather.

The 13 countries getting beta versions of the suite are Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Spain, the U.K., Thailand, and Vietnam. These beta versions will have “much of the functionality” available to U.S. users, according to Yahoo.

More information about the Yahoo Go suite can be found on this Web site.