I have written about Yahoo!'s mobile strategy in the past,( here and here ) and I think it has been strong. But, my perspective has always been distinctly US, when, in fact, Yahoo!'s efforts are international. I have praised these moves, but done so (admittedly) with a lack of local perspective from the relevant regions. While I will continue to cover search(mobile and otherwise) from a U.S. perspective, I am glad to say that my perspective can be 'corrected' ;) by my colleagues on the Global Blog.

 These latest releases from Yahoo are a confirmation of it's decided direction, which is co-operative with carriers and handset makers. I think this is the best way to address mobile search.

In addition to adding Chinese language for Taiwan, adding or expanding partnerships in India, Malaysia, Indonisia, Canada, the UK and elsewhere, Yahoo! has incorporated Flikr and Yahoo! Mail into other regions. They are developing a well rounded content strategy for the mobile deck on a global scale. This will get them ahead of the others very quickly.

This is in stark contrast to Google's direct challenge to these groups through Android, the open source development effort that Google is leading. Google's Android allows third party developers to create applications for the mobile devices. In the US, there is a great deal of resistance to opening the deck. Carriers want to control and monetize this realestate. Android expands the potential applications that can be monetized, but significantly complicates the process by which this can take place. Among the first questions is how will the carriers make money?

Eswar Priyadarshan had a nice piece in iMediaConnection 11/13. What struck me in particular was:

"If I was a wireless carrier, I would take a huge wait-and-see approach even if I thought the ad-subsidized economics made sense, primarily because of my customer support, developer support and security concerns:"

I agree. And while carriers wait to see if the open source route will provide the applications they want with the necessary support, Yahoo! is developing them and bringing them to the carriers and service providers around the world. I liken this to Microsoft. Not necessarily the best OS, but by becoming the most prevalent so quickly, they boxed out everyone else. Now while OS are far more difficult to swap out, handset applications that are specific to one platform or another provide a limitation that will not only slow down user adoption, but this is also an impediment to developers who are currently working on other money generating projects, or simply see an issue with this speculative development for a yet unproven platform. A major tension point for some developers is the further fragmentation, requiring them to port applications across platforms. More from Seattle Times. Google's path needs to address three constituencies simultaneously: Carriers, Developers and Users.

Yahoo! is using it's online strategy of developing a well rounded application and user experience. They have incorporated search along with a long line of content in Yahoo! Go. With this, you can tie into your schedule, email and calendar as well as maps, news, sports, weather, flickr and more. Because moving around on the deck is somewhat of a pain, the all-in-one approach is nice. I think this can be improved; that's always the case. But if enough people adopt Y! Go, there will need to be a compelling reason to switch. It is compatible with current platforms, has dedicated development teams, and has a strong tie to online users. Can third party developers, with ad hoc and independent development goals create a compelling story that will make users give up applications designed for other platforms? I don't thinks so.