Their mobile web services available in the United States and the United Kingdom will see the beta launch of sponsored search results appearing on mobile handsets.
Those advertisers will have their sponsored search ads appear on devices using Yahoo Mobile for search.
Clicking a sponsored search result takes the user to either a mobile website or a landing page for that advertiser.
The landing page created by Yahoo for the advertiser will include click-to-call functionality, allowing the visitor to contact the business from the ad.
“Yahoo! has always been a leader in pay-per-click search advertising on the PC and we are thrilled to extend that success to mobile search advertising,” Steve Boom, senior vice president, mobile and broadband, Yahoo!, said in a statement.
“Our test deployments have been very successful, with strong advertiser demand and consumer engagement, which makes us very excited to bring our sponsored search listings to an even wider audience.”
The company also noted it is a leader in Japan and the UK with its tests for mobile sponsored search ads.
Some targeted tests in the US have taken place prior to this beta launch.
Competition for mobile advertising dominance ties in tightly with the quest for the local search market.
Although Google holds the lion’s share of web search advertising dollars, they and Yahoo are nearly even in handling local search according to comScore.
People who do mobile search likely want to find something geographically close, which would be what ties it and local search together.
Yahoo could use the boost from mobile search, but people in the US may be slower to embrace it than Japan or the UK, where mobile activity tends to be much higher among users.
Yahoo noted its Mobile Web service is available on most mobile phones across all the major mobile operators in the US and UK, including Verizon and Virgin Wireless.
The browser based service is designed for mobile phones and gives consumers quick access to Yahoo! services including search, email, and instant messaging, as well as news, weather, and finance content from their other properties.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
