• by Gavin O'Malley , July 27, 2005

Laying the foundation for the wireless Web's future, Motorola and Yahoo! announced a partnership on Tuesday to sync the mobile maker's Linux-based and broadband-enabled devices with Yahoo!'s core Web products and services, including search, instant messaging, e-mail and news. Motorola's Yahoo! optimized products are expected to be available to consumers in major markets starting in 2006.

This is Motorola's first large deal with an Internet company like Yahoo! "With Yahoo! we're in a better position to expand our offerings to customers, providing a seamless experience for consumers." Kathy Van Buskirk, Motorola's senior director of global communications, said.

Seamless integration with Motorola's Linux and Java software platform was indeed a chief consideration, Van Buskirk added. "By optimizing these products for our leading Linux and Java software platform, we're making it easier for operators to maximize revenue while delivering the most innovative consumer experiences," she said.

The companies intend to offer both operators and consumers Motorola devices optimized for direct access to the full suite of Yahoo!'s products and services, starting with Web Mail and Address Books and in time expanding into other areas.

Yahoo! has been aggressively searching for ways to reach consumers beyond their homes or offices.

"Yahoo! is focused on providing our millions of users with the opportunity to connect to their Yahoo! services on the devices they use. Our plans with Motorola are an important step toward making this vision a reality," said Marco Boerries, senior vice president of Yahoo!'s Connected Life business unit. "By working with Motorola ... we will be able to further extend Yahoo!'s presence beyond the desktop and onto millions more mobile devices, into the home and even into the automobile."

Yahoo! already has a search service for mobile devices, but has yet to monetize the service because, while it has made many of its own pages accessible to consumers without Web-enabled "smart" phones, most of the companies who would advertise on Yahoo! Search have not. "With paid search, the point is that users will hopefully click through to a company's site, but if their sites don't sync with cellphones there's no point," Thad White, head of Yahoo!'s mobile services, told OnlineMediaDaily in June.