Yahoo on
Tuesday released long-awaited mobile applications for the iPhone and BlackBerry for some of its most popular properties including Yahoo Finance, Flickr and Yahoo Fantasy Football.
The Yahoo
Finance apps introduced for the iPhone and iPod touch as well as a few BlackBerry models (Bold, Tour, and 8900 series) include top financial news, access to personalized portfolios and streaming video
from Yahoo's Tech Ticker. People can also drill down for information on specific companies.
Yahoo already offers a Web-based version of the Finance app.
Photo buffs will be most enthused
about the new Flickr app for the iPhone, allowing users to upload, share and tag pictures via the Apple device. Specific features let people view and comment on friends' photos, search for photos by
subject, people and places and upload and play back posted videos. Flickr also has a mobile Web site at http://m.flickr.com.
With the kickoff of the NFL season at hand, Yahoo is also serving up
Yahoo Fantasy Football for Mobile for the iPhone and BlackBerry Bold, Tour and 8900. The app lets users manage their team directly from the phone, add or drop players, view matchups, standings and
player stats, and get live scores and news as they can on the PC.
Each of the new apps is free. The Yahoo Finance and Flickr apps do not carry advertising at launch, but Subway and Toyota are
both sponsoring the Fantasy Football app for the iPhone as well as the PC-based version.
The mobile ads take users to landing pages where consumers can interact with the brands and then return
to the app. BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion is sponsoring the Fantasy Football app for its own phones.
Yahoo earlier this year launched the redesigned Yahoo Mobile service, combining
elements like oneSearch and onePlace into a single app that allows users to scroll down through email, search, weather, social networking and its other content properties. The browser-based Yahoo
Mobile app was followed by a version geared to the iPhone. Now the company has gone a step farther by creating apps for specific Yahoo properties.
Separately, AT&T Interactive released an
updated version of its YellowPages.com iPhone app --Ypmobile -- that adds business video profiles and highlights pay-per-call ads. The upgraded Ypmobile app extends the video profiles from the Web
YellowPages.com to the iPhone and iPod touch. It also allows marketers to have their pay-per-call ads featured at the top of relevant search results on Ypmobile.
Among other features, the app's
Browse tab lets users find local businesses within categories such as restaurants, banks and coffee as well as the nearest location of well-known brands. Similarly, an Events tab directs users to
local events.
AT&T says enhancements to its mobile content and services have led to a 250% increase in searches across its local mobile network in the last year. In addition to the Ypmobile
iPhone app, the network includes properties such as the YellowPages.com mobile Web site, YP411, the YpMobile Android app, MSN Mobile and uLocate.