• The Washington Post, Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:45 AM

The mobile Web is something of a conundrum for the Web's media giants. There just aren't enough consumers the services. That means the services must not be good enough, right? For one thing, using a cell phone is a fundamentally different experience from using a laptop. The screen is smaller, navigation is more difficult and usually, a consumer won't be spending any heavy-duty time in front of their phone consuming content.

Wireless consumers need to be able to find relevant, location-based information. Added MySpace and YouTube content are cute and in some cases, even useful features, but for the most part, the mobile Web is all about quick-hit information gathering and sending.

On Tuesday, Yahoo launched a new mobile tool that tries to anticipate what you're looking for, based on search terms. For example, a search for "Washington D.C." might draw links to weather, maps and tourism, instead of pages of text containing those terms. Rivals Google, Microsoft and AOL are also working on new mobile offerings. With more than 2 billion cell phone users around the world, it's ridiculous to think that just 6 percent of U.S. users accessed the mobile Web in January.

Read the whole story at The Washington Post »