• November 21, 2008

T-Mobile USA said Thursday it will rely on Yahoo as the default search engine for most of its mobile phones.

The service, Web2go, comes complete with customizable home page that provides access to news, financial information, weather conditions, Flickr photos and Web images. On Yahoo's behalf, Medio Systems will conduct searches for ringtones, wallpaper, games and other content available in the T-Mobile Store.

The deal by T-Mobile follows a move earlier this year in Europe by parent Deutsche Telekom to replace Google's search engine for Yahoo's on many of its mobile phones. Add to it the agreement with AT&T Mobility for a total of "71 mobile search partnerships that represent 850 subscribers under contract," according to a Yahoo spokeswoman. Yahoo said it will continue to sell and support the Google G1 phone with Google-designed built-in software, including search.--Laurie Sullivan