Yahoo takes the mobile plunge

Yahoo is set to announce today that its email, instant messenger, photo and other services will be available on mobile phones and PC-connected TVs, as well as on personal computers, without using a browser.

Yahoo Go Mobile, available from today, is a set of communications and media applications, including Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger, Photos, calendar, address book, Web and image search, news, sport and finance.

The services will be preloaded on Nokia Series 60 mobile phones and available in ten countries worldwide, and available to Cingular and AT&T customers in the US. Additions and updates to the information in the applications will be automatically synced between the mobile phone and the user account on Yahoo servers.

Yahoo Go TV, which will be available before April, will make entertainment-related services available on any PC-connected TV through a small downloadable application on the PC. The services include local and video search, including access to content from CNN and MTV, movie trailers, information on movie times, TV shows, user ratings and weather, sport results, stock data and news from My Yahoo. The service will be free but will have ads, a Yahoo spokeswoman said.

Yahoo Go Desktop brings a suite of services to personal computers that do not rely on a browser. The initial applications will be Yahoo Widgets Engine -- small applications that perform tasks for users like checking for the presence of a wireless network -- and Yahoo dashboard, which provides one-click access to Flickr photos, Yahoo Messenger, news, Web search, address book and calendar as well as blogs, photos and other items posted to Yahoo 360 by friends.

"We have more than 450 million people coming to us every month, and their lives are locked into the PC browser," said Marco Boerries, senior vice president of Yahoo Connected Life. "With a Yahoo ID we connect the whole Internet to your device."

Later in the year, Yahoo plans to launch a service that will allow mobile users to program the recording of TV shows remotely over mobile phones, and eventually offer music services through the TV, Yahoo said.

Yahoo announced a partnership with TiVo in November to allow users to schedule downloads to TiVo boxes from any Internet connection. Yahoo also said it would preload its email, instant messenger, address book and calendar applications on Motorola phones to be sold globally.

Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel was expected to make the announcements in his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday morning.

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