Yahoo Iphone Apps: Yahoo! Sketch-a-search

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Remember those Yahoo! commercials and the fun way they would say “YAHOOOO” at the end of the advertisement? Those were the days. But that was then and we’re in the now. Yahoo! has fallen behind pretty far in regards to its popularity and with that they really need to “step it up.”

I think they’re headed in the right direction with their new iPhone/iPod Touch App, the Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search. The app gives you the ability to have a little fun and simplify your regular search methods. As Yahoo! puts it, “you simply draw a boundary on your phone’s map to discover local businesses within that location.”

I think the location wars will be a little help in boosting the popularity of this app, but the idea of being able to use my finger to literally point out what area I desire to eat gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

The app is currently focused on restaurant listings but will soon be adding a larger variety of local businesses

Yahoo! also launched Yahoo! Search for ...
... the iPhone and iPod Touch.

“The Yahoo! Search iPhone app revolves around an innovative interface that delivers contextually relevant results quickly and efficiently. A rich set of features †tightly embedded maps, localized query suggestions that display as you type, intelligent search history, voice search, and rich content and information from Yahoo! and other sources that appear directly in the results †creates an optimal experience for finding exactly what you need.”

Excited yet? Well if you aren’t think about it. You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket and Yahoo! gives you the opportunity to alternate from Google and get a different set of results that may be more preferred to the results you get from that other search engine.

Mobile search is on the rise and while I think Google has a lead, I don’t think that Yahoo! is too far behind to catch up. If they keep coming up with competitive products like these (before Google comes up with them) then they stand a chance of surviving Google’s overwhelming dominance.