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Why I’m waiting for Yahoo’s new OneSearch to be the default search on Opera Mini

Published March 22nd, 2007 5:50 PM EDT By Daniel Goldman

YahooA couple months ago Opera announced that Yahoo’s new mobile search engine, called OneSearch, will be included as the default search engine on Opera Mini and Opera Mobile.

Now I know there have been some complaints by Opera Mini users on the switch from Google to Yahoo, however after watching a screencast put out by the OneSearch team, I realized that it is better suited search option for mobile phones than the traditional Google and Yahoo web searches.

The results for your search queries using OneSearch include relevant information to what you’re likely looking for in a mobile environment. For example, if I were to search for “pizza” on my mobile phone, I’m most likely on the road and looking for a place to order pizza, so rather than returning links for the term “pizza”, OneSearch will list pizza shops in your area including addresses, phone numbers, ratings, etc.

(Watch the OneSearch demo)

Update: I just read a nice review on OneSearch on the WapReview blog.

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16 Comments

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  1. 1 joens Mar 22nd, 2007 at 6:27 pm
    using Opera Opera 9.10 on Mac OS Mac OS X

    I saw earlier today that portal.opera.com replaced the Google search with the Yahoo search.

    Is this change to Yahoo search by default going to percolate to the desktop browser?

  2. 2 Daniel Goldman Mar 22nd, 2007 at 6:34 pm
    using Opera Opera 9.10 on Windows Windows XP

    joens, the integrated search (the one in the toolbar) will continue to stay Google. However, in the Speed Dial with Opera 9.2 the default will be Yahoo, you can easily change it to the search engine of your choice.

  3. 3 IceArdor Mar 22nd, 2007 at 9:00 pm
    using Opera Opera 9.20 on Windows Windows XP

    While OneSearch does show more relevant information, it also lists more pictures, and has a much longer page, as well as displays ads at the top. Personally, I think every kilobyte counts when browsing on the mobile.

    As a default search engine, OneSearch probably is more likely to give more results that you’re interested in. Though I believe the best search site to do this job is Google Local. I would rather save that as a bookmark and search Google Local than use OneSearch, which is going to rack up my cellphone bill.

  4. 4 Daniel Goldman Mar 22nd, 2007 at 9:06 pm
    using Opera Opera 9.10 on Windows Windows XP

    IceArdor, Opera Mini compresses the entire page including the photos to about 1/5 of the original size.

  5. 5 Genjinaro Mar 22nd, 2007 at 11:17 pm
    using Opera Opera 8.65 on Windows Windows XP

    I just wish they’d move it alittle quicker. I hear it runs fine on the “quasi-exclusive” Y! Go 2.0.

    Yahoo search as it is now isn’t bad but it isn’t Google and thank god it is better than “Live”.
    For now I’m grateful Opera Mobile still holds Google.

    I hope to see “Onesearch” soon.

  6. 6 Turn.self.off Mar 23rd, 2007 at 12:19 am
    using Opera Mini Opera Mini 8.01

    And one can also turn pictures off. All in all i kinda like the sound off what seems to be a almost context sensitive search. Its as if http://www.google.com would present a different default search service based on how you accessed it…

  7. 7 Joachim Mar 23rd, 2007 at 3:38 am
    using Opera Opera 9.20 on Mac OS Mac OS X

    Does this work well for any countries outside the U.S? It seems to suck pretty bad for Oslo, Norway at least.

  8. 8 Øyvind Ø (at work) Mar 23rd, 2007 at 4:48 am
    using Internet Explorer Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows Windows XP

    I must say I really like it. Untill I get HSDPA on my phone (hopefully soon), I’m browsing without pictures anyway, and just open the pictures that interest me. The only thing annoying me is that it is hard to see what is the index page of a domain, and what is not. That bugs me a bit.

  9. 9 Bo Mar 23rd, 2007 at 6:38 am
    using Opera Opera 9.10 on Linux Linux

    I use Opera Mini to have the Web in my pocket and not to have a special “mobile web” in my pocket. I use the default Yahoo-search sometimes because it’s the quickest way, but I don’t like the quality of results.

    I’d love to have this configureable. :-)

  10. 10 Eddie Mar 23rd, 2007 at 8:25 am
    using Opera Opera 9.10 on Windows Windows XP

    FINALLY- I’ve been asking throughout that initial thread on the mini blog about the difference from the Yahoo! search engine and the Yahoo! OneSearch search engine. The initial press release inidicated the move to OneSearch, but we’ve just been seeing the regular Yahoo! search in our Opera Mini’s….so I think that’s led to some confusion.

  11. 11 Investor Mar 23rd, 2007 at 11:19 am
    using Opera Opera 9.20 on Windows Windows XP

    “…Opera will launch the new Yahoo! oneSearch™ when it goes live globally later in Q1 2007…”

    Matter of days, and we’ll know… More relevant search results means less text input and scrolling. That’s good news for small screens.

  12. 12 Investor Mar 23rd, 2007 at 11:21 am
    using Opera Opera 9.20 on Windows Windows XP

    Ops… and a smaller bill, of course ;)

  13. 13 DrLaunch Mar 23rd, 2007 at 2:35 pm
    using Opera Mini Opera Mini 8.01

    I would give Yahoo a second chance if they offered onesearch for Opera Mini. But now I’m using my google bookmark because the yahoo search results don’t have the quality I want.
    Actually I’m very interested in giving onesearch a chance. If only they could let me, a Sony Ericsson user from Norway use yahoo go.
    Until then, I’m using google.
    That’s yahoo’s loss. :-P

  14. 14 minisu Mar 23rd, 2007 at 3:05 pm
    using Opera Opera 9.20 on Windows Windows XP

    I guess I was wrong about the Yahoo Opera partnership. There might be more things than money involved — Onesearch is certainly going to benefit both companies.

  15. 15 Mark G Mar 23rd, 2007 at 5:23 pm
    using Opera Opera 9.20 on Windows Windows Vista

    Unfortunaly, the results kicked out by the Yahoo engine are total rubbish compared to Google.

    I have had to switch my start page in Opera Mini, and unlikely to ever bother updating it, as the Yahoo search engine sucks badly, in particular for regional searches.

    An example, today I needed the phone number of my local motorcycle shop, called Anvil Motorcycles. I stuck that in, along with my town name, it appeared on PAGE 7 on Yahoo… Top of page 1 on Google…

    PLEASE SWITCH BACK….

  16. 16 cap Mar 26th, 2007 at 2:50 am
    using Opera Opera 9.10 on Windows Windows 2000

    So you have tried OneSearch then, Mark G?

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Opera Watch, an Opera browser blog, is run by Daniel Goldman, who used to work for Opera Software as a Technical Evangelist.

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