Yahoo! Sees Comeback With Mobile Search

"It looks like the advertising revenue on a per-search query is likely to be significantly higher on mobile than on nonmobile devices," he said.

Although when it comes to PCs, Google is dominating Yahoo! -- Google earns more money per search and is garnering an increasing share of the search market -- it just may be Yahoo! that has the edge when it comes to mobile search.

With its inherently limited functionality and emphasis on crude, effective navigation, search on mobile devices parallels navigation on the Internet of early days, a time when Yahoo!, originally a directory of listings, thrived.

But now, the company's content-rich approach could become an enormous asset in the emerging mobile space.

Content Stakes Its Claim

A more limited but convenient way to navigate the mobile Web is at the heart of the oneSearch service. Rather than offer users a list of links to other destinations, as do searches on PCs, oneSearch delivers users directly to the content it believes surfers are seeking.

Yahoo!'s massive reservoir of high-quality content, be it movie listings or stock market information, fits nicely with this approach.

Google, on the other hand, was a creature of a more evolved Internet. Thanks to a powerful algorithm, the company's ability to enable users to search astoundingly well through a mushrooming Internet is its key to success.