By David Utter
Expert Author
Article Date: 2005-09-13
Phones can reach a beta version of Yahoo's mobile shopping search with a WAP 2.0 browser.
Yahoo's Search Blog has a new post, announcing the debut of a beta version of Shopping Search on Mobile.
Ben Strong, senior product manager on Yahoo Shopping, posted about how his group has utilized the Yahoo Shopping APIs to develop this tool:
Yahoo! Shopping Search on Mobile (Beta) allows you to price compare product prices from your mobile phone, accessing our database of millions of offers.
Simply enter http://shop.yahoo.com into your WAP 2.0-enabled browser, search for a product, and start comparing.
Yahoo notes that the service should work with any of the major US wireless carriers: Cingular/AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile. Keyword searches for products will return a list items and prices. Users can have additional data sent to their phones via a dropdown menu where they enter an email address and the mobile phone number.
Google has had a SMS version of mobile price and product search available for its Froogle service. Users can query by general or specific product names to retrieve pricing and information. Google's SMS can also handle queries by ISBN number or 12-digit UPC code number.
