DoCoMo to add Yahoo search on mobile phones

TOKYO (Reuters) - NTT DoCoMo Inc. will add three new search services for its mobile phone users, including Yahoo Japan Corp., a unit of its rival Softbank Corp., a company source said Wednesday. DoCoMo, Japan’s biggest wireless carrier, will on Thursday offer new online search engines for its wireless Internet browsing service, which will expand its lineup to 13 search engines, the source said.Yahoo Japan is the country’s biggest portal and is 41 percent-owned by Softbank, which earlier this year bought a mobile phone operator from Vodafone Group Plc.

Offering Internet search engine services on mobile phones may help operators lure customers to access more Web sites and spend on online shopping.

DoCoMo has said it would offer search technologies from 10 engines, including Google Inc. and a unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp..

In online search services for mobile phones, DoCoMo has stuck to an open platform available for many different companies. That contrasts with Softbank, which will work with Yahoo Japan on such services, while industry No. 2 KDDI Corp. has tied up with Google for its search technologies for mobile phones.

// October 4th, 2006