Will Yahoo Always be Sonic to Google’s Mario?

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January 22nd, 2008 by Click Consult

Much of the talk and hype of the new year has been about the mobile markets, and this week has seen another development.

Yahoo announced their upgraded web platform : Yahoo GO 3.0. This version of Yahoo's mobile platform aims to be more open for external developers to create and ad functionality to the platforms and allow users to interact with the Yahoo’s portal and other sites.

This could be compared to the applications on facebook or widget on a Mac. While this is nice idea and will add some attraction to potential users and traffic, but it is a far cry from the big shake up that would be required to draw traffic back to the search engine that looks to be rooted to second place. This development is watered down further by iGoogle doing this for PCs already and that public opinion of the applications on facebook is slipping, being seen as more of an irritation to users.

Part of the Yahoo GO 3.0 announcement was that the portal will be available regardless of the software in place on the handset. While this would be a benefit, it brings to mind the fate of Sega (the games platform developer).

Nintendo and Sega battled out through the eighties and nineties with their respective lead characters Mario and Sonic. Both companies were equally matched until Sony threw the playstation in the mix. There wasn’t the room in the market place and while Nintendo and Sony battled with advancing platforms Sega was left behind. Eventually Sega chose to move from platform development and work solely in game production, leaving Sonic to become a bit part player in Mario’s games.

These parallels are quite clear as both Google and Microsoft have such strong platforms in the market with Android launching and Windows being already established on millions of mobile devices. Will Yahoo GO 3.0 be consigned to an unused link on a windows or android browser?

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