Yahoo has recently launched Yahoo Go 3.0 Beta, their new widget platform for mobile devices. This means a new non-standard mobile development platform from Yahoo.
While it’s a very different approach from Android, some media have seen this launch as a movement for giving response to Google.
One of the strong points of Yahoo Go 3.0 is that it runs on about 250 different phones, what is a very interesting number. In words of Marco Boerries, head of Yahoo’s mobile business, “For the first time, a publisher or developer will be able to write a service that can run on hundreds of devices,”.
The software tools will let developers create mobile “widgets” that can run inside Yahoo’s Go mobile service, or any mobile browser. The browser-based applications would draw on some capabilities of the handset to create a “richer” experience, Mr Boerries said.
Yahoo hopes to make money from distributing advertising on some of the new applications that are developed on the platform.
MTV, MySpace, eBay are some of the partners who are developing widgets on the platform.
