Yahoo Messenger comes to iPhone

Yahoo! is expected to launch a refreshed mobile portal this week. The new portal puts search at the forefront and then allows full customisation so that users can add widgets from third party sites such as Gmail and eBay.

The refreshed mobile portal is likely to replace the current http://m.Yahoo.com portal but not Yahoo!’s oneSearch search engine. Yahoo! is currently in partnership with Nokia and the oneSearch search client is the default setting on many mobile phones.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Kongress in Munich today, Michael Stenberg, Partner Director Central & Eastern Europe, Yahoo! Connected Life, gave the audience a tour of the new portal.

The move is aligned to the Yahoo! Open Strategy (Y!OS) which the company hopes will encourage developers and publishers to spend more time engaging with the portal. Yahoo! told developers in April 2008 that Y!OS would allow their applications to be distributed via the Yahoo! websites as well as the developers own.

Y!OS has been one of the driving forces behind the removal of Yahoo! social networks Y!360 and Mash as well as the controversial changes to the Yahoo! Profile system. Yahoo!’s goal is to create a single social platform that reaches across Yahoo!’s web and mobile properties.