Yahoo woos developers in bid for mobile Web dominance

This “openness” thing is contagious.
Yahoo Inc. is the latest to court third-party developers, announcing its intention to “enable and lead a mobile ecosystem” to spur the creation of mobile applications. The company unveiled a developer platform and said it will support “mobile-optimized applications” such as widgets on its mobile Web pages.
“Yahoo’s ultimate goal is to bring the best possible Internet experience to the billions of mobile consumers around the globe,” said Marco Boerries, Yahoo’s EVP of Connected Life. “We believe that to succeed on such a scale, the best strategy is to open up our mobile platform in order to tap the innovation and talent of the world’s developers and publishers.”
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company also unveiled an “early beta” version of its mobile flagship offering Go 3.0, a downloadable application designed to serve as gateway to the wireless Web. In addition to basic features such as mobile e-mail, calendar and news headlines, Go 3.0 later this week will include widgets from eBay, MySpace and MTV.
Yahoo announced the new offerings at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Go was introduced two years ago.
The Internet giant hopes the new developer platform allows it to keep pace — or outpace — Google Inc., which in November introduced a consortium of technology companies centered on the Linux-based software stack Android . And while Google has courted mobile users with a broad swath of services, including voice-activated search and a popular mapping application, Yahoo saw more monthly wireless traffic last year, according to The Nielsen Company.
Other companies attempting to woo developers include Verizon Wireless, which followed the Android announcement in November by vowing to open its network to third-party developers of mobile applications and hardware, and AT&T Mobility, which has noted that its network has long been open to outside developers.