Yahoo signs search deal with Virgin Media

UK telco Virgin Media has announced a deal for Yahoo to provide the search engine for its mobile portal. From December 8th, Virgin's portal will use Yahoo's oneSearch engine (pictured).

Much of the announcement focuses on the mobile Web impact so searching for a football team will bring back scores, fixtures, news and images, while searching for a film returns showing times at local cinemas, reviews and cast info.

However, oneSearch will also help users to find mobile content on Virgin's portal, including games and also ringtones, wallpapers and other content. Search-based advertising will also be a feature.

People in the mobile games industry love to criticise operator portals for the way games are hard to find, but these kind of search deals could change that, making it faster and more intuitive to get to content.