♥ Princessa's Royal Diary ♥ - Royalty has never been so PINK!

It's hard to switch my brain constantly from one that loves my branded handbags, heels and etc, says, "Oooh myyy goddd" and replies, "Huh? What?" to one that sets up my own DIY PC and speaks in language other than English and Mandarin.

Thing is, deep down, there's a geeky side to almost every individual - one way or another. For me, it's the love of technology and of course, my gadgets - I name them, you know - Xiaobai.

Roughly two months ago, I attended CommunicAsia as a guest of Yahoo! Mobile. It was there that Yahoo! announced the availability of the new Yahoo! Mobile, an open and customisable mobile platform for both mobile browsers as well as the iPhone.

^{Photo credit: blog.dk.sg}

During the focus group, where a couple of bloggers gathered for a discussion, we learn that the new Yahoo! Mobile allows consumers to:

Discover: via result from Yahoo! Mobile search, editor-selected content and local information

Stay Connected: through access to their email and social network accounts from the most popular web providers, as well as instant messaging, address book and calendar tools

Stay Informed: by bringing together favourite content – websites, sports teams, news sources, RSS feeds, weather, stocks, horoscopes and more - into a single location

Now, I would really like to explore more features on the iPhone app, but problem is, I don't actually own a iPhone so what I can see is through the browser version on my BlackBerry (previously I was looking at it through my HTC Magic which I won through the Nuffnang contest I participated in earlier on).

I'm a big fan of the Android platform and I use quite a number of apps available in Android Market. So, it would be great if Yahoo! Mobile came up with something for the Android platform. Then again, it would be even more awesome if they had something for the BlackBerry too, and perhaps Windows Mobile? Then again, I understand how difficult it is to come up with across platform apps.

It'll take a while but I'm pretty sure in time to come they (as in Yahoo) will be able to come up with something, no? Even if they don't, it seems the browser version isn't too bad either - at least it's available now and you don't have to download anything, which means you don't have to experience the buggy stages of software development process.

A look at the iPhone app:

^{Photo credit: blog.dk.sg}

Anyway, during the focus group discussion we were throwing out all sorts of questions. Being a geek deep down (which I'd deny to if asked face-to-face), I had to wonder if they ever considered integrating other social platforms that isn't directly under the Yahoo's jurisdiction. In additional, perhaps also provide something like a widget that we could embed our likes or articles that we read via their mobile platform to our blogs or FaceBook or simply tweet a link to Twitter of our finds.

If you watch TV (or such) in the last couple of months, everyone is talking about Twitter, FaceBook and so on so forth. All sorts of social platforms are now used as tools of "advertising". Having just a website these days is sooo passé - not having one (like simply a blog) would kinda mean that you're living in stone age or something.

A standalone mobile platform is not enough anymore. Yes, it's good to have one, since almost every individual surf via their mobile phone/devices these days but total integration is the key. In fact, it has always been. The talk about a total integrated solution has been something industries have been trying to achieve since technology itself took off years ago.

I used to work in a company that deals with business solutions, and I realise it's always about being able to completely integrate every business process together (by process I mean software supported of course). It may be a little more expensive then separating everything out but in a long-run it's much more cost efficient, especially for the bigger enterprises.

Ultimately, Yahoo! Mobile's first step was a great one. At least for users that depends on Yahoo for the many resources they provide they get a total solution with the convenient of a simply the finger tips. They can access information practically instantly as long as they have a mobile phone/device with them.

The selling factor of technology is convenience and for that they are moving at the right direction. However, the need to strengthen their brandname (in terms of using them as a source of gathering information) could still use a little bit of work.

When you think of searching for something what would you say? "Google it" has became a term that refers to searching for information. Yahoo needs something like that. What do you think about when you think of Yahoo?

Okay, I should stop blabbering now.

Fyi, Yahoo! Mobile for the web is available across more than 400 devices with HTML-enabled mobile browsers by visiting http://sg.new.m.yahoo.com, while the Yahoo! Mobile iPhone app is now avaiable in the Apple iPhone App Store. Both are currently available in 17 countries across Europe, the America and Asia, including Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan, with additional countries expected to launch over the next several months.