A new Yahoo tool lets Yahoo Local Search users send restaurant or other business information by text message from a computer to a cell phone, the search and portal announced January 27.
Users can search information about a business and click on a link to send its address and telephone number to a cell phone via short message services, Yahoo said, with the service available over all major wireless carriers at no charge, though the carriers themselves could charge fees for receiving text messages on handsets.
Yahoo's new tool arrived in the middle of a stepped up battle among search and e-tail portals to broaden userships with new services.
Google, for example, unwrapped a test version in October of a service letting you use your cell phone to tap into Google's Web search engine. And Amazon.com has unwrapped a local search service using voice-over Internet protocol to tie you to businesses you find on the Amazon A9 search engine.
And Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have gotten into the desktop search game, though Yahoo was the third of the three to go there.
