This evening Yahoo! formally launched Yahoo! Mobile (for the mobile Web and iPhone) and an iPhone version of Yahoo! Messenger. After getting an extensive demo awhile ago we wrote about how we felt it was a dramatic upgrade from Go:

Previously Yahoo! created some confusion in my view with a range of experiences across a range of mobile sites and apps. There was "GO," the uber-app; there were oneSearch, oneConnect and onePlace. Then there was the mobile Web version of the Yahoo! homepage, which was completely divorced from these other experiences. The client app oneConnect was available for the iPhone but oneSearch didn't have a dedicated iPhone app. Nor was there a iPhone GO app. GO contained all these subsidiary tools/experiences but wasn't widely available.

Now that's all cleaned up and subsumed under "Yahoo! Mobile." And the mobile Web version is really terrific -- as good or in some ways even better than the dedicated app. GO, for its part, is being phased out over time.

The entire Yahoo! Mobile "suite" is compelling. But the surprise for me was oneConnect, which I've had on my iPod Touch for many months, but haven't used with any regularity. Its intention is to organize users' contacts and social networks in a single tool that allows you to update status or broadcast one-to-many from mobile devices. Though imperfect, there is radical potential in the oneConnect functionality of the new Yahoo! Mobile.

Overall the new Yahoo! Mobile is a dramatic improvement over Yahoo!'s prior collection of mobile experiences. It's not simply a mobile search engine but a comprehensive set of tools and functionality that covers search, feeds/news, social media and third party content distribution. 

I've also done a post at Search Engine Land.

There's a consistent user experience across platforms and devices, and much greater utility in the new Yahoo Mobile. It's also available globally. The new site/app will give Yahoo a needed boost in the race to retain a leadership position in mobile. 

Success in mobile is critical for the Yahoo brand as a whole, and the company seems to understand this well.