Apr. 2, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) –

NEW YORK (AP) - Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) Inc. unveiled a new version of its mobile Web search service oneSearch on Wednesday, oneSearch 2.0, that includes the ability to search by voice.

At the CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based search engine said the function allows users to search by speaking what they’re looking for, and can also switch between talking and typing at any time to refine their searches.

The feature became available Wednesday for some BlackBerry smart phones, including the 8800 series, Curve and Pearl devices in the U.S., Yahoo said.

The company anticipates rolling out search with voice on more devices and in other countries in the coming months.

Yahoo also said it intends to open oneSearch up to publishers so they can integrate content with it, and expects open search results will start in the second quarter.

Yahoo added that it is adding a feature called Search Assist to oneSearch that includes predictive text to speed up the search query typing process. The feature became available for Apple Inc.’s iPhone on Wednesday and is expected to become available on some devices in upcoming months.

The company will also release out a mobile search feature that makes searching instantly accessible on many cell phone’s idle screens. This is expected to be available in the second quarter.

Yahoo shares fell 70 cents to $27.80 in afternoon trading.

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