New from Yahoo: Microsoft Bid Distraction 2.0

As far as timing goes, Yahoo’s announcement of improvements to its OpenSearch mobile service couldn’t be better. The company desperately needs to impress shareholders disgruntled over its performance to date and, of course, its handling of the Microsoft bid. What better way to do that than a renewed initiative to dominate the mobile Web – something Google and Microsoft haven’t yet managed. Aside from just accepting the Microsoft bid, I mean.

During his keynote address at the CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas, Yahoo mobile chief Marco Boerries uncrated OneSearch 2.0, which offers voice-enabled search, predictive text completion and contextual recommendations. Can Yahoo differentiate itself in mobile search by offering handful of enhancements that essentially duplicate services already offered by Microsoft, Apple and Google? Yahoo certainly thinks so. “With the launch of Yahoo OneSearch in 2007, we revolutionized mobile search by re-creating search specifically for the mobile phone,” Boerries said. “With Yahoo OneSearch 2.0, we are fundamentally changing the way consumers use the Internet on their mobile phones.”