Yahoo! sexes up the mobile homepage but why isnt it enough?

m.yahoo.com  has improved. It has more personalisation, 3x more hits and a reach of 35 million unique users per month (US only).

It is a lean sexy clean portal that offers targeted information to consumer. I personally have been a huge fan of Yahoo! Mobile from day one.

But the questions remain:
Even with a
1. Better user experience
2. Better personalisation
3. Increased traffic

Why. Oh Why doesn’t Yahoo! ooze the sexyness or command the media attention that Google does for mobile.

At CTIA early stories and media attention are predicting that Google is going to rape and pillage mobile advertising to become the leader of a near 3 billion market in 2013. Google is touted over and over again as the leader and dominant lion in the mobile web space – even if it is clear it has the weakest product range.

What is wrong?
Now, I don’t want to put a downer on the mobile web. But the mobile web is like a celebrity presenter that was great on say “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here” but has failed in other aspects of its career.

People remain unaware of Yahoo and it has amazing success in the mobile web because Yahoo moved quickly in mobile and did well. It peaked too early. It peaked at a time when the mobile web was bearing fruit and quite frankly – if you weren’t in porn you didn’t give a damn about the mobile web.

On top of that Yahoo has invested heavily into getting it right and has nailed it but even with a heavy mobile following or 35 million viewers, the earth isn’t moving. What everyone sees is good –but it isn’t Google.

Just as bankers earn astronomical salaries – Google commands an exorbitant amount of kudos for everything it does – even if it doesn’t do very much.

This is not only unfair to the likes of Yahoo!, Medio and MCN – all of which were quite frankly too early to market and too good for the actual mobile web at the time. Someone once told me the money is in the mystery. I am not sure if Google is a mystery, but it has something or power competitors don’t have.

But my point is not to focus on Google’s performance. It is to highlight or be in praise of Yahoo! It has a great mobile product. It has a dedicated agenda and is the leader in the web space at the moment.
But it is the folk music of the industry – it rocks for some but not for the masses. This is bitterly unfair and highlights how the online web and cornering brand-evoking bloggers or techies is the real challenge brands face today.

Whatever the product, however excellent it is – success depends on penetration and brand image and reaching the cornerstone of product innovation (techies). Consumers might be mass market but the backbone of Google is the technology and student crowd that remain its key champions.

Yikes. I am going on. There was a point to this. My point is that is personalisation of the mobile web or home page necessary? I really like Yahoo – but is the mistake that it focuses too much on a non-loyal user.

 Perhaps the key is to publish home pages that appeal to types or the mass and that will lead to a stronger word of mouth brand building exercise for Yahoo.