Yahoo! pushes app development

Yahoo! has advanced its open platform mobile applications strategy through a developer event in London this month.

More than 200 application developers attended Yahoo!’s Open Hack Day on May 9.

Mobile application developers can use Yahoo! Blueprint mobile platform which allows developers to create mobile web sites compatible with over 4,000 devices, use pre-defined controls such as maps and location and use Yahoo!’s video service that transcodes video in 40 different, device-specific formats.

Yahoo! head of mobile search Ricardo Varela said Yahoo!’s open platform strategy enhances the mobile web experience for users.

Said Varela: “We integrated our partners’ content onto the Yahoo! mobile platform and have open development for mobile applications.

“The experience on mobiles is very different from on a computer so we have developed a framework called Blueprint for developers wanting to create a mobile application.

“Events like this allow developers to meet up and discuss flaws in existing applications and gaps where applications may fit in.”

One mobile application developer who won the best development was Dale Lane for introducing ‘Guest Pass’ for non-Yahoo! users to use the location-based service Fire Eagle.

Yahoo! co-founder David Filo said: “We are serious about our open platform strategy. It’s been important to the company from the beginning and provides a better user experience and in some ways it’s opening up and increasing competition out there.

“These events represent an opportunity for us to work in partnership with the wider developer and technologist communities to build new applications based on Yahoo!’s open platforms.”