Yahoo! might not be at the top of the list for us Android users when it comes to internet properties but, they’ve turned things around in the last year – thanks to their new CEO, former Google Exec Marissa Meyer – and it looks like they’re back on track. One area in which Yahoo! has been seriously lagging behind has been in mobile. Well, if this latest rumor is to believed, then it looks like Yahoo! could be bursting back on to the scene. Last night, Android Police ran a story detailing an upcoming mobile assistant from Yahoo! that performs similar tasks to Google Now and Siri. Take a look at the quick video below that shows the alleged assistant in action.
The plot soon thickened however, as TechCrunch learned that the app was in fact created by startup Robin Labs. However, it was not commissioned by Yahoo!, despite the fact that the application was created after ongoing discussions with the company. So, is this is a real Yahoo! product? Well, not right now it’s not anyway, “sources familiar with the matter” have said that the product in question has “officially” nothing to do with Yahoo! This more than likely comes down to the usual, company A starts talks with company B, someone from company B gets over-excited and released a video.
Regardless of whether or not this particular product is in fact real, and if it ever makes it to market, Yahoo! desperately need to do something to make their way back to mobile. Apps like Yahoo! Weather and Mail are great but, a weather app and a mail application that suffers outages every now and then is hardly going to build your brand back up from the ground. Over time though, we expect Yahoo! to focus more and more on mobile apps, Android is a platform that’s flexible enough for them to do ambitious things and competition is always good so, the more, the merrier!