Having almost unequivocally lost out to arch nemesis Google in the internet search and services race, Yahoo are aiming into the mobile development market in hopes that by winning that domain, they will keep themselves from being overrun.

To this end, earlier this year they’ve announced Blueprint, a mobile development platform. While originally the language was only designed for Yahoo Go, their main mobile application, an announcement by Yahoo on Wednesday stated that they’re upgrading Blueprint to enable developers to build programs for Java, Windows Mobile and Symbian Smartphones.

Google has said they wish to offer a solution to developers who wish to port their applications to different mobile operating systems without having to do extensive recoding.

Yahoo themselves are using Blueprint to develop a social networking application for the iPhone, called oneConnect which combines a social networking service – using contacts from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, Friendster, Flickr and Last.fm – and short messaging/instant messaging system.

While the size of the mobile market is nowhere near the revenue from online ad sales, it is rapidly emerging, and as new technology blurs the lines between PCs and mobiles, ignoring it would be unwise to say the least. According to Roger Entner, an analyst with Nielsen IAG, "This is a critical push for Yahoo so they don't cede that area as well to Google. This is the new growth area. If you're not playing here, you can pack up and go home."

And although some are calling this a do-or-die move by Yahoo, it certainly won’t be the only one, as the battle for information is opening up more and more fronts thanks to rapid changes in technology.