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Yahoo’s iPhone app lets you sketch to search

By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 2:06 PM

We got a chance to look at Yahoo’s new Sketch-A-Search app for the iPhone and it’s an interesting new approach to searching for a place to eat on your phone.

The search company said it can be difficult to seek out content on a mobile phone because of the screen size and buttons, so they’re letting users draw shapes on a map to discover local content. Interestingly enough, it uses Google Maps because that’s the default in the iPhone SDK.

Once you draw your search area, you’re hit with details (ratings, pricing, etc.) and have the option of getting directions or clicking to call. Right now, they’re focusing on restaurants but the company sees multiple uses for this – real estate, shopping, etc. It worked pretty well during the demo below, and there are filters to narrow down your results by cuisine, atmosphere and price. The free app is available in the App Store today.

About The Author

Marin Perez

Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.