7. Yahoo Go 2, Continued

To search for something specific you have to open a map and choose Find Business. It’s very annoying for users of BlackBerrys with a numeric keypad - like the Pearl - that you don’t get SureType on screen, even though Yahoo claims to have specific versions of the client for different BlackBerry models (there wasn’t one for the 8300 Curve during our tests, for example). Switching into upper case uses a different key from every other BlackBerry app, so you end up in number mode instead.

When you find a business, as well as the phone number and sometimes even the Web site you’ll see a rating and reviews for the business; you can also add it to your address book. Results for specific searches were spot on; you often only get a single result, which is less confusing when it’s what you want but doesn’t give you any choice if it’s not. Also confusing is that when you switch to list view, it is sorted by review rating rather than by distance.

Directions should be a strong point here, but they’re too difficult to use. Yahoo Go doesn’t let you navigate easily between two places that you find - even if you add them to your address book - because while you can navigate to or from a business, address or the current point on the map, you can only type in an address by hand or pick a recent location that you’ve already typed in by hand. To search for a contact, you have go to the front screen and start from the address section, but you still have to type in either the destination or start point by hand. Save routes you use regularly and you’ll avoid the frustration - and gain the ability to check traffic on that route - but this doesn’t help you in a strange city to which you may never return.

If you do manage to get directions between the two locations you want, you get clear turn by turn directions, and you can click through to the route on the map and navigate by pressing 1 and 3 to jump from turn to turn. As with Google Maps, if you scroll across the map you lose the turn directions, unless you scroll exactly to one of the turns.

So far, Yahoo Go is available only for J2ME phones and a few BlackBerry models (the Pearl but not the 8300, for instance); Windows Mobile support is promised "soon". If you can get it on your phone, you get the right version to download automatically, and the app will look the same on any device.

Although Yahoo Go is a very appealing application and finds locations and businesses correctly, it can be frustrating to use because of the limitations on navigating and issues with the interface during use.