Yahoo’s new Mobile Publisher Services comes in the form of “a suite of services designed to enable publishers to increase the discovery, distribution and monetization of their content on mobile phones”.

“Yahoo has become a leader in the global mobile Internet by leveraging the reach and popularity of our innovative mobile services for consumers and our competitive expertise in digital advertising,” said Steve Boom, senior vice president of mobile and broadband at Yahoo.

“Now, we are enabling publishers to grow their own mobile businesses by taking advantage of our unique experience, technology and services.” The Yahoo Mobile Ad Network is one of those services. This will allow mobile publishers to have syndicated advertising served on their mobile content and services. Publishers will be able to select the ad formats they want to have run, such as display, sponsored links, video or in-game placements.

The Yahoo Mobile Content Engine is aimed more at publishers who do not have a mobile site or only have a limited mobile offering; listings or articles will be integrated into Yahoo oneSearch to distribute their content to consumers on their mobile phones.

The Yahoo Mobile Media Directory will allow publishers to make their mobile media content accessible directly through oneSearch.

And Yahoo Mobile Site Submit will allow publishers to provide information about their mobile site, such as a description and relevant tags, to ensure that their sites are accurately indexed and available to consumers through Yahoo oneSearch.

For example, a hotel could submit their mobile site, including description and tag, enabling weekend travellers to find their location and see if they still have rooms available through Yahoo oneSearch.

Eden Zoller, Principal Analyst at Ovum, said the latest moves underscore the fact that Yahoo wants to be the premier player in this space.

“Yahoo! is being very ambitious and will face strong competition in the mobile advertising market, which is still very much up for grabs.”