"Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you," Alexander Graham Bell said more than 100 years ago, logging the first voice-over-wire transmission in history. Since then, a lot has changed. But voice is still king, and Yahoo has no intention of changing our instincts when it comes to telephony, which is why the company unveiled a new search function that lets mobile users ask for what they want.

According to Yahoo mobile boss Marco Boerries, the idea is to make the mobile web far more accessible by letting users search with voice.

"This is really a sea change, Boerries told Reuters. "This is not about simple web links any more."

Yahoo, which has been working feverishly to strike mobile partnerships with a slew of carriers around the globe, believes it can reach more than 600 million mobile users. But whether the oneSearch service will come in time to save Yahoo from Microsoft's not-so-friendly bid remains unclear.    

Meanwhile, rival Google also appears to be looking for more voice-centric technology. Yesterday, the search giant made headlines when news broke that it was in talks with eBay to purchase or partner with Skype.