A few days ago saw the Mobile Widgets team at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas where we spoke to mobile developers, operators and publishers about the Yahoo! Mobile Developer Platform. Apart from Yahoo’s announcements regarding the revolutionary new Yahoo! oneSearch 2.0(tm) featuring Yahoo! oneSearch with Voice, the Mobile Developer Platform area also attracted a lot of attention at the Yahoo! booth. We heard many questions from developers and publishers about our Mobile Widget approval process and thought many of you might have the same questions. We thought we’d answer one of the most frequently asked questions here:

Q: Does Yahoo! have a Mobile Widget approval process before the Widget goes live in the gallery?

A: Yes, there is an approval process. Here it how it works:

• You start developing a Widget using the Blueprint SDK. Once you are ready to test it, you simply put together a zip package and submit it on the Test Widget page. Immediately after uploading, your widget will appear on the carousel in our Java client, or on your “My Widgets” page on the mobile home page (you must be signed in to view it). It is only visible to your Yahoo! account - no one else can see it during this phase. You can submit your Widget for testing as often as you like, but generally you don’t need to submit again unless you need to change your images or aspects of your configuration file.

• Once you are done coding and testing, you submit the zip package via the Submit Widget page. Once uploaded, the Yahoo! Mobile Widgets team can see and test your Widget. Our goal is to ensure that your Widget works, is not broken, does not contain offensive content and complies with our Yahoo! Mobile Widget Developer Terms of Use. These terms can be viewed and need to be accepted before you upload your Widget. The approval process is very straight forward and should not take longer than a couple of days. If we have any questions regarding your submission we will get in touch with you via email. Once your Widget is approved you and the rest of the world will be able to see it in our Mobile Widget Gallery, both in Yahoo! Go 3.0 and through Yahoo’s new mobile home page.

As always, if you have any questions regarding Mobile Widgets, Blueprint or the Yahoo! Mobile Developer Platform, please feel free to ask at the Yahoo! Mobile Developer Group.

Happy coding!