Add T-Mobile to Yahoo's growing list of carrier partners as the portal firm on Tuesday said it inked a deal with the international carrier that will make Yahoo oneSearch the exclusive search engine in T-Mobile's 11 European markets.

This means that Yahoo, despite its well-documented problems and its perennial also-ran status in PC-based search, will grab a major mobile prize from the clutches of search king Google. The exclusivity means that Yahoo will displace Google as T-Mobile's preferred search engine.

"Today's announcement will be an important boost to Yahoo's position as the operators' friend in the hazardous world of the mobile Internet,"said John Delaney, an analyst with Ovum. "Yahoo is doubtless taking much consolation from this."

The deal, which kicks in at the end of March, bolsters Yahoo's lead over Google in the emerging and potentially lucrative world of mobile search, and the attendant revenue-generating mobile search advertising market.

T-Mobile is at least the twenty-sixth mobile carrier to sign a major deal with Yahoo.

Google has existing relationships with more than nineteen mobile carriers around the world. Many of the carriers have relationships with both portal firms but Yahoo, a notoriously carrier-friendly firm, is ahead in the mobile arms race.

Yahoo has stuck to its role as a perennial partner to mobile carriers,while Google has recently challenged the carriers' control of customer access by advocating open networks. Open networks will allow application developers to bypass the carriers and market their wares directly to mobile subscribers.

Google is currently a participant in the 700 MHz auction in the U.S.which could place the search firm in direct competition with U.S.mobile carriers -- a development that could affect Google's relationship with the carrier community.

Both Yahoo and T-Mobile plan to develop search experiences optimized for T-Mobile subscribers, as well as customized versions of Yahoo services such as Flickr, Messenger, Mail, Weather and Finance.