T-Mobile USA is unveiling its new portal strategy on Thursday, which integrates Yahoo! (NSDQ: YHOO) search, and an application storefront similar to the one found on the iPhone. We first reported on this in August. The new portal is being called web2go, and is replacing the company’s long-standing T-Zones experience. The portal will initially be rolled out to the company’s current line-up of handsets, excluding the T-Mobile G1 and the Sidekick, and then slowly to older phones.

Lots more after the jump

Think of this as the consumer-facing side of an announcement made in September, in which the fourth-largest carrier unveiled its devPartner Community Program. The program allows developers to forgo a time-consuming business development arrangement with T-Mobile, and instead submit their applications online and agree to a pre-determined revenue split. What’s new for the subscriber is that the store will display applications in order of how they are ranked by user reviews. Ian McKerlich, T-Mobile’s director of mobile Web and content services, said: “With user rankings, they will rate applications on a five-star scale, and they’ll be able to say which downloads that they’ve purchased and what they think about them, rather than an editorial team making the decisions. That’s important, It brings a web-type discovery to the mobile device.” He also said it solves a problem for T-Mobile, which is managing a growing list of partners. “It separates the stars from the not so stars.” Release.

More details:

—Search and Web access: When users conduct a search from web2go, Yahoo will return results from its oneSearch product, which attempts to provide answers on a mobile device rather than a list of links to Web pages. For instance, when you search for a sports team, Yahoo! returns the latest scores, schedules, and a list of Web sites. When users choose to access a Web site that has not been optimized for mobile, T-Mobile said will use technology on its end to reformat it for a smaller screen. Search results will also include inventory from T-Mobile’s library of content, including ringtones, wallpapers and other content. Seattle-based Medio Systems, a white-label search provider, is indexing and in charge of that functionality. Ian said they picked Yahoo for search because of its brand awareness. “We think that having an Internet brand will draw a bit more user traffic toward it, and I think Yahoo has a much deeper catalog of mobile optimized sites and regular Web sites.” Of course, T-Mobile International is also using Yahoo.

—Personalized home pages: Also on web2go, users will be able to create their own home page for one-click access to websites. The portal also will pull in information from RSS fees, so that they can updates about information they care about. Alternatively, they can choose from a number of pre-packaged RSS combinations that may range from news to sports to celebrity gossip.

—New data plans: T-Mobile is also announcing new pricing plans. “All-in-one devices,” which are like smartphones, will be priced at $25/month for unlimited Web and 400 messages. For unlimited text messages, it costs $35/month. For feature phones, which they call “phone first” devices, customers can pay $10/month for 50 MB of Web access and 200 messages; or $20/month for 100 MB Web access and unlimited messages.

• @ CTIA: T-Mobile USA Details Dev Program; Android, Sidekick Not In Plans At Start
• Updated: T-Mobile USA Will Ditch The Traditional Deck To Mirror Apple’s App Store