Released earlier this year (this spring), the Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search app for iPhone works something like this: pull up a map of the area that you're currently in, draw a shape on the map, and the application presents you with local restaurants within that location. The app puts pins on all the restaurants within the shape you drew. If you tap a pin, you will be presented with more information about that restaurant.

Until now there was only the iPhone version of the Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search app. As of this week there is also the iPad version of the Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search app, Yahoo! announced. You can use Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search on your iPad to find restaurants within an area, view photos of those restaurants, read user reviews, and get details on restaurants within an area – like restaurant hours, price range, type of cuisine and more.

The Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search app for iPad is offered free of charge; it works with iOS 4.0 or newer. Here’s the iTunes link.

Moving on, Yahoo! has also announced that it updated the Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search app for iPhone. Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search version 1.5, the update in questions, bring the following new features to the table:

• Zagat rated restaurants in the search results
• Book a table through the app with OpenTable integration
• Much simpler way to browse user reviews
• Very simple way for users to report data changes
• Simplified filters for cuisine, ambience, star ratings
• Clean-up of up closed restaurants

The Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search app for is also offered free of charge; it works with iOS 4.0 or later as well. Here’s the iTunes link.

Moving on another time, desktop users should know that Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search is available to them as a Quick App in Yahoo! Search.

In related news, you may want to know that Yahoo! recently rolled out Yahoo! Messenger 11 Beta. Find out what it has to offer here.