Yahoo! Zimbra Goes To Desktop - a One Stop Shop for Your E-mail Needs

Zimbra, a Yahoo! company a leader in open source, next-generation messaging and collaboration software, today announced the release of Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop Beta. Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop gives everyone access to a simple, centralized place to manage work, school and personal e-mail even when they are not connected to the Internet. Through internet protocol support called Post Office Protocol (POP) and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail and Gmail can now be accessed offline at the same time, from the same place. Additionally, Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop allows users to use the iCal standard to take their calendar offline.

"Zimbra is focused on creating communication and collaboration solutions that ease the pain points of traditional e-mail, and switching between multiple e-mail accounts is one of the communication headaches that users encounter on a daily basis," said Satish Dharmaraj, Zimbra co-founder and Yahoo! vice president. "With Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop, we have taken our world-class collaboration suite and made it available for everyone for use anywhere, anytime, with any email account."

Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop gives users access to the same sleek Zimbra experience, and showcases the latest technologies that have until now only been available via Web-based applications including:

- "Mash-ups" with other services; for example, when viewing an e-mail, users can see their schedule by hovering over a date, or see the status of a flight by looking at a flight number;

- Powerful search that can quickly scan a user's e-mail and pull up relevant content;

- Built-in organization capabilities including automatically converting e-mails into conversations and advanced tagging; and

- Advanced calendaring that gives users access to their most important appointments and schedule even when they are on the go.

Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop also includes a number of features designed to help users stay organized, such as document creation, spreadsheets, task management and document storage, giving users a robust alternative to other desktop applications. New features include online and offline access to:

- Zimbra Documents, a document and spreadsheet program, which gives users the ability to embed complex objects such as photos into documents and spreadsheets. With the addition of Zimbra Documents, Zimbra Desktop users can easily create and edit documents and simple spreadsheets without having to switch between desktop programs or e-mail large attachments.

- Zimbra Briefcase, which allows users to upload, store, and conveniently access any files including spreadsheets, documents, presentations and others. Instead of keeping all attachments in e-mail you can simply store them in the same place with Zimbra Briefcase, and access them from anywhere, online or offline.

- Zimbra Tasks, a task management system which allows users to manage to-do lists simply and easily by monitoring start and due dates, priority, progress and percent complete.

Pricing and Availability

Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop Beta Version 3 is available for free download at Zimbra.com/desktop. Anyone with access to Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS), Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL Mail, or an IMAP/POP enabled server can use Zimbra Desktop.

Zimbra's Web client and server, the Zimbra Collaboration Suite 5.0 Open Source Edition is free. The commercially supported ZCS 5.0 Network Edition is available for a 60-day free trial on the Zimbra website. Zimbra's Hosted Demo is available for an immediate test drive of ZCS.

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Yahoo! Rejects Microsoft/Icahn Search and Restructuring Proposal

Yahoo! Inc. confirmed that it has rejected a joint proposal from Microsoft Corporation and Carl Icahn for a complex restructuring of Yahoo! that would include the acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business by Microsoft.

The proposal was made on Friday evening and Yahoo! was given less than 24 hours to accept the proposal, the fundamental terms of which Microsoft and Mr. Icahn made clear they were unwilling to negotiate. After reviewing the proposal with its legal and financial advisers, Yahoo!'s Board of Directors determined that accepting the proposal is not in the best interests of its stockholders.

The Board's rejection of the proposal was based on a number of factors, including the following:

1. Yahoo!'s existing business plus its recently signed commercial agreement with Google has superior financial value and less complexity and risk than the Microsoft/Icahn proposal.

2. The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would preclude a potential sale of all of Yahoo! for a full and fair price, including a control premium.

3. The major component of the overall value per share asserted by Microsoft/Icahn would be in Yahoo!'s remaining non-search businesses which would be overseen by Mr. Icahn's slate of directors, which has virtually no working knowledge of Yahoo!'s businesses.

4. The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would require the immediate replacement of the current Board and removal of the top management team at Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Board believes these moves would destabilize Yahoo! for the up to the one year it would take to gain regulatory approval for this deal.

Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! said, "This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders in mind. Clearly, Microsoft, having failed to advance in search, is aligning with the short-term objectives of Mr. Icahn to coerce Yahoo! into selling its core strategic search assets on terms that are highly advantageous to Microsoft, but disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. Yahoo's Board of Directors will not allow that to happen. Yahoo!'s Board remains open to any transaction that delivers full value to our stockholders - we just do not believe such a transaction should be dictated by Microsoft and a single short-term investor."

Mr. Bostock continued, "After negotiating among themselves without the involvement of Yahoo!, Carl Icahn and Microsoft presented us with a 'take it or leave it' proposal under which we would be required to restructure the Company, hand over to Microsoft Yahoo!'s valuable search business and to Carl Icahn the rest of the Company, giving us less than 24 hours to respond. It is ludicrous to think that our Board could accept such a proposal. While this type of erratic and unpredictable behavior is consistent with what we have come to expect from Microsoft, we will not be bludgeoned into a transaction that is not in the best interests of our stockholders."

Mr. Bostock also noted that Microsoft's position that it would not deal with, or otherwise engage with, Yahoo!'s management to reach agreement on this proposal or to implement it, is completely absurd and irresponsible given the complexity of the deal - one that requires the removal of half of Yahoo!'s business from Yahoo! and then the integration of it into Microsoft.

Yahoo!'s Board points out that a transaction to acquire the whole company would be much more straightforward and involve far less risk than the new proposal or any similar alternative. The Board believes a whole company transaction could be negotiated and executed prior to August 1st. In rejecting the Microsoft/Icahn proposal, Yahoo! not only repeated its offer to sell the entire Company to Microsoft for at least $33 per share, but also offered to negotiate an improved search only transaction. Microsoft rejected both offers.

Ironically, Carl Icahn, who jointly with Microsoft developed and presented this proposal, had previously urged Yahoo! not to sell its search business to Microsoft. Specifically, in an interview on CNBC's Fast Money program, on June 4, 2008, Mr. Icahn said, "... it's crazy for this company now to do this alternative deal and give the store away, because obviously, an alternative deal is a poison pill because once you've done an alternative deal and given the search to Microsoft, you don't need Microsoft to buy you anymore. So, that would be a poison pill...."

Significantly, the Board believes Microsoft and Mr. Icahn are overstating the value their search and restructuring proposal would deliver to Yahoo! stockholders and are substantially understating the risks. Yahoo! noted that a transaction that would separate the Company's search and display businesses is an undertaking of great complexity. While the Board acknowledges that the current proposal contains a number of improvements over Microsoft's earlier proposal, the Yahoo! Board's conclusion that the current proposal is not in the best interests of stockholders is based on a number of factors, including:

-- The revenue guarantees suggested, which are conditional and subject to reduction, are well below the search revenue that the Company is expected to generate on its own and in association with its announced commercial agreement with Google. That agreement alone is estimated to generate $250 to $450 million of incremental cash flow for the first twelve months following implementation, while allowing Yahoo! to remain a principal in paid search;

- The success of the remaining Company is critically dependent on Microsoft's ability to effectively monetize search;

- Microsoft/Icahn's proposed Traffic Acquisition Costs rates are below market;

- The proposal calls for Yahoo! to sell its industry-leading algorithmic search business and its related strategic and valuable intellectual property portfolio for no incremental consideration; and

- Many of the components of the headline value that Mr. Icahn and Microsoft put forward, such as the spin-off of the Yahoo!'s Asian assets and the return of cash to stockholders, are steps that could be taken by Yahoo! on its own and the Board continues to evaluate these options.

Mr. Bostock concluded, "Microsoft and Mr. Icahn are trying to dismantle the Company and deliver our search business to Microsoft on terms that would be disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. We are prepared to let our stockholders, not Microsoft and Carl Icahn, decide what is in their best interests and we look forward to the upcoming vote."

Via PR

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Yahoo! Opens Up It’s Infrastructure & Technology For Search To Developers & Companies With BOSS

Yahoo! Search is taking another step in extending the Yahoo! Open Strategy with the launch of Yahoo! Search BOSS, a web services platform that allows developers and companies to create and launch web-scale search products by utilizing the same infrastructure and technology that powers Yahoo! Search.

BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) is simple -- foster innovation in the search landscape. As anyone who follows the search industry knows, the barriers to successfully building a high quality, web-scale search engine are incredibly high. Doing so requires hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in engineering, sciences and core infrastructure -- from crawling and indexing technology to relevancy and machine learning algorithms, to stuff as mundane as data centers, servers and power. Because competing successfully in web search requires an investment of this scale, new players have effectively been prohibited from delivering credible alternatives to Yahoo! and Google. BOSS platform will begin to change that.

So what is BOSS?

BOSS is a new, open platform that offers programmatic access to the entire Yahoo! Search index via an API. BOSS allows developers to take advantage of Yahoo!'s production search infrastructure and technology, combine that with their own unique assets, and create their own search experiences. While search APIs have been available for some time, BOSS removes many of the usage restrictions that have prevented other companies from using them to build innovative new search engines.

Here's a quick summary of what's available today:

• Ability to re-rank and blend results -- BOSS partners can re-rank search results as they see fit and blend Yahoo!'s results with proprietary and other web content in a single search experience
• Total flexibility on presentation -- Freedom to present search results using any user interface paradigm, without Yahoo! branding or attribution requirements
• BOSS Mashup Framework – Yahoo! is releasing a Python library and UI templates that allow developers to easily mashup BOSS search results with other public data sources
• Web, news and image search -- At launch, developers will have access to web, news and image search and you will find more verticals soon
• Unlimited queries -- There are no rate limits on the number of queries per day

These capabilities are really just a first step – BOSS team is already working on expanding the API functionality and providing more access to Yahoo! Search Technology.

In addition to a self-serve API, Yahoo! is also partnering with a handful of Internet companies with large user bases or unique assets to collaboratively develop next gen search products using Yahoo!'s full suite of search technology. To learn more about BOSS Custom, click here.

What's in it for Yahoo! and partners?

Why would Yahoo! open up its search infrastructure and technology to developers, entrepreneurs and companies who could use it to compete with us?

Yahoo! believes that being open is core to Yahoo!'s future success -- opening it’s network and search experience via SearchMonkey, and now opening search infrastructure via BOSS -- will lead to innovation both on Yahoo! and powered by Yahoo!.

BOSS will be beneficial to both yahoo! as well as partners who deliver innovative search experiences. So as they grow their audiences and usage Yahoo! will have more data that can be used to improve Yahoo!’s own Search experience and as a result, improve the quality of results BOSS partners and their users get. Second, Yahoo! sees a new revenue streams from BOSS. In the coming months, they’ll be launching a monetization platform for BOSS that will enable Yahoo! to expand its ad network and enable BOSS partners to jointly partwicipate in the compelling economics of search.

What's in it for users?

More choice. BOSS will enable a range of fundamentally different search experiences. These new search products will provide value to users along multiple dimensions, such as vertical specialization, new relevance indicators and ranking models, and innovative UI implementations.

Kick the tires and get started

Want to kick the tires on what BOSS-powered search could look like? As part of an alpha program, Yahoo! has been working with a handful of start-ups and developers who have already begun using BOSS. Here are a few early examples of what's possible with BOSS: Me.dium, Hakia, Daylife To-Go Cluuz..

To learn more about BOSS and get started using the API, visit the Yahoo! Developer Network. BOSS is open to all -- so check out the documentation, get a BOSS app ID and start building the next generation of search.

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Getty Images and Flickr Announce Exclusive Partnership to Offer New Collection of Creative Imagery

Getty Images, the world's leading creator and distributor of visual content and other digital media, and Flickr(TM), a division of Yahoo! Inc. and one of the world's largest photo sharing communities, today announce a collaboration that unites the authenticity of images from the Flickr community with Getty Images' imagery collections, photographic expertise and unrivalled experience in licensing digital media.

The exclusive partnership allows Getty Images to invite Flickr members to participate in a Flickr branded collection on www.gettyimages.com that will be available for licensing to Getty Images' creative, commercial and editorial customers in the coming months.

"We are excited and proud to be partnering with Flickr to offer our customers even more choice for their projects. Our customers will be able to select and use the best imagery from a fresh collection of high-quality images chosen by us from Flickr's diverse and prolific community," said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images. "Flickr is the ideal partner as we continue to move the imagery industry forward by offering the broadest range of high quality digital content to our customers."

"This partnership is testimony to the Flickr community of photographers who have influenced the aesthetics of photography with authentic, creative and cutting-edge images which will now be available to Getty Images' customers around the world," said Kakul Srivastava, General Manager, Flickr. "We share Getty Images' commitment to the power of imagery and are thrilled to be working with the unrivaled leader in image licensing. Getty Images offers an unbeatable platform, licensing expertise, and a premier brand for Flickr members who want to bring their imagery to a worldwide customer base."

Getty Images and Flickr are working together to establish the first commercial licensing opportunity for photo-enthusiasts in the Flickr community. The Flickr collection will feature photography selected by Getty Images editors based on their expertise in licensing digital content and insights into customers' needs. In the next several months, Getty Images will begin inviting selected Flickr members who will have the choice to participate in the collection. The two companies are collaborating to build online tools to help editors contact Flickr members, and to add images to the new collection. Over the next several months, thousands of high-quality images will be available for licensing on www.gettyimages.com with a goal of making many more available over time.

"Through this partnership, we will be offering an expanded choice of imagery with more regionally relevant content and a wider range in the style of photography available," said Andy Saunders, Vice President of Creative Imagery at Getty Images. "Flickr's philosophy of personal sharing and immediacy has already impacted commercial photography. The new Flickr collection will expand the definition of stock photography by making it even easier for our customers to find and license imagery that works in the full range of traditional and digital media."

Getty Images will be the exclusive commercial rights manager of the photos selected to become part of the collection. Flickr members will benefit from Getty Images' global sales and distribution teams helping to market their images and from Getty Images' expertise and experience in rights and clearances of visual content. Getty Images' customers will benefit from the fresh, unique and individualistic perspectives of members within Flickr's global community.

More information on the different ways imagery can be licensed on www.gettyimages.com can be found at:

http://www.gettyimages.com/Corporate/LicenseInfo.aspx.

Via PR

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Yahoo!’s Reply to Carl Icahn's Latest Open Letter

Yahoo! Inc. today issued the following statement in their press release in response to Carl Icahn's latest open letter to Yahoo! stockholders:

“Yahoo!'s Board of Directors continues to stand ready to enter into negotiations with Microsoft Corporation for an acquisition of Yahoo!. Indeed, as recently as June, Yahoo!'s independent directors and management approached Steve Ballmer about just such a transaction, only to be told that Microsoft was no longer interested even in the price range which they had previously proposed. Now Mr. Ballmer and Mr. Icahn have teamed up in an apparent effort to force Yahoo! into selling to Microsoft its Search business at a price to be determined in a future "negotiation" between Mr. Icahn's directors and Microsoft's management. We feel very strongly that this would not lead to an outcome that would be in the best interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders. If Microsoft and Mr. Ballmer really want to purchase Yahoo!, we again invite them to make a proposal immediately. And if Mr. Icahn has an actual plan for Yahoo! beyond hoping that Microsoft might actually consummate a deal which they have repeatedly walked away from, we would be very interested in hearing it.”

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MyBlogLog Introduced ‘Connector’ To Find Missing Links In Your Social Networks

MyBlogLog announced yesterday about their new feature called Connector. Connector makes it easier to be an online social butterfly and get connected with what's going on in Internet City.

Connector helps you fill in the connection gaps with your friends across the services you use. If you're friends on MyBlogLog, you probably should be friends on the other services you use. This will help you do just that.

Click a green plus icon ()  to connect to a friend at a service. If you want to open all connections with a friend, click a green arrow icon (connect on all service) and multiple windows will open with your friend's profiles. As oAuth becomes available, it will be possible to make connections without opening a new window.

How does it work? Let's say you are connected with Jane on MyBlogLog and are chatting it up with her on twitter and sharing photos on flickr. Connector looks at the public friends lists on del.icio.us, Pownce, Digg, Last.fm, and YouTube to see if you're connected there as well. If you and Jane have shared your third party identities on these services on your MyBlogLog profile, MyBlogLog will figure out if you're connected or not. If not, the green plus icon will take you to their page where you can connect (once direct authentication is supported, it will build in-line friending). That's it! Now you can share links, music, and videos and stay that much more in touch with your friends. Use Connector to fill in the gaps in your personal social network.

Related posts:

• MyBlogLog Now Feeds MyBlogLog Activity & Your Most Recent Blog Posts into Yahoo! Messenger
• MyBlogLog Adds FriendFeed, Magnolia & ThisNext to List of Services

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Yahoo! HotJobs Introduced Innovative Advertising Solutions

Yahoo! HotJobs, a leading online recruitment destination, today introduced two innovative advertising solutions that help recruitment advertisers meet their hiring and branding objectives by delivering more relevant job listings to candidates. The first, Yahoo! HotJobs Smart Ads, is a platform that transforms job listings into highly relevant display ads that are tailored to active and passive job seekers across the Yahoo! Network, and the second, Premium Company Profiles, showcases company employment brands using rich media and company-specific content from the Yahoo! Network.

Both products were introduced today at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference being held in Chicago, June 22-25.

"For employers to remain cost effective and competitive in the evolving recruitment marketplace, they need solutions that leverage technology to efficiently connect them with the most relevant candidates," said Jeff Kinder, senior vice president and general manager, Yahoo! HotJobs. "Like the groundbreaking R.E.A.L. search algorithm launched in February, the solutions unveiled today are more examples of Yahoo! innovation and research applied to the recruitment industry."

Building on the momentum generated from the launch of Yahoo! Smart Ads last year, Yahoo! HotJobs is rolling out a pilot program specifically developed for the careers category. Yahoo! HotJobs Smart Ads deliver specific job listings to users based on their unique career interests.

Leveraging Yahoo!'s leading display advertising technologies, users are identified and targeted by both the information they have supplied and their online behaviors. Added value for recruitment advertisers include:

- Unparalleled Reach - Yahoo! HotJobs Smart Ads extend reach to both active and passive job seekers, enabling recruiters to get their open positions in front of more than 140 million unique visitors per month across the Yahoo! Network.

- Awareness and Conversion - Existing job postings are transformed into compelling and dynamic ads. Recruiters can simultaneously create employment brand awareness and engage qualified candidates directly with their job postings.

- Advanced Targeting - Recruiters can leverage Yahoo!'s innovations in targeting -- behavioral targeting, contextual targeting, career interest, location, and HotJobs' R.E.A.L. search ranking system -- to find the right candidates.

Premium Company Profile pages offer employers the chance to showcase their company's employment brand and drive more qualified applicants to their open positions. Working with popular Yahoo! properties such as Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Answers, each page comes with an added layer of information and insight about the company in addition to a full listing of positions available to job seekers. Benefits to recruiters include:

- Employer Branding - A dedicated page for employer branding that educates and communicates with job seekers about the company's culture and jobs. An integrated video module allows employers to post corporate videos.

- Job Seeker Engagement - An efficient way for job seekers to search throughout a company's open positions in the context of the employer brand.

- Driving Performance - Career-related content lets job seekers read about the latest company news including financial performance. Moderated questions and answers give companies a way to interact with large numbers of job seekers. More highly engaged job seekers help improve the flow of qualified candidates.

Yahoo! HotJobs has increased job candidate traffic by more than 60 percent this year while competitors have remained largely flat.* As a result, Yahoo! HotJobs has become the fastest growing Web site among the leading job boards and has surpassed Monster.com in the U.S.*

"These new products are in keeping with our strategy to become the 'must buy' solution for recruitment advertisers. We will continue to innovate and drive improved performance for our customers and the industry", said Kinder.

comScore Media Metrix Career Resources, January-March 2008.

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Get Your New Yahoo! Email ID as ymail.com Or rocketmail.com

Yahoo! Inc. today announced the global availability of two new e-mail domains that will give users the chance to register for the e-mail address or Yahoo! ID they have always wanted. People can finally say goodbye to CutiePie4Ever80 or mattclark1977@yahoo.com and get a new Yahoo! e-mail address at ymail.com and rocketmail.com.

Yahoo! Mail is the number one Web mail service in the world with more than 260 million users worldwide*. As a result of its global popularity, many desirable e-mail addresses have already been taken for the yahoo.com domain, as well as for localized versions of the namespace in countries around the world. With the two new e-mail domain choices, Yahoo! will make millions of new e-mail addresses available to the online community.

Yahoo! recently commissioned a survey conducted by Harris Interactive(R) to determine what online adults look for when choosing an e-mail address and found some noteworthy results:

-- The majority of online adults (59 percent) consider the most important attribute of an e-mail address to be that it is easy to remember.

-- When asked if they could choose any e-mail address for personal use, seven in ten online adults (70 percent) would opt to have some portion of their name included - 31 percent would want their last name included, 27 percent would choose their first name, while 28 percent would prefer to have their nickname as part of their e-mail address.

-- Of online adults who indicated that they are not currently using their first choice e-mail address, over half (54 percent) agree that they want their e-mail address to reflect who they are, and about half (48 percent) would be at least somewhat likely to change addresses should their preferred choice become available.

"We recognize that people want an e-mail address that reflects who they are, whether they are signing up for an e-mail address for the first time, or simply updating their e-mail pseudonym to reflect the stage they are at in life," said John Kremer, vice president, Yahoo! Mail. "We are thrilled to be able to offer new Yahoo! e-mail domain choices to Internet users, along with the same great Web mail experience that hundreds of millions of people have already come to expect."

E-mail addresses at the new domains will have the same great Yahoo! Mail features as addresses at the yahoo.com domain, including:

-- Unlimited storage - Yahoo! Mail provides all users with free unlimited e-mail storage**

-- Integrated Instant Messaging and Text Messaging - Users can connect in real-time to their contacts with Yahoo! Messenger or Windows Live(R) Messenger and send text messages to friends on the go, right from their Yahoo! Mail inbox

-- Protection from spam and viruses - All of the same great protection that is built into Yahoo! Mail will apply to these new domains. Yahoo! uses advanced technologies and data from numerous sources to dramatically reduce the delivery of spam and phishing e-mails

-- Country-specific e-mail account - When signing up for an e-mail account, users have the option of choosing localized country versions from each of the Yahoo! domains: yahoo.com, ymail.com and rocketmail.com

As always, a Yahoo! ID will work for everything across the Yahoo! Network, from checking e-mail to checking out Messenger, Flickr, Groups, Sports, Finance and more.

In many markets, Yahoo! will also help users transfer their e-mail and contacts to their new address and notify friends of their new e-mail address.

In addition, Yahoo! has reserved a number of desirable e-mail addresses - all related to charitable organizations - using the new domains and will put these e-mail addresses up for charity auction beginning on Thursday, June 19, 2008. Yahoo! is working with auction partners eBay Giving Works and Auction Cause. The proceeds from the auction will benefit the following organizations: The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Ocean Conservancy, Point Foundation, Right To Play and World Wildlife Fund. To participate in the online auction, please visit http://www.ebay.com/ymail.

Users can learn more about and register for a new e-mail at ymail.com and rocketmail.com at http://mail.yahoo.com.

* According to comScore Media Metrix, April 2008

** More information about unlimited storage in e-mail can be found here: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/tools/tools-08.html

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Yahoo! Announced Partnership with Maxis Communications Berhad and Idea Cellular Limited For Mobile Advertising

Yahoo!, a pioneer and leader in mobile advertising and mobile Internet services, today announced two strategic mobile advertising partnerships with Maxis Communications Berhad in Malaysia and Idea Cellular Limited in India. The two mobile operators plan to carry a variety of graphical advertisements, sold and served by Yahoo!.

Today's announcement builds on Yahoo!'s display and advertising partnerships, which already include AT&T, T-Mobile International and Vodafone UK.

The new partnerships announced today with Maxis and Idea are the result of continued collaborations to develop and enhance the mobile Internet experience for consumers. In the last eight months, these partners have announced and launched Yahoo! oneSearch(TM) on their portals, providing a mobile search experience that delivers better answers and relevant information to consumers without having to scroll through lists of Web links.

"Yahoo! is a leading monetization engine for the mobile Internet, enabling advertisers to reach targeted audiences at large scale and with impact, providing consumers with enhanced mobile experiences, and allowing publishers to monetize their services. Across all categories, we are creating superior experiences that deliver great value to advertisers and mobile consumers," said David Ko, managing director & vice president, Yahoo! Connected Life, Asia Pacific. "The partnerships with Maxis and Idea, respectively, demonstrate Yahoo!'s continued focus on becoming the must-buy opportunity for advertisers and further extend our leadership in graphical advertising across mobile devices."

Mobile advertising is revolutionizing the industry by allowing advertisers to deliver highly targeted messaging to consumers on mobile devices, and providing the opportunity to adopt unique and innovative marketing campaigns through mobile graphical advertising. As a leader in mobile Internet and knowledge of consumer habits, Yahoo! enables advertisers to engage a highly targeted demographic regardless of whether the consumer is in the home, office, or on the go.

"Advertisers and our mobile operator partners recognize the value and unique abilities of mobile advertising and are positioning it as a core part of their digital campaigns," said Steve Boom, senior vice president, Yahoo! Connected Life. "The world's leading brands are turning to Yahoo! to mobilize their advertising as we are able to create targeted campaigns that not only harness the unique abilities of mobile, but also enhance the consumer's mobile experience by delivering highly relevant and engaging experiences."

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Google Will Provide It’s Ad Technology To Yahoo!

Google yesterday announced that it has reached an agreement that gives Yahoo! the ability to use Google's search and contextual advertising technology through its AdSense™ for Search and AdSense for Content advertising programs.

Under the agreement, Yahoo! has the option to display Google ads alongside its own natural search results in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, Yahoo! can serve contextually targeted ads on its U.S. and Canadian web properties as well as on its current publisher partner sites. Yahoo will continue to operate its own search engine, web properties and advertising services.

In addition, Yahoo! and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services bringing easier and broader communication to users.

"This commercial agreement provides Yahoo! with the opportunity to deliver more relevant ads to users and provide advertisers and publishers with better advertising technology to help them succeed in their own businesses," said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google. "This agreement will preserve the competitive and dynamic online advertising space."

As a result of the agreement, Yahoo! will be able to complement its own advertising program with Google’s advertising technology. As a result, advertisers will be able to better reach consumers, and Yahoo! and its current publisher partners can generate more revenue. Yahoo can use Google's advertising technology on as many or as few of its search results and content pages as it chooses.

This non-exclusive agreement allows Yahoo! to enter into similar agreements with other advertising providers. In addition, Yahoo! will maintain relationships with its own advertising customers and will continue to rely exclusively on its own advertising program outside of the U.S. and Canada. The agreement has a term of up to ten years: a 4-year initial term and two 3-year renewals at Yahoo!’s option.

Financial terms between the two companies were not disclosed.
Although Google and Yahoo are not required to receive regulatory approval of the arrangement before implementing it, the companies have voluntarily agreed to delay implementation for up to three and a half months to give the U.S. Department of Justice time to review the arrangement.

More details can be found on Official Google Blog.

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The Yahoo! Search Gallery is Open for Business

SearchMonkey is taking another step in its evolution with the public launch of the Yahoo! Search Gallery. Now users and developers can visit the Search Gallery by clicking the "Customize" dropdown from the search results page.

Developers and site owners can begin sharing applications, regardless of whether they've been approved for the gallery, by adding links to their app's page on their sites.

Once inside the Gallery, users can view and add apps built on the SearchMonkey platform by developers, site owners and Yahoo!.

The Gallery is still in beta, however there are already a number of really useful apps included. The launch of the Yahoo! Search Gallery makes SearchMonkey applications available and easy to use for consumers.

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Yahoo! Address Book API Goes Public

Yahoo! today announced the public release of it’s Address Book API.

This new API provides access to one of the largest collections of address books on the Internet--the contact system behind Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, and Yahoo! Go. This means your applications already have a built-in audience. The Address Book API supports a wide range of third-party apps, such as sending invitations to seed social networks or social apps, looking up postal addresses for shipping services for online retail, and providing address "auto-complete" for messaging apps.

The API has extensive search capabilities. Once a user authorizes your application, you’ll be able to easily access that user’s address book and look for specific contacts. If you want to see which contacts are new, you can ask what’s changed since the last time you accessed the API. More details are available in the documentation.

Here are some highlights of what you can do with the API:

• Obtain unique identifiers (i.e., email addresses) to help build a social network.
• Look up phone numbers for mobile and SMS applications.
• Look up email addresses for content-sharing applications. For example, you can enhance the "share with friend" capability of your site. Make it easy for users to look up their contacts by combining the Address Book API with the YUI auto-complete widget.
• Make it a breeze for your users to send gifts easily. They can add addresses from their Yahoo! Address Book with almost no typing.

The new API provides access to a user’s Address Book via BBAuth (Yahoo!’s browser-based authentication). Users authorize your application to access their address book data through the Yahoo! login process. Access to their address book data is done safely.

The new Yahoo! Address Book API unlocks the relationships that Yahoo! members have developed on Yahoo! and makes them easy to tap into on your site.

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Yahoo! Released Design Stencil Kit v1.0

Yahoo! this week released a design stencil kit to help designers quickly create mockups for specifications and user testing. Stencil objects have specific meaning and can be incorporated into a design to symbolize a specific kind of module, interaction, or even aesthetic.

These design stencils complement the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library by providing tangible objects that manifest the essence of specific design patterns. The stencil kit also contains links to YUI components and Design Pattern Library entries that help bring depth and tactical execution to designs.

Stencils kits are available for OmniGraffle, Visio (XML), Adobe Illustrator (PDF and SVG), and Adobe Photoshop (PNG) and cover the following topics:

• Ad Units
• Calendars
• Carousels
• Charts and Tables
• UI Controls
• Form Elements
• Grids
• Menus and Buttons
• Mobile - General
• Mobile - iPhone
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To use a design stencil, download the stencil kit compatible with your design application, launch your design application, and start adding stencil objects to your projects. Adobe Illustrator, OmniGraffle, and Visio users can ungroup stencil objects to customize and manipulate size, layout, and aesthetics.

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Release Of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta

Sarah Bacon, Product manager at Yahoo! Messenger, announced the launch of a new update to Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta. This version includes a few new features along with bug fixes, stability and speed improvements, plus some changes to the contact list. Sarah Bacon gives you a quick view about new features on Yahoo! messenger blog :

Bigger emoticons

They’re not massive, but a little bit bigger so you can express yourself with more oomph.
( vs. ). A few more are also enabled for use in your status message.

Games are back!

You probably missed them in the earlier releases of 9.0, but games are now back! Click the new “Activities” button while you IM to choose a game to play with a friend (or for a plug-in). Checkers, pool, toki toki boom…you know the rest. Note that your friend needs to be on 8.1 or this latest release of 9.0 Beta to play games with you.

Status message improvements

The status message menu has been split into two parts - one where you can indicate your availability (busy, available) and the other for putting in a custom message or a link you want to share. That way even if you’re away from IM, you can still share a funny thought, webpage or video with your friends via your status message.

Yahoo! Updates

Yahoo! Messenger is one of the first products to showcase what your friends are doing on Yahoo!. When a friend buzzes a favorite news story or changes their Avatar, a Yahoo! Update is displayed next to that friend in your contact list (with more detail in their contact card). So even if you’re not actively communicating with them, you can still stay up to date with what they’re doing. To manage what Updates you broadcast, click on your display image in the contact list, then click the “Manage my updates” link.

New contact list format button

When 9.0 Beta launched first time, a lot of users weren’t crazy about the extra space in the contact list which was created for display images and status messages. So there were two views available for your contact list - detailed or compact. In this latest version, a button next to the contact search bar is added to change it, along with other settings like “Show Offline Contacts”.

Import Contacts - new & improved

Select “Import Contacts” from the Contacts menu and you can add friends from address books you have on other sites like Gmail, Orkut, Yahoo! Address Book, Hotmail, AOL and many more.

Voice in chat rooms for Vista users & faster Captcha process

A fix to this latest version of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta allows Windows Vista users on 9.0 to use voice in chat rooms (and conferences). Chat room verification process is also changed. You can now enter the Captcha code right in the chat room window instead of having to go off to another page. That's cool.

New IM notification toast

If your IM conversation window falls into the background, this new feature will make sure you don’t miss out on the latest message from your friend. When a new message comes in to the background window, a small notification will pop up from the lower right corner of your screen with the beginning text of the IM your friend just sent. (You can turn this off under Messenger > Preferences > Messages.)

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