Yahoo! To Acquire Maktoob.com

Yahoo! Inc. has recently announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Maktoob.com, the leading online community in the Arab world, with more than 16.5 million unique users.

Internet users in the region will benefit from the combination of Yahoo!'s popular products and services with Maktoob's compelling local content, which today reaches one in three people online throughout the Arab world. This acquisition will extend Yahoo!'s current offerings by adding capabilities to deliver relevant Arabic-language content and services, as well as Arabic versions of Yahoo!'s popular Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Mail services. Maktoob.com is accessed by users in countries that include UAE, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

"Yahoo! and Maktoob are natural partners and this combination should help energize the Internet market in the region as a whole. We are excited about Yahoo! building a stronger presence in the Middle East and bringing its compelling suite of services to Arab users in Arabic," said Samih Toukan, Founder of Maktoob.

While Internet usage in the Middle East has grown more than tenfold since 2000, most markets are still in the early stages of adoption. According to the World Bank, there are more than 320 million Arabic speakers worldwide, while less than one per cent of all online content is in Arabic.

With Yahoo! and Maktoob.com's combined audience and platform, advertisers will have access to the reach and sophisticated targeting capabilities they need to effectively engage with the region's online consumers. Spending on online advertising is expected to grow by 35 - 40 percent this year in the region, according to Madar Research.

Maktoob.com was founded in 2000 by Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury as the world's first free Arabic/English Web-based email service, and since then has grown to be the leading Arab online community in the region.

"Yahoo is acquiring Maktoob.com for the strong brand and audience it has built over the last nine years and the passionate team they have assembled, which we believe is the strongest in the region," said Keith Nilsson, senior vice president, Emerging Markets, Yahoo! "We see great growth potential in both audience and advertising in the Arab world and combining with Maktoob.com will allow us to quickly build our presence there with high quality products. This is a big win for publishers, advertisers, and consumers in the region."

This acquisition is part of Yahoo!'s larger strategy to grow its business throughout the world's emerging markets by connecting consumers with the content and services that matter most to them in their local language. The company's Emerging Markets business group, headquartered in Singapore, is responsible for Yahoo!'s fastest growing markets such as South East Asia, India, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Yahoo! has a strong track record of delivering great Internet experiences and helping fuel Internet adoption through partnerships with local developers and content providers.

Following the acquisition, Maktoob.com will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo!. Ahmed Nassef, the current general manager of Maktoob.com, will continue to lead the Maktoob.com teams and will report to Keith Nilsson. It is expected that the transaction will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Upon completion of the deal, the remaining Maktoob Group companies - including Souq.com, cashU.com, Araby.com, and Tahadi.com - will operate under a new entity called the Jabbar Internet Group, managed by Samih Toukan. Yahoo! and the Jabbar Internet Group will continue to have a strong commercial relationship going forward, which will include the promotion of Jabbar companies on the Maktoob.com portal.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Yahoo! Tells Your Twitter Persona

Twitter is  one of the hot thing on internet these days. As Twitter becomes more mainstream, everyone is trying their hand at the tweet. So why not Yahoo!. Yahoo! recently launched new Yahoo! Homepage, which was designed to be customized to reflect your true personality. In addition to that, Yahoo!launched a new tool called “Know Your Mojo” that helps you analyze your social mojo.

Just enter your Twitter username and highly scientific pipe thingy goes to work to determine exactly what kind of Twitter persona you possess. You might be a:

• Headliner – You’re the star of the Twitterverse, have tons of followers, and have retweets the likes of Ashton Kutcher and Perez Hilton
• Crowd Pleaser – You use lots of hashtags and are in on all the hot conversations
• Cheerleader – Retweeting is how you roll
• B.F.F. – Your volume of @replies makes you everybody’s best bud
• Party Animal – With so many followers, you’re the life of the party
• Private Eye – Like any good investigator, you’re following a boatload of people
• Concierge – You live for links and sending people to the best stuff
• Word Whiz – You’re a natural wordsmith and make the most of your 140 characters
• Lone Wolf – You’re more of a low-profile type (some might even accuse you of lurking)
• Name Dropper – You use lots of @names when you tweet
• Matchmaker – You pass along lots of URLs to make sure everyone’s connected
• Wall Flower – You don’t tweet much but you’re still in on the party
• Novelist – You have a lot to say and tweet with a lot of characters to prove it
• Shadow – You follow lots of people like a good shadow would
• Scenester – If there’s a hashtag conversation happening, you’re there
• Tweethead – Your high number of retweets shows you like to spread the good stuff

Give it a try — http://yahoo.knowyourmojo.com

Yahoo! And Microsoft On Search Deal

Today is a great day for both Microsoft and Yahoo!. Yahoo! has signed a major search deal with Microsoft today. Together they announced an agreement that will improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry. In simple terms, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers.

For Web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies' complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft's competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for Web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the Internet.

Under this agreement, Yahoo! will focus on its core business of providing consumers with great experiences with the world's favorite online destinations and Web products.

The key terms of the agreement are as follows:

• The term of the agreement is 10 years;
• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!'s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms;
• Microsoft's Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology;
• Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft's AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter's automated auction process;
• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force;
• Yahoo! will innovate and "own" the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology;
• Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!'s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites;
  • Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!'s O&O sites during the first five years of the agreement; and
  • Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.
• Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!'s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country;
• At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million; and
• The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

So what does this deal mean to you ?

Here’s the rundown:

• Better search: You’ll still find search boxes all across Yahoo!, but this deal will make the difference between a great Yahoo! search experience and an awesome one. Some of the biggest brains in the business work on Yahoo! Search, and they will continue to innovate to create a better search experience on Yahoo!. As a result of the deal, Microsoft, which has great technologists and deep pockets,will have the scale to bring users faster, more useful and more personally relevant search.
• Better everything else: With Microsoft powering Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! will be able to focus on the other things -– being the center of people’s lives online with properties like homepage, mail, finance, news, sports, entertainment, mobile, etc.
• Better competition: Competition equals innovation. But with one player dominating 70% of search, that field has been pretty lopsided. This transaction will create a healthy competitor that’ll keep everyone on their toes.

Below is a video of Carol Bartz talking about this deal.

Here is the joint website of Microsoft and Yahoo!.

Here are some of the pictures of this deal.

Yahoo! Is Closing Their Another Service, Yahoo! 360°

While Yahoo! is taking new initiatives towards web, it is closing down its old services. In February, Yahoo! announced the shut down of their two services briefcase and MyWeb. Now it’s time for Yahoo! 360°. On the main page of Yahoo! 360° you can see the message that says “Time to move to your new place”. Yahoo! 360° is closing on July 13, 2009.

Why is Yahoo! closing Yahoo! 360° ?

“On July 13, 2009, Yahoo! will officially close Yahoo! 360° to focus our efforts on making your new profile on Yahoo! the place where you connect with the people who matter to you most.”

You have time before July 13, 2009 to archive and move your 360° information to your computer and to your profile on Yahoo!. Click here to find out what you can do to preserve your 360° information. After July 13, 2009, your content on Yahoo! 360° will no longer be accessible.

Visit this help page to know more about what to do with your profile.

Yahoo! Image Search Launched “Creative Commons License Filter”

It is always tricky to search for the great images on the net. If you are planning to use the picture to pop into a presentation or illustrate a Web page, you need to know if you’re allowed to use that photo, and how you can use it. Before using the image, you must have to make sure you are fulfilling the licensing condition for use.

Today, Yahoo! Image Search is launching a Creative Commons license filter that allows you to simply and quickly find images that are available for reuse.

When you use Yahoo! Image Search, you’ll now see a checkbox for Creative Commons allowing you to filter for images from Flickr that can be used commercially or that can be modified (remixed, tweaked, or built upon) with restrictions set by the image’s creator.

By launching the Creative Commons license search with Flickr and making it available to all Yahoo! Image Search users, Yahoo! aims to promote reusable work and to be transparent about the guidelines issued by the creator of a particular image. Yahoo! is the first image search engine to offer this capability.

There is a great competition to maximize the use of image search. Google recently introduced Similar Search feature which allows you to search for images using pictures rather than words.

Yahoo! Introduced Instant Visual Results For IE8

Yahoo! Search team announced the introduction of instant visual results under the search box for the Yahoo! optimized version of the new Internet Explorer 8. Instant visual results are rolling out in three categories: Weather, Movie Reviews and Showtimes, and Stock Quotes.

When you type a query from any of these three categories in Internet Explorer 8, instant visual results will appear with related information. For example, when you search for “weather Santa Clara, CA,” a three-day weather forecast for the area appears right below the search box.

Try searching for the following examples to see for yourself:

• “Yhoo” or “Quote Yahoo”

  Instant visual results display the current stock chart for Yahoo!.

• “Movie Taken”

  See movie synopsis and critic/user ratings.

• “Movie Slumdog Millionaire Santa Clara, CA”

  See local show times, synopsis, and ratings.

Users will also continue to get instant text suggestions below the visual suggestions with Yahoo! Search Assist.

You can download a Yahoo! optimized version of Internet Explorer 8 to check out this new feature.

Yahoo! Is Closing Its Briefcase

Yahoo! sent an email to all of its users stating that they are going to shut down Yahoo! Briefcase on March 30, 2009. Yahoo! Briefcase is a tool that allows you to store files online and then access them from anywhere.

When and why is Yahoo! Briefcase closing?

Yahoo! will close Yahoo! Briefcase on Tuesday, March 30, 2009. After this date, you will be unable to access Yahoo! Briefcase or your files within the Yahoo! Briefcase account.

Why? Because, in a Web 2.0 world where Yahoo! Mail has unlimited storage and Flickr offers media sharing, users and services have outgrown what the Yahoo! Briefcase service can provide. As such, Yahoo! is closing Yahoo! Briefcase to focus our efforts elsewhere.

Below is a copy of email that Yahoo! sent :

“Dear Yahoo! Briefcase user,

We will be officially closing Yahoo! Briefcase on March 30, 2009. Until then, we are offering you the opportunity to download your files back to your computer. You will need to take action before we close, after which any files remaining on Yahoo! Briefcase will be deleted and no longer accessible.

To access your Yahoo! Briefcase account, click the link below:

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/

If you are a Yahoo! Briefcase Premium subscriber, your current subscription will be canceled on March 30, 2009. We will refund the unused portion of your Premium subscription, if any. The refund will appear as a credit via the billing method we have on file for you. So please make sure that your billing information is correct and up-to-date. For more information, please visit https://billing.yahoo.com.

For additional information or to review a list of our frequently asked questions, click the link below:

Briefcase Help

We appreciate your being a Yahoo! Briefcase user.
Sincerely,
Yahoo! Customer Support”

If you are using Yahoo! Briefcase, then check these FAQs.

Yahoo! Introduces New Ad Products To Deliver More Relevant Display Ads

Yahoo! Inc. today announced the launch of three new targeting products for brand and performance marketers that are designed to help them reach the audiences that matter most when advertising online. The announcement was made during the Company's keynote presentation at the annual conference of the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

"As the economy continues to put pressure on advertising budgets, marketers are looking for increased accountability for every dollar they spend. Yahoo!'s new targeting products significantly improve the ability for search and display advertisers to reach their target audience, providing increased efficiency and accountability," said Michael Walrath, senior vice president, Advertising Marketplaces Group, Yahoo!. "Yahoo! remains incredibly well positioned to meet the growing advertiser demand for performance marketing offerings, and no other company can provide marketers with such scale and expertise across search and display advertising."

The new products include:

• Search Retargeting, which gives advertisers the ability to target display advertising based on user search activities;
• Enhanced Retargeting, which allows advertisers to deliver dynamically generated display ads across the Yahoo! network based on user activity on an advertiser's site; and
• Enhanced Targeting capabilities for search advertising, including ad scheduling and demographic targeting within search.

Search Retargeting for Display Advertising

Yahoo!'s Search Retargeting is a customized display targeting solution that lets advertisers capture user interest from search terms and retarget the user with display ads throughout the Yahoo! Network. For example, if a user searches for the keyword "sandals," indicating strong purchase intent, an advertiser can target that user with a tailored display ad for footwear.

Enhanced Retargeting for Display Advertising

Yahoo! is also introducing Enhanced Retargeting, which combines standard site retargeting with dynamic ad generation. For example, users who visit an airline website to check offers for flights from SFO-JFK can be served a personalized offer for that specific flight when they visit a page within the Yahoo! Network. In a recent trial, a market-leading online travel company saw a 230% increase in total bookings and a 651% increase in click-through rate when comparing Enhanced Retargeting to their traditional retargeting campaign.

Enhanced Targeting Capabilities for Search Advertising

Recognizing the need for more focused audience segmentation and improved control, Yahoo! Search Marketing will offer advertisers Enhanced Targeting capabilities for Sponsored Search and Content Match programs (expected to start in March).New features are designed to extend the advertiser's control over where and when an ad is shown at both the campaign and ad group level, including what time of day and day of the week an advertiser would like campaigns to run (ad scheduling) and what age and gender they'd like to reach (demographic). Advertisers will be able to vary their bids for different segments in order to increase their ability to reach the desired audience.

New Yahoo! Mobile Service

Yahoo! today announced the upcoming  launch of its new Yahoo! Mobile service - a highly-personalized mobile starting point to the Internet. Yahoo! Mobile will be available on the mobile Web, as an app developed for the Apple(R) iPhone(TM), and as an app developed for smartphones from Nokia(R), RIM(R), Samsung(R), Sony Ericsson(R) and Motorola(R) as well as those powered by Windows Mobile(R). Yahoo! Mobile initially will be available today through a managed beta program, with general availability expected in Q2 2009.

With a rich design and interactivity that leverages the capabilities of today's  mobile devices, Yahoo! Mobile will offer an open environment within which consumers can bring together their favorite content and services from across the Internet. Consumers will be able to:

• Discover: via results from Yahoo!'s award-winning mobile search, editor- selected content, and new maps tools.
• Stay Connected: through access to their email and social network accounts from the most popular Web providers, as well as instant messaging, address book and calendar tools.
• Stay Informed: by bringing together favorite content - websites, sports teams, news sources, RSS feeds, weather, stocks, horoscopes and more - into a single location.

KEY FEATURES OF YAHOO! MOBILE

The mobile Web and iPhone(TM) versions of Yahoo! Mobile are planned to include the following features:

Discover

• Yahoo! oneSearch(TM) - Yahoo!'s award-winning mobile search service providing the most current, relevant answers you need.
• Today - The most interesting stories buzzing on the Internet right now, selected by Yahoo!'s editorial team.

Connect

• Yahoo! oneConnect(TM) - Yahoo!'s service designed to provide consumers everything they need to stay in touch with the people about whom they care:
  • Email - Access to Yahoo! Mail and other popular email service providers, including Gmail(R), Windows Live(TM) Hotmail and AOL(R) Mail.
  • Pulse - Access to their social networks, including Bebo(R), Dopplr(TM), Facebook(R), Flickr(R), Friendster(R), Last.fm(R), MySpace(R), Twitter(TM) and YouTube(TM).
  • Yahoo! Messenger - An upgraded version of Yahoo!'s popular mobile instant messaging service.
  • Yahoo! Address Book - Keeps consumers' contacts always handy and in sync.
  • Yahoo! Calendar - View, add and edit appointments when users are away from their PCs.

Stay Informed

• Yahoo! News - Breaking headlines across popular topics.
• Yahoo! onePlace(TM) - Access and manage your favorite content, all from one location. Its "Add Anything" functionality is a simple-to-use search and browse process that helps users find and add what they want. Consumers can add their favorite interests from a growing selection of popular categories including news topics and sources, RSS feeds, weather conditions, sports scores, stock quotes, websites/blogs, horoscopes and movie theaters.

The smartphone version of Yahoo! Mobile will include the above functionality, plus:

• Yahoo! oneSearch with Voice(TM) - Allowing users to launch searches by simply speaking.
• Maps - Powerful improved tools that let consumers locate, learn about and get directions to points of interest.
• Opera Mini(TM) 4.2 - An integrated version of the world's most popular mobile web browser, with easy return to the Yahoo! Mobile app, that launches when web site access is needed.
• Widgets - Enhanced mobile-optimized experiences for services from Yahoo! and other brands. Users can browse, add and remove these at anytime according to their tastes.

AVAILABILITY OF YAHOO! MOBILE

A managed beta program for Yahoo! Mobile has started today. Consumers interested in participating should enter http://mobile.yahoo.com into their phone's browser.

Details on the upcoming general public release for Yahoo! Mobile are as follows:

For the mobile Web:

• Launch timing: expected late March 2009
• Devices: those running WebKit-based browsers (e.g. iPhone and iPod touch, many Nokia Series 60 and Android devices), Opera Mini 4.x, Windows Mobile devices with Internet Explorer Mobile, and the BlackBerry(R) Bold(TM) and BlackBerry Storm(TM) browsers

For iPhone:

• Launch timing: expected late March 2009

For smartphones:

• Launch timing: expected late May 2009
• Devices: hundreds of select models from RIM, Windows Mobile, Nokia S60 and 40, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola.

At launch, each version of Yahoo! Mobile is planned to be available for the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Versions for other countries will roll out over the remainder of 2009.

Yahoo! Mobile will feature Yahoo!'s industry-leading display advertising from major global advertisers.

Yahoo! Is Discontinuing It’s Yahoo! MyWeb Service

Back in 2005, Yahoo! launched Yahoo! MyWeb with the goal to help users save valuable information they discover on the Web. With the yesterday’s announcement, Yahoo! made it clear that they are going to discontinue this service. MyWeb service will no more available starting from March 18, 2009.

Yahoo! already has services called Delicious and Yahoo! Bookmarks which can serve the need of MyWeb users’.

According to MyWeb site “We are streamlining our bookmark services. As part of this effort Yahoo! will be shutting down MyWeb on March 18, 2009 and moving users to Yahoo! Bookmarks. Your MyWeb bookmarks are already available to you on Yahoo! Bookmarks. You can begin using this new service now or continue using MyWeb until the shutdown date.”

MyWeb users have three choices to migrate their bookmarks:

1. Yahoo! Bookmarks. For users primarily interested in private bookmarking, the switch is simple – all MyWeb bookmarks are already available in Yahoo! Bookmarks.

2. Delicious . For users who enjoy sharing their bookmarks and exploring the bookmarks of other users, Yahoo! recommends migrating to Delicious. The migration is a three-step process – see details here.

3. Export. For users who choose to use other bookmarking services, Yahoo! recommends using their export tools, which will provide an archive of your bookmarks that is easily readable by 3rd party services and browsers such as Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

For publishers using the MyWeb Bookmark button or the MyWeb badge, Yahoo! recommends migrating these to the Delicious button or badge.

New BOSS Features : Open Monetization, Pricing, Structured Data, and More

Last July, Yahoo! Opened Up It’s Infrastructure & Technology For Search To Developers & Companies With BOSS. Yahoo! today announced a handful of new features for Yahoo! Search BOSS as well as important updates on their terms of service and pricing.

Three New Features

Perhaps the most important component of today’s release is access to SearchMonkey structured data through the BOSS API. The primary way in which SearchMonkey acquires structured data is by using the Yahoo! Web Crawler to scour the web for embedded semantic markup such as microformats or RDF. Starting today, all this data is available to BOSS API users.

The structured data that site owners share with yahoo! through feeds will be openly available in the near future if site owners opt to participate. You can read more about how it all works here, but it’s pretty straightforward – just add the “view=searchmonkey_feed” parameter to your API request and they’ll return all available structured data name-value pairs in DataRSS XML. You can also return semantic data in RDF XML using view=”searchmonkey_rdf”.

Here’s an XML example of structured data from President Obama’s LinkedIn page:

Second, building on release of Key Terms last November and SearchMonkey structured data today, Yahoo! is also making Long Abstracts available. This is all part of an effort to provide a rich set of document-level data to BOSS developers – in this case a longer description of the page (up to 300 characters compared to 170 previously). You can access these by appending the “abstract=long” parameter to your API request.

Lastly, for years Site Explorer has been a valuable tool for webmasters to understand how Yahoo! Search is indexing their site. Site Explorer also allows users to obtain inlinks for domains and URLs, which are now available through two new BOSS services called se_inlink and se_pagedata. Please refer to the updated documentation for details.

Open Monetization & Pricing

Effective immediately, yahoo! has changed their terms of service to allow developers to use third party monetization platforms (ad-based or otherwise). For obvious reasons monetization is critical to the BOSS ecosystem, so to provide as many opportunities as possible yahoo! has decided to adjust their terms to provide developers with more flexibility.

Today yahoo! is also announcing their plans for implementing usage fees for BOSS. Yahoo! is introducing fees.

Current Yahoo! plan to implement a fee system with the following structure:

• Fees will be determined based on the number and type of API requests made per day
• No restriction to developers from monetizing their products using third-party platforms
• Fees will be determined using a unit system
• Units for Web, News, and Image BOSS API calls will be incurred based on the last result requested. For example, an API call requesting results 91-100 is the same cost as one requesting results 1-100
• Developers may request up to 1000 results in a single API call
• Units will cost $.10
• Developers will receive 30 units per day for free of charge

Note that while this refer to prices in terms of thousands of API calls in order to use round numbers, customers will be charged for individual API calls, not in increments of 1000. This pricing structure is subject to change.

Related Links

• http://ysearchblog.com/2009/02/11/boss-update-open-monetization-pricing-structured-data-and-more/
• http://developer.yahoo.com/search/boss/fees.html
• http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2009/02/new_boss_features.html

Yahoo! Launched IM & SMS in Yahoo! Mail Classic

Yahoo! Mail started rolling out integrated IM and SMS to their Yahoo!  Mail Classic users worldwide. Already a popular feature in the new Yahoo! Mail, Classic Mail users can now instant message or SMS a friend right from the Mail interface.

When you sign into Mail Classic, your IM contact list will appear on the left hand sidebar below your main folder list (screenshot). If your status says offline, just click on it and select “Available” to sign in. You’ll then see who’s available to chat and it will show you as online to other friends that have you in their address books. Or if you prefer, change your status to “Invisible” to see who’s online but remain hidden yourself. You can also set a custom status message or choose “Sign out of chat” to disable the feature altogether.

Within your contact list window you’ll see two groups: online contacts and mobile contacts. Online contacts are available friends that are in your Mail address book or your existing Yahoo! Messenger list (including Windows Live Messenger contacts). Mobile contacts are friends in your address book for whom you have a mobile phone number. Click an online contact to start an instant message conversation; click a mobile contact to send a free SMS text message to their phone*.

Once you start a conversation, a window pops up in the lower right corner of your Mail Classic page. You can move the window elsewhere by dragging the top bar or resize it by clicking and dragging on the lower right corner. As you move around in Mail, the conversation window stays put so it won’t interfere with your Mail tasks. If you’re not chatting and a new message comes in, the window pops up and you’ll hear a notification sound. If you need to move it out of the way, you can minimize the window or close it altogether.

The conversation window includes a tabbed interface so you can have multiple conversations at once without cluttering up your Mail page. Instant message on one tab, SMS on another. You’ll also find a menu full of familiar emoticons you can use in your chats.

View a full screenshot of the new features in Yahoo! Mail Classic

It’s also easy to chat with friends that aren’t in your list. Click the “New Chat” link below your online contacts list, enter their Yahoo! ID (or Yahoo! email address) or their Windows Live Messenger ID and start chatting. Similarly, if you’re chatting with someone who is not on your list, click “Add Contact” in the conversation window to add them to your list. You can also add contacts from the sidebar contact list via the “Add” link in the top bar. When you add a friend to your list, you’ll be able to see their availability and status. And if someone messages you in Mail that you don’t want to talk to, click the “Block Sender” link in the conversation window to prevent further messages from them.

There are also some preferences which can be accessed from the “Settings” link at the bottom of the contact list. Change where the contact list is located on the sidebar, turn new message sound alerts on or off, or send us feedback.

A few other things to keep in mind… If you’re already using Yahoo! Messenger, setting your status to “Available” in Mail will sign you out of Messenger since you can only be online in one or the other. This lightweight version of IM in Mail Classic is just that – light on features. It’s meant to offer the basic benefits of online availability, instant messaging and SMS. For the more robust features like webcam, instant file transfer, voice, LAUNCHcast etc., stick with the full version of Yahoo! Messenger. But if you’re on a computer where you can’t install Messenger but still want to IM, the IM feature in Mail is a handy alternative.

This new feature is rolling out to all Yahoo! Mail Classic users in the next few months. If you don’t see it right away in your account, please be patient! Or switch to new Yahoo! Mail anytime to try the feature there.

* Your recipient may be subject to a fee for receiving and replying to your SMS depending on their wireless data plan.

2009 Samsung Flat-Panel HDTV Will Use Yahoo! Widget Engine

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, and Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, today announced a new Internet-based service to Samsung televisions available in the spring of 2009. Select models in Samsung's 2009 flat-panel HDTV line-up will be powered by the Yahoo! Widget Engine, a fifth-generation applications platform that enables TV watchers to interact with and enjoy a rich set of "TV Widgets.

TV Widgets make it easy to interact with Internet content and services to complement and enhance the traditional TV viewing experience. The lightweight Javascript and XML applications bring content, information and community features available on the Internet within easy reach of the remote control. The new televisions will be displayed at CES 2009 in Samsung's booth located at Central Hall, Booth #11033.

Select models in Samsung's 2009 flat-panel HDTV lines will support the new TV Widget service, called "Internet@TV - Content Service." The service, which adapts the Yahoos Widget Engine, enables users to engage in a variety of experiences that traditionally could only be enjoyed on a PC. Not only will users be able to track their stock portfolio and stay on top of headline news, but they may also browse through videos, share photos and interact with friends.

Users can access the service by connecting the HDTV to a home network via the built-in Ethernet port or using an optional Wi-Fi USB dongle. The suite of TV Widgets range from a host of Yahoo! properties, including Flickr™, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Weather and Yahoo! Finance, to third-party content from well-known brands, including USA TODAY®, YouTube™, eBay® and Showtime Networks® among others. The content and services offered will grow to include video streaming and other popular internet services.

Developers worldwide will be able to develop and deploy TV Widgets for the television by using the open-platform Widget Development Kit (WDK). At the same time, Samsung will continue to provide high-performing TV hardware so that developers can easily deploy widgets on Samsung HDTVs. Samsung and Yahoo! will expand their collaboration further to bring more developers to the Internet@TV –Content Service and build an open ecosystem where more developers can create various TV Widgets for consumers to enjoy on their televisions.

"Samsung has been a proven innovator in Internet-enabled TV technology for some time now, offering the ground-breaking InfoLink service last year in 2008. There's no denying that the easy-to-use, one-touch of the remote control service successfully provides information simply and effectively," said Boo-Keun Yoon, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display Division at Samsung Electronics. He continues, "The collaboration with Yahoo lets viewers go one step further. This new interface allows them to interact and connect with many of their favorite Web services on a personal level. It's frankly way beyond just passively watching broadcasts and is no doubt the future of TV."

"As a leader in developing innovative technology platforms to provide indispensable Internet services to millions of users, Yahoo! is excited to be working with Samsung to enhance consumers' television viewing experience by bringing the best of the Web to their televisions," said Patrick Barry, vice president of Connected TV at Yahoo! "Through this partnership, we can combine the Internet benefits of user choice and personalization with Samsung's leading product innovation and global reach to deliver a new experience to users around the world."

Samsung HDTVs with the Yahoo! Widget Engine and TV Widgets will be available in 13 countries in 2009 including the U.S, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. This provides publishers and developers the opportunity to create exciting TV Widget experiences that will reach and engage millions of Samsung TV viewers.

A Smarter Inbox for Yahoo! Mail Will Support 3rd Party Applications

Yahoo! Inc. introduced enhancements to Yahoo! Mail, providing consumers with a "smarter inbox" experience that will begin rolling out to users on a limited basis over the coming months. This next generation of Yahoo! Mail integrates social functionality and opening products up to content and services from outside of the Yahoo! network.

The Yahoo! Mail smarter inbox experience is the Yahoo!'s largest-scale implementation of its Y!OS initiative, bringing to life Yahoo!'s open and social efforts in its consumer products. Yahoo! Mail is a place where millions of people start their day, prioritize their daily activities, and continually check in to stay connected with and informed about what matters most to them. The goal of the next generation of Yahoo! Mail is to address the changing communications needs of consumers by streamlining access to the most relevant and useful information, and helping users to become more productive, all from within their inbox.

The smarter inbox experience features a new Yahoo! Mail Welcome Page which surfaces messages, information and activity updates from people users care about most, as well as an updated inbox and folder view that filters messages from those personal connections. The smarter Yahoo! Mail inbox also gives users immediate access to relevant third-party applications that can leverage the user's email content, calendar and contacts with the user's permission.

Smarter Inbox Addresses Consumer Needs

Among the challenges Web users worldwide face today are inbox overload and the growing inefficiency of managing information across multiple Web sites. Consumers spend between 10-15 hours online per week. The smarter inbox experience addresses these issues.

Yahoo! Mail's smarter inbox addresses these issues by providing a filtered view of the users' messages and by bringing applications from across the Web right into Yahoo! Mail. New features include:

• Connections: Users can "connect" with others using Yahoo!'s universal profile service and designate the people whose messages and activity updates are most important to them.
• Filtered View of the Inbox and Folders: Yahoo! Mail users can now view a prioritized view of the inbox and folders based on their connections.
• New Welcome Page with Messages from Connections and Updates: Users receive a preview of messages from their connections, see connection suggestions made by Yahoo!, and have the ability to send and receive connection invitations. Users can also see activity Update feeds from their connections, including activity across Yahoo! and, in the future, across the Web.
• Applications and Gallery: Users have new ways to communicate and be more productive, with new communications applications included in Yahoo! Mail's left-hand navigation panel. Developers from the Web's top brands will soon have the ability to integrate their services right into Yahoo! Mail.

Updates Feed inside Yahoo! Mail, Across Yahoo!

People today are communicating and connecting with others in various ways, from email, to blogs, to real-time status messages. Yahoo! Mail users will now become more engaged, on multiple levels, with the connections they have in email. These privileged online relationships enable social communication and sharing experiences and will extend beyond Yahoo! Mail, helping users discover a more relevant and compelling experience across all of Yahoo!'s services.

Open Applications Inside Yahoo! Mail

In addition, Yahoo! has started a limited beta test bringing third party applications into Yahoo! Mail. Features allowing users to communicate in richer ways, to share media with their friends and families, and to get things done faster will be accessible to beta testers in the U.S., and additional applications will be added throughout 2009 as the service becomes generally available.

Initial applications include:

• Family Journal: build a family tree inside Yahoo! Mail and easily share with relatives.
• Flickr: share Flickr photos with friends and family right from the inbox.
• Flixster: share movie show times, trailers and reviews instantly from the inbox.
• WordPress: post photos, links, and more from the inbox to a WordPress blog.
• Xoopit: see and share all the photos stored in email, including attachments and links to photo sharing sites, in one organized 'photo view' of the inbox.
• Yahoo! Greetings with American Greetings: use the autocomplete email address feature to send an ecard seamlessly from Yahoo! Mail.

Developers to Benefit from the Smarter Inbox

As part of the Yahoo! Open Strategy to open up to third party publishers, developers, and advertisers in the form of global platform services, the Yahoo! Mail smarter inbox experience adds to the transformation of the Yahoo! Network and serves as an unprecedented distribution opportunity for developers to share their innovative applications with Yahoo! users worldwide. Yahoo! is working with developers from across the Web to integrate their products and services into Yahoo! in 2009 and beyond, and Yahoo! Mail adds a major new footprint for developers that will only continue to grow. Developers can find out more at http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2008/12/mailapplications.html.

Yahoo! Updates gives developers a viral distribution channel for their applications across the Yahoo! network, including the new universal profile, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Toolbar and now Yahoo! Mail. Third-party Web sites and services can incorporate their users' activity streams onto Yahoo!, extending their reach and connections with consumers across Yahoo!'s social graph.

Smarter Inbox Availability

Selected Yahoo! Mail users in the United States and Australia will begin to experience the social features of the smarter inbox experience, including the new Welcome Page, inbox and folder-view enhancements, and connections and Updates functionality beginning today. A more limited group of users based in the United States will begin beta testing the open applications today. Yahoo! plans to bring together the social and open features into Yahoo! Mail in the first half of 2009.

Via PR

Yahoo! Revealed Most Popular Searches, Themes & Trends In 2008

Yahoo! Inc today announced the most popular searches, themes, and trends as part of its 2008 Year in Review (yearinreview.yahoo.com), as told through the billions of searches conducted by millions of Yahoo! users around the globe every month.

"Every day, people turn to the web to learn more about the world around them. Their searches reveal which news events, personalities and issues made an impact in 2008," said Heather Cabot, Yahoo! Web Life Editor. "This year people were captivated by the historic U.S. Presidential election and Olympic triumphs. They also closely followed every facet of the economic downturn and enjoyed a little escapism by devouring celebrity gossip and delving into online video games."

The Yahoo! 2008 Year in Review not only presents the top ten searches, but overall themes and popular trends that bubbled to the surface, including the economy, politicians, news stories, Olympians, rising celebrities, influential women, and notable deaths. Also included in this year's review are additional top tens in select areas throughout Yahoo! such as Yahoo! Food, Shine, Tech, Green, Shopping, Travel, Games, Movies, Music, Local, Upcoming, Hot Jobs, most Buzzed-Up stories and clicked-on stories from yahoo.com.

By the Numbers -- Top 10 Overall Searches

1. Britney Spears

2. WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)

3. Barack Obama

4. Miley Cyrus

5. RuneScape

6. Jessica Alba

7. Naruto

8. Lindsay Lohan

9. Angelina Jolie

10. American Idol

More details can be found in this PR.

Yahoo! Is Looking For New CEO

Yahoo! Inc. announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. Jerry Yang, co-Founder of Yahoo!, has decided to return to his former role as Chief Yahoo! upon the appointment of his successor as CEO, and he will also continue to serve on the Board. Yang, 40, assumed the CEO role at the Board's request in June 2007, and he has led Yahoo! through a strategic repositioning and transformation of its platform.

Chairman Roy Bostock, working with the independent directors and in consultation with Jerry Yang, is leading the process of assessing potential candidates and determining finalists for consideration. The search will encompass both internal and external candidates, and the Board has retained Heidrick & Struggles, a leading international executive search firm, to assist in the process.

"Over the past year and a half, despite extraordinary challenges and distractions, Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues," said Roy Bostock. "Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level. We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as CEO over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo! as a key executive and member of the Board."

"From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensible to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise," said Jerry Yang. "When the Board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the Company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”

via PR

Yahoo! Enhances E-mail Experience with Its New Online Calendar

Yahoo! Inc.today announced the availability of an all-new Yahoo! Calendar, the No. 1 Web-based calendar service in the world(According to comScore Media Metrix, August 2008). The new Yahoo! Calendar, which will begin rolling out in beta to users today, offers an intuitive, online social calendaring experience that enables people to be more productive.

Based on open standards, the new Yahoo! Calendar beta makes it easy for users to discover, share and keep track of events and appointments. Yahoo! Calendar is a popular feature within Yahoo! Mail, a key starting point for consumers on the Web and one of the most popular Web mail services in the world with more than 278 million users per month.

Leveraging last year's acquisition of Zimbra, a leader in open source messaging and collaboration software that brought Ajax functionality to online calendars, the new Yahoo! Calendar is built on the Zimbra platform using the iCalendar (iCal) and CalDAV standards. The new calendar is interoperable with other online calendar services including those from Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft, AOL and Google, so users can share their calendar data with friends who use other online calendaring services and subscribe to any iCal-based public calendar.

Other new easy-to-use features allow consumers to keep track of activities through color-coding, drag and drop appointments for easy scheduling, and "zoom-in and -out" from a monthly "wall calendar" view to a single event -- all from within a Yahoo! Mail account. In addition, images from the Flickr photo community can be included to create a visual, unique-looking online calendar with interesting photos.

"With the new Yahoo! Calendar, we've taken the concept of a traditional paper calendar and transformed it into a smart, yet simple online tool that helps people to keep track of their schedules, stay organized and be more productive," said John Kremer, vice president, Yahoo! Mail.

"We're executing against our vision of a smarter inbox, and this is just a preview of what's to come in terms of integrating other network properties into the Yahoo! Mail experience. In the coming months, users will see additional features in Yahoo! Calendar to help them discover and keep track of their favorite events -- like sports team schedules and concert dates -- and even more features to enhance their overall communications experience."

Key features in the new Yahoo! Calendar include:

• Sharing - Layering functionality that makes sharing events and keeping track of group activities easier
• Zoom - Calendar zoom capabilities make it easy to add and view new Calendar entries
• Photos - Integration with Flickr adds an interesting visual component to the Calendar and gives it the feel of a classic wall calendar through interesting public, Creative Commons designated photos on Flickr
• Alerts - Reminder feature makes it simple to set email, IM or SMS reminders for important Calendar activities
• Drag and Drop - Web 2.0 drag and drop functionality makes it simple to move appointments to new times - all without refreshing the Web page
• "To Do" List - A simple and handy "To List" feature makes it easy to keep track of important chores and tasks

When the Yahoo! Calendar beta becomes generally available in the coming months, it will include additional synching features and the capability to discover events of interest through tight integration with Upcoming.org and other Yahoo! properties. The Yahoo! Calendar beta is currently being rolled out in five markets: the United States, Brazil, India, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Plans for global general availability will be announced later this year.

Openness is a major aspect of Yahoo!'s overall strategy, and open standards like CalDAV and iCalendar are key components. Yahoo! is a member of CalConnect, the Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium that helps further the development and adoption of these standards, and is hosting the CalConnect XIII members' meetings at Yahoo!'s offices October 6th-10th.

Yahoo! Launches Transformative Digital Ad Platform

Yahoo! today announced the launch of it’s new ad platform APT from Yahoo!. Formerly known as AMP!, APT from Yahoo! is an intelligent innovation in online media, a digital advertising solution that streamlines the process of planning, buying and optimizing display advertising. APT is designed to simplify the process of buying and selling ads online while connecting all the market players -- publishers, advertisers, agencies, networks, partners and developers -- from a unified platform to do business more efficiently and effectively. The platform is rolling out as planned in phases beginning with publishers the San Francisco Chronicle of Hearst Newspapers and San Jose Mercury News of MediaNews Group.

"The advertising landscape has changed dramatically since the days when Don Draper was roaming the halls of Sterling Cooper," said Jerry Yang. "While Mad Men celebrates the Madison Avenue of 40 years ago, APT from Yahoo! clearly represents the future."

As a Web-based solution with the potential to allow unprecedented ease of cross-selling across the largest open network of publishers, advertisers, ad networks and agencies from a single integrated interface, APT is a single platform for connected digital advertising, including ad serving, ad network and ad exchange. It is designed to streamline advertisers' ad-buying process for multiple accounts across multiple publishers, and enable creative testing and campaign optimization. It is also intended to help advertisers precisely yet easily identify audiences through geographic, demographic and interest-based targeting while enabling publishers to better monetize their content as well as making better connections across the Web.

"One of the major benefits of APT from Yahoo! is the fact that it's an open system, designed to enable advertisers to reach their audiences in their favorite places across the Web, and publishers to monetize inventory across the broadest possible demand channels," said Sue Decker. "As we transform the advertising marketplace, we're excited to have key members of the Newspaper Consortium, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News, lead the way in this historic journey."

For publishers like the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News, APT is designed to improve monetization capabilities and increase advertising revenue with solutions targeted at accelerating the ability to take advantage of premium brand and performance-based advertising. Key benefits include:

• Fostering a more transparent marketplace through the ability to connect to new business partners for cross-selling;
• Providing ad selection and inventory management tools to match relevant ads to marketers' target audience; and
• Allowing publishers to manage their own private networks.

"The Newspaper Consortium's open, collaborative and exciting partnership with Yahoo! is enabling a crucial transformation in the newspaper industry," said George Irish, President, Hearst Newspapers. "With this next-generation platform we can realize the powerful combination of Yahoo!'s technology innovations, national reach and partner network with the Consortium's rich local content, sales forces and local market expertise."

"When Yahoo! showed us the platform's potential in February this year, the Newspaper Consortium was impressed by Yahoo!'s commitment and investment in a game-changing technology that would significantly advance our efforts to monetize the Web," said William Dean Singleton, Vice Chairman and CEO, MediaNews Group. "Seven months later, I am very proud to announce that Yahoo! has executed, and we are jointly accelerating toward fully using the platform to aggregate inventory, target relevant audiences and drive revenue growth."

Some of the initial capabilities featured in the new platform include:

• Guaranteed cross-selling with pre-defined selling rules
• Ad Exchange for non-guaranteed inventory
• Advanced audience targeting techniques based upon behavior and geography
• Inventory lookup and forecasting across individual and partner sites
• Creative workflow automation and personalization
• Powerful rate card tools for improved yield management
• Filters for better controls around creatives
• Flexible and powerful APIs
• Federated ad call to support multiple ad formats

Yahoo! has developed a systematic integration plan for adding other Newspaper Consortium partners onto APT throughout this year and into next year. APT is a significant component of the unique and deep collaboration between Yahoo! and America's newspapers. Launched in 2006 with 176 newspapers across the United States, the strategic partnership to create one of the largest and most comprehensive advertising networks in the online industry now comprises 35 media companies spanning 784 newspapers.

Yahoo! will start to make the platform available to other parties including advertisers, publishers, networks and agencies in 2009.

Additional information on APT is available at http://apt.yahoo.com. For press materials including executive bios, APT screen shots and images visit http://apt.yahoo.com/newsworthy