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Archive for January, 2007

What’s your issue?

Posted January 29th, 2007 at 8:17 pm by Mike Folgner, Jumpcut

Number of Comments No Comments » / Filed in: Behind the Scenes, Trends & News

Film Your IssueIt’s Mike and Steve from Jumpcut. We just got back from five days at the Sundance Film Festival, a mecca for aspiring filmmakers that’s crawling with students, directors, producers, press, stars aplenty, and film nuts like us. This year we went with a mission: We packed up our cameras and long underwear to go ask people, “What’s your issue?”

That’s because Yahoo! and Jumpcut have teamed up with Film Your Issue, a cool initiative that invites young people aged 16-25 to make minute-long movies on whatever pressing issue they find important. We kicked off an online competition and user movie submissions will start appearing on the site as of this Thursday. Judges include our very own Terry Semel, along with Walter Cronkite, Brian Williams, John Cusack, Kevin Bacon, Wolf Blitzer, Peter Jackson and many other media luminaries. The films submitted last year were brilliantly shot and edited. George Clooney, one of the 2006 judges, said “It’s the Buzz” creator Brian Gonzalez was truly a future director.

We brought our cameras to Sundance to promote the short-film contest and explore issues. The thing that struck us as we stuck our mic in people’s faces was that everyone’s really passionate about something, whether they were a celebrity or just a local walking down the street. It didn’t take long for people to start making their case. Global warming was by far the most popular issue. With very little snow on the mountains (we pretty much ruined our skis), it was on everybody’s minds. And the war in the Middle East was the biggest issue for people from outside the U.S. — residents of places like England, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Ireland, and Australia clearly aren’t happy about the state of affairs over there. Other hot buttons were free speech, Darfur, clean water, animal welfare, education, orphans in Africa. (And locals were quiet unambiguous about what they thought of the size and expense of this year’s film festival.)

At Project Greenhouse, we discovered that Ed Begley Jr. is as green as it gets. The man rides a stationery bike in the morning to power his toaster and he’s happy to talk about clothes made from corn. Tom Arnold is a big supporter of a summer camp for kids with transplants. And we met a guy who’s passionate about selling water bottles for $20 a piece in order to drill clean water wells for communities in Africa. This was a stark contrast to the schwag-laden Fred Segal lounge and Hollywood Hotel, where celebrities picked up great clothes and shoes definitely weren’t made out of corn.

When we first started filming, it was hard not to be cynical as we interviewed a fur-clad woman who claimed support for the ASPCA. But by the time we came home, after having interviewed about 150 people (yeah, we only had time to see one film), we were thinking we should launch something like “Jumpcut for Good.” People are paying attention to real issues. Maybe that says something about people who care about independent film. Maybe they’re already focused on good causes (as evidenced in many documentaries screening last week).

But the message here is that it doesn’t take a lot to make a film anymore. You don’t need to be 10 years out of film school with a big Hollywood budget. Get a good camera and an editor (insert shameless Jumpcut plug here), find your set and go shoot something. It can turn out to be something very powerful.

We leave you with a quick clip of celebrities like Kevin Bacon, the Apprentice’s Bill Rancic, Sam Rockwell and Mandy Moore weighing in on what they care about. What do you care about?

Mike Folgner & Steve Weibel
Jumpcut

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Product Pulse - January 26, 2007

Posted January 26th, 2007 at 12:02 pm by Julie Han, Blog Team

Number of Comments No Comments » / Filed in: Product Pulse

Some of you may be playing hooky to observe Republic Day in India or catch the tail end of National Creative Frugality Week. For the rest of you, here’s a quick read to ease you into the weekend.

  • Backstage access anyone?: Don’t let the cold weather keep you from the action at the Sundance Film Festival. Check out the latest video clips on location from Park City, Utah, and exclusive web-only outtakes and behind-the-scene footage. While you’re there, make sure to peruse the newly added video library (from Expo TV) of consumer-generated product reviews, buyers’ guides, and demonstrations for everything from baby monitors to sensitive skin shave gel to the Mini Cooper.
  • That toll is free: The big news is that now anyone (not just premium users) can use Yahoo! Messenger to dial toll-free numbers (think 1-800, 888, 877, and 866) for free. And the coolest part is that you can do it from anywhere in the world. That means all you ex-pats out there can call to order flowers for your mom or call your bank without whipping out ye olde calling card.
  • Maria, Maria, Maria: Can’t get enough of our host from “THE 9?” Then don’t miss her guest appearance as a viral video expert on CNN’s “Showbiz Tonight” and read her latest blog entry here. She’s big time, folks.

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Off to a great start

Posted January 25th, 2007 at 2:54 pm by Terry Semel, Chairman and CEO

Number of Comments 15 Comments » / Filed in: Trends & News

Pricing screenPanama: A country, a canal, or the next generation of Yahoo!’s search marketing?

Now that I’ve had a chance to catch my breath after announcing our quarterly earnings this week, I thought I’d reflect on something that I think is probably the most important news you’ve heard from us in a long time. As I said last quarter, we’re laser-focused on improving how well we monetize our search business. It’s important not only for our shareholders, but also for the vast number of advertisers that want to tap into this incredibly cost-effective and wildly popular marketing medium. By the way, the better we are at helping these marketers, the better Yahoo! Search becomes for the millions of consumers who rely on it. Let me explain why.

I’m extremely pleased that an important piece of our new search monetization system (a.k.a. “Project Panama”) will soon make its debut. In about two weeks, advertisers in the U.S. will experience a whole new way of ranking text ads on Yahoo! — and consumers should find that text ads are more relevant to what they’re searching for. Search ads will no longer appear alongside search results based solely on the bid price for a particular keyword. We’ve developed algorithms that also factor in the ad’s “quality,” which is based on historical performance (how often consumers click on it) and its relevance to what the user is searching for. Higher quality ads will generally receive better placement, and may even cost less in some cases. And the system will grow smarter over time.

What does all this mean? Advertisers will have more control over and visibility into their campaign performance, giving them greater confidence in (and potentially greater return on) their investment. It also means that the millions of consumers who come to Yahoo! to search for information on the Super Bowl, Lindsay Lohan or tax deductions will find text ads that are even more relevant to their searches. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle, a win-win for advertisers, publishers and consumers. And we hope for our shareholders, too.

We’re ahead of our own schedule for turning on this critical new feature (a Herculean effort by all involved) and are receiving tremendously positive feedback from customers on the system itself. We’re feeling fantastic about having this milestone under our belts.

Stepping back, I think we’re off to a great start in 2007. We’re hitting an important milestone in becoming more competitive in search. We’ve also made progress in sharpening our focus to address our challenges and opportunities. The pieces of our company realignment are moving into place. We ended 2006 outperforming the market as the largest display ad network in the world and intend to do so again in 2007. And we’re supporting our mission to connect people to their passions, their communities and the world’s knowledge with continued investment in our social media, video and mobile services.

We have plenty of hard work ahead of us, but I feel good about where we stand today and about the opportunities around the corner and down the road. Til next time…

Terry Semel
Chairman & CEO

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Product Pulse - January 19, 2007

Posted January 19th, 2007 at 2:54 pm by Julie Han, Blog Team

Number of Comments 1 Comment » / Filed in: Product Pulse

Whether you’re looking for a creative fix or ways to plan your future, we’ve got it all this week.

  • Debts, stocks, mortgages — ole!: Taking your financial or retirement planning by the horns just got easier with the newly launched Yahoo! Personal Finance. It’s like having your own personal advisor with news content from Consumer Reports and the Motley Fool, dozens of how-to guides for everything from mortgages to college savings, 66 (count ‘em!) special calculators that help manage your spending and your debts, and expert advice from the likes of Suze Orman and more. Who doesn’t want to save and make money?
  • What’s your issue?: If you’re 16–25 years old, listen up. Have something to say? We invite you to voice it, remix it, and edit it — just get it into a 30–60 second online video clip and submit it starting February 1. Read more here. Whether it’s commentary on world peace or gas guzzlers on the highway, make it personal and make it good. It may just be your one shot to impress guest judges Terry Semel, Walter Cronkite, John Cusack, and more.
  • Making dough: One for the oven and 1 million dollars for your pocket! All you have to do is submit an original recipe for the 43rd Pillsbury Bake-Off contest on Yahoo! Food by April 22. Read the rules here. Ready, set, raise that dough!
  • Seeing stars?: Fans of Flickr’s “Interestingness” and del.icio.us’ “Hotlist” feature now have a new way to share their faves on Yahoo! Answers. Whether you’re handing out stars or checking out what others have deemed interesting, you can now connect with people who appreciate your interests. Simply star a question from the action bar or the question listing page and it will be considered for the new “Popular” section on the front page. Read more here.
  • Sneak peek freak?: If you are, make sure to check out Yahoo! TV’s exclusive line up this week. Catch the never-before-seen full episode of “Everybody Hates Chris” one week prior to its network debut here. Or if you missed the much anticipated episode of “Smallville,” introducing the new heroic alliance, then check out the first act here and read up on all the new superheroes and villains this season. Tune in for more exclusive clips and news.
  • Schools in your hood: Before you begin your round of school tours or move to get Junior to a better district, check out Yahoo! Real Estate’s newly enhanced school search. You’ll find local private, public, and charter schools plotted on a map and connect to Yahoo! Education for the lowdown on your school district, a list of top-rated schools in your neighborhood and parent reviews.

Subscribe to the RSS feed (or add it to My Yahoo!) to get this Product Pulse every week.

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On being global

Posted January 18th, 2007 at 8:08 am by Michael Samway, VP & Deputy General Counsel

Number of Comments 2 Comments » / Filed in: Trends & News

Yahoo! became a public company in April 1996 with around 100 employees. Ten days later, we launched Yahoo! Japan as a joint venture. By the end of the year, we were running Yahoo! businesses in six different countries. Back then, Yahoo! counted about 14 million page views a day, versus the nearly four billion we log today. Bringing the Yahoo! experience to users around the globe has been core to our approach from the get-go. Now more than 500 million users visit Yahoo!-branded properties worldwide every month, with the rate of user growth from outside the United States growing most rapidly.

For all the benefits we enjoy from operating in twenty plus countries and in more than a dozen languages, managing Yahoo! on a global scale creates plenty of challenges around complex and politically charged issues like censorship and user privacy.

How do we deal with obligations to follow laws of nations where the laws themselves or their application may have consequences inconsistent with internationally recognized values and standards? Are partially censored results, with notice to users, better than no results at all in a challenging market? Should we focus our concerns on censorship of political speech? Should companies draw the line on doing business somewhere based on the type of speech a government limits? Would it be a decision based on the quantity or the quality of limitations? And using which standards and measures? Could Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provide a starting point?. Our own First Amendment is quite broad; could that be a global standard? How do companies design product approaches that balance legitimate government rights and requirements for data access with adequate protections for user privacy? Do we agree neither right should be absolute and each should live in balance with the other? Should we design an approach that works in Beijing, Paris, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. all at once? Is that possible? How far can a company go in challenging local laws and orders? What if it puts locally-based employees at risk? These are just a few of the questions we’ve been asking ourselves recently.

Fortunately, we haven’t had to think about these questions alone. For most of the past year, we’ve been immersed in weekly meetings with top thinkers at Microsoft, Google and Vodafone — right, in some cases our fiercest competitors — to apply our collective wisdom to challenges to free expression and privacy. Early in 2006 we engaged the highly respected team at Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) to facilitate our industry dialogue, and we’ve also counted closely on the academic expertise of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

We’ve looked closely at previous voluntary industry and multi-stakeholder initiatives, actively engaged individually and collectively with a wide group of international human rights groups and socially responsible investors, talked to United Nations business and human rights experts, and consulted closely with the State Department’s Global Internet Freedom Taskforce. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), which also took a leadership role in convening stakeholder discussions, is now working with BSR to co-facilitate the next phase of a multi-stakeholder dialogue.

Today, our diverse group of companies, human rights organizations, academic institutions, and socially responsible investors announced a formal commitment to creating a set of global principles and operating procedures on freedom of expression and privacy — to guide “company behavior when faced with laws, regulations, and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights” (check out the press release here). Our goals also include creating an implementation, accountability, and governance framework as well as a forum for sharing ideas. The political principles and human issues at stake are big ones — no two ways about it – and this next phase in the multi-stakeholder dialogue requires continued leadership, integrity, and teamwork from all sides.

Yahoo! is a company built on openness, free expression, and user trust. From our humble trailer roots with a small and devoted group of followers through our teenage years as a global company with hundreds of millions of users, we’ve seen open access to information transform communities and allow entrepreneurship to flourish as well as provide citizens with more freedom in how they live, work, exchange ideas, and make choices impacting their daily lives. Information can be a powerful tool for change and progress in the hands of internet users globally.

As a broad and diverse set of players at the table today, we’re committed to harnessing the group’s collective experience and brainpower to design an approach to doing business globally that consistently guides ethical decision-making in the business world’s most challenging markets.

Michael Samway
VP & Deputy General Counsel

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Product Pulse - January 12, 2007

Posted January 12th, 2007 at 4:05 pm by Julie Han, Blog Team

Number of Comments 6 Comments » / Filed in: Product Pulse

Warm up your scroll muscles — we’ve got the whole kit and caboodle this week. (And, hey — Happy Birthday, Jeff Bezos.)

  • A new mobile era: Well, a beta version for now. The new Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0 is available now for download on select Motorola devices and 70 other mobile devices worldwide. Check to see if your phone is compatible. We also debuted oneSearch as the mobile search that really works! Read more here.
  • It’s raining mobile: Getting your daily mobile Yahoo! fix just got easier with a slew of key partnerships — Samsung, Opera, RIM, and Nokia. And, of course, there was that little MacWorld debut. The new iPhone will feature Yahoo! Mail and oneSearch. There’s never been a better time to mobilize.
  • I am woman, hear me roar: On Yahoo! Health’s new Capessa site, that is. Be inspired by how other women are changing their lives or offer your own wisdom on finding love, making a career change, or dealing with an illness. Join the conversation now.
  • Widgets, bloggers, and community, oh my!: With rocking widgets, a connected community, and a love-affair following, it was only a matter of time before Yahoo! joined forces with MyBlogLog. Read more here.
  • Going Vista? This ping’s for you: If you’re counting down the days until Microsoft’s Windows Vista hits the shelf, this will goose those salivary glands. We’re building a brand new version of Yahoo! Messenger, from the ground up just for Vista. In addition to slick new customizable skins, you’ll be able to organize the chaos of multiple IM windows by dragging them into a tabbed window, play with new emoticons, share Flickr photos, automatically create contact list groups and enjoy the convenience of a desktop widget for your favorite people. The only catch is you’ll have to wait a few months. In the meantime, sign up for an email alert and watch a very cool video demo.
  • Bringing SexyBack?: If you haven’t already, cast your vote for the everyman crooner you think deserves to sing with Justin Timberlake at this year’s GRAMMY Awards. Then watch the telecast on February 11th and see if your fave finalist gets called on stage to perform with Justin. Talk about being put on the spot!
  • Meet the Skrumps: Muppets and Fraggle Rock characters are about to meet their youngest siblings: the Skrumps (you may be familiar with the quirky vinyl toys). The latest puppet fascination of the Jim Henson Company, the Skrumps just got their big break online. See the world premiere of their rock video, watch their video blogs, download coloring pages, or send a Skrumps e-card, all exclusively on Yahoo! Kids for a limited time.
  • I break with thee: If your significant other decided to cut bait, Yahoo! Personals assures you that you’re not alone. National Break-Up Season is upon us and we’ve put together the ultimate break-up survival guide and playlist to rock you out of your break-up blues. Or just read about someone else’s misery. It’s like chicken soup for the ego.
  • Find your “hunger holy grail”: Compliments to the Dishola chefs. Not only does their social media site give you the low-down on the best vittles in your neighborhood, they’re using Yahoo’s Local Search API to auto-fill a restaurant’s particulars when you review the best juicy cheeseburger or those killer samosas.

Subscribe to the RSS feed (or add it to My Yahoo!) to get this Product Pulse every week.

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Social media meets fundraising

Posted January 10th, 2007 at 3:11 pm by Nicki Dugan, Blog Editor

Number of Comments 5 Comments » / Filed in: Cool Stuff, Yahoo! For Good

We’ve noticed a recent trend that occurs in the final days of the year. It’s precipitated by the “Crap-Did-I-Give-Enough-to-Charity-This-Year?” frenzy. Those mindful of the impending tax season suddenly realize it’s their last chance to make contributions for the year — and a good majority fire up web browsers to beat the deadline.

Yahoo! for Good recognized this dash to donate last year and inaugurated Cyber Giving Week, creating a donation microsite with tools, calculators, and news about tax breaks. With our partner Network for Good, we helped facilitate nearly $5 million in last-minute charitable contributions.

For Cyber Giving Week 2006, we teamed up with Network for Good again — this time with a social media twist. Inspired by bloggers who’ve generated loyal communities around everything from parenting to cooking, photography to technology, we created a tool called a “charity badge.”

This widget allows publishers to not only wear their philanthropic causes on their proverbial blogger sleeves, it invites readers to make donations to those organizations. To create the badge, publishers simply upload a photo and/or video (using Jumpcut’s free editing tools), insert text, and select a charity from among the more than 1 million supported by Network for Good. Yahoo! provided a little extra incentive for philanthropic procrastinators: a matching grant of $50,000 for the top-producing badge by the end of 2006.

We weren’t exactly sure what would happen with these badges. Would they take off, like MyBlogLog widgets? Would they become another piece of sidebar clutter, or would they actually drive action by others? The experiment was a nice success, proving that social media can also be a powerful fundraising vehicle. Hundreds of people created badges for such personalized causes as Transverse Myelitis Association, Anacostia Watershed Society, and Mata Amritanandamayi Center. The badges became subtle extensions of the publishers’ bios, revealing allegiances that might otherwise remain quiet and unnoticed, but which can say so much about a person.

Beth Kanter of Beth’s Blog raised $49,537 from 745 donors, earning our matching grant for the Sharing Foundation, a nonprofit that provides support for orphaned and seriously disadvantaged children in Cambodia. Like all of the charity badge creators, Beth’s tie to The Sharing Foundation is intensely personal — she adopted two Khmer children.

Beth’s badge is now up to $53,137 (at press time) — and that’s the point. These badges live on long after tax-deduction season comes to an end. To set up your badge, go here. It’ll take you less than five minutes and make you look, feel, and smell good.

And to all you Yahoo! 360° and MySpace users out there: We’re still working on compatibility, but you can set up an email signature link in the meantime.

Here’s further blog discussion:

Nicki Dugan
Editor, Yodel Anecdotal

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What happens in Vegas…

Posted January 9th, 2007 at 4:48 pm by David Riemer, Yahoo! Connected Life

Number of Comments 5 Comments » / Filed in: Trends & News

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Unless it’s big announcements from Yahoo!, that is. As the Wall Street Journal reported before the sun rose on the insanely massive Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, we’ve announced Yahoo! Go 2.0 and Yahoo! oneSearch (along with a slew of distribution deals). A Yahoo! Go-enabled Motorola handset flew across the front page of Yahoo! yesterday to herald the moment. I’ve been here with the press, analysts, tech freaks, a gazillion temporary workers, and a bunch of Yahoos to enjoy the goings on.

Right now I’m in the Yahoo! “Big Scoop” tent/exhibit, which is a mashup of user-generated content, Yahoo! Go product demos, and Cold Stone Creamery ice cream. Several thousand people have already come for the ice cream and stayed for the exhibits. Light bulbs flash as our visitors come into the tent to blog, upload Flickr photos, and post video comments that reflect their take on the CES show (they are the stars!). They’re enjoying Moto-java crunch, Yahoo! Go-odness, and the Big Scoop Bonanza ice cream. But the demos are what they’ll go home talking about.

We’re demo-ing the sleek new Yahoo! Go for Mobile application, which features a swirling carousel of little widgets that bring local content, news, sports, finance, Flickr, and, of course, search right to your phone. The Yahoo! oneSearch product we debuted is a one-stop shop for mobile searching and is drawing raves. I used it throughout the day to follow the press coverage of it! And you might have heard that it’ll be integrated into the gotta-have-it iPhone unveiled at MacWorld today.

We’re also showing off the Yahoo! Fantasy Sports app and “my channel,” both for the IPTV environment in our Digital Home demos. Messenger on Vista, Jumpcut, and Answers are also getting some pub, and the gang from Yahoo! Tech is in the control room documenting everything (here and across the show).

Marco Boerries, who runs our Connected Life division, bought a new suit and showed it off during a 20-minute segment with Motorola CEO Ed Zander in the opening keynote of the show. He introduced products that we think will simply change the way people use their phones. Marco crowed that we’ve finally created content that “fits” the phone. And with 2 billion phones in the world (up from 1 billion only three years ago), that’s a lot of phones to fit!

We’re off to celebrate a great beginning for Yahoo! at CES 2007. Whatever happens tonight… well, that may just have to stay in Vegas.

UPDATE: Check out this Forbes.com video on Yahoo!’s CES presence.

David Riemer
VP Marketing, Yahoo! Connected Life

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Bloggers unite! Yahoo! joins forces with MyBlogLog

Posted January 8th, 2007 at 8:53 pm by Chad Dickerson, Yahoo! Developer Network

Number of Comments 29 Comments » / Filed in: Trends & News

MyBlogLog widgetThere once was a time when bloggers basically lived in silos of independent existence. Hunched over your keyboard, you checked your ego feeds every day, looked for inbound links, followed the various meme-tracking sites, and read who you thought was interesting. But aside from comments on a site, there wasn’t a real way to create a community from the faceless masses of blog readers. If your blog was a microphone, sometimes you wondered: “Is this thing on?”

All that has changed with MyBlogLog, the Orlando-based company that has quickly built a thriving social network of blog publishers and readers. You’ve probably heard the rumors and I’m here to confirm that Yahoo! has agreed to acquire the assets of MyBlogLog, and aside from loving the product and the team, we think this move complements Yahoo’s social media and community initiatives perfectly.

I know many of you are already avid fans of MyBlogLog (just do a search for “love mybloglog”), but for those of you who are new to the site, it gives readers the ability to create communities around the blogs they visit and connect with their favorite publishers more directly. Once you create a profile on MyBlogLog, you can associate your blogs to your profile, and other MyBlogLog users can join communities around your blogs. A cool widget lets you see the faces of your recent readers in real-time. To see MyBlogLog in action, just look at the “recent readers” widget on our sidebar.

At Yahoo!, we have a global community of over a half a billion users, and we’re always looking for ways to better connect the people in that community to each other and to the communities (large and small) that they care about. MyBlogLog helps us do this like never before. If blogging was originally about building a community and having a conversation with people in that community, then MyBlogLog provides the missing link that makes those connections more real.

When I first saw MyBlogLog, I experienced one of those “Aha! This is really cool!” moments. When I put the widget code on my own blog and saw the first visitor stop by, I felt the same rush of connectedness that I felt when I got my first comment on Flickr. It makes sense then that MyBlogLog follows in a line of key acquisitions that includes Flickr and other leading social media sites like del.icio.us and Upcoming. Taken together, these vibrant web communities continue to provide Yahoo! with a deeper understanding of communities and user activity that reach beyond the Yahoo! network.

MyBlogLog is providing connections for me already — in the unexpected ways that make social environments on the Web so uniquely compelling. I was recently reading TechCrunch (a publisher with a vibrant MyBlogLog community) when I saw the face of a friend in their “recent readers” widget (small world!). I added him as a friend on my MyBlogLog member page and I got a nice “Hey, how have you been?” email from him in minutes. You might come across a friend (or make a new one) on the “recent readers” rolls on sites like ReadWriteWeb, Fred Wilson’s A VC, or any of the thousands of blogs out there that have already plugged into the MyBlogLog community.

The community-building features of MyBlogLog demonstrate just one set of capabilities of the platform. Stats junkies like me will appreciate that MyBlogLog also offers analytics that give deeper insight about what pages are being visited. You can then choose to expose some of those analytics to your readers, like the Top 5 most-clicked links. Add in the community elements and what more do you need?

For you die hard fans wondering what will change to your beloved MyBlogLog — not to worry. We aren’t planning on making any immediate changes to the MyBlogLog website, distribution or branding. We want to encourage the continued growth of the community and foster the innovation that has already made MyBlogLog an indispensable part of your life. In short, we want to make what you already love even better.

Since the company was founded in 2005, MyBlogLog has accomplished an incredible amount with its lean-and-mean team of five, led by CEO Scott Rafer and founders Eric Marcoullier and Todd Sampson. We’re proud to welcome them to the Yahoo! team, and more specifically, to the Yahoo! Developer Network group. We’re looking forward to building even better social media opportunities. I’ll see you around the Web.

Chad Dickerson
Sr. Director, Yahoo! Developer Network

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Product Pulse - January 5, 2007

Posted January 5th, 2007 at 12:24 pm by Julie Han, Blog Team

Number of Comments No Comments » / Filed in: Product Pulse

Whether you’re celebrating a birthday with Diane Keaton or still riding the holiday buzz, we’ve got the goods to keep the “Happy” in New Year:

  • Calling all aspiring billionaires: Yahoo! and “The Apprentice” have partnered up to give one lucky intern the opportunity to shadow the next “Apprentice” winner for two weeks. Tune in weekly to predict what happens next and you could be “hired!” Just like to watch? Check out the sneak peek of the premiere, exclusive “webisodes” of unaired footage from “Apprentice,” and catch up on juicy gossip from the blogs of Trumplings Ivanka and Donald Jr. And don’t miss the Donald on Yahoo!’s “THE 9” today as he counts down the top web stories with our very own Maria Sansone.
  • GPS with a twist: Ever roll down your window to ask someone about the local burger joint or the nearest hardware store? Well, life just got easier with Yahoo! Local and Dash Express, the cool new GPS gadget to be revealed at CES next week. Drivers will be able to search for any product, service, or business, such as “croissants” or “art supplies,” and see a Yahoo! Local listing of businesses, right in their car. And the best part is it shows you how to get there, too.
  • Speaking of CES: Whether you’re there in the flesh or just want to stay up-to-date on the gadget fest next week, Yahoo! Tech’s new “Gadgets Gone Wild” site gives you the skinny on the latest and greatest products, news and photos coming out of the show. Have questions about what’s hot and what’s not or need to make last minute hotel bookings? Check out some of the answers from your fellow gadget and gizmo fans.
  • Starting fresh in 2007: If you haven’t already gotten a jump on your new year’s promise to eat better and exercise more, Yahoo! Health’s new “Better in ‘07” site is the place to start. Not only will you get tips on healthy snacks and recipes as well as expert advice from celebrity health nuts like Gabrielle Reece, you’ll get fresh guides throughout the year to keep that resolution alive.

Subscribe to the RSS feed (or add it to My Yahoo!) to get this Product Pulse every week.

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A look inside the big purple house of Yahoo!, where we'll provide insights into our company, our people, our culture, and the things we think about in the shower. Learn more.

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