Up to now, it has been impolite to talk about gas emissions in a cafeteria. But we’re hoping to change that. At Yahoo!, I have the pleasure of working with an extremely motivated and vibrant volunteer group of 200-plus employees around the world who make up our Yahoo! Green Team. Our mission is simple – to take action, big and small, to help Yahoo! reduce its carbon footprint. As part of this effort, today we installed a new “Yahoo! Green Screen” – an interactive energy monitoring display (touch screen) that shows employees our energy usage in real-time at our Sunnyvale headquarters. The plan is to roll out other green screens to more Yahoo! campuses over time.

Empowering green actions through our employees and across our business is something we take very seriously (we launched a consumer-friendly resource for all things green called Yahoo! Green and pledged to be a carbon neutral company last year).

The Green Screen, which uses the Building Dashboard technology by Lucid Design Group presents energy usage in an easy to understand way and gives anyone who approaches the touch screen kiosk the ability to play with the information. Data can be viewed in megawatt hours, tons of carbon, or dollars. So, for example, you can see how many pounds of carbon have been emitted per person on the Sunnyvale campus from our energy usage that day. Employees will also be able to see energy consumption across buildings and compare trends viewed over time. We’re displaying dozens of “Green Tips” too – such as how to take advantage of our award-winning commute options, or where to shop for green products online. In addition to being available in our cafeteria, the Yahoo! Green Screen will be available to all employees worldwide on our corporate intranet to engage participation through suggestions, providing feedback, and just taking part in their local offices.

So now, when we lower the thermostat by 2 degrees in one of our buildings, we can immediately see the effect on energy consumption (and even carbon output).

Our hope is that this opens a healthy dialogue about our energy usage and empowers our employees to be more aware of our impact on the environment, and engages them to take action in their own way. This is one of the small pieces that helps us continue to reduce our carbon footprint and serves as a reminder that any action, no matter how big or how small, does make a difference.

Kate Gerwe
Senior Marketing Director, Corporate Partnerships and Yahoo! Green Team Leader

Photo from Jeremy Johnstone.

We’re excited to introduce Yahoo! Buzz, a new way for you to tell us (and the world) what you think is cool, and in the process help make Yahoo.com, the favorite Internet starting point, even better. Yahoo! Buzz uncovers the most interesting and relevant content from websites across the Internet to bring more buzz-worthy stories to the homepage of Yahoo!.

How does this work? You cast your vote on the most interesting Web stories, images or videos about anything and everything – from a late-breaking political story on a major news site, to the coolest photo of the lunar eclipse, to a shocking celebrity gossip blog post that shouldn’t be missed. The best part is that the stories with the highest Buzz Scores – determined by combining your votes with organic search popularity rankings – may be featured on the Yahoo! homepage, giving you the power to influence what millions of people see on Yahoo!.

So whether its the latest Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul banter, the best dressed from the Oscar’s, or a new global report on climate change, tell us what you think is the best of the best on the Web. Make sure to look out for the “Buzz-Up” badges all over Yahoo! and across sites on the Web, or go to buzz.yahoo.com and browse through thousands of stories to vote for your favorites.

Don’t see the “Buzz Up” buttons on your favorite site? Down the road, you’ll be able to submit new things that you think deserve the Buzz, but for now we encourage you to contact the publishers about becoming part of the Buzz network.

And for the publishers reading this, hold tight, as we’ll be opening up Yahoo! Buzz with a new API and syndication and monetization tools just for you. In the meantime get your BUZZ on and start casting your votes!

Tapan Bhat
Vice President of Front Doors and Network Services

Today, I joined Jerry on stage at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Annual Meeting where we sat down for a fireside chat with IAB President Randall Rothenberg to talk about the huge opportunity before us in online advertising. Jerry kicked off the morning and talked about just how far we’ve come since Yahoo! and the Internet advertising industry started 13 years ago. According to eMarketer, Internet advertising spending in the U.S. is expected to hit $50 billion by 2012, which if we all work collaboratively together as an industry and take the complexity out of doing business online - is absolutely achievable.

The challenge is that advertisers and publishers are forced to deal with disparate systems and multiple platforms for buying search, display, video, and local ads. That in itself is an inhibitor to achieving that growth. And we’re trying to solve these headaches by taking a different approach.

As the largest publisher on the Web that also leads in display advertising, and holds a strong number two in search, we maintain one of the world’s largest advertising networks and operate the Right Media Exchange. We’re truly in the best position to understand the evolving needs and demands of the entire ecosystem.

And at Yahoo!, our goal is simple. We want to eliminate all the friction and complexity that advertisers, publishers, agencies, and exchanges deal with so they can focus on reaching the right audiences and driving greater monetization.

We’re building a cutting-edge platform that simplifies the process for advertisers when buying targeted, guaranteed and non-guaranteed advertising inventory across Yahoo!’s owned and operated network, partner sites, and other advertising networks. And furthermore, this new platform will be a web-based, hosted application that harnesses the power of collaboration across the Internet.

Our approach is as different to current advertising platforms as the DVR was to VCRs. We believe this to be a real game-changer.

The new platform will enable all participants in the ecosystem to benefit:

• Publishers will be able to better serve their advertisers’ needs by making it easy for publishers to sell, package, and distribute other publishers’ inventory alongside their own, giving advertisers extended reach to audiences across the Web through a centralized platform.
• Advertisers will be able to spend more time on driving revenue and developing compelling creative for their audiences, rather than dealing with the complexities of ad generation, assembly, trafficking, and serving ads.
• Advertising agencies will be able to streamline the buying process for multiple accounts across multiple publishers and allow for creative testing and campaign optimization, even as the campaign evolves.
• And last but not least Advertising Networks will benefit from having a platform that connects publishers to the best advertisers for their site and audience, and advertisers to the best publishers with the most relevant audiences, thereby increasing both their reach in the process.

We previewed this new platform for our partners in the Newspaper Consortium a couple of weeks ago, and were so pleased with their response that we decided to give the attendees at the IAB Annual Meeting a glimpse so they could share in our excitement. And since most of you weren’t there this morning, I wanted to tell you about the great stuff we’re working on at Yahoo!, so that you can get fired up with us as we set out to revolutionize the online advertising market once again.

Sue Decker
President

Photo from DougGoodman.com.

Remember the first time you experienced the Internet on the Netscape browser? You’re probably not going to admit it for fear it ages you. Nevertheless, a nod is in order as the curtain closes on this pioneering Web browser. After your moment of silence, check out what we’ve got in store for you.

• Strolling through Avatar Town: If you haven’t already visited Avatar Town, now’s the time to make a trip. From the latest bling bling to your very own exotic pet, outfit your digital persona by checking out all the new shops and accessories to look your best in the virtual world. Don’t forget to make an appointment for a new hair cut at the Ocean Breeze salon. Just hover over the items you want and choose “Add to Favorites” and it’s an instant makeover. Read more here.
• Spreading good vibes: If you’ve ever wanted to track and see how one kind act leads to another, you were destined for the Yahoo! Vibes application on Facebook. Both big and small acts count. Have a friend who’s having a bad day? Or you just want to wish your sister good luck on her exam? Send some good vibes and watch in real-time as people around the world are sharing their kindness to others. And make sure to read up on what else the team’s vibing up here.
• Your votes count: Can’t start your day without My Yahoo! or you’re a social bookmarking addict? Well, now’s your chance to tell the world how much you love and count on our products by voting for your fave Yahoo! products that have made the cut as finalists (including Yahoo.com, My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Mail, Zimbra, Flickr, deli.cio.us, Yahoo! Groups) for the 2008 Webware 100 Awards. The community decides who wins in each category and we’re counting on you to help us take the winner spot! Just hold tight until Feb. 25 when the voting begins!
• Tips and tricks: My Yahoo! has gotten a new “Tips” page to help you quickly and easily make you’re start page just right. Want to change the theme or color of your page? Need to add or drag & drop modules? Take a look through all the tips and tricks to help organize your page just the way you like it.

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

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Beijing next week to discuss a wide range of political issues with senior Chinese officials. With deep appreciation for the power of diplomacy and government-to-government engagement on human rights issues, we believe we have a window of opportunity for freedom. Yesterday, Jerry sent a letter to Secretary Rice urging the State Department’s continued assistance in securing the release of Shi Tao, Wang Xiaoning, and other political dissidents imprisoned for expressing their views online.

I’ve sat with Jerry at the State Department, meeting with senior government officials, as he’s pressed for continued government assistance in advocating for the release of dissidents. Over the past two years, legal and policy executives at Yahoo! have met with NGO’s to discuss strategies for securing the release of political dissidents. We’ve also met with senior Chinese officials and asked directly for the release of Mr. Shi and Mr. Wang. We understand our responsibilities, and we take them with the utmost seriousness. We also recognize the practical limits of corporate diplomacy, especially next to the powerful advocacy tools available to governments. We believe governments have the most leverage to influence the decision-making of other governments.

The stakes – personal freedom – are high for those unfairly imprisoned and for their families. This is one reason we’ve established a Human Rights Fund to provide humanitarian and legal support for these dissidents, as well as for their families. The Fund will be administered by noted dissident Harry Wu – who spent nineteen years in a Chinese labor camp – through his Laogai Research Foundation. The Fund will also support the Foundation’s educational efforts on human rights. We also hope to stimulate new research to advance the cause of free expression and privacy globally, and we’ve established international fellowships at Stanford and Georgetown Universities to promote the pursuits of journalists from press-restrictive countries and scholars exploring the link between global values, the Internet, and communication technologies.

We’ve also engaged with industry peers, human rights groups, socially responsible investors, and academics, working to develop a broad-based response to the challenges of restrictions on free expression and privacy globally. At Yahoo!, we’re fully committed. The positive partnership — facilitated by Business for Social Responsibility and the Center for Democracy & Technology — makes us optimistic about the development of guiding principles and operational standards, for companies in our sector and eventually beyond, that will allow us to continue making profits with principle. The windows of opportunity are before us for collective action to advance industry standards and for government action to help win the freedom of dissidents imprisoned simply for expressing their views online. Jerry and all of us at Yahoo! are hopeful Secretary Rice’s leadership, diplomacy, and advocacy next week in Beijing will help secure the release of Shi Tao, Wang Xiaoning, and others in China.

Michael Samway
VP & Deputy General Counsel

The polls have closed, the results are in, and Yahoo! News has been named the big winner on Super Tuesday. A recent custom report by comScore Media Metrix showed that Yahoo! was the most-viewed news site for elections results on February 5, beating out the likes of CNN.com, MSNBC.com and AOL News. (And no, there were no hanging chads on this ballot!)

The results shouldn’t come as a surprise. We’ve been busy getting ready for the 2008 presidential elections to meet the demand of our users and over the past few months have introduced several new enhancements. In addition to the up-to-the-minute Political Dashboard introduced in December (check out our earlier post), Yahoo! News had several other features the week leading up to Super Tuesday:

• Check the Political Pulse: On a regular basis, Yahoo! News and the Associated Press are releasing “Political Pulse” polls, which track the mood of the same 2300+ Americans over the course of this election year, and offer a snapshot of the mood of the nation. The polls examine a series of identical questions each month (on issues such as the economy and the War), in order to track how attitudes on key issues may be changing. We’re also tracking some timely issues, and in the week before Super Tuesday our poll told us what the word “change” really means to most Americans.
• GOP Interviews: Yahoo! also traveled to the Reagan Museum to conduct a series of Republican candidate interviews, conducted by reporter Mike Allen. The interviews covered a range of questions, from the war in Iraq to “Mac or PC?”

For a look into the Yahoo! newsroom and how we have pulled together the “people’s choice” of election news sites, check out this video:

Enjoy!

John Briggs
Assistant Managing Editor, Yahoo! News

Eat my shorts and do have a cow in honor of Matt Groening’s 54th birthday. After you’ve done your best “doh,” take a look through our futurama updates.

• Popcorn not included: We’ve added one more reason for you to cozy up with your sweetie. Add the My Netflix module to your My Yahoo! page and get instant access into your Netflix account without leaving your page. You can see what the “Top Rentals” are or what’s new and hot for a special evening. Or get a status update on what movies are on their way to your home. Read more here.
• New and improved: Yahoo! Video look a little different to you? Not to worry, you’re not going crazy. We’ve made some changes to make the site the one-stop shop for all video on Yahoo!, whether it’s news, sports, movies or music. You now get a wider and cinematastic (16:9 player view in fact) viewing experience, bigger files so you can upload higher quality files (up to 150 megabytes), and also curate your own video experience beyond embedding your own individual videos to your blog or site. There’s more, read about it here.
• Putting the My in MyBlogLog: Just think, how cool it would be to personalize your site with your MyBlogLog community. With the new MyBlogLog plugin you can now instantly display members from your MyBlogLog community on your site. The plugin lets you display a widget of your most active MyBlogLog members, helps you to manage a members’ list page, and view a detailed members profile page. Just think of all the social bookmarking opportunities! One caveat, the plugins only work if you’ve already got a Yahoo! API key, but not to fret if you don’t. You can apply for the beta at developer.yahoo.com/mybloglog . Check out what else the team’s brewing here.

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

With the explosion of video content on the Web, it’s no surprise that video advertising has seen impressive growth rates. Forrester estimates that online video advertising will grow to more than $4 billion in 2011. Compelling stats for those in the advertising business. So compelling that today we announced the acquisition of Maven Networks, an industry-leading video platform provider.

This Cambridge, Massachusetts, start-up has developed a video publishing platform that boasts partnerships with more than 30 major media companies, including Fox News, Scripps Network (properties like HGTV and The Food Network), Gannett (including USAToday.com), Sony BMG, CBS Sports, Hearst Magazines, CNET, and the Financial Times. A list that grows more distinguished as time goes on. Maven helps these publishers distribute and/or monetize their content through a unique new advertising platform, which includes a great new non-intrusive ad format.

Adding Maven to our arsenal of capabilities is an important milestone as we focus on providing advertisers and publishers the best possible tools for reaching their audiences — on our network and beyond. For advertisers, it means more inventory, more choice, more audience reach. For publishers, it means being able to better monetize their content and reach more eyeballs. For consumers, it means consistently free access to high-quality video content and ads that are less disruptive, more relevant. It’s win-win all around.

We’re delighted to welcome the Maven team (led by founder and CEO Hilmi Ozguc) and its fantastic technology to the Yahoo! family. We look forward to joining forces to take video to the next level.

Hilary Schneider
EVP Global Partner Solutions

You might have read this by now, but our Board has unanimously concluded that Microsoft’s proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders, believing that it substantially undervalues Yahoo!. Here’s the press release and updated FAQ.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Did you know that in any given week, technology stocks represent at least seven of the ten most-searched quotes on Yahoo! Finance? We did, and that’s why today we launched Tech Ticker — a new video initiative from Yahoo! Finance focused entirely on technology investing. Some consider the tech sector the fantasy sports of the investing world, and clearly our users are hungry for more in this area.

Reporting from both the Silicon Valley and the NASDAQ MarketSite broadcast studio in New York, we plan to provide the most in-depth technology investing coverage on the web. Expect Tech Ticker to be both quirky and opinionated. Our renowned editorial team couldn’t be stronger:

• Sarah Lacy, Correspondent, Silicon Valley: A 10-year Valley veteran, you may read her biweekly BusinessWeek.com column titled “Valley Girl.” She literally wrote the book on the business and culture of the Silicon Valley.
• Aaron Task, Correspondent, New York: He covered Wall Street for a decade at TheStreet.com, is a frequent guest on major business news programs and his daily podcast “The Real Story” was an award winner on iTunes.
• Henry Blodget, Contributor, New York: You know the history. Now meet Henry Blodget 2.0, author of the award-winning blog, Internet Outsider and now CEO of Silicon Alley Insider. Outspoken and battle-tested, Henry will never be at a loss for an opinion.
• Andy Kessler, Contributor, Silicon Valley: A former Morgan Stanley analyst, Andy turned $100 million into $1 billion as co-founder of a technology hedge fund. He began his career designing chips at Bell Labs and is now a best-selling author.

And me — I’m Diane Galligan, executive producer of Tech Ticker. I’m especially excited to join the Internet’s #1 finance website after nearly a decade of producing financial news with CNBC and CNN.

Expect 4-8 video segments a day, including breaking market analysis, CEO interviews, and even documentary style editorials. If you’re thinking this sounds a lot like FinanceVision, it’s not. We’re offering short video-on-demand clips that are focused on a single sector of the market, rather than live streaming coverage of the entire stock market. FinanceVision was actually ahead of its time. We hope to learn from their experience, and take advantage of the many ways the Web and Web video have since evolved.

The videos can be found on the Tech Ticker site, or in the headline feeds of the tech stocks we cover. And what about our coverage of Yahoo!? The answer is simple. We have not only the freedom, but the mandate, to call it as we see it.

You can go to http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker see for yourself. Let us know what you think is working, what’s not and what you want to see. In the meantime, check out the video below for an inside look at what Tech Ticker’s all about with Sarah Lacy.

Hope to hear from you — and enjoy!

Diane Galligan and the Tech Ticker editorial team