Seventy-nine years ago today, on Black Thursday, the first of the three major U.S. stock market crashes began, starting a three-year slide that stripped the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 89% in value. (And you thought today's crisis was bad.) If bad luck comes in threes, we might all be good to go! Here's what we did to beat the bear this week:

• Shortcut to cheap gas: Ok, so crude oil may have dipped below $70 a barrel, but you know that won't last. And in this economy, who wants to spend more than they have to on anything? Yahoo! Search just launched a shortcut to help you find the cheapest gas in town. Just type "gas prices" or "cheap gas" plus your city name or zip code into our search box, and you'll get a comprehensive list of the cheapest local stations (courtesy of GasBuddy.com), their address, and even a map as part of your search results. Stuff the rest of your nickels in your mattress. More here.
• Inquisitor branches out: You know that really cool Safari browser plugin that we bought and then enhanced? The one that auto-completes search queries and previews results along with ideas to help refine your search? Well, it's become an equal opportunity app, available now for Firefox and IE7 and 8 browsers. And now Inquisitor generates more personalized results (based on a crazy smart algorithm) and helps you find your bookmarks faster. More here.
• Color control freak: You love the different themes and colors available for personalizing your My Yahoo! page. But you fancy yourself a designer and wish that blueberry could be more aqua, that maraschino more salmon. Enter customizable colors! Just log in to My Yahoo!, click "Change Appearance," and head to "Customize Color" and have at it. You can create up to nine different colored themes, picking hues for your header, sub-header, page background, and content area. Color me in charge.
• Halloween help:The countdown to All Hallows Eve is on, so head over to our Halloween microsite for helpful tips and advice for maximizing this most ghoulish of holidays. You'll find things like pumpkin carving patterns, a compendium of the most popular costumes (it's not too late), tips for a greener Halloween, a really scary movie guide (and recipes for pumpkin-y things to eat while you watch them), and a tag cloud with the most popular search terms o' the season. But, sorry, no tips for toilet papering the mean guy's house.

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