Product Pulse – January 9, 2009

Posted January 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm by Nicki Dugan, Blog Editor

Number of Comments No Comments / Filed in: Product Pulse

Fifty years ago today, Clint Eastwood got his big break as cattle drover Rowdy Yates in “Rawhide.” Then came the spaghetti Westerns, Dirty Harry, escaping from Alcatraz, more gunslinging, a million dollar baby, five Oscars, a mayorship, and the most endearing racist you’ve ever met. Here’s what our tough guys pulled off this week:

What’s that on my TV?: With the impending digitization of U.S. televisions, many of you might be thinking about buying new sets. You might want to hold off until the new Internet-connected TVs hit the market this spring, fully loaded with widgets powered by the Yahoo! Widget engine. We’ve partnered with manufacturers like Samsung, Sony, LG Electronics and VIZIO to let consumers fire up cool new content while watching TV — everything from Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! Video, Yahoo! Finance and Flickr to widgets from providers like eBay, MySpace, CBS, The New York Times, Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster, Showtime, USA TODAY, and Twitter. More here.
Researching your ride: Car on its last legs? Head to Yahoo! Autos, where the team has just spruced up its research pages for car makes, models and trim. Just in are bigger photos, virtual tours, comprehensive user and expert reviews, and pricing data (including the streamlined price-with-options feature). What’s more, they’ve introduced hundreds of new vehicle videos through WheelsTV so you can check out the car before you decide which one to test-drive. And if you’re strapped for cash, they’ve launch used vehicle research pages for cars dating back to 1997. Air fresheners not included. More here.
It’s Obama TIME: In case you missed it before the holidays, TIME magazine appointed President-elect Barack Obama as the 2008 Person of the Year. Amidst the evidence of his groundswell support, the editors noticed that there were more than 100,000 Obama-related images posted to Flickr, validating the theory that Americans didn’t just elect a President, “they created an icon.” We partnered with TIME to cull the best Obama-related photos and artwork — here are the top 30. Only 11 more days to go!