Next time you take your laptop, tablet or smartphone to your neighborhood Starbucks, you are in for a surprise: the new Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo! launched today in our U.S. company-operated stores. Think of it as premium content to go with premium coffee.

The team at Starbucks wanted to enhance the time our customers spend in our stores, so we had a vision to create something new, localized, unexpected… and online. The Starbucks Digital Network was developed to provide customers instant access to a collection of hand-picked premium news, entertainment and lifestyle content along with free downloads, local insights and events from nearly 20 different content providers including iTunes, Nick Jr. Boost, Rodale, WSJ.com and Yahoo!  It’s all free and only available at Starbucks.

Starbucks knew we wanted to create an in-store online network, and we also knew we needed a strategic partner to bring our vision to life.  We selected Yahoo! as our partner because we needed their experience in building and managing a network of this magnitude. Yahoo! is known for offering unique and compelling online experiences and employs some of the best technical minds in the business.

There are other key synergies in this partnership. We wanted the network to be searchable, and integrating Yahoo! Search was an easy choice. Additionally, Yahoo! delivers compelling content to their customers every day, and we wanted to include that content on our network. We are happy to see that Flickr, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! News are available for customers who are interested in social-sharing and receiving breaking news.

We hope you stop by your neighborhood Starbucks and experience the Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo!, for yourself. Between October 20 through October 27, we’re offering special content you’ll only find on the Starbucks Digital Network including exclusive free tracks from Fistful of Mercy featuring Ben Harper and Dhani Harrison courtesy of iTunes, the opportunity to donate $15 to a local school through DonorsChoose.org and a first look at a bestselling author Anita Shreve’s new novel that doesn’t hit shelves until November 30.

Whether your drink of choice is a hot latte or a cold Frappuccino, treat yourself to the new Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo!

- Adam Brotman, Vice President Starbucks Digital Ventures