But the days of totally free downloading from the early 21st century are gone and past. Or are they?

I got together another group of Summer 2007 Yahoo! interns for a podcast to chat about music and the Internet. Our discussion wasn’t limited to music downloading and the RIAA, though. We also talked about Internet radio, DJing, the iPhone, MTV, music videos on treadmills, and even, Manolo Blahniks.

Want to eavesdrop on our conversation?

• Click here to listen to (and download) the discussion.
• Click here for the full transcript.

(L to R): Emilia Varshavsky, Rich Yueh, Jenn Vargas, AJ Arora, me, and Brian Krausz

“Hello – I wanted to leave a comment here about how Yahoo! has changed my life! I was homeless, living on $35 a week, sleeping on friends’ couches, and eating dollar menu in New York City, pursuing a career as a petite model. Without a computer of my own, I started using the Apple Store as my office in February of 2005. I organized my thoughts and experiences, struggles, and pursuits into a document that I saved to my free Yahoo! account. I am editing and publishing my memoir, Almost 5’ 4’’, which is about being the underdog in modeling and striving no matter the odds. Isobella”

But in this short email, Isobella Jade couldn’t hope to explain all the details of her one-of-a-kind story, which began when she was a struggling 19-year-old model. As a student at the New York Institute of Technology, she went from photo shoot to class to track practice to photo shoot. It was only time before Isobella’s mother found nude pictures of her daughter on the Internet. Ultimately, Isobella changed her birth name and decided to pursue modeling after graduation without looking back.

Isobella used the Net to self-promote, and decided that before her 25th birthday, she would be a published author, writing about the experiences of being an aspiring model, trying to break into the fashion industry, and being only 5’4’’ at that. Living out of a suitcase, she wrote her memoir (standing in heels between shoots) at the Apple Store on Prince St. in SoHo (check out the video they helped her make) and saved her work to her Yahoo! Mail account. And now, months shy of her self-imposed deadline, Isobella Jade’s work Almost 5’ 4’’: Confessions of an Unconventional Model is available at Borders and Amazon.com.

“Unlike some girls scouted to model or raised around fashion and glamorous life, modeling for me started with curiosity when I discovered a free Internet modeling site and it evolved into me becoming my own business,” Isobella said when we spoke on the phone.

She said she didn’t always have Yahoo! in her life. “My first email was on AOL, but when I started going for my dream I couldn’t afford AOL. I discovered Yahoo!, and suddenly saving my work, my rejection letters, my acceptances, everything, was one less thing to worry about.”

How’s life for her now? She’s finding success as a “body parts” (think knees, shoulders, and elbows) model and getting plenty of notice, but life is still a flurry. “I’m doing more legit work now [from a shoe ad campaign to doubling for a Christina Ricci movie poster], but I’m still rushing arund,” she said.

And as for Mom? “The book captures a time when our relationship was not so great. My mother is a teacher, and it was difficult for her to cope with me pursuing a career that has to do with my body. But now our relationship is great. She’s very, very proud.”

As she should be. Congrats, Isobella!

Doreen Bloch
Yahoo! Intern

In fact, since November 2004, his entire role has been to look over questions submitted by users, choose one interesting query each day, and then hunt down the answer. His job was to write for Ask Yahoo!. Haven’t heard of it? That’s probably because Ask Yahoo! is now a thing of the past…

Ask Yahoo! was started in 1998 as a way for Internet users to pose questions to a team of Yahoo! surfers who would then search the Net to find answers. Mike’s tracked down answers on everything from dog saliva to impact of bovine gas on the environment to the order of succession for the office of POTUS. But ever since Yahoo! Answers launched and grew in popularity, Mike has had to deal with a minor identity crisis. Was Ask Yahoo! obsolete? What would Mike do if Ask Yahoo! went away?

A solution arose: give Mike a featured spot in Yahoo! Answers where he can continue to show off his mad cyberspace research skills. That’s the birds and the bees on how “Ask Mike” was born.

To ask Mike a question, you’d have to email him at y_answrs_mikek@yahoo.com, but he was nice enough to grant me some exclusive Q&A time.

You only just moved to Yahoo! Answers a few weeks ago. Do you miss Ask Yahoo!?
I do miss Ask Yahoo!, but writing for Yahoo! Answers is fun because it’s more challenging. I’ve opened myself up to more feedback – sometimes it’s positive, sometimes it’s really negative, and other times, it’s just really weird.

How’d you get this job in the first place?
I went to Miami University in Ohio. When majored in psych at Miami University in Ohio, I knew that I didn’t want to do anything with that. I lived in New York for a while, came back to the Silicon Valley, and got a job in Yahoo! Shopping as a production assistant on Video and DVD shopping. A year later I got moved to surfing, and from the moment I started in surfing I knew I wanted a shot at editorial work. Finally after two years they let me try my hand at Ask Yahoo!.

What’s the most common question you’re asked?
I get sent a lot of really inappropriate questions. People know we’d obviously never use them, but they are pretty funny to read.

Most controversial question you’ve ever answered?
Surprisingly the question about why so many people are afraid of clowns has had huge response.

What’s the toughest question you’ve ever had to research?
I remember one I did about the voice that says “please hang up and try again” on the telephone. That took a long time, but I finally found the woman and it was quite rewarding.

Have you ever been wrong?
Yes, I have been wrong. What comes to mind is a question I answered about Seinfeld. Someone asked what Kramer’s job was. I wrote that he didn’t really have one, but that he did take part in lots of schemes. I got lots of email saying I was wrong, that Kramer actually worked for a bagel shop, but was on strike the entire series. I ended up quietly correcting the answer.

Favorite types of questions to answer?
I really like word origin questions. Also I love researching urban legends and longstanding myths. I like writing about search trends too. I definitely put science as my least favorite question type; I peaked in 8th grade with that subject.

What are your best Internet search tips?
Putting quotes around search terms is really helpful when trying to narrow down search results. Also, use the minus sign.

What does that do?
Say you’re searching for a restaurant and your results are all about a movie with the same name. You can type -movie in your search to help eliminate results that include the movie title.

So if “Ask Mike” is work, what are your hobbies?
Well, I love to sleep. I love movies.

Are you one of those awesome-memory movie buffs who remember every plot detail, actor, trivial quotation?
Yes, yes. I amuse and annoy.

Ever make a movie of your own?
Yes actually! I was a finalist in the Radio Alice’s Three Minute Film Festival in San Francisco inspired by a comic urban legend.

That’s some great Mike Krumboltz trivia right there. Now see if you can go stump him.

Doreen Bloch
Yahoo! Intern

Average-Joe chatterboxes used to be the talk of their towns, but now their voices can be heard the world over as they become bonafide political scuttlebutt suppliers, celebrity gossip givers, and technomaniacs. Why? It’s all thanks to blogs.

Like last summer, I got together a group of Yahoo! interns for a podcast. The mission: blab about blogging. Our intern brood chatted on everything from communicating with faraway friends via blogs to Tim O’Reilly’s Blogger’s Code of Conduct to how effective presidential hopefuls like Barack Obama really are in reaching our demographic by having a blog. We also got into the concept of digital wills and the role a blog can play in the afterlife.

Want to eavesdrop on our conversation?

• Click here to listen to (and download) the discussion.

• Click here for the full transcript.

(L to R): Tica Wakeman, Chris Martin, me, Rahul Malik, Emily Tse, and Brian Krausz

The site sports cooler, cleaner designs than the old Yahoo! Gear site. You’ll note that the Y-Bang (you know, the “Y!” logo) is the reigning motif. Emoticons are très chic this season. And, of course, purple is always en vogue.

Have a hankering for schwag? Come check out the array of more than 150 items. Merchandise includes games and gadgets, stuff for your pets and kids, bags and luggage, stylin’ Ts and jackets, and cubeland essentials. No clue what to give that special someone? A gift certificate is always a safe bet. (Apologies to those outside the U.S. — no international shipping yet.)

While pet stuff, yo-yos, and flip-top USB drives fly off the shelves the fastest, what’s more fun (and funky) are these items:

• Got slobber? Grab a “Burp me, I Yodel” Bib.
• Who needs a boring QWERTY rig when you can have a squishy and flexible purple keyboard?
• A smiling emoticon every time you go to scribble? Pencil toppers make a grin-worthy tchotchke.

Now, don’t get us wrong — our physical Company Store locations still have open arms. But they’re not quite as welcoming when you’re in your PJs. And just so you know, all those shiny, happy models on the site are real Yahoos and their kids. Yeah, we’re that cheap.

BTW: The Yahoo! Company Store is hosted by the Yahoo! Small Business e-commerce platform called Merchant Solutions, which means whether it’s soap, soda, sofas, or cellophane, anyone can create a site as spiffy as this one.

Doreen Bloch
Yahoo! Intern

Anastasia Goodstein brought together media professionals, marketing folks, and non-profit do-gooders at San Francisco’s Hotel Nikko to talk all about targeting the teenage demographic I’m a part of. Experts and industry leaders spoke on everything from using mixtapes to get brands in front of hip, urban communities (Tina Wells in conversation with journalist Adisa Banjoko) to Harry Potter fan culture on the Net (keynote conversation with MIT’s Henry Jenkins and USC’s danah boyd) to growing your brand virally by partnering with large social networks (RockYou! CEO Lance Tokuda).

The portion of the day I found particularly fascinating was the “Totally Wired Teen Superstar Panel,” moderated by Smashface Productions‘ Zadi Diaz. It was so energizing to hear about the experiences of four young Web entrepreneurs. One speaker Aseem Badshah, president of Scriptovia.com and rising sophomore at the University of Washington, discussed the academic tools his company gives students and answered questions about dealing with plagiarism. Martina Butler, host of Emo Girl Talk, talked about getting sponsorships for her weekly podcast from big brands like Acuvue, GoDaddy.com, and soon, Covergirl. Whateverlife president, Ashley Qualls, explained how she got her start creating a site centered around MySpace page designs, and how she got her family and friends involved in the project too. And, MyYearbook.com‘s Catharine Cook, who will be attending Georgetown in the fall, spoke about school-work balance, or lack there of with the crazy 40-hour work week plus school schedule she said she maintained when they were just starting up the company.

It seemed all the Ypulse attendees echoed my excitement for these four talented fellow youth. It was a wonderful conference and I’m so glad Yahoo! sponsored. I’m sure the forward thinking and great conversations will continue — especially considering Ypulse’s Tween Mashup is fast approaching.

Doreen Bloch
Yahoo! Intern

Photo from freshelectrons

Well over 120 interns volunteered at four San Francisco Bay Area organizations: Bring Me a Book, Rebuilding Together, Second Harvest Food Bank, and The Humane Society of Silicon Valley.

I took some photos and collected pics from other interns, too. I threw ‘em into Jumpcut and here’s the outcome. Enjoy!

Doreen Bloch
Yahoo! Intern

When you’re on the Yahoo! campus, you immediately notice just how important the environment is to the company. Our Beantrees coffee is organic and our coffee cups are biodegradable, unless, of course, you bring reusable mugs. Every Wednesday, Yahoos can purchase organic, locally-grown produce from the Yahoo! Farmer’s Market. A transportation team is entirely devoted to helping Yahoos plan out convenient and environmentally-friendly commute options. And there’s lots of energy conservation going on.

But Yahoo!’s commitment to the environment extends far beyond our purple walls. We’ve been putting power in our users’ hands through services like Yahoo! Autos Green Center, 18Seconds.org, and Yahoo! Green. And we were the first major Internet company to commit to being carbon neutral.

Check out other companies and how they’re doing in the fight for helping the environment as well as the details of how Yahoo! was rated. We’ve got plenty of room to grow, but we appreciate the validation that the commitments we’ve made already count.

Doreen Bloch
Yahoo! Intern

Hint: It ain’t just cookies anymore!

Folks in techtopia may not be racing to walk an old lady across the street, but they are getting a little “badge crazy” in an http way.

The badge-mania that afflicted Laura Lippay (of Yahoo!’s Search Engine Optimization group) led her to organize an internal Yahoo! Badge & Web Widget Summit this week. Eighteen presenters and nearly 120 Yahoos (not counting those who opted for the webcast) showed up for an all-day badge bonanza. A “web widget” or “badge” goes by plenty of other names, but despite jargon overload, Yahoos are excited about the opportunities badging presents to increase traffic to Yahoo! sites, as well as get great content to sites off-network.

Here’s a list of projects discussed at the Summit that caught my low-tech fancy. Some are Yahoo! services, some are not.

• Trick out with Yahoo!. Yahoo! Finance already got into the badge biz a year ago, with charts, tickers, and headlines direct from Yahoo! Finance for publishers to put in blogs or websites. Others joined the fray, including Yahoo! Answers and Yahoo! News.
• Blogs + Widgets = Blidgets. Why not make my entire blog a web widget for others to post on their blogs? Widgetbox lets me do just that for free – and throws in a metrics dashboard to boot.
• Facebook. They’ve been making fierce headlines for the past two weeks after introducing the new Facebook platform, which lets developers create fun applications for users. Now I can add a Flickr stream to my profile!
• Badges for Widgets? There are already thousands of Yahoo! Widgets to choose from in the gallery, and now the team behind those desktop widgets lets us create badges directly from favorites to post on web sites.
• Can’t roll your own? Pay Clearspring to make ‘em for you. Check out what they did for the NBA: web widgets that are easy to grab and share. Here’s Kobe!

Feel free to leave a comment with your own top picks … after all, it’s the “Year of the Widget.”

I invited a small group of Yahoo! summer interns to chat about this booming Internet trend. After all, who better to talk to about social networking sites than the Yahoos who are part of the largest demographic of users?

Ranging in age from 18 to 26, from high school to graduate student, they joined me to share their experiences and observations about social networking – from using Facebook to learn more about a crush, to parents creating MSN Spaces profiles to “spy” on their kids, to wondering about a future where a Presidential candidate has to contend with the legacy of having a MySpace page.

• Click here to listen to (and download) the discussion.

• Click here for the full transcript.

Front row (L to R): Paul Stamatiou, Phil Freo, Brianna Satinoff, Richard Crowley
Back row (L to R): Chen Yang, me, Will Urich

Time was certainly not on my side, so rather than spying on the rookie Yahoos in their cube-shaped habitats, I put together a detailed survey and forced the interns to answer my questions. (Frodo would’ve been proud.)

And here are the results! I present to you: Interns — by the numbers:

4 – Number of interns at Yahoo! headquarters who accidentally walked into the wrong bathroom in another building. (A bit of trivia: When the architects designed Yahoo!’s headquarters, they simply flipped the blueprints for Building B, a mirror image of our other buildings, rather than redrawing them. This means the men’s and women’s bathrooms are on different sides than in the rest of the buildings!)

5 – Number of high-school interns. (Start ’em young…)

16 – Number of interns for whom this summer marks their second internship at Yahoo!. (Maybe we’ll see the number go up next year?)

31 – Number of interns who’ve been at work in the middle of the night at least once this summer. (Yahoo! never sleeps.)

35 – Number of interns who still don’t know what the acronym “Yahoo!” stands for. (For those of you still scratching your heads, it stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.”)

38 – Percentage of interns working at Yahoo! headquarters who had never been to Silicon Valley until this summer.

45 – Percentage of interns who participated in a Yahoo! for Good activity.

49 – Number of interns who were involved in a product launch this summer.

71 – Number of interns who blog.

85 – Number of interns who played foosball at least once every week during their internship.

127 – Number of interns who were not born in the United States.

135 – Number of technical Yahoo! interns.

156 – Number of interns who are in graduate school.

229 – Number of interns legally old enough to drink beer in the United States. (I’ve still got three years to go!)

260 – Number of interns working at Yahoo! this summer. (More than 180 of these interns work at Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The rest are at other Yahoo! campuses like Burbank and Santa Monica, California; Toronto, Canada; or New York City.)

317 – Sightings of cofounder Jerry Yang by the interns so far this summer.

537 – Sightings of cofounder David Filo by the interns so far this summer. (Jerry’s got some catching up to do!)

1,090 – Cups of free coffee consumed by the interns each week. (Don’t worry! That’s only about 4 cups a week per intern — although one fellow did report drinking an average of 20 cups each week!)

And lastly…

12,875 – Days worked collectively by all interns this summer. (That’s the equivalent of one Yahoo working more than 35 years!)

Doreen Bloch
Yodel Anecdotal Intern

Editor’s Note: Fare thee well, Doreen — possibly the most fearless 18-year-old I’ve known. Good luck at Cal (Go Bears!) and thanks for all the research, writing, moderating, and keeping us connected with our inner cool. Yodel on.
- Nicki

The Knight Fellowship is in its 41st year, but John, a nine-year Yahoo! veteran, is the first U.S.-based Fellow in the history of the program whose journalism experience comes exclusively from a web-based news outlet. (Former Knight Fellows Bill Gannon and Elizabeth Osder came from backgrounds in traditional journalism and now work at Yahoo!.) I had a chance to sit down with John to get some skinny on his path to glory and what this distinction means for online news. 

A native of Madison, Wisconsin with a degree in East Asian area studies from his hometown university, John spent four years in Japan after graduating, but when he returned in 1995, he still wasn’t ready to settle down. He began a yearlong global excursion with stops in Latin America, Africa, and Europe, and eventually settled in San Francisco.

In 1997, he got a gig at a little-known company with a funny name. “Yahoo! was looking for people with a lot of general knowledge, so it helped to say I’d seen some of the world,” he explained to me. John began work at Yahoo! as a surfer, finding and categorizing web sites for the Yahoo! Directory, and joined Yahoo! News Full Coverage a little over a year later.

Back then, the Internet was just a baby. John believes that his selection as a Knight Fellow reflects the coming of age of web-based news. “The Internet has such incredible visibility and such immense influence on journalism, and I’m absolutely honored to have been selected,” he said. “Only in this last year has Yahoo! had truly original content, with Yahoo! News correspondents like Kevin Sites. I think picking somebody from Yahoo! really adds to the status and recognition of online journalism.”

Before going back to school, John had to create his own independent study program. His topic is the “framing of political communication, and its effect on news coverage and public opinion.” He became interested in this topic due to his work at Yahoo! Full Coverage, where users can find topical collections of news, analysis, op-ed content, and multimedia from sources all over the Internet, programmed by human editors. Early on though, most online news came from wire services. “They’ll send us version after version,” says John. “But the earliest articles they send are raw communication; there’s no analysis, no sourcing, and no second points of view. When we post these early versions of a story, people get unfiltered, framed political communication. I was curious about this process, and I wanted to study it.”

Besides academics, networking is a key advantage of the Fellowship program. “I didn’t work in a newsroom before I worked at Yahoo! so my industry connections are pretty limited,” John said. The program has a strong commitment to selecting a diverse class of Fellows, from reporters at The New York Times and The Washington Post to a representative from UOL, an online publication in Brazil. “That’s why this is a tremendous opportunity for me to get to know 19 other journalists,” he said.

Overall, “the Knight Fellowship will give me the chance to reflect on my work by virtue of the fact that I get to step away,” says John. “Hopefully, I can incorporate the ideas I get, both from my peers and the university, into the ever growing media outlet that is Yahoo!.”

Good luck, John, and make sure to take lots of notes!