Nine years ago today, the first blueprint of the human being emerged as the Human Genome Project released a first draft of a fully sequenced human genome. All hail the double helix! Since then, scientists have used it to screen for various illnesses and link genes with specific diseases. Here’s what we decoded this week:

• Toolbar tricks: Now, every browser comes with a toolbar, so why would you want the new one from Yahoo!? Does yours let you preview your email or content from more than 100 popular sites? Does it give you query suggestions as you search? Does it let you search directly within sites like Flickr or Wikipedia? I didn’t think so. Go download yourself the new Yahoo! Toolbar. It’s all about letting you do more faster. More here.
• Making the little guy feel big: If you own a small business, you know how much you covet the marketing dollars of the big dogs. Well, the playing field has officially been leveled. Our new My Display Ads let businesses of any size run affordable online display (or banner) campaigns that reach local markets on Yahoo!. How affordable? Let’s just say we can make thirty bucks go a long way. These self-service ads are easy to create - just pick from one of our 800+ templates; customize text, images, colors and add your company logo; select your target audience; and off you go. You’re guaranteed to feel embiggened. More here.
• Proud to have Pride: It’s LGBT Pride month and we’re doing it up big with this year’s Yahoo! Pride site. We’ve got news from the Advocate, a killer timeline that summarizes the last century in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender history, and an event finder for more than 1,000 Pride events around the world. But best of all, we might be sending you and a friend to Sydney for the LGBT Mardi Gras in February. But hurry, you have to enter by July 1st (or come meet us in San Francisco this weekend to enter in person). More here.
• Dog days of summer: The race is on and you’ve got about 11 weeks to make the most of it. It’s summertime and we’ve pulled together a little helpful microsite to keep you from squandering it. Need help with travel plans? Check out articles on getaways that involve beachs, golf, family, national park, or weekend furloughs. Want great recipes? We’ve got ideas for grilling, oven-free cooking, drinks, and chill-out treats. There’s also shopping ideas, tips on keeping that lawn green, kids activities, and giving your Avatar a more sunswept look. Check it out here.

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Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

It’s been a rough week, especially for those of us who grew up in the 1970s. First, we lost Ed McMahon, who we always hoped would show up at our doorstep with a big check. Then, came news of Farrah Fawcett, who always got the bad guy and launched a hair revolution among us. But it was the shocking news (confirmed, then unconfirmed, then finally confirmed) of Michael Jackson’s death that rattled the online world the most.

The passing of the King of Pop set multiple records across Yahoo!. On our front page, the story “Michael Jackson rushed to hospital” was the highest clicking story in our history. It generated a whopping 800,000 clicks within 10 minutes and news of his death saw 560,000 clicks in 10 minutes. Also, the news area on our front page experienced five times the amount of traffic it normally receives.

Yahoo! News set an all-time record in unique visitors with 16.4 million people, surpassing our previous record of 15.1 million visitors on election day. Four million people visited the site between 3-4pm Pacific time, setting an hourly record. We also recorded 175 million page views yesterday, our fourth highest after Inauguration Day, the day after the Inauguration, and Hurricane Ike.

In Yahoo! Music, a staggering 21,000 people left comments on a blog post about the music legend. And over on Flickr, more than 4,000 Michael Jackson-related images have been posted in the last day, including art images labeled as “in tribute” and photos of spontaneous memorials all over the world, such as this Thriller “flashdance” in San Francisco.

Also, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at our search logs, revealing what our users were most curious about as they tried to reconcile the news:

• Michael Jackson - including variations of his name and nicknames
• Photos - especially for photos of his face and how it changed throughout the years; also, searches for “plastic surgery“
• Videos - both videos of Michael Jackson and his music videos
• Music - Jackson Five music and his solo work; also searches for his albums and songs
• Songs - including lyrics, especially for hits like Thriller, Man in the Mirror, Billy Jean, and PYT
• Questions - “did Michael Jackson die?”, “who is Michael Jackson?” (!!), “when did Michael Jackson die?”, “why did Michael Jackson die?”
• Cardiac arrest - and other medical terms mentioned in the news
• People - lots of searches for Jackson family members; notable friends like Quincy Jones, Elizabeth Taylor, his lawyer; ex-wives Debbie Rowe and Lisa Marie Presley; and his children
• Elvis Presley - not just because of the Lisa Marie connection, but people want to know how old Elvis was when he died
• Places - Holmby Hills, UCLA Medical Center, Encino, and his house location
• Hoax rumors - given that TMZ.com was the first to confirm his death, people wondered if it was all true. Then came rumors of Harrison Ford and Jeff Goldblum’s deaths.
• RIP Michael Jackson - was very prominent in Twitter
• Drugs - for the pain killer Demerol and other variations/spellings
• Celebrity death in threes - because apparently people are superstitious
• How to moonwalk - because nobody did it better

And that’s just from yesterday…

Michael Jackson’s death was clearly a seminal event. And unlike in the 1970s, we all have a remarkable tool that brings the world together — informed and connected — over those “I remember when…” moments.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Image from thechorompys

Douglas Crockford performs tests on human subjects. He likes to make them struggle and then learn from their experience. But it’s all for a good cause.

Douglas is Yahoo!’s resident JavaScript software architect. He has literally written the book on the coding language and his job involves training engineers at Yahoo! and industry-wide to use the code effectively. But he’s long lamented that there isn’t a good reference book for beginners. So he decided to take matters into his own hands and write it himself. But he quickly faced the dilemma of every expert – trying to think like a beginner.

Enter Mountain View High School.

Douglas decided that teaching a course in the principles of computer programming could prove mutually beneficial. So as a school volunteer, he worked with administrators to recruit a handful of willing students (mostly seniors) whose only prerequisite was experience in calculus. For most, this was their first exposure to software. Before long, they were thrown into the deep end of the pool to learn about values, variables, functions, recursion and other complexities of programming. By the end of the 12 weeks, the kids had conquered the basics and Douglas had experienced JavaScript through the eyes of a novice. Everybody won.

Now, this group may not have been statistically significant –- kids growing up in the Silicon Valley get plenty of exposure to technology, thanks to parents who often work at industry giants. And these students are headed to hallowed institutions like Cal Poly, Northwestern, and UC Berkeley to chase engineering degrees. But, nonetheless, they taught Douglas a lot about how to learn.

When Douglas sets off to write the book, I’m sure you’ll find some 17-year-olds in the acknowledgments. Also to be acknowledged are Mountain View High School Principal Keith Moody (also, incidentally, a former Raider defensive back) and teacher Madeline Miraglia, who made Douglas’ volunteer project possible.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

So long, bunnies ears. Hello, digital clarity. If you have an analog television, today is D-Day (in the U.S. at least) — the long-fabled digital switchover is here. If you haven’t gotten your converter box yet, your TV is SOL — and static-y ghosts have gone the way of Pong, Betamax, and the 8-track. Here’s what we digitized this week:

• Rock on, iPhone: There’s just something about radio — that element of surprise, that anticipation of what’s coming next, that man-I-haven’t-heard-that-song-in-years sensation. That’s the promise of our new Yahoo! Music iPhone app. Powered by CBS Radio, it lets you browse through 300+ stations within more than 20 genres (from Bollywood to Goth to Naughty Comedy), skip up to six tracks an hour, find local stations via GPS, share stations with friends, and buy music you like via iTunes. Never get stuck listening to Muzak again. Read more here, then download the app.
• Cirrus, cumulus, Flickr: The fact that Flickr has democratized photography and turned many hacks into professionals is not lost on Getty Images, the legendary stock photo agency. So back in March, we debuted the Flickr Collection on gettyimages.com, allowing mere mortals to license their work for commercial use. Today, Getty has introduced “photo clouds,” a new way to navigate groups of related photos within the Collection. You can join the community and create your own cloud around topics like “winter,” “out of Africa,” “bizarre photos,” and “fishy.” (Note the spiffy massage music that soothes as you explore). But wait! There’s also a screensaver, desktop widget, and a new Facebook app that lets you create a photo cloud to reflect your status mood. Brings new meaning to cloud computing. More here.
• Go commando with Colbert: If you’re addicted to Comedy Central’s Colbert Report, you probably know Stephen Colbert has been broadcasting from Iraq this week in support of troops stationed there. But he’s also leading an effort to make sure the children of said troops are getting what they need from a public school education. He’s teamed up with DonorsChoose.org to raise funds for military-serving schools, pitting the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard against each other. You can help by making a donation or spread the word by sporting a Colbert Avatar, with critical accessories like an eagle, bear, Colbert Nation hat, Che Colbert T-shirt, fireplace, and a desk. More here.

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

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Whether you spell it doughnut or donut, today’s the official day of honor for these deep-fried morsels. Back in 1938, the Salvation Army declared National Doughnut Day to celebrate the women who went to the front lines during WWI to feed the troops, often cooking doughnuts right inside their helmets. Now you know why soldiers were commonly called doughboys. (Note: This should not be confused with Flickr’s hallowed Day of the Donut). Here’s what we fried up this week:

• Surf less, do more: In the spirit of helping you take productivity to the Nth degree, we’re sprinkling great new third-party apps and widgets across our site. Now you can interact with content and tools from providers like Youtube, Mint.com, eBay, WordPress, Showtime, Picnik, and ZumoDrive in places like Yahoo! Mail, My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Connected TV and Zimbra email. We call it the gift of time. More here.
• Winning the email battle: If your email inbox has become your evil overlord, we’re empowering you with a great new weapon — new filters for Yahoo! Mail. Now you can basically snap your fingers and filter your inbox for the mail you actually want to read. Just click on “Contacts” above your inbox and presto, you’ll only see mail from people who are in your address book. The team is rolling this out to Classic and new Yahoo! Mail users in the U.S. and Australia over the next few weeks, with more countries to follow. More here.
• Sticky wickets: The ICC World Twenty20, the world championship of cricket, kicked off today in England and fans the world over won’t miss a single bowl-out, thanks to Yahoo! Cricket. Our T20 coverage includes exclusive cricket content, player chats, videos and images from the tournament. From history of the game to up-to-date statistics on cricketers, cricket.yahoo.com offers elaborate coverage — series stats and records, data on women’s cricket teams, coach interviews, fantasy game, and more. That outta get the Snick-o-Meter going.

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

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Tonight marks the end of an era. After 17 years, Jay Leno will give his last “Tonight Show” monologue, joining Steve Allen, Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson in the ranks of former hosts. From taking Hugh Grant to the woodshed for using a prostitute to hosting the first sitting American president on a late-night show, Leno gave you plenty of reasons to delay your bedtime. Here’s what we pulled on stage this week:

• Photos without the jail time: If you’ve ever hesitated before throwing that copyrighted photo into a presentation or web page, you’ll celebrate this news. Yahoo! Search has added a Creative Commons license filter to Yahoo! Image Search to help you quickly identify photos that are OK to reuse or modify. No other search engine saves your bacon that way. Not only do we keep you out of trouble, you’ll never even the see the photos you don’t have permission to use — it’s like Eve didn’t even know the apple existed. More here.
• Search that sport: That little search box just made you a better sports fan. Yahoo! Search has added a sports team shortcut that helps you keep track of your favorite teams, leagues, and events simply by typing in a keyword or two. When’s the next Lakers game? Who’s winning the French Open? Just go to Yahoo! Search. The sports team shortcut covers the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA, and college sports leagues including the NCAAF and NCAAB. More here.
• 360 comes full circle: Yes, it’s official — Yahoo! 360 is coming to an end. We know, we know — it took us a while to pull the plug. But rather than rush the process and risk losing your precious photos and prose, we wanted to make sure we had a solution in place — Yahoo! Profiles. You can move your content over to your profile, where your connections can keep tabs on you, or take it to go. You can export your entries to blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger, and MoveableType. More here.
• Comments with a click: And in the hilarious third-party app category… Feeling too lazy, bored, tired, or uninspired to write a comment for that Flickr photo? Good thing some clever souls from Virginia have developed the Flickr comment generatr. You can choose between simple (”this is super :-p”) or verbose (”i eat up the framing and foto ;-) good job my friend”). Now you can be meaningless without even trying.

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Carol Bartz made her first big appearance today at the seventh annual D: All Things Digital conference. As could’ve been predicted, this CEO famed for salty one-liners made quite an impression. Carol was asked about why she came to Yahoo!, what is Yahoo!, what’s most important to us, the economy, whether she plans to hire a #2, her management style, what’s going on with Microsoft, Google, whether she agrees with the Peanut Butter manifesto, and plenty more. The responses were candid, direct, and often quite quotable (for example, “Nine women cannot make a baby in one month. You need time and process.”).

The AllThingsD.com site has a liveblog recap of Carol’s interview. You might also head to the Twitterverse for a taste of how she was received. Some of our favorite tweets:

• Chris Anderson (@TEDchris): Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz knocking ‘em dead at D7. Smart, focused, engaging, funny, persuasive. Memo to self: buy YHOO?
• Peter Kafka (@pkafka): I think this may be Carol Bartz’ first big public appearance since coming to Yahoo. IMHO she’s crushing it.
• Larry Magid (@LarryMagid): Yahoo’s Carol Bartz is one of the funniest speakers ever at D.
• Katie Boehret (@kabster728): Our stage manager says: I wanna see the sitcom w/these two (referring to @karaswisher and Carol Bartz, Yahoo CEO).

(UPDATE: The folks at D have taken down Carol’s video to replace it “with one that contains 100 percent more profanity. It’ll be up soon–we apologize for the inconvenience.” We’ll get it up when the link is available.)
UPDATE #2: And it’s back!

Here’s the video — uncensored:

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Photos by Asa Mathat, AllThingsD.com

As I hit publish, Carol Bartz, our CEO, is taking the stage at the seventh annual D: All Things Digital conference for a conversation with Kara Swisher. Since she’ll also be taking questions from the audience, we thought we’d do our own version of an audience Q&A. We had a chance to quickly sit down with Carol to ask some of the questions submitted by Yodel Anecdotal readers. Big thanks to contributors and apologies to those whose thoughtful questions remain on the cutting room floor — her calendar is like a NY subway at rush hour.

If you want a recap of Carol’s D discussion, check out our Twitter stream — we’re attempting live updates. And check back here later today for photos and video highlights.

1. BrandonWIFI: Now that you have been on board long enough what was your biggest surprise in terms of what Yahoo! is good at and what was your biggest disappointment?

I’m most surprised by how good Yahoo! is at connecting people to their worlds. I hadn’t realized that half of the Net users in the world come to Yahoo! every month, and that more people spend time on our site every month than any other site in the US. That’s huge. And my biggest disappointment is that although we have all these wonderful sites – like being #1 in eleven categories – we really didn’t focus enough on what we were good at. The company was easily distracted – it’s really about focus.

2. Joe Lazarus (San Francisco): My Question: If you had to choose, what is the one specific thing that Yahoo! can and will do better than any other company in the world… the one thing that you would like consumers to instantly associate with the Yahoo! brand and the products you create… not something broad and all encompassing like “the starting point” or “excellence”, but rather one specific core competency. Some examples from other companies might include: Google = Search, eBay = Auctions, Facebook = Friend Connections, Amazon = Customer Service. All of these companies do many things well, but they each have clear strengths in one clearly defined area. What do you see as Yahoo!’s one thing either today or in the future?

I’m so glad you asked this question because it’s something we’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Yahoo! means a lot of things to a lot of people – whether you’re a student, a working mom, a business owner, what have you. We’ve essentially got something for everyone. And that’s made it tough to really define Yahoo! and what makes us unique. But as we see it, Yahoo! is the place where millions of people come every day to see what is happening with the people and the things that matter most to them. That could mean what’s happening in the world — like breaking news, sports scores, stock quotes, last night’s TV highlights — and your world — like your email, photos, groups, fantasy leagues. Based on what we know about you, we’re unique in how well we can bring you both those worlds. So I think our clear strength is “relevance” – whether that means knowing what weather to give you or serving up headlines you’ll be interested in. It’s all about really getting you and we have more work to do in that area.

3. AMS (United Kingdom): What job is Jerry Yang now doing within the company?

Jerry still has his sleeves rolled up. He spends a ton of time with our product teams and is fantastic with our advertising customers. In fact, he’s been spending a lot of time on the road in the last few months, meeting with clients and discussing how we can work better with them. And, of course, he’s got a really big brain, which is incredibly helpful to me personally. He was really supportive as I came on board and we talk regularly about the company’s future and what needs to change. Working with founders isn’t a new concept for me –- when I joined Autodesk, there were eight of them!

4. AMS (United Kingdom): What is Steve Ballmer really like to negotiate with?

Sorry, I’m not going to touch that one. Maybe you should ask the aQuantive guys.

5. AMS, United Kingdom: Do you think the economic downturn is still getting worst, and will drag on for long time yet. (There does seem to be more adverts on yahoo the last month or so that is am seeing as customer, so is good for your company).

I don’t think the downturn is getting worse. But it’s not getting better at this point.

6. Aaditya Bhatia (San José, CA): This is from one of the biggest fans of Yahoo!. Google is on its way to taking over the world. What is your killer plan to save our Yahoo! and our planet?

Bottom line is we have to make Yahoo! just a terrific site for people around the world to come to –- and come back to. What most people don’t realize is that only 5% of the time people spend on the Internet is spent searching. That means 95% of the time, people are doing something else … reading, sharing, connecting, researching, watching, discovering, having fun, killing time. The better our products are and the more they help you live your life, the more likely you are to visit us again and again. And that’s what we’re focused on. But I also want to point out that Yahoo! is already really strong company –- I think with the backdrop of the last year or so, that’s gotten lost in the shuffle. We’re number one or two in about 25 categories and we reach one in every two people who go online. Not to mention that we have billions in the bank, no debt, and enviable operating cash flow in a tough economy. I don’t think that describes a company in need of “being saved.” As for the planet, we all have to work together to save it.

7. David Smith (Portland, Oregon): What is the most important user experience factor for Yahoo’s future success and why (for example accessibility, deep personalization, open data, or real-time relevance like Twitter/Facebook)?

Like I said earlier, relevance is really our secret sauce… to what’s happening with people and things that matter to you most. That means we’re either letting you personalize what you see on Yahoo! (although we know no one wants to work too hard at doing that these days) or using what we know about to surface things that match what you care about.

8. bAbel: With the newspaper industry suffering, if newspapers go down, which would affect AP and the wires, would that affect Yahoo!? If so, how?

I’m not going to speculate on the future of newspapers, but we’re obviously focused on making the best, high-quality news content available to people wherever they want to access it. With people turning more often to the Internet for news, we know that journalism will thrive online, regardless of how business models ultimately evolve. On that note, our 800 newspaper partners in the Newspaper Consortium are focused on growth and innovation, vs the doom and gloom hanging over the industry. They’re seeing revenue grow online and that’s influencing a seminal shift in their cultures and how they do business.

9. Miramon: Revenues and profits have been decreasing. Regardless of the reasons for the downturn, what is your plan for making Yahoo a vital and profitable company?

Yahoo! is already a vital and profitable company. We’re all suffering from the downturn but, frankly, we less than many companies.

10. Jen: which yahoo products do you use the most and why?

I spend most of my time on our homepage to see what’s happening in the world, Yahoo! Mail for email, and Yahoo! Finance to keep an eye on the markets.

11. Kathy (San Francisco): It’s graduation season at high schools and universities….If you were delivering a graduation speech this year, what would your key messages be to the graduates?

For the kids graduating from high school and going on to college, I would tell them to study hard, play hard, and pick good friends. Don’t hang with losers. For college grads, I would remind them that they have, for the most part, at least 40 years ahead of them to work, so they have a long time to make their way. And in the environment their facing, they need to be creative because I will guarantee that after this downturn, there will be an upturn.

12. AMS (United Kingdom): What is favourite way to spend a weekend.

Family, gardening and golf.

13. Kathy (San Francisco): If this chapter of your leadership had a soundtrack, what would it be and why?

Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”

14. Miramon: Do you agree that Parmesan is truly the king of cheeses?

Yes. And by the way, pasta is just a carrier for Parmesan.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

It’s elementary… Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of legendary detective Sherlock Holmes, was born 150 years ago today. Holmes and his trusty sidekick, Dr. Watson, mastered the art of observation and deduction to solve crimes in 56 stories and four novels. But what we want to know is whether Mr. Spock is truly a descendant. Here’s the code we cracked this week:

• Buzzing the world: There’s news and there’s news people really care about. That’s what Yahoo! Buzz helps you filter. And now the site has made it even easier to keep tabs on what your contacts and the greater community find most interesting. As part of a fresh redesign, a new “Buzz Updates” tab surfaces the submitting, voting, and commenting activity from your friends and others. And given Yahoo! Buzz’s runaway success as the (insert shameless self-promotion) most popular social content service in the US, Yahoo! Buzz got its passport and just landed in India. Now readers all over India can keep tabs on what’s hot in everything from Bollywood to business in Bangalore. More here.
• Just tell me: The iPhone is truly the one thing I’d want on a desert isle, but let’s face it — its keyboard leaves something to be desired. That’s why Yahoo! Mobile just launched voice search for our Yahoo! Mobile iPhone app. Now you can search for anything — flight numbers, restaurants, gas stations, web sites — by just moving your mouth. You can also customize your “My Interests” tab with your voice — just click on “add anything” and say the topic you want to explore and add to your page. Our voice-enabled search is now available on more than 80 different devices/platforms - from Blackberry (including the newest ones) to Nokia to iPhone and Windows Mobile. Download the app or your update.
• Catch that play?: You can read about sports online, but it’s video that really gets the adrenaline flowing. Yahoo! Sports just revamped their video player so you can do more with the play-by-play. It now has a larger viewing window and you can watch videos in full screen. You can also share links or embed your favorite plays in your blog or what-have-you. And handy big thumbnails make it easier to browse through the video library. Check out this Lakers’ dunk. And then go get air sick.
• Group update: Six months ago, you might have noticed activity updates from your friends popping up in places like Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Profiles. They’ve included activity on Twitter, Flickr, Yahoo! Buzz, MyBlogLog, Yahoo! Music, delicious, and more. This week, Yahoo! Groups joined the fray. Now the questions, answers, advice, and photos you share with your group can also become an update for your Yahoo! connections, offering more airtime for the content you’ve created. And don’t worry — you have complete control over what you want to share. Read more here.
• Make it green: If you fancy yourself a MacGyver type and have an idea for a great new “green” gizmo, get thee to Yahoo! Green’s new “Make It Green” campaign. We’re searching for the best new green products and do-it-yourself projects so we can turn them into real products. What’s in it for you? A chance to star on the PBS TV show Everyday Edisons, a check for $2500, and the glory of knowing that your little planet-saving idea is lining the shelves of stores. Not particularly inventive? That’s ok — just go give a thumbs up to whatever idea you like best. You’ve got until June 30th. Check it out.

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While President Obama was inspiring university students at Notre Dame this weekend, our own Jerry Yang was doing the same at the University of Hawaii at Hilo (minus the right-to-life controversy).

Breathing inspiration into anxiety-ridden and debt-addled college graduates in the worst economy since World War II is a tall order. But Jerry reminded them of the resilient human spirit and that great things often crawl from the wreckage in the worst of times. After all, he and David Filo created Yahoo! in a downturn in the early 90s. Jerry proffered six bits of advice — ranging from not letting the headlines get the grads down to taking advantage of the incredible tools (e.g. the Internet) at their disposal to being ready to take strange roads that might not be in their master plan.

You can read the full transcript here. Or enjoy the video (Part I, Part II), courtesy of BigIslandVideoNews.com.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor