Carol Bartz, our (newish) CEO, has been Yahoo!’s fearless leader for exactly four months. And in that time, I think it’s fair to say she has handily won the hearts and minds of Yahoos the world over. She’s candid, accessible, a quick study, and has an incomparable way with colorful one-liners. She’s made some tough calls, but maintaining status quo wasn’t in her job description. She sees the world through the eyes of a customer (both consumers and partners) and that’s more than half the battle. And you clearly liked what she had to say when she stopped by in February.

In two weeks, Carol will sit in conversation with Kara Swisher at the annual D: All Things Digital conference. In honor of this first public appearance, she’s agreed to an exclusive Q&A with Yodel Anecdotal. We invite you, dear reader, to submit whatever questions you’d like us to ask. We’re squeezing into her calendar so we can’t get to all of them, but we’d love your input. Fair game might be topics like “Why did you take this job?,” “What do you think needs fixing at Yahoo!,” “What’s your favorite website?,” and “Why do you like cheese so much?.”

Please submit your questions via ycorpblog [at] yahoo-inc [dot] com no later than 5pm PT next Tuesday (May 19th). We’ll post her answers on May 27th. Please include your name, city, and whether you’d prefer to be anonymous. And make it good!

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Usually what happens at a company all-hands, stays at a company all-hands. But sometimes there’s great stuff that seems too good to keep under wraps.

Take Mitch Spolan, for example. We have a phrase around here that describes someone who’s loyal to the core — they “bleed purple.” That’s Mitch in a nutshell. He’s a 10-year Yahoo! veteran who’s seen it all — the good, the bad, the ugly, and the awesome. And he’s embodied the definition of pride throughout. And in this presentation, Mitch gave abut 13,000 people a bevy of reasons to share that pride.

You have to forget for a moment that he’s a sales guy (he was just promoted to head of our North American field sales organization) because what you’re about to watch isn’t some guy just trying to cut a deal. This video helps you understand what it means to bleed purple.

And you’ll also learn a thing or two about measuring social impact by a factor of Obamas.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

In the two months we’ve been on Twitter, no tweet has gotten more replay than the one about the yodel that’s hidden in our homepage (just click the exclamation point in our logo and see for yourself). Clearly the sound of the Yahoo! yodel still makes people really happy. Which got me thinking about Wylie Gustafson, the guy who started it all back in 1996.

Wylie’s not some commercial voiceover talent. He’s the real deal — a true singing cowboy. He’s got the belt buckle, hat, ranch, and 20 horses to prove it. I caught up with Wylie to find out how on Earth he got his start in yodeling, how Yahoo! found him for our first ad campaign, how life has changed since then, what he’s doing now, and what it’s like to be the world’s most recognized yodeler. You can read a full transcript of the interview here. But for you multitasking, RSS feed-scanning, I-only-have-time-for-300-words-or-less types, here are some highlights:

• Wylie yodeled for brands like Mitsubishi, Taco Bell, Porsche, and Miller Light before creating his 3-note hit for Yahoo! in 1996.
• When our ad agency brought him into the recording studio, he came up with 10 different yodels of the name Yahoo! in a matter five minutes.
• Wylie yodels for a living with his “Wylie & the Wild West” band.
• Wylie’s yodeling notoriety has landed him gigs with A Prairie Home Companion, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. He has appeared on the Grand Ol Opry more than 50 times.
• Wylie trains cutting (or cattle) horses on a ranch near Dusty, Washington (population: 11).
• His dad was a Montana cowboy and ranch veterinarian and yodeled on horseback.
• Wylie learned to yodel from a reel-to-reel tape his aunt received from an Austrian ski team.
• Wylie and Yahoo! settled a lawsuit in 2002 after we inadvertently used his yodel in a national ad without the proper contract.
• Wylie toured the country as the emcee for the national Yahoo! Yodel Challenge in 2003. The winner, via write-in submission, was Taylor Ware, a 9-year-old who went on to becoming a finalist on “America’s Got Talent.”

And, yes, we’ve sent him his very own Insta-Yodel button. No home is complete without it.

Here’s Wylie in action, singing his most popular live song, about some guy who made it big by yodeling for a little Internet company in the mid-90s. And you can learn how to yodel like Wylie here.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Photo by Bill Watts

Did you know that humans have only used verbal language for the past 50,000 years – a virtual blink of the eye in evolutionary time? This got me wondering how people communicated before language. Since we’ve been thriving on this planet for 160,000 years (or millions more, depending on when you start the “human” clock), how exactly how did we express ourselves? And do we hang on to old non-verbal habits today?

MIT Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland stopped by to discuss this very topic with us yesterday as the latest in a series of Big Thinkers lectures at Yahoo! Research. He also shared insights into the expansive research he’s done in his career on what he calls “honest signals,” the non-verbal clues and patterns that reveal everything from how people interact on the job to who they date and whether or not they’re going to buy a given product or service when the telemarketer calls.

Professor Pentland is leading the exploration of this new realm of social science – designing new ways to collect data about our non-verbal communication patterns and analyzing the ever-growing mountains of data we’re creating when we use new technologies (like the Internet and especially mobile phones). Pentland’s work is aimed at making the ways we communicate without language a first class part of how we see and understand the world, and, together with his colleagues and students, he’s applying these new ideas to everything from predicting which speed-daters are going to get together, to tackling public health issues, to what makes companies and creative teams productive (here’s a hint: face time at the water cooler actually pays off!).

In the video below, I interviewed Prof. Pentland about his work. In a week or so, his full lecture will be available at the Yahoo! Research Big Thinkers site, but in the mean time, we hope you enjoy this preview. And for those iPhone and Blackberry users out there, you may want to download the CitySense app the next chance you get for a hands-on experience with the types of data and research Professor Pentland is working on.

Since 2006, we’ve had 20 “Big Thinkers” from UC Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and others talk to us about everything from economic theory and marketplace design to online amateur media production and other forms of user generated content. They’re a lot of fun and we hope to share more of these interesting discussions and ideas with you as often as we can.

Elizabeth Churchill
Principal Research Scientist, Yahoo! Research

A month and a half in the saddle and today I have the perfect excuse to get blogging.

I’ve been on a whirlwind tour for the last six weeks, talking with everybody from executive leaders to the guys who configured my laptop. I’ve been in student mode, slowly getting smarter about what makes this place tick. And most recently, I’ve been gathering information on what it’s going to take to get Yahoo! to a great place as an organization –- and one that brings you killer products.

People here have impressed the hell out of me. They’re smart, dedicated, passionate, driven, and really nice. There’s so much great energy and frankly lots of optimism. But there’s also plenty that has bogged this company down. For starters, you’d be amazed at how complicated some things are here.

So today I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo! a lot faster on its feet. For us working at Yahoo!, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer. For you using Yahoo! every day, it will better enable us to deliver products that make you say, “Wow.”

I’ve noticed that a lot of us on the inside don’t spend enough time looking to the outside. That’s why I’m creating a new Customer Advocacy group. After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you. Our Customer Care team does an incredible job with the amazing number of people who come to them, but they need better resources. So we’re investing in that. After all, you deserve the very best.

We’re also leaning on this team to make sure we’re all hearing the voice of our customers (consumers and advertisers). I’m singularly focused on providing you with awesome products. Period. The kind that get you so excited, you have to tell someone about them. Whether on your desktop, your mobile device, or even your TV.

And that takes a real understanding of what you want/need/love/hate, how you’re using our products, and what you find simple, intuitive, easy and fun. Who wants innovation for innovation’s sake if it doesn’t make your life easier, more efficient, more productive? So expect us to hear you better and take better care of you.

Finally, a note about our brand. It’s one of our biggest assets. Mention Yahoo! practically anywhere in the world, and people yodel. But in the past few years, we haven’t been as clear in showing the world what the Yahoo! brand stands for. We’re going to change that. Look for this company’s brand to kick ass again.

Big thanks to the many of you who’ve reached out with positive comments. It’s clear people want Yahoo! to succeed. I’ll try to pop by here again soon, though probably not too soon. I have a pretty long to-do list.

Carol Bartz
CEO

Tonight, the Yahoo! Buzz team has party hats on in celebration of its first year.

What’s that, you say? You don’t know Yahoo! Buzz? It’s where you go to find the Web’s most remarkable stories, determined by people like you. Chances are you’ve read one of the millions of articles that have been “buzzed up,” commented on or featured on the Yahoo! homepage and across Yahoo! sites over the past year. Since Yahoo! Buzz is open to all publishers, the site features stories from tens of thousands of sources –- from the most prolific sites, to the truly quirky.

What we’ve found really interesting is the way people around the Web are busily interacting with the content on Yahoo! Buzz. People are voting on or commenting on stories every two seconds, and the top Yahoo! Buzz stories featured on the Yahoo! homepage to date have received well over 300 million clicks. And while Yahoo! Updates is still relatively new, we’re seeing more and more people sharing Updates from Buzz with their Yahoo! connections. So, whenever you “buzz up” a story, it shows up on Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger and other relevant places across Yahoo!, providing another way to share your interests with your connections.

Many thanks to the publishers and the community of people who helped shape the headlines for millions by participating in the first 365 days of Yahoo! Buzz. The site already has more unique monthly visitors than any other social content site in the U.S., according to comScore Media Metrix.

For a look at our editors’ favorite Buzz stories from year one, head on over to the Buzz Log.

We hope you’ll keep on buzzing with us as we watch the next year unfold online.

Brian McMullin
Product Lead, Yahoo! Buzz

Photo from Theresa Thompson

As many of you know, we started testing new concepts for the Yahoo! homepage last fall, with the goal of helping to simplify the Web for the more than 300 million people around the world who visit the site each month.

We are wrapping up the first phase of our “bucket testing” and have gleaned some great insights from people in the US, UK, France and India who have tried out the new page. We’ve done a number of things to collect input –- from reading your comments here on Yodel to reviewing online feedback forms and customer care inquires to meeting with many of you in person and online. Bottom line is we’re getting closer to the final design, but we’re not quite there yet.

Before I share details around what we’ve learned, I wanted to give a quick recap of some of the functionality we’ve added over the past few months since just a fraction of you have experienced it firsthand.

Back in September, we introduced a new section called “My Apps.” The great part about having apps on your homepage is that you can easily check in and get more done –- from reading and responding to multiple email accounts to browsing local movie listings –- all without leaving the page.

Today, we’ve enhanced that experience and we’re testing more than 25 apps that will keep you updated with whatever you want to know. New additions include apps from eBay, Forbes.com, Wired.com and more top brands. We’ve also beefed up the Sports and Finance apps, for example, providing schedules, team standings, blogs links and more, plus one-click access to your stock portfolios and stock quotes. The best part is that the “My Apps” section is now customizable so you can add and remove apps (check out this screenshot) so your homepage reflects what matters most to you.

Here’s what we’ve heard from our testers:

Positive Feedback

• People are happy with the streamlined look and feel
• There’s lots of love for the applications
• Most testers said they prefer the new homepage over the current homepage

One comment that sums it up nicely:

“Well — I was surprised at first at how little change was introduced, and liked that. Now I’m surprised by how much change actually is packed in, but is more interaction based… Basically it’s deceptively different — looks and feels the same, but much more functionality built in at a new layer.” - Thomas

What We’re Working On
Now that we’ve got a critical mass of input, we’re translating it into updated versions of the page for ongoing testing. Here are some highlights.

• The #1 thing we’re hearing you want is more apps and we’ll be adding many apps in the coming weeks
• Most didn’t like the dark color that we tested initially — see the screenshot below of the new visual treatments we’re testing
• Easier ways to access and preview email and instant messaging accounts are in the works
• It should be easier to get to other Yahoo! services that you’ve come to rely upon

We don’t take changes to your homepage lightly and your input is critical. To help our designers and engineers, tell us what else you think we should consider. Is there a killer app that you’d love to see?

Know that we’re working hard to create a new homepage that you’ll love and we’ll keep you posted as we get closer to launching. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Tapan Bhat
Senior Vice President, Yahoo! Front Doors, Communities and Network Services

The Big Game is on Sunday. It’s the culmination of a season of well-researched drafts, strategic trades, painful injuries, trash talking, stats galore, victories and defeats… in your fantasy football league.

Every year, more than 12 million people reach for computer mice along with their remotes as they play fantasy football. Yahoo! Sports alone has more than four million players. That’s a lot of people demanding perfection when it comes to their league drafting process, how fast they can get their hands on data and stats, and how easily they can manage their rosters in that critical hour before the coin toss.

Though the leagues ended with the playoffs, we thought we’d give you a video look at the team of engineers that kept you on top of your game -– the people who toiled on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights to ensure that servers didn’t crash under the weight of all those stats. The team that brought you all the best new tools to help you make smarter calls. The guys (and gals) who, like you, live and breathe sports — nary a day goes by without at least one football jersey in the cube bullpen. In fact, quite a few of them have been working on Yahoo! Sports for more than ten years.

Whether you’re a Cardinals or a Steelers fan, may your guacamole be fresh, your beer plentiful, and your pizza hot. For once, Yahoo! Sports engineers will be watching the game right along with you.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Filmed and edited by Bart Bishoff, Yahoo! Broadcast Bureau

A team of editors in Yahoo! Search is in the very enviable position of being able to peer deeply into the minds of the collective Yahoo! populace at any given moment — watching anonymized keywords that spike as people search for news and information related to current events.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at what our users were most curious about today as they watched the swearing in of our 44th president:

• Oath of office - people were keen to read about “john roberts flub” as the Chief Justice stumbled slightly on the oath
• Aretha Franklin - that hat was on everyone’s mind; there were also questions about how old she is, along with confusion about her name (”anita franklin”)
• Joseph Lowery - people were buzzing about the Reverend and his funky benediction
• Dick Cheney wheelchair - why exactly was he in a wheelchair?
• Obama speech - because hearing it once was evidently not enough
• Inaugural lunch menu - great curiosity about what was being served to the President on this historic day
• Abraham Lincoln - searches about his bible as well as quotes that might have been invoked today
• How old is Obama - shouldn’t it be how “young” is Obama?
• Readings/music - there were spikes on particular pieces and lyrics, including misheard phrases (”air and simple gifts” and the misheard “heir and simple gifts”)
• Bush daughters’ letter to Obama daughters - interest in the advice between First Daughters
• Activities/lesson plans - parents and teachers searched for all sorts of things for kids, like coloring pages, lesson plans, activities, word searches
• Live coverage - an unprecedented global audience sought the experience live online
• Obama’s limo - there was great interest in this James Bondian machine.
• Tuskegee Airmen - people sought background on this group of World War II pilots who broke the color barrier in military aviation
• Michelle Obama dress - as usual, fashionistas wanted all the skinny on who designed Michelle’s dress (it was Isabel Toledo)

And if you get a chance, check out the Flickr Inauguration 2009 pool, which now boasts more than 4,000 images from the inaugural festivities.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Photo from erin m

What do you do when one of your teams hits a milestone anniversary? Host a reality TV show!

The Food Network’s “Dinner: Impossible” crew descended on our campus this week to pull off an episode that honored the anniversary of Yahoo! Search (specifically, the fifth year of our proprietary Yahoo! Search Technology). Celeb chef Robert Irvine arrived at our headquarters early in the morning to be given a seemingly impossible culinary challenge by Chief Yahoo Jerry Yang.

Since the show isn’t slated to air until April, we can’t tell you what we asked him to do, how many people he cooked for, and in how many hours, but let’s just say those of you who searched for food items on Yahoo! last year played a big hand in it. And I can tell you that some serious innovation was definitely required!

And we didn’t let Chef Robert do it alone. We lent him Yahoo! Search SVP Tuoc Luong and VP of Marketing Raj Gossain to help out in the kitchen. Two gourmands with a killer history with hot dogs. The best I can describe it as is sheer and utter mayhem — frenetic chopping, mixing, grilling, slicing, flouring, deep-frying, shouting, accusing, burning… as the hours and minutes ticked away.

Did Chef Robert achieve his mission? Wild horses can’t drag it out of us, but we do hope you’ll tune in to the Food Network to find out. In the meantime, a hearty happy anniversary to the Yahoo! Search Team.

Photos from the production and ensuing party can be found here.

UPDATE: The “Yahoo! Search Scramble” episode will premiere on the Food Network on April 15th at 10pm ET/PT.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Photo from CeciliaC