On the day of the show, many of us Y! Music writers will be out there covering the event. I’ll report on who’s winning, who’s losing, and the surprises viewers may have in store. Chris Willman will write his always-provocative review of the show, including his impression of the performances and acceptance speeches. Popular Y! Music bloggers Lyndsey Parker and Billy Johnson, Jr. will be among the other Yahoo! Music regulars weighing in with snappy, up-to-the-minute coverage.

It will need to be snappy, too, because Adele’s sweep of this year’s awards is a foregone conclusion. The 23-year-old British singer is expected to win in all six of the categories in which she’s nominated. That would allow her to tie Beyonce’s record for the most wins in one night by a female artist, as well as Eric Clapton’s record for most wins in one night by a British artist.

Stay tuned to Yahoo! Music for even more up-to-the-minute, insider info on everything Grammys. And for even more details on the big night here on Yodel, check out our other Grammys-related Yodel post here.

-Paul Grein, Yahoo! Music

Photo: Columbia Records

Literally no other event on Earth promises to focus so many eyeballs onto one spectacle at the same time as the Super Bowl does. This year set a new record, with an average of 111.3 million total U.S. viewers on NBC, according to Nielsen.
Everyone knows that many people watch the game only to see the commercials, as companies like to take advantage of this planetary reach via the most creative and compelling ads you’ll see all year.

One of the best examples on this year’s broadcast was Chrysler’s halftime ad (“It’s Halftime, America”), starring Clint Eastwood.

Before the game, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne promised an ad that would “reflect the very spirit of what Chrysler is today and how we view our role in society.”

Explaining the concept after the game, Chrysler CMO Olivier Francois said: “The idea was to expand on last year’s message [Imported from Detroit], which was a rallying cry around Detroit, to bring that to another level… We were very ambitious. Our brief to [Wieden & Kennedy] contained two things: We wanted a follow-up of ‘Imported’ but saying something totally different; and we wanted the halftime idea, that was something we started talking to NBC about a long time ago.”

In the same casual-drive-over-gravel voice that moviegoers have adored since he played the spaghetti Western genre’s favorite “Man with No Name,” Eastwood’s stirring oratory depicted Detroit and, by extension, America, as a team striving to get back on its feet for the second half.

Not surprisingly, this turned into one of the most memorable Super Bowl ads.

The day after, on Yahoo!

Equally unsurprising: The next day you could find it front and center on Yahoo!’s homepage in the form of a custom video takeover, complimented by a pair of static graphical placements.

The 820 x 310 video screen launches as soon as you land on the page, presenting a 15-second truncated version of the original TV ad.

The screen dissolves to reveal both a 450 x 60 banner in the center of the page coupled with your standard 300 x 250 ad on the right.

Hovering your mouse over either placement triggers a 3-2-1 countdown that spawns a bigger, 960 x 540 video screen showing the same truncated version of the ad. At its conclusion, the screen presents the company logos—Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram—and a link to Chrysler’s YouTube channel.

Chrysler’s Halftime in America ad is a great example of how the TV and digital spaces can complement each other with their respective strengths. The Homepage ad puts Clint Eastwood in front of you, ever so briefly, just to give you a taste of Chrysler’s message, before providing the option to interact and engage.

Click here to go to Halftime.

Click here to view the full TV ad on Yahoo! Screen.

— Thomas T. Lady

Editor’s Note: This entry was reposted from the Yahoo! Advertising Blog. For more information, visit their site, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Predict Your Favorites to Win with Grammy’s Pickem Game

The Yahoo! Music team is gearing up for another exciting Grammy Awards this year. Set to air this Sunday, the 54th Annual Grammy Awards will be hosted by LL Cool J and feature performances by Chris Brown, Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennett, and Carrie Underwood, plus a first-ever dance music segment and more.

Adele will also perform, marking her first, much-anticipated return to the stage since she had vocal surgery. In fact, the Yahoo! Music experts are expecting Adele to sweep the awards with wins for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Song of the Year, and more.

Want to organize an office competition about who will win? You can print out your own home voting ballot. For more Grammys-related fun, you can also play the Grammys Pickem Game on Yahoo! Music.

Stay with Yahoo! Music all weekend for tons of updates and interviews, and come back on Monday for a recap all the Grammy winners, performance highlights, hot red-carpet looks, and more!

Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Visualizing How Yahoo! Serves Up 13,000,000 Unique Story Combinations, Every Single Day

Ever wondered how Yahoo! decides which stories to put on its front page each day? Or why your Red Sox team scores or daily omg! fix usually appears up front?

That’s because the Yahoo! page you see each time you visit yahoo.com is likely different than the person sitting next to you. In fact, more than 13,000,000 personalized story combinations are delivered every day on the Today Module (the little box at the top of our homepage displaying featured stories), and it happens within milliseconds of you visiting our site. The minute you log into your Yahoo! account, personalization goes a whole level deeper.

Today we unveiled an innovative way to visualize the magic that makes it all work, and what it means for you.

Go ahead and click here to check it out. The tool is populated in near real-time, so you can discover what the most popular story is, right now. For instance, you might be interested to learn that today more than 12 million people have seen an article on the $26 billion mortgage foreclosure deal reached between the U.S. government and leading banks. Or that 92 million people saw a video on a test driver’s close call with a deer while filming a commercial.

Yahoo! creates uniquely meaningful experiences for every single person, at this scale. How? It’s simple, really. We do it with deep science and great engineering.

The Magic Behind It: C.O.R.E.
Initially developed within Yahoo! Labs, the award winning science and research group within Yahoo!, C.O.R.E. (Content Optimization and Relevance Engine) is an innovative suite of technologies that allows us to feature the stories most likely to be interesting to you.

Today, C.O.R.E. powers content on many Yahoo! properties, including Yahoo! News and the Today Module. There, editors write and gather the most important and engaging stories of the day, and C.O.R.E. determines how stories should be ordered, dependent on each user. Similarly, C.O.R.E. figures out which story categories (i.e. technology, health, finance, or entertainment) should be displayed prominently on the page to help deepen engagement for each viewer.

What’s unique here is not just the innovative C.O.R.E. algorithms that crunch this amount of data all day, every day – but that it’s also the perfect marriage of deep science and a world-class editorial team.

Editors use C.O.R.E. and their editorial judgment to ensure that important stories are front and center. For example, Yahoo! editors made sure that the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death was on everyone’s page the moment the news broke. An algorithm couldn’t have done that.

So how does C.O.R.E actually work?
C.O.R.E. measures how often users click on stories overall and within different segments of the population. In just a few visits to yahoo.com, you’ll start to see tailored content appear just for you. And the more time you spend, the better it gets.

Since C.O.R.E. was implemented in 2008, people click on the Today Module four times more often than they used to – in fact, more than 1 billion times per month! To put that in context, every eight minutes C.O.R.E. registers more clicks on the Yahoo! homepage than there are words in the entire English language.

Rather than list out the millions of possible combinations, we created an interactive visualization that allows you to experiment with C.O.R.E. You can explore the day’s most popular stories or put yourself in someone else’s shoes and see Yahoo! through their eyes.

Go behind the scenes and drill into the data that powers the personal content experiences of 700 million users here: http://visualize.yahoo.com/core

Steven Lyons,
Sr. Product Manager, C.O.R.E.

Sales Director Keevie Silvay’s career has included stints at startups and big companies alike, but it was only when she joined Yahoo! in 2004 did she realize that she could have the best of both worlds. “[Yahoo] is a huge platform with millions and millions of users, but at the same time, it’s always at the leading edge of what’s going on in the industry. “ Keevie says.

Keevie and her team handle advertising giants like Proctor & Gamble, General Mills and Kraft and compares finding the best ways to provide them with the ultimate Yahoo! experience to getting a digital MBA.

“From search to branded entertainment to original content and everything in between — there is no greater place to learn everything in the digital industry and to provide those solutions to your clients.”

Editors Note: This article is part of a series entitled “Life at Yahoo!,” that gives employees the opportunity to share their own stories about Yahoo!. To hear more of these stories, visit Yahoo! Careers, or visit us on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.

The Power of Yahoo! Finance for IntoNow

Business and economic news fans – this may be for you! This month Yahoo! launched a new feature in IntoNow that makes it simple for you to see news stories related to the companies being discussed on various business television programs and uses the power of Yahoo! Finance to give you up to the minute stock prices on those companies too. As you’re watching a program with IntoNow, whenever we detect a company being mentioned we now also show you the stock view. Keep an eye for more examples of where we can bring the scale and scope of Yahoo! right into your living room with IntoNow. Download IntoNow from the iTunes Store:

App Search UK – Taking the Guesswork out of Searching for Apps

Yahoo! has just announced the launch of App Search in the UK, the first desktop search engine for both iPhone and Android apps. With hundreds of thousands of apps in the Apple App Store and Android Market, finding what you want can be both exhausting and challenging. There are times you don’t know the specific name of the app, so you’re leaving it up to chance that you’re actually downloading the app you really want.  Just like when you’re searching for websites, Yahoo! helps you find apps that match the keyword or search term that you’ve entered. The App Search results page lists matching app titles with a comprehensive description, price, overall star rating from users, and screenshots all in one place to help you with your decision: to download or not to download. You can filter search results by device (Android or iPhone), price (free or paid) and category. Yahoo! App Search also helps you discover new apps via featured lists such as Top Trending, Top Free, Top Paid and Most Reviewed apps. You can also leave your own feedback and rating to help other users find apps. Discover App Search for here

Yahoo! Toolbar Update

We have released an update to the Yahoo! Toolbar available for Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. The new toolbar is the easiest way to check the latest news, weather and email while browsing. It also includes a redesigned Facebook app offering a quick view of status updates, news feeds and wall posts and the toolbar update for Internet Explorer features a coupon app — bringing a vast array of relevant coupons for each user to search or browse for coupons by category or popularity. The installation size has also been reduced, with the added functionality. It is available for download now at toolbar.yahoo.com

Product Searches Made Easy Through Shine

Shine from Yahoo, the leading website for women’s lifestyle content, has released the Get it Guide, an online destination for the must-have products that everyday women are searching for and talking about. The Get it Guide offers insights from real women into the latest products and trends, allowing customers to make more informed purchasing decisions. The Get it Guide also features a team of gurus to review, discuss and share their views on the products, inviting Shine users to vote for their favorites online. Published every few weeks, each guide will focus on a different product category, from fragrances to workout dvd’s, offering an ultimate one-stop shop for the products that savvy shoppers are looking for. Be sure to check regularly for favorite products and reviews.

ABC News Digital platforms including ABCNews.com, OTUSNews.com, Goodmorningamerica.com on Yahoo! and ABC News articles on Yahoo! News saw an online traffic boost of 165 percent and digital video streams of 100 million – an increase of 179 percent – since the Yahoo! News/ABC News alliance.

GoodMorningAmerica.com on Yahoo! is consistently showing a growth on popularity among users, tripling its monthly traffic with a 25% increase each month. Additionally, the ABC News/Yahoo! News digital original video series including Newsmakers, Around the World with Christiane Amanpour and This Could be Big with Bill Weir also saw triple the amount of video streams since their October debuts. The most recent online video series, Power Players grew 219% month over month.

Yahoo! News’ alliance with ABC News plays a key role in Yahoo!’s ambitious year-long coverage of the 2012 Elections and further strengthens Yahoo! as the No. 1 online news source, greatly enhancing our already robust news content. This unmatched alliance creates a powerful news experience that provides people greater access to compelling news and information, including more original news video online than ever before.

If online searches are any indication of who will win this year’s game, the New England Patriots would come out on top – this year they had 50% more Yahoo! searches than the New York Giants.

Still, the Patriots are in for a real fight when they take on the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI. The Patriots’ pass defense isn’t what it was four year ago when these two franchises tussled in Super Bowl XLII, and Eli Manning is running a far more productive passing game. Tom Brady’s offense isn’t quite as explosive as it was four years ago, and the Giants’ pass rush is every bit as ferocious as it was back then. Also, receiver Hakeem Nicks and running back Ahmad Bradshaw will play in this game, and neither player was available in the Week 9 game won by the Giants, 24-20.

However, there are aspects to the Patriots’ game that set them up for victory in ways that were not evident in the last Super matchup. Randy Moss is gone but the Pats compensate for their lack of a deep attack with some of the best formation diversity in the NFL. Tight ends Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski are the main men in the Pats’ aerial attack, and when they’re on the field together, they’re nearly unbeatable.

Gronkowski’s ankle sprain has been a big subject since he was hurt in the AFC Championship game, but I don’t think “Gronk” will be most valuable going out on routes. Where the Patriots will need him is as a blocker – and with all the things the second-year man does well, he blocks better than any tight end in the game. Brady balked against the furious pass rush of Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck in XLII, and the G-men still have Tuck to contend with. Add in Jason Pierre-Paul and Osi Umenyiora, and it’s a handful. But Gronkowski blocked at a dominant level in the AFC Championship game, even after he was hurt. He could make the difference right there.

Brady will still have problems with the Giants’ defense, and if the Pats do win, I don’t think he’ll be the deserving MVP. I see defensive lineman Vince Wilfork, who has been as dominant as any defender in the game over the last few weeks, continuing his rampage through the NFL in the Super Bowl and picking up the award if the voters aren’t too quarterback-centric.

Could the Giants win? Without question, and that’s what makes this particular matchup to intriguing, These teams tend to play close most of the time, and if Eli Manning gets in a groove like he was against the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round, the Pats could be in trouble. But between their improved defense, their just-good-enough passing game, and a few new wrinkles in their secondary, I think New England exacts a measure of revenge for what was the biggest upset in the history of the Super Bowl.

Call it a flip of the Week 9 game – the Patriots will beat the Giants this time, 24-20.

Doug Farrar
Editor, Yahoo! Sports Shutdown Corner Blog

Photo: Getty

To promote its G series of energy drinks, Gatorade kicked off its Win from Within campaign in G-force style with a rich media custom (sporting) event front and center on Yahoo! Sports.
This ad is a triathlon of rich media athleticism: Wallpaper featuring opposing football players leaning into the 950 x 60 banner along the top while a 300 x 250 screen on the right shows one of several brief montages and taglines that Gatorade suited up for this campaign.

If you accept the banner’s invitation to “view commercial,” it pushes down to play a 30-second spot featuring all the athletes you could’ve seen in the right-hand box, while the earnest voiceover admonishes you that you only get out of it what you put into it.

The video player is bracketed by the G logo and a “How Do You Win from Within?” link that takes over the banner after the commercial, inviting you to sprint over to the G series section of the Gatorade site.

Like any skilled athlete, this rich media ad makes full use of the field of play, a digital canvas that provides the ideal arena for advertisers to flex their muscles in an interactive style that spectators could find nowhere else.

Click here to find your mettle.

– Thomas T. Lady

Editor’s Note: This entry was reposted from the Yahoo! Advertising Blog. For more information, visit their site, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Bud Light Hotel Super Bowl concert broadcast live on Yahoo!: The night before the Super Bowl, Bud Light will host a special concert featuring 50 Cent, Lil Jon, and Pitbull that will be broadcast live only on omg! From Yahoo!. The concert can be seen on both omg! From Yahoo! and Yahoo! Screen, beginning at 10 pm EST on Saturday, February 4^th.

Daily coverage: omg! From Yahoo! and Yahoo! Sports will feature daily coverage from the Bud Light Hotel, including “blue-carpet” celebrity interviews, celebrity predictions, an omg! photo gallery collection, and coverage of all the weekend’s parties.

On-the-ground coverage
For an inside look at the week before the game, Yahoo! Sports Radio will stream its shows live from the Super Bowl media center, Wednesday through Friday, from 1-7 pm ET.  On Yahoo! Sports’ NFL homepage, fans can enjoy video access to insightful interviews with the hottest athletes and celebrities in Indianapolis.

In addition to expanded video coverage of this year’s Super Bowl featuring Yahoo! football analyst Eddie George and Yahoo! Sports host Danyelle Sargent, Yahoo! Sports’ NFL experts Mike Silver, Jason Cole, Les Carpenter, and Doug Farrar will be on the scene in Indianapolis. They’ll be covering all angles of the big game, from team and player news to local and entertainment stories, giving fans a complete picture of all the action.

Where do you check the scores?
If you couldn’t watch the Super Bowl, would you check the scores from your phone? A new survey from Yahoo! Sports found that men check NFL scores from some, well, inappropriate locations. The survey of 1,500 U.S. adults ages 18 to 64 indicates that 25 percent of male fans have checked a score while using the bathroom, and four percent have even looked at scores during a funeral! Other questionable locations where men have checked NFL game scores include:

• Classroom (22%)
• Date (18%)
• Wedding (12%)
• Child’s school event (12%)
• Church service (8%)

Other key findings:

• America’s game: With patriotism high as we start a presidential election year, a majority of Super Bowl watchers (65 percent) agree that an international city should not host the game.
• Game or commercials?: When it comes to why viewers tune into the Super Bowl, the majority (67 percent) of men say the game is their favorite part. Most women (58 percent) rank watching the commercials as their favorite part of the event.

After the game is over, fans can visit the Big Game Ad Network on Yahoo! Screen to re-watch their favorite commercials and catch any they missed.

Today, we’ve got more news. As you’re following the game with IntoNow and getting ready for your potential Pepsi MAX windfall, we’re adding a special feature where you’ll be able to watch the biggest Super Bowl commercials, rate them, and share them.

Here’s what it will look like on Sunday:

Commercials from Acura, Audi, Chevrolet, Hulu, Hyundai and Volkswagen will be just some of the thirty or so at your fingertips with IntoNow — right as they hit your TV this Sunday (and you can see them all on Yahoo! Screen too). Who will be the big winner? That’s completely up to you.

A lot of people will be tuning into the Super Bowl to see the commercials and we want you to get your water cooler comments in early and often. Most importantly, you won’t be forcing everyone in your living room to rewind the DVR to watch the commercials you missed while running to the fridge for a snack since they’ll all be right there on your iPad or smartphone. If you’re having a bunch of Giants or Pats fans over, trust us, they’ll appreciate it.

Of course, we also think there’s no better way to follow the Super Bowl game itself than with IntoNow and Yahoo! Sports. You’ll be able to track all the plays and stats as they happen, dive into background on the players and teams, follow the wildfire of Tweets and social chatter that will explode all day and into the night, and participate in live IntoNow polls during the game.

No matter what part of the Super Bowl you’re most interested in, we’ve got you covered.

Photo: Available from sharper65./ FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41421819@N05/6227046130/in/photostream/

The Super Bowl is all about the rivalry. Which quarterback is coming up on top for searches?

As a four-time Super Bowl vet, Tom Brady dominated online compared to his NY Giants counterpart Eli Manning. Yahoo! searches this NFL season for “Tom Brady” have been two times higher than searches for “Eli Manning.” Manning though – who faced off Brady in 2008 and vanquished – is just coming into his own now: Searches by women for “Eli Manning” in January popped up 268%. Of course, it’s not just their gridiron gumption that gets searches. Searches for “Eli Manning girlfriend” are up 1,201% and searches for “Eli Manning wedding” are up 308%. People can’t get enough of the Patriot quarterback’s larger-than-life family: “Tom Brady and Gisele photos” are up 397% and searches for “Tom Brady baby” — that would be little Benjamin — are up 1,109%.

What about the coaches? Are searchers showing a preference for one over the other?

Fans have a love-hate relationship with coaches Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots and Tom Coughlin of the New York Giants. Hated or not, people still want the lowdown on the men. Bill Belichick boasts more than five times more searches compared to Tom Coughlin. Lookups for “Bill Belichick” are up 730%, while “Tom Coughlin” have climbed more than fivefold.

Quarterbacks get a lot of the glory, but what other players are seeing a pop on their online profile?

Well, offense gets just as much search play as defense. Wes Welker is kind of an underdog story, an undrafted guy without a lot of buzz who has ended up as a consistent All-Pro pick – and the Twitter funnyman is facing free agency soon. This year, Rob Gronkowski received over four times the searches on Yahoo! compared to Hakeem Nicks.

Top searched receivers this week on Yahoo!:

1. Wes Welker (New England Patriots wide receiver)
2. Rob Gronkowski (New England Patriots tight end)
3. Victor Cruz (New York Giants wide receiver)
4. Aaron Hernandez (New England Patriots tight end)
5. Hakeem Nicks (New York Giants wide receiver)

Now on to the big question: Any clues as to which team might nab the title?

As you know, the Super Bowl is not a popularity contest. Victory will depend on the men on the field, not quite the will of the people. That said, if online searches hinted who might win this year’s Super Bowl, the Patriots would come out on top. The New England Patriots had 50% more searches this year on Yahoo! compared to the New York Giants.

From parties and friendly wagers to commercial hype and half-time performances, for many Americans, the Super Bowl is about more than a football game – it’s about having fun! What are some of the top non-football related super bowl searches are you seeing spike?

The half-time entertainment is always a draw. Madonna’s ruling the stage at the Super Bowl, but Nicki Minaj, who’s also reported to be performing, is pulling ahead of the grand dame of pop. This year on Yahoo!, Nicki Minaj received 45% more searches than Madonna.

And of course, even the DVR owners won’t be skipping the ads. Yes, people actually anticipate the hawkers: “2012 Super Bowl commercials” are up 732%. Other general queries include “funny Super Bowl commercials,” “cost of Super Bowl commercials,” “top 10 Super Bowl commercials,” “Super Bowl commercial transcripts,” and “new Super Bowl commercials.” From Bueller to Beckham, this is the one time when most Americans will be glued to their seats during the breaks.

Lots of excitement around the Honda commercial that riffs off of Matthew Broderick’s classic role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off:” Searches for the 1986 coming-of-age film are up 1,274% this week. Also spiking: “Ferris Bueller commercial,” “Ferris Bueller quotes,” and “Ferris Bueller soundtrack.”

Top searched car advertisers on Yahoo! this week:

1. Toyota
2. Chevrolet
3. Honda
4. Hyundai
5. Kia

Super Bowl parties typically start early in the day and continue well after the final whistle, and oftentimes involve snacking throughout the day. What is the most popular Super Bowl snack?

The snack favorite for many people is dips.
According to Yahoo!, the top searched “dips” this month are:

1. Buffalo chicken dip
2. Spinach dip
3. Seven- Layer Mexican dip
4. Spinach artichoke dip
5. Crab dip

Then of course there’s the constant grazing. Besides dips, many ambitious cooks turn to Yahoo! to find a new recipe for the Sunday crowd. Searches this week for “Super Bowl recipes” are up 210%, with 70% of the searches coming from women. The top states searching for “Super Bowl recipes” this week on Yahoo! include Missouri, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and Florida. The rest are getting pizza to go.

Top searched “recipes” on Yahoo! this week:

1. Chicken recipes
2. Crockpot recipes
3. Meatloaf recipes
4. Chili recipes
5. Banana bread recipes
6. Soup recipes
7. Super Bowl recipes
8. Beef stew recipes
9. Vegetarian recipes
10. Meatball recipe

Some of the logistics surrounding this event can be confusing. What are the top Super Bowl-related questions people are searching?

I won’t just give you the burning questions and leaving you hanging. Here are the answers too:

• Who is playing in the Super Bowl 2012? It’s an East Coast rivalry between the New England Patriots and New York Giants
• When is the Super Bowl 2012? Sunday, February 5, 2012
• What time is the Super Bowl? Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. EST/3:30 p.m. PST.
• Where is Super Bowl 2012? Lucas Oil Stadium; Indianapolis, IN
• Who is singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl? Kelly Clarkson
• Which team has the most Super Bowl wins? The Pittsburgh Steelers carry the record for the most wins (6 total).
• Who will win Super Bowl 2012? Come on, I don’t do spoilers.

Nearly a year ago, one of the largest natural disasters of our time swept through Japan: the East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The outpour of support for the victims and survivors of the disaster has touched the lives of the Japanese people and this weekend they want to show their appreciation with the ARIGATO event.

Tune in for a live webcast of 500 schoolchildren in Ishinomaki, Onagawa and Higashi-Matsushima singing songs of gratitude. The Fukko-Department, which is organizing the event, hopes that the message of arigato (Japanese for “thank you”) reaches many as an “opportunity to make bonds (‘kizuna’ in Japanese) between the children and people around the world.”

Since the earthquake and tsunami hit in March 2011, Yahoo! Japan has been greatly involved with local efforts, including providing information on child adoption and pet rescue, volunteering at various clean-up efforts throughout the affected regions, posting job listing, collecting funds, and providing free digital content such as anime to bolster spirits. Yahoo! Japan is proudly involved with ARIGATO and is helping to operate the Fukko-Department site for the event.

You can watch the webcast live this Saturday, February 4, 8:20 p.m. (Pacific Time)/February 5, 1:20 p.m. (Local Time Japan) at: http://fukko-department.jp/event/arigato_en.html.

Photo: Available from Japanese Red Cross./ FLICKR

Well, consider your dare accepted. Pepsi MAX and IntoNow from Yahoo! are teaming up for a first-of-its-kind, multi-step companion experience during this year’s Super Bowl weekend. It’s a true “see it on TV, win it in real life” promotion and one lucky IntoNow user is already destined to win free Pepsi MAX for life!

Get your tablets and smartphones ready. Here’s how it will go down this weekend:

• First, if you haven’t already, you’ve got to get IntoNow from Yahoo!. You can download it for free here for iOS (iPad and iPhone) and here if you have an Android phone.

• Next, tune into the NFL Honors award show, which is being hosted by Alec Baldwin and will air on Saturday, February 4 at 9:00 PM EST on NBC. Since 2002 Pepsi has presented the fan selected Pepsi Rookie of the Year award, and this year the award will be presented during NFL Honors. Once you tune in, use IntoNow to tag the program with one simple tap. This will get you some behind the scenes footage and ensure you get a notification to enter the sweepstakes during the Super Bowl.

• Speaking of the Super Bowl, with smartphone or iPad in hand, tune into the big game on Sunday and tag it with IntoNow.  When the Pepsi MAX ad airs during the game, IntoNow will synchronize with your TV, unlocking your entry into the Pepsi MAX for Life sweepstakes. It’s simple, fast, and, as we like to call it, “automagical.”

You’ll be one of the first folks in the world to experience a commercial that not only knows you’re there, but jumps into your living room and gives you a shot at winning Pepsi MAX for life.

If you want to see how the magic of IntoNow works for way more than commercials, check out this video.

At Yahoo!, we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to bring the Pepsi MAX sweepstakes right into your living room with IntoNow, and to be part of a bigger story that’s unfolding all Super Bowl weekend.  Earlier this week Pepsi MAX shared their latest Pepsi MAX commercial, “Check-Out,” which will air during the Super Bowl and trigger your entry into the sweepstakes. You’ll also see that a certain Pepsi MAX competitor’s deliveryman, who happens to have a secret craving for Pepsi MAX, is also in for a “Pepsi MAX for Life” surprise.

It’s all in good fun and demonstrates the creative ways that Pepsi MAX and IntoNow from Yahoo! are pushing the envelope in digital marketing.

“Pepsi MAX partnered with IntoNow for an award winning campaign last year, so we’re excited to team up again for another promotion during Super Bowl weekend,” said Sam Duboff, Pepsi MAX brand team. “IntoNow provides engaging opportunities to port our TV creative to the real world. Last year, when consumers tagged a Pepsi MAX Major League Baseball ad, they were served a coupon for the Pepsi MAX being advertised. Our Super Bowl weekend partnership this year takes ‘see it on TV, win it in real life’ to the next level. Consumers see Pepsi MAX for Life come to life in a playful way during our Super Bowl commercial, and then with IntoNow from Yahoo! we’re able to extend that ultimate prize to our fans.”

Tune into the NFL Honors and the Super Bowl this week and see what Pepsi MAX and IntoNow have in store for you. And enjoy the game!

Yahoo! en Espanol and People on Espanol launch the fifth annual Bello 51 program to discover a previously unknown Hispanic beauty. The winner will be featured in People en Espanol’s “50 Mas Bellos” (50 Most Beautiful) issue.

The Bello 51 program provides Yahoo! en Espanol users with the opportunity to nominate themselves or someone they think would make a good candidate. The Bello 51 winner will receive a complete makeover; a professional photo shoot; VIP access to People en Espanol’s 50 Mas Bellos celebrity gala in New York (including an appearance on the star-studded red carpet); a feature on Yahoo! en Espanol’s website; and inclusion in the 50 Mas Bellos issue of People en Espanol. As if that’s not enough, the winner will also receive transportation and lodging for the NYC celebrity event, as well as $5,000.

The contest runs until February 23 and the top 25 finalists will be announced the following day. Consumers will then be able to view, comment, and vote on their favorite Bello 51 finalists. The winner will be unveiled on March 23 on Yahoo! en Espanol.

“Bello 51 is a wonderful opportunity for our users to become famous and have the chance to appear in front of millions of online Yahoo! users and alongside the 50 most beautiful Hispanic celebrities,” said Javier Garcia, general manager of Yahoo!’s U.S. Hispanic business. “As the premier digital media company, Yahoo! delivers premium digital experiences to more than 75% of the U.S. Latino audience every month(1). By partnering with People en Espanol, we’re creating a powerful program to engage and connect with youngbi-cultural Latinos at a national scale.”

Designed to creatively engage young, bilingual, and bicultural Hispanics, Bello 51 offers marketers seamless brand integration. This year’s sponsors are Maybelline New York, Garnier, and 7UP. Maybelline New York and Garnier haveparticipated in Bello 51 since inception, and will be the exclusive sponsor of Bello Style, a feature beginning in March where readers can use a rating scale to determine the wardrobe that the winner wears during the Bello event.

For official rules and eligibility in English and in Spanish:

Yahoo! is a Leadership Sponsor of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival (January 19-29). This gives Y! exclusive access to the nine short film finalists in the festival and allows us to screen them on Screen as part of our first-ever Yahoo! Audience Award competition.

We’ve invited our audience of millions to kick back and watch the finalists, share them with friends, and vote on their faves. The filmmaker who scores the most votes will also score $5,000 to help support their next journey behind the camera.

The Bertolli sponsorship is a three-fold ad experience, all part of its “Ladles of Love” charitable campaign.

The Yahoo! Sundance site features warm, hearty-soup-toned Bertolli wallpaper on either side of the Sundance screen and the voting card. A 950×60 ad bridges the wallpaper across the top with a short animation of a Bertolli-red curtain swishing to either side to unveil a lovely ladle dripping with Bertolli meal soup, the steam wafting past the “Where to Buy” link.

The Sundance coverage on Movies features the same wallpaper along with a 300×250 ad simmering quietly to the right.

Bertolli on Yahoo! Screen_2

omg! Now complimented its celebrity sightings with 300×250 to the right as well.

Bertolli recognizes Y!’s unique ability not only to satisfy our users’ appetites with mouth-watering content, but to satisfy brands’ appetites with mouth-watering user reach.

To wit: Traffic to all Sundance coverage is driven from Yahoo!’s homepage as well as multiple promo ads running across the entire Yahooniverse, a Y!-created ad on the Bertolli site, tweeting from the filmmakers, and media coverage.

Can’t beat that with a ladle.

Click here and here to have a taste.

– Thomas T. Lady

Editor’s Note: This entry was reposted from the Yahoo! Advertising Blog. For more information, visit their site, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

At Yahoo! we have always taken privacy very seriously. Privacy is a core element in building our users’ trust, which is in turn core to us. We build our world-class products with privacy and trust in mind, and in order to succeed we strongly believe that the very first targets of education and awareness should be within the very inside of our company. This is why on February 1st the Yahoo! Miami office will host an invitation-only discussion on the latest global and regional developments in privacy. We will share perspective on how Yahoo! has maintained the hard earned role as a leader in building and maintaining user trust, how Yahoo! innovates with privacy in mind to give users transparency and choice in their online experiences, and what the landscape looks like for the online industry, as well as an overview of legislation affecting user privacy especially those affecting Latin America. There will be a Q&A session and the event will be videotaped – all in Spanish – for audiences unable to attend.

Laura Juanes
Director, international privacy for Yahoo!

NATPE award honors Yahoo! for leadership in the Digital category.

Last night, Yahoo! was recognized at the NATPE 2012 conference in Miami, Florida with a Digital Luminary Award for our leadership in the Digital Category for the commitment and investment in the creation and distribution of online content. Yahoo!’s Jason Dimberg, Senior Director and Head of Video Programming, accepted the award on Yahoo!’s behalf at the award presentation.

NATPE||Content First is a global, nonprofit organization committed to serving as a catalyst for the content revolution, operating and managing the only U.S.-based global content marketplace. The Digital Luminary Awards are based on six categories and the awards honor the innovative people and companies who act as catalysts in the content revolution.

“Each year, digital media continues to redefine itself and mature in terms of content, brand integration and talent,” remarked NATPE||Content First CEO Rick Feldman. “NATPE is proud to recognize the 2012 Digital Luminary Awards honorees as they lead the charge in uniting the world of media in a truly exciting way.”

Yahoo! wins for ability to deliver premium content experiences

Yahoo!’s win in this category comes from our ability to deliver premium content experiences across screens at scale. In particular for our longtime commitment to original video programming with nine out of the top 10 original video shows online and the most successful online show in history, Primetime in No Time, boasting over half a billion streams. Yahoo!’s original programming reaches more than 26 million unique visitors per month producing up to 30 original programs per month.

Most recently, Yahoo! announced a partnership with Tom Hanks/Gary Goetzman’s Playtone, along with Reliance Entertainment, to team up to launch “Electric City,” an original scripted animated sci-fi series that offers a tantalizing, yet startling look into the future of civilization. Yahoo! also recently announced the Yahoo! Comedy Channel and Yahoo! Women’s Slate and launched Blindsided on Yahoo! Sports.

Also at NATPE was a keynote featuring a conversation with Yahoo! executive VP of Americas Ross Levinsohn and News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller. Additional Yahoo!’s represented Yahoo! on panels as well including Andrew Snyder, VP Content Solution Sales on Content, Context and Culture and Toby McKenna, Senior Director, Property Sales Development on A New Kind of Network.

Although Ali Dib spent 10 years of his career working in digital media companies, it wasn’t until he joined Yahoo! in 2010 that he gained a true understanding of what it takes for an internet property like Yahoo! to earn the top spot as the premier digital media company.

The Senior Director of Global Agency Development was inspired by the breadth and depth of Yahoo!’s content offerings and advertising solutions – from its branded entertainment network, to its ad network and media exchange. “I’d never been exposed anything like that.” says Ali. “I thought this would be a great place for me to not only get myself educated to the other aspects of digital media, but also just to really further my career.”

While Yahoo!’s top-notch reputation is what got Ali interested in the company, his true motivation stems from the energy and enthusiasm of the Yahoo! employees around him. “The reason I love it here is the passion and the people,” Ali says. “Each and every person out there… I mean there is just this absolute love for the brand.”

Editors Note: This article is part of a series entitled “Life at Yahoo!,” that gives employees the opportunity to share their own stories about Yahoo!. To hear more of these stories, visit Yahoo! Careers, or visit us on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.

Cities all over the world are marking the Chinese New Year with feasts, festivals, and parades. Naturally, this lively, festive, and colorful holiday is a photographer’s dream – especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, which boasts the largest Chinese -American community in the United States – and the biggest parade. San Francisco-based photographer and longtime Flickr user Dave Golden has covered this event for years, and his Chinese New Year-related Flickr album is among the most popular galleries of the event on the photo-sharing site. Dave spoke with Yahoo! about photographing San Francisco’s Chinese New Year parade and how Flickr has helped him get the kind of exposure needed to boost his career.

Fast Facts

Name: Dave Golden
Age: 47
Location: San Francisco
Occupation: Web Developer/ Photographer
Flickr User Since: 2005

What is your favorite thing about being a San Francisco photographer?

I enjoy walking around San Francisco and exploring and photographing the different neighborhoods. The diversity of the neighborhoods is often visible in the numerous cultural events and festivals we have throughout the year.

You have been taking photos of the city’s Chinese New Year celebration for four years now, and your Chinese New Year gallery on Flickr is very popular. What is your favorite visual aspect of this event? Why does it make for such beautiful photos?

The Chinese New Year celebration is full of color, elaborate costumes, and cultural performances, which show the richness of Chinese culture and the Bay Area’s Asian American community. The parade is one of the largest in San Francisco and one of the only evening parades in the city. Photographing an event at night can be very challenging. I seldom use flash; instead I depend on what little available light there is that I might get from streetlights and storefronts. The low light may be difficult to shoot in sometimes, but it can also result in some very unique images.

As a longtime Flickr user, what is your favorite thing about the site?

Flickr’s tagging has always been one of the most useful features to me. It is my favorite way to explore photos. Most of the publication requests I receive via Flickr are from people who have located my photos online, which I don’t think would be possible if not for their tags.

I also like the metadata available on the site, which is particularly useful for photographers. When I’m curious about how a photographer created a particular effect, I can check to see what camera they used and other related information. This feature has been especially useful for me and isn’t available on many other photo sharing sites.

Your Flickr stream gets thousands of views per day. Has Flickr helped your photography career?

Flickr has been a huge help to my career as a photographer. Before Flickr came along, it was much harder for me to share my photos with the public the way I do now. I have been using the site since 2005 — before that, I had to rely on creating my own HTML photo galleries which is obviously a much more complex process that gave me less visibility than Flickr.

A number of publications look to Flickr for content, particularly for events. I have received requests from all over the world. Silverkris, Singapore Airlines’ magazine, used a photograph in their travel calendar section that I took at a festival in Nikko, Japan — they located it on Flickr. And another magazine, Peacework, based out of Massachusetts, used a photograph I had taken in Japantown to accompany an article about activism in Okinawa. All in all, Flickr has been an indispensible tool for me in my career.

Stay tuned for more profiles of Flickr users who have benefited from the photo-sharing site. Flickr, which boasts over 6 billion photos uploaded by 70 million members worldwide, has become a staple for casual picture takers to serious photographers alike.

Exploring the Yahoo! homepage just got a lot more fun. To kick off the new year, the Brand Marketing team is rolling out a series of Y! Bang animations that will appear on the homepage, periodically replacing Yahoo!’s familiar purple logo. Along with reflecting the lively energy of the brand, the animations will be timed to celebrate notable occasions and raise awareness for meaningful causes.

“Among other things, the Yahoo! brand is fun, and these animations are a representation of that,” says Connor Smith, Brand Marketing Associate in the Global Brand Marketing team.

Connor and the Brand team plan to develop close to 40 animated designs for 2012. The next animation will be for Chinese New Year. In this animation a rabbit hops into the scene, pauses, and then bolts out as a dragon walks in.

“The animation is a tongue and cheek reference to the Chinese zodiac- 2011 is the year of the rabbit, and 2012 is the year of the dragon” explains Connor.

Clicking on the animation will bring you to a relevant Yahoo! page, providing a deeper user experience, whether it be more fun or more facts. The Chinese New Year animation will link to a page on Chinese astrology within Shine’s horoscope section. Some of the more cause-related animations, such as the breast-cancer awareness and World Aids Day designs, will provide additional Yahoo!-generated information on the issues.

Click here to view the Chinese New Year logo which appear on Yahoo! from midnight to midnight on January 23rd. Stay tuned for the next animation – this time for the Superbowl — on the Yahoo! homepage.

Dr. Pepper wants to “strong-arm” you into trying its new Dr. Pepper Ten soft drink (“23 Authentic Flavors, 10 Bold Tasting Calories”) with a fun, interactive and not-too-intrusive arm-wrestling-via-speed-typing game on the front page of Yahoo! Sports.

It starts as a harmless little 300 x 250 ad on the right with a can of Dr. Pepper Ten inviting you to an arm wrestling match while flexing its bodybuilder biceps.

Upon clickthrough, the ad flips open to introduce the game and the how-to: “Type the word you see on the screen. The faster the better.”

One more click on “Try It Out” takes you over the top and into the game.

With each typo, the opposing arm gains fist. Pinpoint accuracy counts just as much as nimbleness of finger, so don’t let your atTENntion wane. The last thing you want is that constantly flexing can peppering you with taunts.

Upon victory, the ad invites you to a rematch and offers a link to Dr. Pepper’s TEN MAN’MENTS on Facebook.

Bold but not in your face, the Dr. Pepper Ten ad is the kind of ad only possible on the digital canvas. It engages you in a playful, interactive way, and rounds out the fun with “manly” social media.

Click here to man up.

– Thomas T. Lady

Editor’s Note: This entry was reposted from the Yahoo! Advertising Blog. For more information, visit their site, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The general public will have access to nine short films from this year’s Festival by visiting sundance.yahoo.com, powered by Yahoo! Screen. Festival fans everywhere will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite of those nine short films. Fans will also get behind-the-scenes access to film and entertainment news, celebrities in attendance, and the biggest stories of the festival through Yahoo! Movies and omg!.

“Our programming efforts at this anchor event span across the network,” says Ross Levinsohn, EVP Americas. “They include providing behind-the-scenes access to the Sundance Festival on the Yahoo! Movies Sundance Blog, the latest celebrity news on omg!, and red carpet interviews on omg! NOW, our #1 rated celebrity news and entertainment video series. Our unique Festival film-related content and on-the-ground reporting, builds out Yahoo! as the online destination for the Festival.”

Yahoo! Screen is hosting short films premiering at Sundance
Beginning today and lasting through January 27, Yahoo! Screen will host a selection of short films premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and chosen in close collaboration with the Festival and Yahoo! Movie editors. Film aficionados will have the chance to vote for their favorite, and on Saturday, January 28, at the Festival’s Official Awards Ceremony—Yahoo! will present the winning filmmaker with the inaugural Yahoo! Audience Award and $5000. Plus, the winning film will be given prominent placement on Yahoo!. All of the additional featured films will remain accessible on Yahoo! Screen for six additional weeks.

Throughout this celebration of independent cinema, Yahoo! Movies is providing exclusive film-related content and original news daily from our on-the-ground correspondents in Park City. omg! NOW host Kristen Aldridge will take her audience past the velvet ropes, providing insider access from Main Street to the hottest parties and biggest premieres.

The following short films are among those available now on Yahoo! Screen. So check out the site, watch the shorts, and vote for your favorite:

• ’92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card: Jim and Dave, two brothers who don’t like each other very much, are forced to come together when their dad dies in Kansas City. Dave is pretty sure he has an Alonzo Mourning Skybox Series rookie card, but Jim has other ideas.
• Aquadettes: A meditation on life, death, and synchronized swimming.
• The Arm: To keep up with social pressure in a technologically advanced world, Chance starts a texting relationship with Genevieve—a girl he meets at a yogurt shop. But tragedy forces Chance to realize that he was never in a relationship at all.
• Debutante Hunters: In the low country of South Carolina, some true southern belles reveal their more rugged side, providing a glimpse into what drives them to hunt in the wild.
• Dol (First Birthday): A gay Korean American man yearns for a family life that is just out of reach.
• Henley: Meet nine-year-old Ted Henley, budding motel manager and roadkill entrepreneur.
• Long Distance Information: Father always told us, “Never talk to strangers,” . . . But surely we have to phone home sometimes?
• Odysseus’ Gambit: During his lifetime, each man plays cosmic chess against the devil.
• Una Hora por Favora: A woman hires a day laborer for an hour and gets more than she bargained for.

Visit Yahoo! Screen and vote for your favorite short!

Spotlight on women’s use of technology and the Internet to create positive change.

The Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program, along with Yahoo! Maktoob, and in partnership with Vital Voices, is hosting a summit on January 18 at the Fairmont Nile City. Change Your World! Cairo 2012 will spotlight how women across the Middle East and North Africa are using technology, the Internet, and various social and digital media platforms to create positive change in the world.

Moderated by award-winning journalist and human rights activist Mona Eltahawy, the summit will focus on four primary areas: women’s leadership in governance and politics, women’s rights/human rights and social justice, journalism, and entrepreneurship.

Confirmed participants include:

• Maria Al Masani, social media pioneer and founder of Yemen Rights Monitor;
• Fida Ouri, deputy director of NISAA FM in the West Bank, one of the first all-women, non-political radio stations in the Arab world;
• Shereen Allam, Egyptian entrepreneur, co-owner of Eco-tek and founder, Association for Women’s Total Advancement and Development;
• Lara Ayoub, Jordanian digital media pioneer and digital media director, Al Ghad and Al-Waseet
• Dalia Ziada, Egyptian women’s rights activist and blogger who has been hailed by the international media as one of the most influential women in the world;
• Lamees Dhaif, Bahraini journalist and human rights activist.

“Women across the Middle East and North Africa are using the Internet, technology and social media to learn, lead, inspire, connect, and change the world. We are hosting this summit to shine light on extraordinary women, facilitate an ongoing exchange of ideas, and identify areas where companies can use their technology and platforms to amplify women’s voices,” said Ebele Okobi, director of Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program.

Follow the event on #changeyourworldcairo and @YahooBHRP.

On November 2, 2011, Yahoo! unveiled Livestand, a tablet app that lets users organize content from premium publishers and Yahoo!’s global network according to their interests in a very visual, graphical way.

Livestand had barely reached the end of the Runway when Toyota became the first to take a joyride through a Living Ad: Yahoo!’s new tablet ad format that immerses the user in a rich, vivid, interactive and very fun experience in a way only possible on the tablet medium.

As part of its “V is for versatile” campaign for the Prius V, the ad revs up as a vertical banner on the right showing the Prius v and a tease of landscape that comes to life in the V’s wake.

The ad then expands across the entire tablet canvas as the v pulls into a driveway just in time for a helium-borne girl to float by with a look of pure exhilaration, a harbinger of what’s to come.

The V heads into the garage and enters a realm of fantastic landscapes and landmarks to brandish its selling points (“cargo space meets cyberspace,” “pack a lot, pump a little”).

This Living Ad does just that, and in every way. The Prius v and the landscape itself come alive and give a whole new meaning to roadtrip. It’s the first time HTML5 was used in a commercial tablet environment, and

Toyota didn’t let that opportunity go to waste, exploiting uniquely tablet-esque features like the aptly named “accelerometer.”
The ad was designed by the award-winning Alexx Henry Studios in collaboration with Yahoo!, Toyota, and Toyota’s agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

“Yahoo! Living Ads deliver an innovative way for consumers to engage with the Prius V and the Toyota brand. The ads are extremely dynamic and invite people to dig deeper than they typically would with traditional advertising,” said Dionne Colvin, National Marketing Media Manager at Toyota. “The iPad really lends itself to this type of interactive and immersive experience.”

“The Living Ads play to the strengths of multiple mediums—the production value of a TV spot, the beauty of a print ad and the interactivity of a web banner—to create a really transformational ad unit,” said Cliff Atkinson, interactive media director, Saatchi LA.

“Living Ads offers an opportunity to set higher standards in digital advertising with brand experiences that are impactful, personalized and actionable,” says Henry. “It’s the only ad solution designed to use the power of the tablet as a lean-back and interactive experience.”

Lean-back and interactive. We couldn’t have driven it home better.

Care to take a ride yourself? Check out the video below:

Congrats to Yahoo!, Toyota, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Alexx Henry Studios.

Special shout-out to Shane Dwyer, the Yahoo! Sales Account Executive who led this program.

– Thomas T. Lady

Editor’s Note: This entry was reposted from the Yahoo! Advertising Blog. For more information, visit their site, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The first week of November 2011 saw a brand-new type of rich media display ad on the Yahoo! Homepage that had never been driven—I mean, seen—before. Indeed, the wind it left in our hair compelled us to feature it as Ad of the Week.
To kick-start its “Dream it. Build it. Battle it.” campaign, Ford jumped in and scarred asphalt all over our homepage to announce its brand new line of vroom-vroom-ilicious Mustangs.

After the cinematic intro, the ad let users stay on the homepage while custom-building their dream ‘Stangs by setting every variable under the automotive sun, from the color and the wheels, to the spoiler and the decal, and much more. Users also had the option to transfer their designs to Ford’s site to tap into even more customization.

This ad wins the checker flag because it’s a superb example of how to engage and involve users via a quintessential “WOW!” experience, and in doing so, it shows the kind of advertising only achievable on a digital canvas.
Click here to read the original Ad of the Week post.

Care to drive the ad yourself? Start your engine here.

Congrats to all who had a hand (and a wrench and a power drill) in custom-building this ad.

– Thomas T. Lady

Editor’s Note: This entry was reposted from the Yahoo! Advertising Blog. For more information, visit their site, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

It does in reality, too. I can tell you this firsthand, because it’s what Yahoo! Small Business gets to do every day for our customers.

As I write this, we’re in the midst of one of the busiest and most exciting times of the year for many of these folks: the holiday shopping season. Whether you’re a Merchant Solutions customer selling online using our store platform, or you’re a Web Hosting customer with a bricks-and-mortar retail business using your online presence to expand your customer reach, this time of year is crucial.

We know this, and delivering products, resources, and experiences designed to help our customers grow their businesses and be successful during the holidays and throughout the year is what we do year-round. For me, one of the best parts of this is knowing who will use what we deliver. In many cases, I mean faces and names, and not just business names. Something that makes Yahoo! Small Business unique is the face-time we get with our customers—not only at industry conferences like Internet Retailer, but also at our very own Yahoo! Merchant Summit.

Talking to our customers is my favorite part of the Summit. Some have businesses that have been life-changing not only for them, but also for their customers. Here’s just one example: After her son was diagnosed with autism, one of our customers turned her experience finding ways to help him communicate into what she calls the best job she’s ever had. She created National Autism Resources, a site where parents and teachers can find easy-to-understand information along with affordable autism teaching materials and products that can help children on the autism spectrum. If you’d like to hear more of her story, you can watch this video.

We get a lot of direct feedback from our customers at the Summit and through other channels about what they need to thrive and how we can delight them, and we incorporate what we learn into the products we launch. I’m lucky enough to be part of all the action, and am excited to tell you about a few of the products and features that Yahoo! has launched for our small business customers in recent months:

• For our Merchant Solutions customers, we launched a customer registration system that uses social login, where customers can sign in using their credentials from Yahoo!, Google, and AOL (we plan to add Facebook and PayPal to this list in the first part of 2012). Our system also allows customers to save their credit and debit card information. This is designed to make checkout faster and easier for shoppers, which can help to increase sales. The ability for shoppers to save card information is also a feature that most hosted competitors don’t offer.

• Also for Merchant Solutions, we launched a new ecommerce site search that lets us leverage our Yahoo! Search technology. The new site search provides a better, more engaging search experience, allowing shoppers to add items to their carts from the search results page, refine search results with filters, search only specific product categories, and more.

• For our Web Hosting customers, we added a number of great new template designs to Yahoo! Site Solution, which makes it easy to design a professional-looking web site with little or no web design experience. We’ve also launched widgets that help customers customize their pages by inserting badges, banners, and HTML for custom widgets.

The dreams we help our customers achieve is what inspires me every day. It’s truly rewarding to hear our customers’ stories and to be able to deliver products that set them up for success, so they can continue to make their dreams real.

Jennifer Farwell
Sr. Manager, Product Content
Yahoo! Small Business

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series entitled, “In My Own Words,” that gives employees the opportunity to share their own stories about Yahoo!. Feel like yodeling your own? Post your Yahoo! story on your social networks using the hashtag #myYahoostory.

Ever wonder who’s behind the great user experiences that define sites like Yahoo! Movies, omg!, and Yahoo! Music? Look no further and Cody Simms, the VP of Entertainment and Lifestyle Product Management. From defining how the sites should function, to determining what people should do once they get there, Cody and his team are determined to make each visit to the sites a great one. “We work with engineers to build those sites, we work with designers to make them look pretty and great, and we work with our editorial teams around the world to ensure that they can get great content into them and make them really compelling and engaging to users.”

Editors Note: This article is part of a series entitled “Life at Yahoo!,” that gives employees the opportunity to share their own stories about Yahoo!. To hear more of these stories, visit Yahoo! Careers, or visit us on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.