In a keynote speech at the 4A’s Transformation 2010 conference today, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz stated that Yahoo! can bring advertisers a combination of strengths that no one else can, because only Yahoo! offers them three things: science, art and scale.

Speaking to the advertising industry group in San Francisco, Carol said, “We want Yahoo! to be the partner you turn to for answers and solutions, and most importantly—when you want results.” By providing science, art and scale, Yahoo can help advertisers and agencies master online advertising.

To read more about Carol’s  4A’s keynote and Yahoo’s value proposition to advertisers, please check out the original post on the Yahoo! Advertising Blog.

Yahoo! leaders thank their teams for fundraising participation
What do dressing up as Serena Williams and playing trivia with Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz have in common?  They were both rewards to Yahoos for breaking participation records during the annual Yahoo! Employee Foundation (YEF) fundraising drive.  Over $2 million dollars were raised from 57% of Yahoo!’s U.S. employees and a generous donation from our co-founders, Jerry and David.

Here’s a look at some of the ways Y! leaders thanked their employees for donating to YEF.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
Nine lucky Yahoos, chosen at random from the pool of thousands of employees who donated to YEF, were treated to a gourmet dinner and fast-paced trivia game at Carol’s home.  The game was an ice-breaker to get the evening started.  A good time was had by all.

Attendees included (from left to right): John Kao, Raini Rao, Andrew Miller, Carol, Ryan Friedlander, Amee Fujikawwa, Dungjit Shiowattana, Ann Vanderpyl, Carol Lerche and Mohamed Hack.

Thriller Dance
The N. America region blew the doors off their goal with a 72% participation rate.  So, living up to their promise to do their version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller dance if they beat their goal, Hilary Schneider, SVP for the N. America region and her leadership team brushed up on their moon walk and hit the dance floor in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale cafeteria..

Their performance was the most exciting event to hit the Sunnyvale cafeteria since the introduction of free soda.  The King of Pop would be proud. 

“It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark…”

Hilary and team rock it!

Bryan Lamkin + tennis skirt = Serena Williams (?) 
Okay, so maybe Serena doesn’t have to worry about losing her status as the fashion queen of the tennis courts, but Bryan Lamkin, SVP of Products, Global Applications, gave it his best shot.  To thank his team for beating their fundraising goal, Bryan held a Wii tennis contest in the Sunnyvale cafeteria and dressed as his favorite female tennis star. 

Yahoos Jason Titus and Bryan mentally prepare for their Wii tennis match.

Bryan strikes a pose as the Wii tennis matches begins.

The Marketing Games 
There may be worldwide winter games starting soon in Vancouver, but the Yahoo! Marketing Team couldn’t wait.  As a reward for hitting 73% participation rate among her team, Elisa Steele, Chief Marketing Officer, hosted the first ever Marketing Winter Games. 

Activities included moving on giant skis, curling on fake ice floors and playing basketball with ginormous balls and hoops.  Elisa got into the act as she strapped on a full-blown hockey goalie uniform and did her best impression of Jacques Plante, as Yahoos tried to slap thepuck past her. 

A new, competitive winter sport – group skiing indoors. Keep your balance!

Elisa gets ready to block an incoming puck. The National Hockey League tried to recruit her after seeing her defensive stance.

While it’s often fun and games at Yahoo!, the most important accomplishment was raising money so that the Yahoo! Employee Foundation can continue to provide grants to non-profit organizations championed by our U.S. employees. 

Thanks and congratulations to all of the Yahoos who contributed to the fundraising drive, proving once again that Yahoo! cares about our communities.

During Fashion Week, fashionistas exalt haute couture with models, runways, paparazzi, and the latest fashion trends. During Advertising Week, the stars of Madison Avenue celebrate creativity with keynotes, awards, parties, and general mingling of brilliant marketing minds.

This week, Manhattan will be abuzz with thousands of brand stewards and creative types, coming together to pay tribute to the best in advertising and share visions about what the future brings. And Yahoo! will be there in force – helping marketers understand how to make the most of the online medium.

In honor of the occasion, CEO Carol Bartz and a bevy of senior Yahoo! executives rang the opening bell at NASDAQ this morning. Here’s video to prove it:

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Today is Carol’s birthday!  As you know, she’s been working overtime since she arrived at Yahoo! in January. However, we heard that when she does get some time away from work, she likes to get her hands dirty in her garden.  So, in celebration of Carol’s green thumb and purple spirit, the Yahoo! Green Team got together and planted an herb garden right here at Yahoo!’s headquarters in Sunnyvale   This is the start of Yahoo!’s first ever Purple Garden, and we’re dedicating the garden to Carol.

To get ready for this birthday dedication, a dozen or so Yahoo! gardeners gathered on a Tuesday morning several few weeks ago, ready for some gardening action. They dug into planter boxes and planted basil, thyme, oregano, cilantro, mint, parsley, dill, and purple sage.  The garden boxes were distributed around our main courtyard to soak up the sun.  Today, after a few weeks of growing, the plants were ready for their presentation to Carol!

The Purple Garden is more than just lovely landscaping.  Our café’s Catering Director (also an avid gardener) helped us to select herbs which would not only grow well in the Silicon Valley climate but also be most popular in Yahoo!’s cafés.   That’s right – the herbs in these garden boxes will be used right in our very own URL’s Café.   We’re very excited about this opportunity, especially since our café is installing a food waste dehydrator, which converts food waste back into a nitrogen-rich soil fertilizer.  We’ll be using that very fertilizer to provide nutrients back to the Purple Garden plants, giving us a small taste of the human food web right here at work.  And Yahoos can take extra nutrition home with them when they snap off a sprig of thyme or mint for use in their own home-cooked meals.

Growing an herb garden at the office is a great way to remind ourselves that the combination of good planning, hard work, and attentive dedication can reap great rewards.  Fresh, flavorful, and delicious rewards, in this case!  Happy Birthday, Carol!

Danielle Bricker

Yahoo! Green Team

As Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz posted earlier this morning, we have announced a global search deal with Microsoft. Carol took a few minutes to shoot this video to explain the agreement, why we’re excited about it, why we did it, and what its benefits will be to consumers, advertisers and publishers:

Also, Carol and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hosted a conference call together this morning on our campus to discuss the agreement with media and analysts. You can check out an archive on our investor relations site. And here are a few photos of them both from just after the call.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

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

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

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