It’s not always enough to have a flower named after you. Sometimes you just gotta have an act of Congress to honor that flower. Today is National Poinsettia Day, tribute to Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico and a botany aficionado. He discovered the crimson harbinger of the holidays while walking south of the border and introduced it up north. Here’s what we propagated this week:

• Delicious movement: Yes, your tastiest bookmarks can now be found on your mobile device. The Delicious team just launched their mobile site — http://m.delicious.com. It’s still in beta but it lets you browse your bookmarks, tags, inbox, and other info. You can also browse popular and recent bookmarks and tags from the Delicious community. It also means that you have a good reason to 86 your phone’s bookmarks.
• Tasty noise: Of the hundreds of millions of bookmarks on Delicious, a considerable chunk are audio files. The team (they’ve been busy!) is now making it possible for you to listen to those files with a new integration with FoxyPlayer from Yahoo! Music. Even cooler, it turns bookmarks into a playlist that you can control from your browser. Check out samples for Beck, Chopin, and Christmas. More here.
• Finding Flickr friends: There are days when you totally welcome the opportunity to get lost in an aimless exploration of your Flickr contacts’ images, but sometimes you just want a little order. Thankfully, the team just updated your contacts list page, making it much easier for you to navigate contacts — especially if you have a bevy. You can sort by name, contact type, number of photos, when you added them as a contact, and their last upload.
• Messenger merriment: The Messenger team brings you holiday cheer in the form of Emoticarolers, a personalized singing telegram sung by four of your favorite emoticons. You can customize the lyrics to a popular holiday tune (from Jingle Bells to Auld Lang Syne) and send it off to your friends. Their harmony is impressive, albeit somewhat Hal-like. Create your own here.

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There’s a mountain in South Dakota that took this whole costume thing pretty seriously. Sixty-seven years ago today, the last monumental granite visage was completed as Mount Rushmore decided to be Presidents Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Jefferson for Halloween. Here are the treats we handed out this week:

• My Election: Want to effortlessly follow the final stretch of the (loooooong) road to the White House from your My Yahoo! with the click of a button? Add the new pre-loaded Election ‘08 tab. You’ll find the latest news from all the major news services via Yahoo! News and blog content from Washington Whisper, The Trail, RealClearPolitics.com, and FactCheck.org. And this being a non-partisan module, you’ll find both official Republican and Democratic party blogs (though you can easily ditch the one you most disagree with). You can even add messages from your favorite campaign HQ to your page. Get it here.
• Virtual voting: Bumper sticker? Check. Campaign button? Check. Window sign? Check. Just when you thought you’d done all you could to get people to vote, along comes Yahoo! Avatars election gear. You can outfit your Avatar with your favorite campaign t-shirt, an elephant/donkey hat or stuffed animal, an “I voted” button, and even put yourself in the Oval Office, the White House Press Center, or in front of Air Force One. (Green, Constitution and Libertarian parties, we’ve got you covered, too.) And if you use Messenger 9.0, you can fire up audibles from influential characters like Abraham Lincoln, Uncle Sam, and the Statue of Liberty. More here.

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Finally. A chance to shed the ridicule you endured in middle school. It’s Ask a Stupid Question Day — a perfect excuse to inquire about the basement in the Alamo without fear of reprisal. Here’s what we wondered about this week:

• Messenger Number Nine: It’s official. The newest version of Yahoo! Messenger for Windows XP and Vista is out of beta. And now you can enjoy things like a total of 12 different skins, better “ignore” capabilities, inline video and picture viewing, great new emoticons (and they’re small again), ability to add contacts from other online services like Gmail and Hotmail, friend updates in your contact list, call forwarding and new voicemail delivery, the return of Yahoo! Games, and more control over your look and feel. And introducing Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox, which lets readers of your blog, website or social network page send you an IM without having to download or sign in. More here.
• (Back)check the video: What’s better than Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Hockey becoming the official fantasy game of the NHL? Being able to watch videos of killer moves on ice while you play your fantasy game. That’s right — now as you manage your rosters, player lists and line-ups, you’ll be able to watch video highlights of your favorite players on demand. A great new tool as you build your hockey dynasty. Sign up here.

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Forty-six years ago today, a guy taking classes at the London School of Economics grabbed some friends and performed at a small jazz club in London. They didn’t get paid a dime. Two years later, they outranked the Beatles in popularity. After you hum a few bars of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” see what wild horses dragged out of us this week:

• Be the BOSS: We’re sitting on a goldmine of search infrastructure and thought it was about time we shared. Enter Yahoo! Search BOSS (short for Build Your Own Search Service), a new open Web services platform that brings DIY to one of the most valuable assets on the Web. If you’re a developer or owner of a site of any size, we’re giving you the keys to creating unlimited search mashups for the search experience of your dreams. If you’re a user, be prepared for searching to take on a whole new dimension when you’re visiting your favorite sites. We’re leveling the playing field and want everyone to play ball. More here, here, and here.
• Beta be gone: It’s official. The old My Yahoo! is being sent to Sunny Acres Farm on Monday, to be replaced with the *new* My Yahoo!. You’ll find a pile of new content like third-party (gasp!) modules from Netflix, Facebook, and Gmail, as well as custom-designed modules with more of the best stuff from select publishers (Entertainment Weekly, Forbes, People, Salon, Wall Street Journal, etc.). You also get more flexibility and control over page layout and easier customization tools. What’s more, the team has launched the My Yahoo Content Gallery, which presents cool cherry-picked modules that you can add with one click. And they’ve improved the search capabilities to surface content that’s related to your query. More here. Mine, mine. All mine!
• Pinpointing your peeps: Ever wondered where all those people you’ve met in your favorite Yahoo! Group are from? Now you can get a visual representation through People Map Beta, a new “grouplet” launched by our new “Groups Lab” team. Group owners and/or moderators fire off a form to their members, who voluntarily complete it with information that puts them on a map and becomes a dynamic mini-profile. More here. Stay tuned for more cool hacks from the Lab.
• I’m busy but this is really funny: If you’re an avid user of Yahoo! Messenger status messages, you know what a bummer it is when you have to tell people you’re busy, on the phone, away from your desk, etc. That’s because it means your friend won’t be able to click on your latest favorite video link. Or see that you’re peeved by coffee grounds. Or see what song you’re listening to. In the latest Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta, you’ll notice your days of sacrifice are now over. You can have your cake and eat it, too. More here on how to mix work with pleasure.

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I hope you did your laundry, because today is No Pants Day. A tradition started in Austin, Texas (no doubt a part of the “Keep Austin Weird” conspiracy), its goal is simply to “revel in the absence of pants.” (And, no, kilts don’t count.) Before you hit the town in your bloomers, have a look at how we did it one leg at a time this week:

• del.icio.us gets foxy: Firefox users just got a del.icio.us treat — a new Firefox extension that fully supports Firefox 3 (while working just fine with Firefox 2, thank you). Its handy features include keyboard shortcuts for accessing bookmarks (just hit F2) and a new bookmark-saving layout. It’s a beta release, so the team is eager to hear if you have feedback before the official launch. More here.
• YT? Can you hear this?: Got Vista? Check. Got Yahoo! Messenger? Check. Now you can make PC-to-PC calls to your Yahoo! Messenger pals, or even dial landlines and mobile phones. Just for fun, you can even animate your voices as you talk. The all-new voice-enabled beta version of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista also lets you SMS your friends’ mobile phones for free. The team’s been busy adding features you’ve been requesting, and now they’re setting their sights on webcam video, archiving, photo sharing, and more. Hang in there with them. Download the new version here.

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It’s never easy saying goodbye (it’s my last Product Pulse), but I leave you with the tenth anniversary of Viagra to help you rise to the occasion. And don’t you worry — the Pulse will live on. Have a look at what we’ve raised up this week:

• Let there be sound: Yahoo! Messenger gets Mac-tastic with the launch of the latest Mac Beta version, now with voice calling. Now you can make free PC-to-PC calls, make calls from your Mac to regular mobile phones (worldwide!) for as low as one penny a minute, and let your friends call you on your Mac from any phone. That’s not all — you get a free voicemail, so pals can leave a message when you’re away or not logged into Yahoo! Messenger. If you’d rather take all your calls, make use of the forwarding feature to send incoming calls to any regular or mobile phone number (you’ll need a Phone Out to do this). Download it here and read about the other handy phone tricks for your Mac here.
• Be there in a Dash: GPS devices just got juiced up with Internet connectivity. Dash Express (created by Dash Navigation), the first two-way connected GPS device, is now available on Amazon.com . It offers you the most accurate traffic and destination info, all from the comfort of your car - no wires necessary. (Think live info gathering and sharing from other commuters on the roads during peak commute times and an auto-update to software, maps, and historical traffic data.) Just be ready to fork out $399. And the best part? With a touch of a button, you can find everything from the nearest bakery to the cheapest taqueria with the power of the Internet, including Yahoo! Local search results.
• Popcorn time!: Nothing beats surround-sound theater speakers and that extra shot of butter on your popcorn. Now keep tabs of all the latest movies and showtimes at the theaters you want by adding the Movie Showtimes module on your My Yahoo! page. Add the module and click “Edit Module Preferences” icon to update your start page with movie screens in your hood.

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It’s been 45 years since The Rock was designated to hold bad guys the likes of Al Capone and “Machine Gun” Kelly. Gangsta cred or not, there’s no escaping this week’s updates:

• Mobile March Madness: Now you can keep tabs on all the latest college hoops action wherever and whenever from your mobile phone with three new tools. You can get up-to-the minute news, scores, schedules and images on the dedicated mobile NCAA page, the new Men’s College Hoops mobile widget (you’ll need Yahoo! Go 3.0), and specially-configured Yahoo! oneSearch results, with specialized men’s college basketball content from Yahoo! Sports and Rivals.com. No need to be tied to your computer screen to keep score. More here.
• Team spirit: We’ve got more Audibles to cheer your NCAA team on Yahoo! Messenger. Whether it’s to jeer at your friends’ alma mater or boo a bad play, we’ve got Audibles (like a referee calling an offensive foul) and new avatar gear (find jerseys from more than 25 schools) to show your team pride. Make sure you’re using Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0 beta to get your spirit on.
• Staying on topic: You may have heard about the “New with Me” profile page on MyBlogLog that pulls together all your activity across the Internet and shows people what you’re up to (like a feed of all your updates and your friends’ updates). We’ve just added a new Tags page that combs through your “New with Me” page into relevant pages called Topics. What does this mean? Not only can you see an aggregation of your friends’ Internet whereabouts in one place, now you can find what your MyBlogLog community is saying, doing, thinking about any topic you find interesting quick and easy. BTW: Find out what the Easter chatter is here.

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Can’t live without your 500-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets? Well, thank Eli Whitney for figuring out a way to remove the seeds from cotton 214 years ago. After you finish thinking about the touch, the feel, read on for what we’ve seeded up this week.

• And the nominees are: It’s the final day of nominations for the Yahoo! Video Awards, so get your favorite videos into the line up. We’ve got it all — videos about zombies to Weird Al’s childhood. There are categories for all your interests including Best Indie Music Video, Best Internet Personality, Best Series, and more. And don’t worry, it’s okay to just vote. You may want to wait until Monday after all the nominees have loaded up their videos. Read more here.
• Getting foxy: Through our new friendship with FoxyTunes, we have a brand new version of FoxyTunes 2.0 for IE (freshly beta) to let you control any media player while surfing the web. What’s new? Now you can change the appearance of your FoxyTunes by installing custom skins (we’ve already got 11 skins available) and down the road you’ll be able to create your very own. We’ve even added a FoxyTunes Mini, basically a universal desktop widget that’s a customizable, collapsible, and skinnable version of its big bro. The best part — there’s a timer and alarm clock feature that lets you set your media player to your favorite song. The best part of waking up.
• Retiring in style: As Yahoo! Messenger turns 9.0, we’ve decided to retire our vintage versions (5.5 and 5.6). After April 1, if you’re using version 5.5 or 5.6, you will no longer be able to sign in. We know change is hard, so we’ve got two alternatives to help make it easier. You can download the new Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or the 9.0 beta, or try our Yahoo! Messenger for the Web. Both options offer better protection from spam, advanced features like voice calling and SMS, and the addition of your friends on Windows Live Messenger. And rest assured, your existing friends will follow up when you make the move! For more info go here and stay dialed into what else the team’s got up their sleeve here.
• Luck of the Irish: Whether you’re Irish or not, green beer and green cheer is just around the corner. So make it official by greening your My Yahoo! page with our new St. Paddy’s themed layout (complete with shamrocks, peeking rainbow, and blue skies). Go here and click on “Seasonal,” then go with the “St. Patrick’s” option.

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Oh, bother. It’s Winnie the Pooh Day. Pause a moment to ponder the wisdom of the Bear of Very Little Brain, and then dig into this week’s product honeypot. TTFN!

Tag, you’re history: Important moments in history made their debut on Flickr through a pilot project with the Library of Congress called The Commons. They’ve added more than 3,000 photos from two of their popular collections — American Memory: Color photographs from the Great Depression and The George Grantham Bain Collection, images from the daily news scene nearly 100 years ago. Your job is to tag them and leave comments to add even more depth to these important archives. More here.

Fearless files: You’ve had that moment of hesitation when being asked to “accept file” when IMing a friend. (Hey, anybody can get a virus.) Fear no more. By teaming up with Symantec, Yahoo! Messenger can now automatically scan files with Norton AntiVirus (if you have Norton AntiVirus 2007/2008 and Norton Internet Security 2007/2008 installed on your computer). More over here.

Of flab and football: January can only mean two things: diet resolutions and football mania. That’s why you need to head to My Yahoo! to add the Diet Tracker module and Football Page. The Diet Tracker doubles as your personal trainer and guilty conscience, letting your track your daily weigh-ins against a target date. The Football Page is just that — a pigskin-filled tab with nothing but news, stats, photos, blogs and more. Pass the (low fat) chips.

Music blog remix: Yahoo!’s Media Innovation Group just released an experimental (”possibly dodgy”) desktop application that lets you mix together blog posts and MP3s from your favorite music blogs. Save your favorite posts on various music blogs, build your personal remix, save the results for future reference, make it into a playlist, podcast, or feed, or just share what you’ve mixed together with pals. It’s a proof of concept for now, but a cool concept nonetheless… more here from the developer himself.

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