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

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

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Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Did you know people in the U.S. visit an average of 85 sites per month? That just sounds exhausting. So we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how we can ease the pain of site-hopping to help you do more things at once.

This week, you’ll find a number of new third-party “apps” and “widgets” on Yahoo! Mail, My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Connected TV and Zimbra email to give you quicker access to the things you do online every day – whether planning your dinner menu, sharing photos with friends, or looking for YouTube videos. Below are screenshots and more info on some that we think are especially handy.

Make the Most of Your Inbox
Back in December, we started testing Yahoo! Mail apps that let you do all kinds of new things from your inbox. Today we’re introducing more great options, including:

• PayPal: request or send money securely
• Picnik: edit photos and share photo collages
• Zumo Drive: email files as large as 100MB for free

These apps are only available to a limited number of people during our beta period. Read more about the new Yahoo! Mail apps introduced today, and if you’d like to try it out, click here and enter your Yahoo! ID.

Personalized Productivity on My Yahoo!
We opened up My Yahoo! in December to tap into innovation from third party developers across the Web and give you even more choice for your personalized start page. Some of the new My Yahoo! apps available today include:

• Mint.com: manage your finances, set budgets and get money-saving tips
• Food & Wine Pairing: find recipes, menus, wine reviews and recommended pairings
• Green Lifestyle: grow your green knowledge and help benefit the environment
• WordPress: post to your blog and moderate your recent comments

To add these and other apps to your page, click on any of the links above or go to “Add Content” and look for the “Open Apps” category in the My Yahoo! gallery. These apps are built on the Yahoo! Application Platform, and you can read more about them and many others on the Yahoo! Developer Network blog.

Do More on Your TV
Back in March, we helped raise your TV’s IQ with widgets that can deliver the best of the Internet to your living room. In addition to your favorite Web sites like Flickr, Twitter, USA Today Sports, Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Weather, Internet-enabled TVs from Samsung and LG Electronics (coming soon from Sony and VIZIO) now feature more best-of-the-web Yahoo! TV widgets, including:

• YouTube: search and view YouTube’s massive library of video content on your TV screen
• Showtime: find information, schedules, interviews and short clips from popular Showtime offerings
• eBay (coming soon): get real-time updates, place bids, and monitor your favorite items on eBay

Zimlets Anyone?
Even Yahoo!’s Zimbra (our advanced open-source email & collaboration software) is getting into the mix, introducing a handful of new Zimlets (which integrate new features in email, similar to the Yahoo! Mail applications). Automatically save emails as documents, drop sticky notes on messages, and handle expense reports with one click. More information can be found on the Zimbra blog.

By making Yahoo! more open, we’re able to bring all that is good and useful on the Web even closer to your fingertips. We’re constantly adding new apps, so stay tuned for more.

Tapan Bhat
SVP, Integrated Consumer Experiences, Yahoo!

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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Seventy-nine years ago today, on Black Thursday, the first of the three major U.S. stock market crashes began, starting a three-year slide that stripped the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 89% in value. (And you thought today’s crisis was bad.) If bad luck comes in threes, we might all be good to go! Here’s what we did to beat the bear this week:

• Shortcut to cheap gas: Ok, so crude oil may have dipped below $70 a barrel, but you know that won’t last. And in this economy, who wants to spend more than they have to on anything? Yahoo! Search just launched a shortcut to help you find the cheapest gas in town. Just type “gas prices” or “cheap gas” plus your city name or zip code into our search box, and you’ll get a comprehensive list of the cheapest local stations (courtesy of GasBuddy.com), their address, and even a map as part of your search results. Stuff the rest of your nickels in your mattress. More here.
• Inquisitor branches out: You know that really cool Safari browser plugin that we bought and then enhanced? The one that auto-completes search queries and previews results along with ideas to help refine your search? Well, it’s become an equal opportunity app, available now for Firefox and IE7 and 8 browsers. And now Inquisitor generates more personalized results (based on a crazy smart algorithm) and helps you find your bookmarks faster. More here.
• Color control freak: You love the different themes and colors available for personalizing your My Yahoo! page. But you fancy yourself a designer and wish that blueberry could be more aqua, that maraschino more salmon. Enter customizable colors! Just log in to My Yahoo!, click “Change Appearance,” and head to “Customize Color” and have at it. You can create up to nine different colored themes, picking hues for your header, sub-header, page background, and content area. Color me in charge.
• Halloween help:The countdown to All Hallows Eve is on, so head over to our Halloween microsite for helpful tips and advice for maximizing this most ghoulish of holidays. You’ll find things like pumpkin carving patterns, a compendium of the most popular costumes (it’s not too late), tips for a greener Halloween, a really scary movie guide (and recipes for pumpkin-y things to eat while you watch them), and a tag cloud with the most popular search terms o’ the season. But, sorry, no tips for toilet papering the mean guy’s house.

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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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Whether you celebrate with pyrotechnics, battle re-enactments, red-white-and-blue parades, patriotic ballads, or rabble-rousing barbecues, today marks 232 years of severing ties with King George and his British Empire. Take that for taxation without representation! After you pause to thank that guy with the disproportionately large signature and his fellow forefathers, check out what we declared this week:

• Upcoming feels refreshed: It’s summer and you can’t afford to miss a single kite festival, music festival, puppet show, or free Slurpee day. The team at Upcoming just made it easier for you to find things to do with a sleek new interface and more types of events. Now you can browse by smaller-scale local categories like farmers’ markets, craft fairs, and street festivals. In addition to making over the front page, they’ve added “What’s Nearby” info, so you can find parking, a place to catch a bite, and even the closest cash machine so you don’t have to bum bucks from a buddy. More here and here.
• Heavenly headers: Scrolling is out, tabs are in. That’s why My Yahoo! has spruced up its header with a new tabbed design, letting you create additional customized My Yahoo! pages to your heart’s delight. Just click “new tab,” name your tab, add content, and set up your page’s appearance. You can have up to nine My Yahoo! tabs, compartmentalizing your many interests to specific pages. Now you can finally keep your tattoo passion neatly separated from your knitting obsession. More here.
• Fireworks finder: Not sure where to head for that pyrotechnic extravaganza this year? Looking for pie at a great county fair? Go visit our Fourth of July fireworks and event finder. While you’re there, peruse 100 milestone documents of U.S. history, pick up a picnic recipe or two, and see what the most popular Independence Day search terms are. Forgot the URL? Just click on the star-spangled masthead on our front page and you’re there. Happy Fourth!

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Seventy-five years ago today, a guy in New Jersey advertised his new movie theater with: “The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.” That’s because he was pioneer of the drive-in movie. After you finish feeling nostalgic about flicks al fresco, check out what we put up on the screen this week:

• Flickr groupies: If you’re a Flickr user who loves to share and share alike, you’ll dig the new groups feature that just debuted. Now when you visit any group, you’ll see an “Add Photos” link that launches a new tool that lets you add up to 6 photos or videos at a time from your photostream, your sets, tagged items, geo-tagged items, items uploaded on a specific date, etc. It makes it a whole lot easier to participate in groups that float your boat — whether you’re into photos of Utrecht, spiderwebs, backpacking the Northwest, polydactyl cats, or altered street signs.
• Opening your address book: Personal information geeks just scored big time. We’ve released the API for Yahoo! Address Book. What, you’re not schooled in browser-based authentication? Well, let’s just say the developer world is going to have a lot of fun building useful products and features for you by gaining authorized access to Yahoo! Address Books. Imagine taking your Address Book with you whenever you shop for gifts online. Or confidently allowing a third-party social network site to make it easy for you to send invitations to your contacts. Or being able to look up phone numbers for mobile applications. We can’t wait to see what those developers come up with.
• My (green) Yahoo!: With oil reaching an historic $140 a barrel, who doesn’t want to become obsessed with greener alternatives? Time to populate My Yahoo! with pertinent goods. The Hybrid Cars module lets you stay on top of all things Prius, plugin hybrid, and beyond. And the green-travel module from Yahoo! Groups lets you keep tab on tips from other environ-enthusiasts. It’s good for you, it’s good for the Earth.

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Today is Penny Day, when we pay homage to the most wee of our coinage. It might not buy you much today, but how else could you give someone your two cents or compensate them for their thoughts? What would the frugal among you pinch instead? But for Pete’s sake, if you don’t see Honest Abe staring up at you from the pavement, just keep right on walking. Here’s what we picked up this week:

• Photo Mailer: Ever downloaded photos from someone’s email and wish you hadn’t? The new image preview feature in Yahoo! Mail will help you avoid future said hassles. It helps make it easier for you to preview photo attachments, right within your email. Receive multiple images? You can preview them as a slideshow or as a full-sized image before you download, which you can do in one fell swoop or just selected images. And, as always, you’ll have the comfort of Norton AntiVirus scans to make sure they’re A-OK. Watch the screencast here.
• My Flickr: If you’re as addicted to Flickr as I am, you get moving right over to My Yahoo! to add the new Flickr module. Not only can you view your latest snaps, you can check out the “activity” tab to see when you have comments or responses to your comments. All this without ever having to leave your My Yahoo! page. What’s more, you’ll have access to your sets, your groups, your favorites, your contacts’ photos, and even Flickr’s “Interestingness” feature. BTW: While you’re dolling up your My Yahoo! page, you might want to show that your colors don’t run by trying on the Memorial Day theme this weekend.

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In addition to being the 103rd anniversary of the introduction of Einstein’s theory of relativity, it’s International “Louie Louie” Day! So go honor the greatest party song of all time with a little mass-energy equivalence. Before you gotta go, check out how we got down this week:

• Moving pictures: Been living under a rock? Then you don’t know that Flickr now supports video! The much-anticipated feature went live earlier this week, letting the Flickrverse capture life’s little moments as “long photos” to share with friends, family, or the world. Uploads are limited to 90 seconds and are available to Flickr pro users. Check out what people posted to the (no longer) Super Secret beta pool and get your questions answered here.
• Watercooler ammo: Grab your coffee and donut, fire up Firefox, and bookmark Good Morning Yahoo!, a new morning video news program that gives you the quick-and-dirty lowdown on the latest in news and entertainment. Brought to you by Yahoo! News and the good people at Dunkin Donuts, it packages a daily mix of news videos and fun features culled by Yahoo! News editors. It’s updated live from 6:00am to 12:00pm ET weekdays. Don’t leave for work without it.
• Ask and ye shall receive: The gang at Upcoming is all ears and has made some recent tweaks based on user suggestions. You can now upload flyers and photos to help promote your event, including a special call-out for an official photo, logo, etc. And you can send a message to everyone watching or attending the event you’ve created. Keep those ideas flowing.
• Can you read it now?: Along with wisdom, experience, and distinguished graying temples comes a lack of patience for small fonts. But the My Yahoo! team has delayed your need for bifocals just a bit longer by offering the ability to increase the font size on your special page. Just go to the “Personalize this page” button and blow up those pixels. No looking down your nose at that.

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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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