• What’s that on my TV?: With the impending digitization of U.S. televisions, many of you might be thinking about buying new sets. You might want to hold off until the new Internet-connected TVs hit the market this spring, fully loaded with widgets powered by the Yahoo! Widget engine. We’ve partnered with manufacturers like Samsung, Sony, LG Electronics and VIZIO to let consumers fire up cool new content while watching TV — everything from Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! Video, Yahoo! Finance and Flickr to widgets from providers like eBay, MySpace, CBS, The New York Times, Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster, Showtime, USA TODAY, and Twitter. More here.
• Researching your ride: Car on its last legs? Head to Yahoo! Autos, where the team has just spruced up its research pages for car makes, models and trim. Just in are bigger photos, virtual tours, comprehensive user and expert reviews, and pricing data (including the streamlined price-with-options feature). What’s more, they’ve introduced hundreds of new vehicle videos through WheelsTV so you can check out the car before you decide which one to test-drive. And if you’re strapped for cash, they’ve launch used vehicle research pages for cars dating back to 1997. Air fresheners not included. More here.
• It’s Obama TIME: In case you missed it before the holidays, TIME magazine appointed President-elect Barack Obama as the 2008 Person of the Year. Amidst the evidence of his groundswell support, the editors noticed that there were more than 100,000 Obama-related images posted to Flickr, validating the theory that Americans didn’t just elect a President, “they created an icon.” We partnered with TIME to cull the best Obama-related photos and artwork — here are the top 30. Only 11 more days to go!

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For that very reason, we here at Yahoo! Autos are excited to announce today’s launch of our freshly redesigned research pages for make, model and trim — giving you more information than ever to make a truly informed decision about picking up your next set of wheels.

For instance, head to our homepage and look up the 2009 Prius. You’ll find the page is now cleaner and easier to use, especially for reviewing the specific trims available. Selecting the Touring package allows you to then drill down to more detailed information including bigger photos, virtual tours, comprehensive user reviews and expert reviews from partners like The Car Connection, as well as pricing data, including our new streamlined price with options functionality. We’re also pleased to introduce hundreds of new vehicle videos through WheelsTV as part of this launch – like a virtual test drive to save you time before you hit the dealerships.

Less inclined to buy a shiny new car in this economy? No worries – we’ve also launched used vehicle research pages, where you can find photos, reviews, specs and pricing information for cars dating back to 1997.

We tie all of this vehicle information to more than 2 million new and used car listings sourced via Cars.com. After doing your research, you can find the availability of those vehicles in your own neighborhood.

So for those of you out there thinking it’s time to retire the old jalopy, wanting to find the best bang for the buck, or just curious about the new vehicles hitting the market, take our pages for a spin. We’d love to know what you think.

Lesley Kao
Director, Yahoo! Autos