A recent Yahoo! Mobile/Razorfish study reveals interesting gender differences in usage and ranks the smartphone as the number one device in the home with 75% of votes, with a landslide 80% of respondents using their phones to multi-task while watching TV.

The more than 2,000 U.S. respondents that participated in the study were asked questions on their multi-tasking habits and device preferences, bringing to light some interesting trends and valuable insights. Following are the top 10 findings:

1. Did you see that?: An overwhelming 90% said that multi-tasking on their smartphone (while watching live TV & commercials) was to communicate with others (via text or phone).
2. Pass the remote: 60% access the mobile web (not apps or email) during TV commercials, 38% of which is related to the content they are watching. 15% of respondents admitted that they are never without their phone for the entire duration of a TV show.
3. Laptop vs. tablet: Searching for content related to what’s on TV at any given time is more prevalent for tablet users than laptop/desktop users — over half (57%) of people multi-tasking on tablets are searching for related content, while the same could be said for just 33% of laptop/desktop users.
4. Women want to know: Young women are the prime demographic to surf the Internet related to what they’re watching (65% of women under the age of 35, compared to 47% of men of the same age).
5. Mobile phone scapegoat: 52% of consumers use their mobile device to escape awkward situations. Women are more likely to use their phone as an excuse than men.
6. No need to stop & ask for directions: Overall, men (59%) are using their web-enabled mobile devices most frequently for navigational purposes.
7. Are you ready for some football?: Men were almost twice as likely to say that checking their mobile phone for sports news causes arguments with their significant other (29%) compared to women (17%).
8. Men are glued to stats: 58% of men are ‘fact checking’ on their mobile web browser while at a live sporting event, with nearly half (47%) checking out scores of other games and players.
9. The gender divide: Men are more likely to use their mobile device as a functional, all- in-one tool; whereas women are more likely to use it as an extension of the traditional phone, to update and connect with friends across their social networks on the go.
10. Mobile shopping is a man’s world: Online purchases on smartphones are more popular with men (70% under 35 years) than with women (64% under 35 years).

Any of this ring true with you? Check out the full report released today, available on http://www.razorfish.com.

To learn more about Yahoo! Mobile, check out mobile.yahoo.com and ymobileblog.com/blog. Search for “Yahoo!” in the iTunes App Store or Android Market to discover industry-leading apps, such as Livestand from Yahoo!, Yahoo! Messenger, MarketDash, Flickr, Sportacular and dozens more. With more than 100 mobile partnerships, you can find your favorite Yahoo! experiences on nearly every mobile device and platform.

Edwin Wong

Yahoo! Insights

With the headlines around our company recently, I understand why many pundits want to weigh in with their own ideas and storylines about Yahoo!. Yahoo! is both an iconic brand and a major Internet player. In fact, with 680 million users globally, we are the premier digital media company in the world. So it makes sense that everyone has an opinion on Yahoo!. But when it comes to mobile, I think some of the prevailing opinions haven’t been capturing the full picture. So, in my own words, I feel compelled to offer my perspective on why Yahoo! is a major mobile player.

First off, though, who am I? Good question. My name is Paul Cushman. I’m very proud to have worked at Yahoo! for the past four years as head of mobile ad sales. I’ve been in mobile advertising for 11 years. In that time, I’ve witnessed the amazing evolution of the mobile Web first hand. When reports like this week’s from IDC predict that mobile Internet users will exceed those from traditional PC channels by 2015, it’s exciting for me, because it’s a vision I’ve believed in for a long time. It’s also a world in which Yahoo! will absolutely have a major role to play globally.

In fact, we’ve been a major player for years. Did you know that Yahoo reaches 56 million unique mobile web users a month in the US alone? That’s 51% reach for the overall US mobile market. That makes us the #3 mobile brand. If Yahoo! mobile were a website on a PC, its audience would be larger than ESPN or LinkedIn. That’s a.) not too shabby and b.) a position we believe we’re primed to improve.

No one has the combination of audience size, innovation, mobile partnerships, or support of CMO-level client relationships we have at Yahoo!. As a salesperson who wants to help advertisers make an impact on mobile, it’s a thrill to work at this company.

If you still have your doubts, and because everyone likes lists, here’s my recap of the impact Yahoo! has had on mobile:

• We were the first major search company to launch a search product designed for mobile FIRST: that was oneSearch in 2007.
• Yahoo! Go was an awesome product, way ahead of the market when it first launched in January 2006 (18 months before the iPhone!). It enabled email, uploading photos, mapping, search via Yahoo’s oneSearch and Yahoo! Answers service, stock quotes, and breaking news.
• We were ahead of the curve integrating interactive rich media ads onto search results pages for mobile, which delivered a 15 times increase in click-through rates.
• We have more than 100 partnerships in mobile around the world, and recently AT&T made Yahoo! its homepage on all Android and RIM devices.
• Yahoo! is the #1 U.S. mobile property in Finance and Entertainment, and #2 in five other categories.
• Yahoo! Weather AND Finance are built-in iPhone experiences.
• Yahoo! Sportacular is in the “iPhone Hall of Fame” and 40% of our Fantasy Football audience, which broke all kinds of traffic records this past opening weekend for the NFL, accesses our site from mobile devices.
• And then there are all the cool ads we’ve run on our mobile homepage, including our “Rango” campaign for Paramount where Rango the chameleon changes color when you swipe. That’s mobile innovation in ad creative and interaction.

Sometimes I think we at Yahoo! are a little too humble in promoting our achievements – mobile and otherwise. I fully realize we’re not without challenges, but from my vantage point, we have a tremendous amount of new innovation, products, and ad solutions in the works for this fall and beyond, and a lot of committed Yahoos like me who want to continue making a difference.

Cheers,
Paul Cushman
Still Proud to be a Yahoo!

Editor’s Note: This article is the first in a series entitled, “In My Own Words,” that will give Yahoo 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.

Today Yahoo! introduced not one, but two fun and fast ways that help you discover new and relevant mobile apps: Yahoo! App Search for the PC, and AppSpot, a free mobile app for iPhone and Android users. Together, they take the guesswork out of finding apps that fit your life.

With 425,000-plus apps in the Apple App Store and 200,000 apps in Android Market, we know finding what you want can be exhausting.  And even more 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.

Using Yahoo!’s powerful search technology, App Search and AppSpot allow you to zero-in on any app by showing matching app titles with a full comprehensive description, price, overall star rating from users, and screenshots in one spot to help you with your decision: to download or not to download. For an enhanced mobile experience, Yahoo! AppSpot delivers daily, completely personalized recommendations of the mobile apps you should consider based on the apps you’ve downloaded.

We’re giving you a better way – both for discovering apps that are most relevant to you and finding the utility apps that help get the job done – regardless of the type of device or platform.

Take a spin through AppSpot and App Search to see for yourself.

Start discovering new apps today! AppSpot is available now for download on AppSpot for iPhone and iPod touch and AppSpot for Android.

Get a full download on the features of these intelligent new app-shopping assistants on the Yahoo! Search and Mobile blogs.

-Shashi Seth, SVP of Search and Marketplaces, Yahoo!

We live in a beautifully content rich world. More than 3.5 million photos get uploaded to Flickr every day. On email we receive nearly 2.5 billion emails each day, and many of us send hundreds of texts and tweets per month. Simply put, life is digital. In order to enjoy and share all this content, people want much more than a PC experience replicated on their tablet or phone—they want something fundamentally new.

As the premier digital media company, we see a clear opportunity to push the boundaries of personalization to deliver intelligent experiences specifically tailored for each individual.  This ultra personalized content experience is our vision for Livestand from Yahoo! – a digital newsstand, delivering a wealth of ever-changing content from multiple publishers, continuously programmed by a person’s interests and contexts.

With Livestand from Yahoo!, what you’re reading will be personalized based on your interests, your location and even the time of day.  Your experiences, which will begin on tablet form factors, will include intuitive touch interactions and an elegant design that focuses foremost on the content.

As the media landscape continues to evolve with mobile and tablet experiences top of mind, publishers and advertisers must expand their content to these platforms to stay in front of consumers.  We see an opportunity to provide publishers and advertisers with a pipeline for fresh and active content and to help them reach and engage their most valuable audiences.

With Livestand, we’re using ad formats that evoke the emotion of TV advertising with a highly-visual magazine-like experience.  And they’re combined with the effectiveness of an Internet ad that’s data-rich, actionable, even location aware.  It’s all personalized and in context – just like our content.

In the first half of 2011, you’ll see Yahoo!’s vast digital content library come to life through Livestand from Yahoo! – from Sports, News, Finance, Flickr, omg!, and the Yahoo! Contributor Network – as iPad and Android tablet applications.

Stay tuned here for more updates over the coming weeks.

Blake Irving, EVP, Chief Product Officer, Yahoo!
@Blakei

We are thrilled to announce that the neighborhood of North Beach in San Francisco is the winner in the Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby – a two month city-wide challenge that came to an end on January 28th.

Here’s how the competition shaped up:

1. North Beach: 363,650

2. Tenderloin: 329,625

3. Mission: 306,275

The first of its kind, the Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby was a unique experience using 72″ touch LCD screens located in downtown bus shelters. Riders were able to represent their neighborhood by playing interactive games and competing for a community block party with a performance by Grammy winning band, OK Go.

This innovative contest encouraged residents and commuters to engage with games that highlighted Yahoo! Mobile applications. Users were able to compete by choosing a neighborhood from a drop-­down menu on the game screen, then select from four fun and engaging Yahoo! Mobile app-related games themed around Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Sportacular, and Flickr .

On Saturday, February 5th, the North Beach community will celebrate their win and host a block party at The San Francisco Art Institute overlooking iconic San Francisco landmarks such as Coit Tower and Alcatraz. The block party will feature a free performance by Grammy-winning band OK Go, local food vendors and games.

For additional information on Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby & block party, visit: http://www.busstopderby.com/

Since the debut of Yahoo! Connected TV at CES 2009, we have defined the category of Internet-enhanced television, working with top TV brands to bring the TV app experience to life across Sony, Samsung, LG, Toshiba, and VIZIO TVs. This year, we’re taking the TV experience into a new era through the introduction of a ground-breaking feature we call broadcast interactivity.  Imagine a TV experience that brings you even closer to the programs and brands you love by letting you interact with the programming in a way you never could before. You’ll be able to play along while watching your favorite show, vote for a reality-TV participant, get more information about characters, or make e-commerce purchases using a TV app.

Yahoo! is collaborating with television network powerhouses ABC, CBS, HSN, and Showtime and top brand advertisers Ford, Mattel and Microsoft on content for a pilot program launching in the first half of 2011, and will showcase examples of the new feature during CES.  Read more about it at the Connected TV and Yahoo! Advertising blogs.

That’s not all though. We’ll also be demonstrating new ways to take advantage of the many connected devices we use today – from mobile phones to tablets and Internet-connected TV and more:

• D-Link Internet-Connected Media Player, Featuring Yahoo! Connected TV: D-Link announced plans to launch the first ever Internet-connected media player, featuring the Yahoo! Connected TV platform. The D-Link device will provide consumers access to the Yahoo! Connected TV experience without the purchase of a new TV.
• New Yahoo! Connected TV Apps:  Today the Yahoo! Connected TV experience centers around a collection of more than 100 easy-to-use TV apps that run the gamut from social networking to music, games, news, weather, finance, shopping, and more than 50,000 movies and TV shows on demand. New TV apps launching at CES include CNBC, Clear Channel Radio, NBC, QVC, mgMedia, and more.
• Flickr App Preview for Windows 7 Devices:  We’re making it even easier for you to share and organize your photos using the leading online photo sharing community in the world. The Flickr apps for Windows 7 phones and the Slate tablet – launching in a few weeks – will provide a sleek user interface and unique inter-connectivity between phones, tablets and laptops.  Check out more details on the Flickr blog.
• Yahoo! Local for Mobile:   Our goal with the new Yahoo! Local is to be the best place for people to find what’s happening in their neighborhoods, whether they’re at home or on the go. With rich hyper-local content, the new Yahoo! Local provides people a truly personalized experience across desktop and mobile (currently available via the mobile web on iPhone and Android), enabling them to discover and contribute to the best local news, deals, and events nearby, all in one place. Check out more details on the new Yahoo! Local for mobile on the Yahoo! Mobile blog.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with more of the latest news, pictures, and videos featuring Yahoo! at CES 2011.

Cheers,
Irv Henderson

Next time you take your laptop, tablet or smartphone to your neighborhood Starbucks, you are in for a surprise: the new Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo! launched today in our U.S. company-operated stores. Think of it as premium content to go with premium coffee.

The team at Starbucks wanted to enhance the time our customers spend in our stores, so we had a vision to create something new, localized, unexpected… and online. The Starbucks Digital Network was developed to provide customers instant access to a collection of hand-picked premium news, entertainment and lifestyle content along with free downloads, local insights and events from nearly 20 different content providers including iTunes, Nick Jr. Boost, Rodale, WSJ.com and Yahoo!  It’s all free and only available at Starbucks.

Starbucks knew we wanted to create an in-store online network, and we also knew we needed a strategic partner to bring our vision to life.  We selected Yahoo! as our partner because we needed their experience in building and managing a network of this magnitude. Yahoo! is known for offering unique and compelling online experiences and employs some of the best technical minds in the business.

There are other key synergies in this partnership. We wanted the network to be searchable, and integrating Yahoo! Search was an easy choice. Additionally, Yahoo! delivers compelling content to their customers every day, and we wanted to include that content on our network. We are happy to see that Flickr, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! News are available for customers who are interested in social-sharing and receiving breaking news.

We hope you stop by your neighborhood Starbucks and experience the Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo!, for yourself. Between October 20 through October 27, we’re offering special content you’ll only find on the Starbucks Digital Network including exclusive free tracks from Fistful of Mercy featuring Ben Harper and Dhani Harrison courtesy of iTunes, the opportunity to donate $15 to a local school through DonorsChoose.org and a first look at a bestselling author Anita Shreve’s new novel that doesn’t hit shelves until November 30.

Whether your drink of choice is a hot latte or a cold Frappuccino, treat yourself to the new Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo!

- Adam Brotman, Vice President Starbucks Digital Ventures

Trend: Mobile phones and cars, working together

The use of smart phones is exploding. Today, 17% of all cell phones are now smart phones, up from 11 percent just a year ago. One of the big trends that our team noticed at CTIA, how your cell phones and your car are working together. Ford is putting its sync technology in new cars, it gives you direct voice activity control, over most of your cell phone apps. Check out the video for a demo.

Trend: Distracted Driving Apps

We also noticed here at CTIA that a number of companies are creating apps to address the problem of distracted driving. And there’s a lot of interest in the subject right now, searches on Yahoo! are up 1,300% this week alone. Despite laws banning texting while driving, and requiring hands free devices, 6,000 people die each year due to distraction related accidents, and another 500,000 each year are hurt. To address the problem a number of companies have developed voice activated software for your smart phone. An app we like: drivecarefully.com. It will read your incoming texts and emails to you over your speakerphone. And you can reply using voice commands.

Voiceonthego.com is another good app. But some studies suggest it’s not just texting or dialing that’s causing accidents,  its paying attention to anything but the road. So there are several apps out there – that will keep you from using your cell phone in your car at all. If you are moving faster than 10 miles an hour.. The Textecution App will block all incoming our outgoing messages. And The Txtblocker App will do the same.

Both will save your messages until your off the road.

Check out the video for more trends spiking this week and if you are in Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento or Atlanta, catch us live on Fridays!

Sprint ID will launch on three Android handsets- SANYO Zio, Samsung Transform, and LG Optimus S. Users can view available ID Packs and find more information at www.sprint.com/sprintid.

Through Sprint ID consumers and business customers can instantly customize their mobile experience with an ID pack, complete with apps, widgets, ringtones and wall papers. With one click, consumers can personalize their phones with our Yahoo! ID pack, which offers easy access to:

• Yahoo! Homepage
• Yahoo! Mail
• Yahoo! Messenger
• Yahoo! News
• Yahoo! Sports
• Yahoo! Finance
• Flickr
• Yahoo! Fantasy Football
• Yahoo! Search
• Yahoo! Movies
• Yahoo! Weather
• Yahoo! omg!

All of these leading Yahoo! services are also available individually for download from the Android Market.

Yahoo! Extends T-Mobile Partnership

Earlier this week, T-Mobile announced their latest Android powered MyTouch device delivering hi-definition video and 4G speeds, and we’re thrilled to partner with them and deeply integrate Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger (with video chat!) into the lastest MyTouch device. The T-Mobile myTouch will be available in time for the holidays.

Yahoo! is poised to take advantage of the tremendous growth that the mobile market will experience in the coming years as more and more people turn to their mobile phones to connect with the people and information that’s important to them – wherever and whenever they want it.

Learn more about Yahoo! for Android.

-David Katz, VP, Yahoo! Mobile, North America

We understand that being a fantasy player and sports fan is not just about passion and the thrill of the game. It’s also about being social – with friends, family, and of course any rival-team supporters. Around this time each year, Yahoo! Sports becomes home on the web for fantasy football, providing fans with innovative features, the most reliable games, and expert advice. With that in mind, we’re excited to announce our Yahoo! Fantasy Football lineup for 2010:

• #1 Free Fantasy Football Game – With free live scoring, auction drafts, mock drafts, and killer mobile apps, it’s no wonder more Fantasy Football fans play on Yahoo! every year than on any other site. For the 2010 season (our lucky 13^th), we’ve made former Plus features like Draft Kit and Dues Tracking free, and added a new live auction draft app so team owners can stay organized and create winning teams.

• Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football: Wherever, Whenever – Building on our highly successful mobile website and iPhone app from last season, we’ve expanded our mobile lineup and made a lot of improvements based on your feedback. Most notably, we’ve launched our first-ever Fantasy Football app for Android. And, as always, if you have any other mobile device, direct your mobile browser to m.yahoo.com/fantasyfootball.  It’ll be faster than the Jets defense during Monday Night Football.

• “Like” Your League – Just in time for kick-off, Citizen Sports is launching a new feature that offers a uniquely social way to stay in touch with your leagues and teams. While playing either Yahoo! Fantasy Football or Citizen Sports Fantasy Football this season, people can “like” their own Fantasy Team or League and receive personalized updates about players, injuries, lineup reminders, and more directly on their Facebook news feed and through Yahoo! Updates.

• Advice from the Experts – Each week, Yahoo! Sports fantasy football experts Brandon Funston and Brad Evans host Fantasy Football Live, the first interactive Fantasy Football pregame show. Fantasy Football Live begins its fifth season on September 12 at Noon ET/ 9am PT, the advice you need to win the league.

Millions of you depend on Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports to fuel your fantasy football passion. Our loyal, highly engaged fans have made Yahoo! Fantasy Football the #1 game in the industry*. So whether you need to manage your roster from the stadium, boast to your social network about an awesome trade, or get expert advice and tips, we’ve got you covered!

So cheer on, fans, and good luck this season!

Kyle Laughlin

Yahoo! Sports

* comScore, July 2010

About This News Bytes Episode:

Pam Woon and the Yahoo! Digital Media Bureau crash the biggest party of Geek Girls in the world! It’s a night of technology, great food and conversation at Yahoo!’s Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner at Yahoo!’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA.  The event featured keynote speaker Hilary Schneider, Yahoo’s Americas Executive Vice President–and proud girl geek!

Recent Yahoo! News Bytes Episodes:

• Yahoo! News Bytes August 12, 2010 (Associated Content)
• Yahoo! News Bytes July 13, 2010 (Yahoo! Mobile)

About The Yahoo! Digital Media Bureau:

The Yahoo! Digital Media Bureau is a team of Emmy-nominated, multi-platform content creators who innovate and produce original video content, from webisodes to webumentaries. The Yahoo! Digital Media bureau is responsible for the weekly feature, Yahoo! News Bytes, which peels back the layer on everything Yahoo! The Bureau also produces the weekly Yahoo! Trends segment, which focuses on what’s trending in entertainment, pop culture and tech. Yahoo! Trends is distributed on broadcast television and seen throughout the United States.

So what does this mean for you? If you are one of the 300 million Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger users worldwide, we’re making it easier to access feature-rich Yahoo! experiences on two of the fastest growing mobile platforms in the market, Android and HTML5-capable browsers.  Get more details on the Yahoo! Messenger app on the Yahoo! Messenger Blog here.

With the new apps for Android, we created fast, easy-to-use and visually stunning experiences for Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger, providing rich full-featured experiences right on your Android device, and built from the ground up for the Android platform. We also introduced a Yahoo! Search Widget for Android to provide quick and convenient access to Yahoo! Search, making search easily accessible directly on your home screen. Check out more details on the Yahoo! Search Blog here.

In another exciting new release, we’re leveraging the cutting-edge features of HTML5 and introducing a new Yahoo! Mail web-app, plus a Yahoo! News site, for the iPhone and iPod touch.

The new Yahoo! Mail for mobile web is the most advanced mobile web-app we’ve ever created, making full use of client side databases and advanced caching capabilities, we’re offering faster access, powerful search, and rich content & message previews surfaced directly in the inbox. This amazing new experience is available in 28 languages in more than 200 countries. Read more about the all-new Yahoo! Mail on the Yahoo! Mail Blog here.

Our enhanced Yahoo! News includes a new layout with animated visual effects and navigation that utilizes touch gestures to deliver a compelling news experience.

We’ve been working hard, and listening carefully to our users’ feedback to understand what our consumers want, how a sophisticated mobile experience should behave, and how we could harness the latest cutting-edge technology. The result is a collection of incredible new experiences that represent our continued commitment to provide best-in-class products, while creating a modern and flexible platform for continued innovation and development. We hope you’ll love using these new experiences as much as we’ve loved creating them!

Here is a video with more on Today’s news:

Jason Titus
VP, Yahoo! Mail & Messenger

Irv Henderson
VP, global, mobile products

The growing popularity of tablet computers – spurred greatly by the buzz of the iPad – presented us with an entirely new kind of user experience to design and innovate against. Just like when we developed Connected TV and apps for the iPhone, we took this challenge and opportunity seriously, and leveraged everything that makes the iPad unique – gesture technology, vibrant display screen, geo-location technology, and the fastest Wi-Fi connectivity available. All of this, combined with a completely fresh perspective on where we want to take the future of the Web, made it possible to produce Yahoo! Entertainment for the iPad. It is truly unique.

Using editorialized, real-time content, Yahoo! Entertainment surfaces and recommends TV shows, entertainment news, TV listings, book reviews, and a wide variety of popular videos from across the Web. Our industry-leading entertainment properties on the PC attract nearly 200 million visitors each month worldwide*, making this a natural area for us to initially focus our creative energy on. We’re taking the content we know people love and combining it into a single, immersive app.

This is only the first of many incredible experiences Yahoo! will develop for the iPad – a form factor which offers a truly novel canvas for building engaging, fun, and innovative Web experiences. For more information, head to Yahoo! Entertainment or the iTunes® Store and start experiencing a new kind of Web, today.

Tapan Bhat, SVP, Integrated Consumer Experiences

* comScore WW Media Metrix, February 2010 (Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! TV)

Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search iPhone App

Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search makes search even easier, without typing keywords or thinking about search terms. You simply draw a boundary on your phone’s map to discover local businesses within that location. Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search delivers robust local content without people needing to know the neighborhood. Initially available for restaurant searches in the U.S., Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search will launch additional local categories on an ongoing basis and will extend to international markets in the near future.

Yahoo! Search iPhone App

Maximized for speed, the Yahoo! Search iPhone app revolves around an innovative interface that delivers contextually relevant results quickly and efficiently. A rich set of features — tightly embedded maps, localized query suggestions that display as you type, intelligent search history, voice search, and rich content and information from Yahoo! and other sources that appear directly in the results — creates an optimal experience for finding exactly what you need. The Yahoo! Search iPhone app is available in 22 markets across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, and will continue to roll out to additional locations.

Head over to the Yahoo! Search Blog and the Yahoo! Mobile Blog for more detailed information and features on these two new apps.  Both apps are available starting today from the iTunes® Store at http://itunes.com/apps/yahoosearch and http://itunes.com/apps/yahoosketchasearch.

Facebook and Twitter—those sure weren’t around when I was playing in the Championship game 20 years ago against Duke. I’ll never forget the thrill of that victory, all the memories from the entire season, playing alongside Stacey Augmon and Larry Johnson—broken jaw and all.

I’m not on the court anymore, but that’s one of the beautiful things about the NCAA Championship Tournament: With every correct pick, every upset we call, every favorite team that advances, we (the fans) get to share in the thrill. One million dollars certainly doesn’t hurt, either—which is what Yahoo! is offering one lucky fan for submitting the perfect bracket. No perfect bracket in the end? No problem. The best bracket in the KFC- sponsored Yahoo! Sports Tourney Pick ‘em contest wins $10,000 (just ask Michael Lemon—he’s been enjoying his winnings from last year), and there’s even a second-chance contest from TIAA-CREF for the majority of us that must reluctantly accept our busted brackets.

Starting today, on-the-go fans will have access to a great new mobile experience for staying on top of their bracket selections. Yahoo! has created a mobile site where fans can play the Yahoo! Sports Tourney Pick’em game right on their mobile device at m.yahoo.com/tourneypickem. In addition, they’ll be able to get live scoring, game stats, updated schedules, news, and expert analysis from the Yahoo! Sports editorial team.

And it’s even easier these days to get your friends involved (and we all know the real satisfaction comes in beating that one friend who is so sure he’s going win) with Facebook and Twitter integration. Plus, you can be a die-hard fan without having to invest all the time and research. Yahoo!’s Bracket Wizard and Scenario Generator help fans with those quick decisions and allow them to see at a glance which teams to cheer for along the way to ensure that big W.

One of the perks of being a member of the Yahoo! Sports team is that I get to pitch in and offer my best (and presumably spot-on) advice to the masses. For those last-minute updates, fans can tune in to Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Bracket Live, a live and interactive web-show from the folks who brought you the Emmy®–nominated Yahoo! Fantasy Football Live. Tune in on March 17 as Jason King, Brad Evans, Larry Beil and I give you a final rundown on all the immediate updates affecting your teams. Viewers can even send us their bracket, and there’s a chance we’ll help you out with it on our show.

I know you guys are as excited about the next few weeks as I am. If you haven’t already, you better get in the game soon. Tip-off is only 8 days away, and it can’t get here soon enough!

-Greg Anthony, Yahoo! Sports College Basketball Analyst

Photo courtesy of saferinternet.org

The nature of the online and mobile environments is rapidly changing and so are the challenges for parents and children – from empowering kids to be safe and responsible online, to digital reputation management to cyber-bullying.

On February 9^th, people and organizations around the world are taking a moment to recognize the importance of safety on the web. Safer Internet Day is organized by Insafe each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and teens. This year, the focus is on “Think B4 U post,” with the goal of empowering kids to manage their digital reputation (e.g. how people are viewed based on what they post and share online) in a world where photos and videos can be broadly shared within minutes, and result in serious consequences.

At Yahoo!, we have been committed to fostering a safer internet for many years, and today we are helping to amplify what people can do to create a safer online experience. As a long time leader in child safety, we have been working closely with national child safety advocates, law enforcement agencies, educational leaders, and parents to help coach youth about protecting their online personas. In addition we build child safety tools into our products, and encourage youth to take advantage of these tools.

For many teens around the world, mobile devices are the primary way teens stay in touch with friends and family and engage with the web. Given this role mobile devices play in youths’ lives, we recognize the need for mobile safety tips, and are helping to educate kids and parents with Yahoo!’s Mobile Safety Tips.

To celebrate Safer Internet Day, Yahoo! is sharing our top 5 tips:

1. Think before you send. Stop, and think before you share a thought or forward a photo. Imagine your grandmother or principal on the receiving end. The best filter is the one between your ears — use it to your advantage.
2. Protect your personal information. When you send email, texts, photos or instant messages to people who are not trusted friends or family, don’t give out personal information they could use to find your physical location or exploit you. Guard your password like a hawk.
3. Control negativity. Think carefully about who you want to communicate with and who you should ignore. Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger have features that allow you to block people. If you receive abusive or harassing messages online, report the abuse where and when you see it.
4. Use Safe Search. Yahoo! offers a default Safe Search filter to help keep inappropriate content out of your search results. While no filter can guarantee 100% removal of all inappropriate content, using a filter like Safe Search will make a big difference in keeping unwanted material out of your search results.
5. Download applications from trusted sources only! If you download software from a third party, be sure to only download applications from developers you trust. And, read their Terms of Service and privacy policies to really understand what you’re giving them permission to do when you download their app.

Catherine Teitelbaum, Yahoo!’s Director of Child Safety and Product Policy

Today, Yahoo! launched the Yahoo! Mobile Blog, which you can find at ymobileblog.com.  The blog will provide you with interesting information on what’s been happening in the industry, and behind the scenes at Yahoo! Mobile — from new products and features, to quick tips and tricks to market trends and predictions.

Below, you will find the first post from Irv Henderson, VP of global mobile products for Yahoo!.  In it, Irv discusses the purpose of the blog, background on Yahoo! Mobile and his views on what’s to come for 2010.

To add the Yahoo! Mobile Blog to your RSS reader, click here to subscribe:

• F-F-Fantastic phone apps: For the millions of you with touch-screen phones, you can now download some of Yahoo!’s most popular services. Call them the Three F’s: Finance, Flickr and Fantasy Football (or is that four Fs?). With interactivity reminiscent of their Web-based counterparts, these apps let you access our services on the go from an iPhone, iPod touch or select Blackberry models (including Bold, Tour and 8900 series). For now, Finance and Fantasy Football users can download them in the U.S. and Canada, while the Flickr app is also available in the UK, France, Hong Kong, and Singapore. For a deeper dive, check out our post earlier this week.
• Inviting apps & jumbo files: The new and improved Yahoo! Mail just debuted three new apps that turn your inbox into even more of a productivity hub. Head over to that handy Applications box and you’ll notice new apps from Evite and pingg — two options for sending and managing invitations. They sensibly integrate with tools like Yahoo! Calendar, Yahoo! Address Book and Yahoo! Maps to take the stress out of party-planning (and -going). And the new Attach Large Files app, courtesy of the folks at drop.io, lets you upload and share files up to 100MB. You can also collaborate by commenting on files, leaving a voicemail for more context or dialing in to a conference call for a real-time powwow. Read more here.
• Neighbors helping neighbors: Let’s say that waffle iron you plugged in blew your kitchen fuse and it’s been a blue moon since you last called an electrician. Where do you turn? The best tips are often from the people you bump into every day in your neighborhood. And we’ve just made it easier to get their word-of-mouth recommendations. Yahoo! Neighbors, a new feature on Yahoo! Local, lets you get answers to everyday problems. Use it to find local services or post questions and tips for the community. For a taste, check out this thread from some users in Dallas in search of a driving school.
• New souped-up Messenger for Mac: For all you Mac users, there’s a new beta version of Messenger available for download. Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 comes with a bunch of new bug fixes to help it run more smoothly. You’ll also get the Messenger Insider window that’s available on Windows versions, giving you a daily snapshot of what’s happening on Yahoo! and around the world. Want to take it for a test drive? Download it here and read more here.

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Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Today we’re taking a huge step in bringing more of Yahoo!’s most popular properties and services to mobile devices around the world. You can now have Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Fantasy Football and Flickr, with much of the same interactivity as on the PC, on your iPhone or iPod touch (via the App Store) and select BlackBerry models (Bold, Tour, and 8900 series). It’s all part of our effort to help you stay connected.

The new Yahoo! Finance app, available on the iPhone or iPod touch and compatible BlackBerry models, helps you stay on top of the market, your portfolio, and the latest news, research, and analysis with powerful interactivity. The app lets you:

• Follow the broad market indices or a specific company
• Access the top financial news stories
• Follow your personalized portfolio from Yahoo! Finance
• Drill down into specific company information (news, chart, financial metrics)
• Get currency conversions on the go
• Watch streaming video from Tech Ticker

The new app is available in English for the U.S. and Canada and we expect to support more languages and countries in the near future, so stay tuned!

The new Fantasy Football app, available on the iPhone or iPod touch and compatible BlackBerry models, ensures that when you’re away from your computer or TV, you’ll still be in the know when your team puts points on the board. You’ll have up-to-the-minute access to rosters, players, live scores via Stat Tracker, and the latest expert analysis and news. The new app lets you:

• Edit your bench (add and drop) directly from your phone
• View matchups, standings, player and team stats, etc.
• Get live scoring just like on the PC
• Get news and expert advice just like you’re used to on the PC

This app is available in English for the U.S. and Canada – those football-loving nations.

Flickr fans will be amazed by the functionality in their new Flickr iPhone/iPod touch app – starting with the Ken Burns-effect on famed Flickr images when you first launch it. In addition to being able to share and discover photos and videos, you can also take advantage of location-based information when uploading new stuff. The new app lets you:

• Easily upload and tag photos and video while on the go
• Automatically geo-tag before you upload (opt-in required)
• Add and view photos and videos by tags & sets
• Share photos with friends via email
• Search photos and videos from the Flickr community all over the world by subject, people, or places
• See your contacts’ recent photos and activity
• Make comments and mark photos as favorites

The new Flickr app is available in English, French and traditional Chinese for the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Hong Kong, and Singapore – with more to come.

And don’t despair if you don’t have an iPhone/iPod touch or one of the compatible BlackBerry devices. You can always access these three popular services from the mobile web – just head to Flickr (http://m.flickr.com), Yahoo! Finance (http://m.yahoo.com/finance), and Fantasy Sports (http://m.yahoo.com/fantasy). And be sure to visit the new Yahoo! Mobile Homepage (http://m.yahoo.com) and personalize it with your favorite content and services from across the Internet.

Keep an eye out for additional mobile offerings across a lot more devices as we continue to bring the best of Yahoo! to mobile users around the world.

David Ko
SVP, Yahoo! Mobile

• Buzzing the world: There’s news and there’s news people really care about. That’s what Yahoo! Buzz helps you filter. And now the site has made it even easier to keep tabs on what your contacts and the greater community find most interesting. As part of a fresh redesign, a new “Buzz Updates” tab surfaces the submitting, voting, and commenting activity from your friends and others. And given Yahoo! Buzz’s runaway success as the (insert shameless self-promotion) most popular social content service in the US, Yahoo! Buzz got its passport and just landed in India. Now readers all over India can keep tabs on what’s hot in everything from Bollywood to business in Bangalore. More here.
• Just tell me: The iPhone is truly the one thing I’d want on a desert isle, but let’s face it — its keyboard leaves something to be desired. That’s why Yahoo! Mobile just launched voice search for our Yahoo! Mobile iPhone app. Now you can search for anything — flight numbers, restaurants, gas stations, web sites — by just moving your mouth. You can also customize your “My Interests” tab with your voice — just click on “add anything” and say the topic you want to explore and add to your page. Our voice-enabled search is now available on more than 80 different devices/platforms – from Blackberry (including the newest ones) to Nokia to iPhone and Windows Mobile. Download the app or your update.
• Catch that play?: You can read about sports online, but it’s video that really gets the adrenaline flowing. Yahoo! Sports just revamped their video player so you can do more with the play-by-play. It now has a larger viewing window and you can watch videos in full screen. You can also share links or embed your favorite plays in your blog or what-have-you. And handy big thumbnails make it easier to browse through the video library. Check out this Lakers’ dunk. And then go get air sick.
• Group update: Six months ago, you might have noticed activity updates from your friends popping up in places like Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Profiles. They’ve included activity on Twitter, Flickr, Yahoo! Buzz, MyBlogLog, Yahoo! Music, delicious, and more. This week, Yahoo! Groups joined the fray. Now the questions, answers, advice, and photos you share with your group can also become an update for your Yahoo! connections, offering more airtime for the content you’ve created. And don’t worry — you have complete control over what you want to share. Read more here.
• Make it green: If you fancy yourself a MacGyver type and have an idea for a great new “green” gizmo, get thee to Yahoo! Green‘s new “Make It Green” campaign. We’re searching for the best new green products and do-it-yourself projects so we can turn them into real products. What’s in it for you? A chance to star on the PBS TV show Everyday Edisons, a check for $2500, and the glory of knowing that your little planet-saving idea is lining the shelves of stores. Not particularly inventive? That’s ok — just go give a thumbs up to whatever idea you like best. You’ve got until June 30th. Check it out.

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• Mobile home: As announced in February, we’ve collected all of our mobile offerings into one handy application called, succinctly, Yahoo! Mobile. And this week, it said “sayonara, beta!” You can now access Yahoo! Mobile for the Web on 300+ devices with HTML-enabled mobile browsers (http://new.m.yahoo.com/) or download the free Yahoo! Mobile app from the Apple iPhone App Store. It’s clean, it’s simple, and it’s open, so you not only get quick access to your favorite Yahoo! services (Mail, Messenger, News, Finance, etc.), you can check your Gmail, see Twitter and Facebook updates, read up on RSS feeds, and more. And, as an added bonus, iPhone users can also download Yahoo! Messenger. More here.
• Get a new image: Searching for an image? You might have noticed our spiffy new Yahoo! Image Search preview page, which is both prettier and more helpful. Click on that thumbnail of Vin Diesel and you get rewarded with a much larger image, along with thumbnails for other top image results and suggestions for related searches (ie, Dwayne Johnson, Brad Pitt, Paul Walker, etc.). More here.
• See attached: Yahoo! Groups is bringing back an old concept — the email attachment! Removed in 2003, we’re reviving this capability so Group members can share images and files and be able to retrieve them at a later date. That’s especially great news if you’re receiving digests. This new tool is currently in beta and will be rolling out to all groups over the next few weeks. Let the kitten photosharing begin! More here, including how-tos for moderators.
• On the Twitter sideline: Are you a Twitterholic looking for an easier way to monitor what’s being said about you or your brand? One of our engineers, playing around with Adobe AIR and the Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI), has created a nifty little desktop application called Sideline that lets you set up and save multiple tabbed search topics for Twitter conversations. Not bad for a side project. Take it for a spin here.

And, of course, don’t miss our new Ideological Search! ;-)

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• Mobile makeover: The gang at Yahoo! Mobile rolled out a beta program this week for a comprehensive new mobile service known as, simply enough, Yahoo! Mobile. It will come to a cell phone near you next month on the mobile Web, as an iPhone app, and as an app developed for smartphones from Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola, as well as those running Windows Mobile. It will replace Yahoo! Go and packages a variety of great mobile offerings into one location — search, email, messenger, address book, calendar, news, social networks, and even managing all your favorite non-Yahoo! content. To sign up for the beta, just enter http://mobile.yahoo.com in your phone’s browser (and be patient — it make take up to a few weeks to be admitted to the program). Here’s the press release.
• Ogling at the Oscars: Let’s face it — next to finding out the Academy Award winners, we care most about how everyone looks on the red carpet. That’s why the Yahoo! Search team has built a new Oscar-related carousel for Yahoo! Image Search. After Sunday’s show and parties, enter keywords related to Oscar-nominated films or actors and you’ll find a rolling gallery of the newest photos above the regular search results. Toggle your way through Slumdog Millionaire, Mickey Rourke, and Kate Winslet eye candy. More here.
• Watch with me: Raise your hand if you’ve ever IMed a video link to share a laugh with a friend, only to be disappointed when it takes them a few hours to finally get around to watching it. Wouldn’t it be cooler to watch that video together, at the same time? The scientists and engineers at Yahoo! Research think so and have just released a piping hot new version of Zync, a synchronized video player for Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 for Windows. You can now simultaneously view videos on Yahoo! Video, Flickr and, of course, YouTube — with Yahoo! Music and Yahoo! News to come next week. Just paste the video link into your conversation and click the “Watch With Me” button — share, watch, chat. No download necessary. Now go watch the woman who missed her flight in Hong Kong with someone.

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• Mobile search gets easier: The Mobile team just rolled out a bevy of updates to the Yahoo! oneSearch Shortcut to make searching on your cell even swifter. A new auto-locate feature uses cell tower triangulation and Wi-Fi to detect your whereabouts so you don’t have to do any work. They’ve spiffed up Search Assist so that it remembers your recent search history (big fingered people rejoice!). And finally, it’s now available for Windows Mobile devices. More here.
• Messenger for Mac mo betta: The latest beta release of Yahoo! Messenger for Mac came out this week with new features and squashes for more than three dozen bugs. They’ve fixed issues around file transfers, display images, voice, chat rooms, stealth settings, and webcam. When you report IM spam, the offender is also added to your ignore list. And you can now choose a new message style for your conversation windows, just to shake things up. More here.
• Honest Abe in pictures: Our 16th president hit the big two-oh-oh this week and to celebrate, the Library of Congress hooked up with Flickr Commons to give you a revealing look at Abraham Lincoln over a period of 20 years. You see him from the earliest known photo through to the Civil War years, along with views from his funeral. Born into the era when photography burst onto the scene, Lincoln has been called the most photographed man of his day. More on the Flickr blog.
• So long, MyWeb: With three bookmarking services, it was time to streamline. MyWeb will ride off into the sunset on March 18th, making room for Delicious (social bookmarks) and Yahoo! Bookmarks (private bookmarks), both of which have seen recent upgrades and new features. If you’d rather take your bookmarks elsewhere, you can also migrate to third-party services with our handy export tools. More on the Yahoo! Search Blog and our help pages.

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• Snazzy schedule: Just like any tween, Yahoo! Calendar was worried about how it looked. So at age ten, it got a serious makeover, ushering this web calendar into a great new age of drag and drop, iCalendar integration, IM/SMS/email reminders, and Flickr loveliness. And coming soon are Outlook and iPhone synching and event discovery with Upcoming and other Yahoo! properties. Our little calendar — all grown up.
• Handsfree search: If you’ve got a certain BlackBerry or Nokia phone, it’s time to clear your throat. Voice-enabled mobile search is now available on multiple BlackBerry and Nokia devices. If you have one of a number of Nokia Series 60 phones (like the N95), you’ll find voice recognition in the home-screen shortcut of OneSearch 2.0 (get it here: m.yahoo.com/shortcut). And if you use Yahoo! Go 3.0 (get it here: http://get.go.yahoo.com/) and have select BlackBerry, Nokia Series 40, and Nokia Series 60 models, you’ll be able to find stock quotes, sports score, and just about anything else by simply yapping into your phone. And we know you know how to do that. It’s available in the US, UK, India, Singapore, the Philippines, and Canada.

Subscribe to the RSS feed (or add it to My Yahoo!) to get this Product Pulse every week.

• Buzz on the run: You’re about to walk into a really hot party and realize you have absolutely nothing to talk about. Whip out your mobile phone, fire up Yahoo! Go, and fly your way over to the new Yahoo! Buzz widget. You’ll find the top stories in various categories from the last 12 hours. What’s more, iPhone users can “buzz up” their favorite stories at http://buzz.yahoo.com/iphone. There. Now you’re armed and dangerous with the latest on Obama, McCain, Troopergate, and that giant insurance company you now own part of. More here.
• Call me Ishmael: The National Maritime Museum has made Britain’s finest archive of maritime photography available on The Commons on Flickr. You’ll find photos dating back to the beginnings of photography in the 1840s, including expeditions to the Arctic, exploring the Port of London, seaside images by Francis Frith, and turn of the century passenger ships. Know the names of the people depicted, or precise locations, or any other information? Get thee tagging. More here.
• Satisfy song hankerings: When you just have to listen to that song right now, and don’t feel like downloading a player, hauling out your credit card, and restarting our computer, turn to Yahoo! Search. It now offers full song playback directly from your search results page. For thousands of popular artists and songs. Just search for an artist’s name and expand the FoxyPlayer (our browser-based player) that’s peeking out from the left side of your browser, click on a song, and listen to the whole darn thing. High-fives to our buddies at Rhapsody. The only catch — you’re limited to 25 songs a month. But still, how cool is that? More here.

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• iPhone connection: You own an iPhone. Maybe you’ve downloaded apps for Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Friendster, MySpace, Bebo, Dopplr, etc. But you find yourself wishing you could just see ALL of your social network updates in one place. Introducing oneConnect for the iPhone. It’s a new iPhone app that gives you a single status dashboard for your bevy of connections — all from your snazzy little phone. But perhaps my favorite part is that you can now have bona fide IM conversations on your iPhone (and even see who’s online). One more reason your iPhone makes you the coolest person in the room.
• Your new home!: We know Flickr users don’t generally like it when we move their furniture around. But I think they’re going to like their new homepage setup. It won’t go live for a few weeks, but the sneak previews give you a good sense of how they’re using the space. It’s not radically different, but you’ll get more of a sense of activity, better view intro groups, and a lot more control over what you see, and what you don’t. More here.
• Wanna go Pro?: You really want that unlimited feeling of a Flickr Pro account, but you’re still paying off the airfare from your summer boondoggle? If you upgrade your account before the 30th, you can enjoy three months of free unlimited uploading goodness (or make somebody’s day by passing that code along to them). Not sure what Pro gets you? Check out the FAQ.

Subscribe to the RSS feed (or add it to My Yahoo!) to get this Product Pulse every week.

With a few quick taps on the screen of your iPhone, your entire network of contacts from social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and Twitter are at your fingertips. Add to this the ability to send Yahoo! instant messages or SMS messages to those in your phone book and suddenly your address book has become more powerful and useful than ever.

With the “Pulse” feature, you get an aggregated look at what’s happening on many of your favorite social networking sites. Whether it’s a new video posted on YouTube, a friend’s new suggested song on Last.fm, or your college roommate’s latest world travels on Dopplr, you can keep up with everything that is going on throughout the day in one convenient location. With the “Favorites” feature, you can pull aside your favorite contacts to quickly keep tabs on just their activity, call them or send a quick message or email.

And did I mention it’s free?

If you have an iPhone or a iPod touch, download Yahoo! oneConnect at the iPhone App Store—and pass along the word to your friends in all of your social networks so they can stay connected on the go too! (They will thank you for it, we promise.)

For more on Yahoo! oneConnect, go to http://mobile.yahoo.com/oneconnect/iphone

Joe Hayashi
Senior Director, Yahoo! Mobile