“Hollywood’s Biggest Night” is just around the corner and Yahoo! is ready to take you down the red carpet and get you through the evening with up-to-the-minute information and all the news, photos, and juicy gossip you can handle.The 82^nd Academy Awards are at 8 ET / 5 PT Sunday, March 7, 2010 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood and will be hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.  While the show will be broadcast on ABC, Yahoo! once again is THE place where you can weigh in on all things Oscar, from the fashion faux pas to the surprise winners and the heartfelt speeches.

We’ve dedicated an entire section of Yahoo! Movies to this year’s awards show with the idea that Yahoo!’s Coverage of the Oscars starts with you! Let your voice be heard and make sure to cast a vote in our poll: “What do you want to see most when you watch the Oscars?” As of right now, 43% of you want to see who wins the big awards. You can also weigh in on who you think deserves to win Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Director.

Interested in seeing what the stars are wearing? We’ve got you covered with our Oscars Photo galleries including fashion photos from the red carpet, insider photos from the before and after parties, photos of the nominees, and photos from the many events taking place Sunday.

We also have a Featured Videos section, a News section, and an ongoing Oscars Blog.

Coverage of the 82^nd Annual Academy Awards is already underway with both OMG! and Yahoo! News feeding into the Oscars frenzy.

Want to be the best informed on this year’s likely winners and losers? We’ve broken down the Academy Awards by category to help you get a leg up on your friends in picking who will win Oscar gold, in How To Win Your Oscars Pool.

Find out why Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G/Borat/Brüno) went from being a presenter to sitting the award show out and watching from home!

Want an expert’s opinion? Who’s more suited to give Oscar picks than OUR favorite Oscar–namely Oscar the Grouch? Sesame Street’s seminal crab-apple took a few minutes to answer some questions on who he thinks the winners will be on Sunday. Check out Oscar the Grouch’s Oscar Picks.

Criticisms of this year’s hottest movies and highest contenders are outlined in Yahoo! News’ Controversies big and small dog Oscars contenders. Find out why there’s been outrage over Sigourney Weaver’s role in Avatar.

Red-carpet style predictions and fashion alerts are revealed in OMG!’s Glam Slam: Oscar Style!

Have your own opinion on the big winners and major upsets? Want to weigh in on some of the fashion wins and fails? Then we invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

On Facebook, be sure to check out the Yahoo! Movies fan page (Yahoo! Movies) where you can write captions to photos of your favorite celebs. We’ll be uploading fashion photos of the movie stars from the red carpet, and we’re asking you to submit your most witty captions via comment.

On Twitter, follow @YahooMovies for real-time info on Academy winners. Follow @YahooOMG for updates on fashion from the red carpet. Follow @YodelingMamas for a Mom-blogger’s point of view on the evening. And of course follow @Yahoo for an overall perspective.

See you on the red carpet–and may the best man, woman and picture win!

The young Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk make a comeback tonight in the debut of Star Trek. It’s a good day to take stock of how far once-fictional technologies have come — handheld communicator (cell phone), medical tricorder (MRI scanner), holodeck (virtual reality headset), universal translator (Phraselator), scalpel-free surgery (ultrasound surgery), communications earpiece (Bluetooth). And as the ultimate evidence of progress, Spock reportedly cried. Here’s what technology we evolved this week:

• Personal realtor: Home prices are lower than they’ve been in at least a decade – time for a deal! Good thing Yahoo! Real Estate just made house hunting a cinch. Scribbling down lists of listings? Bummed you missed that great new house when it came on the market? You can now save both your searches and your favorite houses with one click. You can also sign up for alerts for new pads that meet your criteria or when the price changes on a place you’ve been eyeing. What’s more, you can get listing updates via My Yahoo! or any RSS feed reader. If only we could figure out how to fix those banks! Check it out here.
• Summer flick fiesta: So many movies, so few summer nights. The new Yahoo! Movies Summer Movie Guide just hit the street and it lets you get a preview of the great new titles coming out this summer. Browse by month, genre, or popularity. Each movie summary includes a recap of the story, the release date, three good reasons to see it, and trivia you might not know. You’ll also find photos and video trailers and clips (many in HD). You’ve got a lot of popcorn in your future.

And finally, a plug for this weekend’s celebration of Flickr’s 5.25th birthday. If you’re in San Francisco, come by for cupcakes and divine photography from 4-8pm tomorrow. RSVP here. Can’t make it? Check out the photos we’ll be projecting on the walls.

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

The great American love affair with award shows may be ending. That’s the conclusion you might draw after looking at recent television ratings for shows like the Emmys, SAG Awards, and Golden Globe awards. But what’s really at play is that, like with other forms of media, the Internet is starting to steal the show.

Rather than sitting through hours of pomp and circumstance, more American entertainment lovers seem to be heading online to get their fix. Most likely it’s because they can catch the evening’s highlights — teary speeches, Adrien Brody’s fiery kiss, Roberto Benigni’s giddiness, Letterman’s Uma-Oprah tension, the Gold Amex dress — on demand for their water cooler discussions.

Let’s check out the numbers. The 2008 Emmy Awards averaged 12.2 million viewers, down 6% and the lowest ratings ever for an Emmy telecast. Yet the day after the awards, 4.6 million people flocked to Yahoo! TV and generated 103 million page views (nearly doubled year over year). This year’s SAG Awards drew the smallest audience since TBS and TNT began airing them together in 2006 –- with 5.3 million viewers, down 12% from 2007. The next day, 4.1 million people flooded Yahoo! Movies for its best and worst dressed gallery and checked out 83 million pages. And although the 3-hour Golden Globes won a coveted Sunday night time slot, this year’s star-studded telecast drew the lowest ratings in 13 years –- 14.6 million viewers, down from 20 million the year before. The next day, 7.2 million people descended on omg!, taking in an average of about 40 page views per person, driven mainly by an insatiable appetite for photos.

So all is not lost — we’re still just as obsessed with celebrities and their red carpet fashion foibles. Possibly more so than ever. But we’re just turning to a different screen to view it — during and after the show. So don’t cancel your Oscars party on Sunday. Just make sure you have a laptop next to the popcorn.

Sibyl Goldman
GM, Yahoo! Entertainment

“There, Watson?” That’s probably about what Alexander Graham Bell uttered 93 years ago today as he sent the first transcontinental phone call from New York City to San Francisco. Despite the 3,400-mile wire, Bell and his associate heard each other, ahem, clear as a bell. Now tap into the world’s telecommunication networks for our latest roundup:

• Vista IM revisited: Thanks to you bug hunters out there, we’ve squashed some issues in a refreshed version of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista Preview. It’s now more stable and responsive and features enhancements like a new look. There’s more work on the roadmap, but our thanks to the diehards for helping make it a better experience. More here.
• Indie action: Even if you’re not knee-deep in powder, rubbing elbows with moguls of independent film, you can still follow the action at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Yahoo! Movies’ Independent Film Guide gives you an overview of this year’s films, the latest news, and photo galleries of the attending stars. No tickets or Uggs required.
• Idol module: If you love off-key performances, Simon’s barbs, Paula’s tears, dawg encouragements, stunning comebacks, and Kajagoogoo hairstyles, now’s the time to add EW.com’s new American Idol module to your My Yahoo!. You’ll get show recaps, commentary, and predictions every time you log in to your page. Hurry, auditions are underway. Find it here.

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