The World IPv6 Launch takes effect at Midnight GMT on June 6, 2012. This means that in the U.S., you can expect changes take place on June 5 at 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern.

What is Changing?
Yahoo! will be adding IPv6 support to several of our popular web sites, including www.yahoo.com, Yahoo! News, My Yahoo!, Shine, and OMG. We are also adding IPv6 support to Yahoo’s Content Distribution Network, which delivers nearly all of our graphics and JavaScript for all Yahoo! sites. These upgrades should all be transparent to you.

In the months following the Launch, we will continue to bring additional IPv6 support to other Yahoo! sites, including Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Finance.

How Does this Launch Impact You?
Most likely, the launch will be totally transparent to you.

Your browser will automatically use the best available protocol. If you have the new protocol available through your ISP, it will be used automatically. If not, you’ll use the old protocol automatically.

A very small number of you may have problems reaching your favorite Internet web sites as a result of the IPv6 upgrades. This is typically caused by a local misconfiguration, either of your computer, or your home router. You can check for this ahead of time by using the web browser test on our IPv6 help page. The page will provide further instruction in case you have any issues.

IPv6 Exceptions
We will continue to serve a few communities using the legacy Internet IPv4 protocol. We will do this in regions where deploying IPv6 will cause unacceptable delays. For example, many ISPs in Japan have technological hurdles to work through, when accessing the public Internet over IPv6. We will continue to work with those communities, and look forward to serving them with IPv6 in the future.

Why Is IPv6 Important for the Internet?
Thirty years ago, the Internet was born. It was opened to the general public in 1995, and has been steadily growing since. Though it started out as an experiment, it has grown into a critical part of our everyday lives.

The Internet is more than just a web address or an email address. Each time you visit www.yahoo.com, your computer looks up the proper number that will connect your web browser to our web server. Your computer does this for every single site it accesses.

The original Internet design is now running out of these unique numbers. Just like phone numbers, it is difficult to share the same number with several people (or several web sites). The main feature of IPv6 is to extend the Internet’s numbering system. This will allow more people, more devices, and more applications and web sites to join the Internet.

Wide-scale adoption of IPv6 will also help improve Internet security and ensure that the Internet experience you have today will be preserved (or improved upon!) in the future.

What Will Happen to IPv4?
The current IPv4 protocol will be with us for years to come. It will take time for all Internet Service Providers to be fully ready for IPv6. It will also take time for all home users to upgrade equipment. As such, ISPs will continue to provide IPv4 support.

How do I get IPv6?
Check with your Internet Service Provider (AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, etc.). Many are working behind the scenes to get ready for IPv6. Some have already started upgrading residential accounts; others are enabling IPv6 upon request, and offering it to folks who are signing up with new services. Your ISP can give advice on which home routers will be compatible with their particular IPv6 deployment.

If you are an IT professional or an Internet application developer, and your ISP does not yet offer IPv6, don’t despair. You can use an IPv6 tunnel to bring the technology into your home or office. Do a web search for “ipv6 tunnel providers.” Tunnels are a convenient way to get early access to IPv6, and do early testing of your products. Keep in mind that tunnels may bypass your firewalls; be sure to do a security review and protect yourself adequately.

Welcome to the future!

Jason Fesler
IPv6 Evangelist, Yahoo!

Four years ago, Kyle was fighting for his country as a Marine in Iraq. But when a roadside bomb left him seriously injured, Kyle was faced with the challenge of returning home to his family without the use of his hand, which was severely damaged by a bomb and later amputated. Suddenly, Kyle found himself struggling to perform basic tasks from hammering in a nail, to doing up the snaps on his baby girl’s jumper. Finding his basic hook-like prosthesis to be more of a hassle than help, the right-handed vet had been making do with life as a leftie. But with a new house to remodel, a child with special needs, and a new baby on the way, Kyle was in desperate need of a helping hand – literally.

Yahoo! News’ Remake America stepped in to help this worthy former Marine regain the life he deserves. After a consultation with ABC News Chief Health and Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser, Kyle was taken to Hanger Prosthetics in New York City – one of the most cutting edge prosthesis manufacturers in the world. Until meeting with the technicians at Hanger, Kyle had resigned himself to a life without some of the activities he enjoyed. His dream career as a police officer also seemed out of the question after his injury. But with the help of Remake America and a state-of-the-art prosthesis from Hanger, Kyle soon learned that with a little training and a commitment to the new hand, nothing would be out of reach. So will Kyle choose to get the prosthesis? Find out on this episode of Remake America.

Visit the Remake America page on Yahoo! News for weekly video stories and advice and resources on problems faced by families on Remake America, including tips to reduce stress and advice on caring for a loved one with special needs.

For one night every year, journalists, celebrities and politicians collide for the annual White House Correspondents dinner. This star-studded event is one of Washington’s most eagerly anticipated events – and this year, Yahoo! had front row seats.

Yahoo! News enjoyed its first-ever appearance at the 98th annual White House Correspondents Dinner on April 28th – co-hosting a hugely successful pre-dinner cocktail party with ABC News, and had its first table at the dinner itself. Reporters, editors and executives from the political news powerhouses had the incredible opportunity to mingle with celebrities, politicians and other notables that attended the Yahoo!/ABC party — from former Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum to California Governor Jerry Brown, the cast of ‘Modern Family’, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Kevin Spacey, Diane Sawyer, and Barbara Walters.

The event, which featured comedian Jimmy Kimmel and President Obama taking turns roasting Washington’s political and media elite, was a perfect chance for politicos and politicians alike to let loose and poke fun at each other. Eager for Yahoo! users to share in the fun, Yahoo! News live-tweeted the event and put together an Instragram album, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the festivities. Check out the special White House Correspondents Dinner page on Yahoo! News to check out event pictures and videos and share your own feedback on the night’s featured topics via Facebook. Click here for an exclusive look at Yahoo!’s WHCD Flickr album featuring additional photos from the event.

Four years ago, Leslie was a successful Phoenix- based real estate agent with more than 30 years of experience under her belt. But when the housing market tanked, so did her career and Leslie found herself out of work and struggling to keep the roof over her head. This episode of Yahoo! News’ Remake America highlights the struggles that Leslie has faced braving the job market as an older worker in a work environment where, according to Leslie, decades of experience do not hold the weight they should among employers.

After sending out hundreds of unanswered applications and attending a number of fruitless job fairs, Leslie was on the brink of selling her home when Yahoo! News’ Remake America stepped in. After a consultation with career expert Tory Johnson, Leslie was sent to New York City and given the opportunity to interview for her dream job as a sales trainer with Dale Carnegie, one of the premier sales training agencies in the world.

But when her interviewer presented her with a quirky challenge to test her sales skills, it was up to Leslie to prove that she still has the energy, spunk and creativity to rival any of her younger counterparts. Did her quick thinking and sales tactics land her the job? Find out on this episode of Remake America and tune in next Monday to learn about a wounded Iraq war veteran’s struggle to transition from warfare to workforce.

Visit the Remake America page on Yahoo! News for weekly video stories and advice and resources on problems faced by families on Remake America, including home foreclosure advice and resume tips.

Photo of Leslie courtesy of Pamela Dancil

Now known as the Yahoo! – ABC News Network, the roll up reflects the alliance struck back in October 2011 between the premiere digital media network and the broadcast network that has enhanced and transformed the delivery of news and information across the digital landscape.

In February 2012 more people got their news online from the Yahoo!-ABC News Network than any other website.  The Yahoo! – ABC News network outperformed CNN by 51%, AOL/Huffington Post by 56%, MSNBC by 58%, CBS News by 138% and The New York Times by 191%.

Teaming up with Yahoo! has proven extremely beneficial for ABC News Digital who recorded its most trafficked month in history with over 421 million page views across its various platforms (ABCNews.com, OTUSNews.com, Goodmorningamerica.com on Yahoo! and ABC News articles on Yahoo! News) in February. GoodMorningAmerica.com on Yahoo! has tripled its monthly traffic and grown 25% each month since the October launch.

Additionally, Yahoo! and ABC News have co-produced coverage for major events since October i and most recently with  Super Tuesday coverage across Yahoo! News and ABC News Digital matched Yahoo! Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian and ABC News Political Director Amy Walter anchoring live video coverage and drawing 84,000 views on Yahoo! News.

Yahoo!-ABC News co-produced online content also extends to original video programming including Around the World with Christiane Amanpour, This Could be Big with Bill Weir and the Newsmakers interview series, which have grown 107% since October.

Yahoo News also premiered a new video series “Remake America,” that follows the lives of six real families as they strive to get back on track towards achieving “the American dream.” As part of Yahoo! News’ effort to put citizens at the forefront of elections coverage, ‘Remake America’ follows the personal stories of real Americans throughout the year and enabling citizens to propose solutions to the challenges and opportunities facing our nation through social channels and tools. The reality series will offer a lens, through the eyes of real families, into the political issues at the forefront of the 2012 elections, including the impact of unemployment, healthcare, veteran affairs, and the housing market.

Photo: Richard Drew / AP

ABC News Digital platforms including ABCNews.com, OTUSNews.com, Goodmorningamerica.com on Yahoo! and ABC News articles on Yahoo! News saw an online traffic boost of 165 percent and digital video streams of 100 million – an increase of 179 percent – since the Yahoo! News/ABC News alliance.

GoodMorningAmerica.com on Yahoo! is consistently showing a growth on popularity among users, tripling its monthly traffic with a 25% increase each month. Additionally, the ABC News/Yahoo! News digital original video series including Newsmakers, Around the World with Christiane Amanpour and This Could be Big with Bill Weir also saw triple the amount of video streams since their October debuts. The most recent online video series, Power Players grew 219% month over month.

Yahoo! News’ alliance with ABC News plays a key role in Yahoo!’s ambitious year-long coverage of the 2012 Elections and further strengthens Yahoo! as the No. 1 online news source, greatly enhancing our already robust news content. This unmatched alliance creates a powerful news experience that provides people greater access to compelling news and information, including more original news video online than ever before.

Event features all-star Republican cast.

With the start of the New Year, the U.S. election season is revving up and Yahoo! is in the thick of it. Starting at 8:00 a.m. (Eastern) today, Yahoo! is exclusively hosting the “Yahoo! News Funny Or Die GOP Presidential Online Internet Cyber Debate” on both Yahoo! News and the newly launched Comedy Channel within Yahoo! Screen.

Star-studded debate

Larry King moderates the debate in which the candidates discuss hot-button policy issues and provide invaluable insight into why they should be the next President of the United States, and bicker and promote their respective books.

The debate features Rob Delany as Mitt Romney, Horatio Sanz as Newt Gingrich, John C. McGinley as Rick Santorum, Greg Germann as Jon Huntsman, Patrick Warburton as Rick Perry, Leslie Jordan as Ron Paul, Erin Gibson as Michele Bachmann, Bryan Safi as Marcus Bachmann, and Reggie Brown as President Obama. Mike Tyson also reprises his Herman Cain for this special event.

“Yahoo! is kicking off the primary session and fulfilling Donald Trump’s unrealized vision by giving America the GOP debate it’s always wanted,” said Robertson Barrett, VP of Yahoo! News and Finance. “Election season always provides great fodder for the comedy community and Yahoo! is taking part by providing our users with a celebrity-studded, sure-to-be surprising, mock debate, Funny Or Die style.”

“With the politicians themselves often saying things that even our Funny Or Die writers couldn’t make up, we thought the time is right to stage the first ever Internet debate town hall moderated by Larry King,” said Dick Glover, CEO of Funny Or Die. “Who better to do it with than Yahoo! News? We’re already doing a show with them (“First Dates with Toby Harris” premiering Spring 2012), and they seem like nice enough folks.”

Mock debate a part of Yahoo! comprehensive elections coverage

The mock debate aligns with Yahoo!’s recent announcement of the Yahoo! Comedy Channel featuring a live uninterrupted Bill Maher stand-up “CrazyStupidPolitics: Bill Maher Live from Silicon Valley” exclusively on Yahoo!. In addition to live stand-ups, the Yahoo! Comedy Channel will include a variety of exclusive short-form videos with additional big names including Mike O’Brien (writer for Saturday Night Live) and Seth Morris (No Strings Attached, I Love You Man, Step Brothers), licensed video content from current sponsors, and Yahoo! original programming.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Funny Or Die on a first for both of us—a mock GOP debate,” said Erin McPherson, VP and Head of Video, Yahoo!. “Of all the Republican debates we’ve seen this season, this one promises to be the most cutting edge, compelling and crazy. This debate, in conjunction with our election coverage, offers an incredible variety of content for our hundreds of millions of users and will bring our 2012 elections coverage to an even broader audience. Our partnership with Funny Or Die, along with the launch of the Yahoo! Comedy Channel is even more evidence of our commitment to provide our consumers and advertisers with the best premium content on the Web.”

Back in September at Facebook’s f8 conference, we announced the Yahoo! News activity feature, putting your friends front and center in our U.S. Yahoo! News experience. And to our delight, more than 12 million of you have given it a try so far, discovering news stories and sharing what you are reading on Yahoo! with all your Facebook friends. Many of you who love to share your reading activity are young and socially-engaged (no surprise!), and this has quickly impacted the virality of Yahoo!’s content on Facebook, as demonstrated in their recent post about the most shared stories of 2011, showing that 12 of the 40 most shared stories this year came from Yahoo!. In business terms, we’ve seen traffic increase from Facebook to Yahoo! News more than300%.

Based on this success, we’re expanding this nifty Facebook integration to 26 more Yahoo! sites worldwide, including Yahoo! News sites spanning the globe from India to Brazil, Singaporeto Spainand beyond – and we’ve recently added it to US-based entertainment experiences, omg!, Yahoo! TV, Yahoo! Movies, and Yahoo! Games as well. The features are designed to bring a deeply personalized, social news experience to more of the content millions of people come to Yahoo! to read each day.

To build on this increasingly social content experience, an additional social feature, Notifications, has also launched in the US, alerting people to social conversations and other activity on Yahoo! that interest them such as feedback on reviews, responses to comments, and stock alerts. Notifications is found on the top of the page across most pages on Yahoo!, such as Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Sports, omg!, Shine, and Yahoo! Travel.

We think this relatively new mode of discovering, navigating and enjoying news – through the lens of our friends – is reflective of how the Web is evolving today, and we’re excited to help your Yahoo! experience become even more personal for you.

Enjoy!

Mike Kerns, vice president of social and personalization, Yahoo!

Here’s what we’ve been up to:

A personalized living magazine just for you — Livestand for iPad is here: Livestand weaves together content from leading third-party publishers and Yahoo!’s global media network to create a visually stunning and deeply personalized digital experience tailored for you and your interests and passions. Whether it’s presenting the latest recipes, timely tweets, breaking news, or blog posts, Livestand brings you the content you care about like you’ve never seen before. Check out the video below, read more here, or better yet, visit the App Store and download Livestand for free today.

The perfect companion for your TV – IntoNow for iPad: IntoNow makes TV-watching more engaging, social, and fun with one touch of a button. Like magic, IntoNow automatically identifies what you’re watching – whether live or recorded – and displays related content and personalized recommendations on what to watch. It also lets you have conversations with friends who are watching the same shows, and follow Twitter feeds of actors and athletes on TV. It’s available today for free download in the App Store.

Today’s forecast is sunny with a touch of Flickr – Yahoo! Weather for Android: The new Yahoo! Weather app brings weather to life with beautiful photos that correspond with where you are, what the weather’s like, and what time of day it is. All the photos are from the Flickr community, with a crowdsourcing effort launching at http://flickr.com/projectweather to create a global-weather image library. The app is available as a free download in the Android Market in 35 languages and 63 countries.

A fresh way to look at email – Yahoo! Mail for iPad browser – Yahoo! Mail gives you a rich, vivid entry point on your iPad Web browser for viewing unread emails from your contacts, as well as customized local weather, trending video content, and personalized news. Read more here or head to mail.yahoo.com from any iPad to try it out.

Get your social on while reading the news – Conversations and Notifications on Yahoo!: A couple of new social features expand upon the Yahoo! News activity we launched last month to give you more ways to connect, communicate, and get updates from your friends. Want to chat about a story you’re reading? The Conversations feature lets you have small group conversations within Yahoo! News. The new Notifications feature will inform you of new social activity of interest across Yahoo! – such as feedback on reviews, responses to comments, or new conversations with friends. Both Conversations and Notifications will be available in the coming weeks.

Cutting-edge platform with a splash of lime – Cocktails: Livestand is built upon Cocktails, a powerful open platform for developers and publishers that uses many of Yahoo!’s popular developer tools such as YUI and YQL. Read more about this new platform offering here.

Unmatched creative canvas for advertising: Yahoo! continues to evolve its advertising experiences to creatively engage with audiences and tell their stories. Read more about Yahoo!’s new tablet and social advertising offerings here.

Yahoo!, the premier digital media company, and ABC News today announced they will join forces to launch a strategic online news alliance that will deliver content to more than 100 million U.S. users each month.

This new venture blends ABC News’ global newsgathering operation and unrivaled lineup of trusted anchors and reporters with Yahoo! News’ unmatched audience, depth and breadth of content. Beginning today, GoodMorningAmerica.com, launches on Yahoo! along with three new online-first video series hosted by the award-winning, trusted anchors of ABC News.

As announced on Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos’ interview with President Obama, drawing on questions posed by readers of Yahoo! and ABCNews.com, will be webcast live on Yahoo.com and ABCNews.com today at 2:35 p.m. ET.

“Yahoo! is committed to building the richest set of premium and personalized content experiences for our users. Our deep collaboration with ABC News further strengthens Yahoo! as the No. 1 online news source, greatly enhancing our already robust news content,” said Ross Levinsohn, executive vice president of Americas at Yahoo!. “ABC News and Ben Sherwood’s vision is completely symbiotic with ours; together we can create highly engaging experiences for more than 100 million users a month that will set the standard for the industry.”

“This relationship will give ABC News an unrivaled ability to reach across the Web, combining Yahoo!’s vast distribution and cutting-edge technology with our award-winning journalism.  For years, we’ve proudly proclaimed that more Americans get their news from ABC News than any other source,” said Ben Sherwood, president of ABC News.  “Going forward, we will greatly expand this leadership by building a connection with a whole new online audience.”

Under the agreement, ABC News becomes the premier news provider on Yahoo! News, with editorial teams from both organizations collaborating on original coverage to appear on both the Yahoo! News and ABC News sites. Teams will co-produce coverage for major news events and will have integrated bureaus in New York; Washington, D.C.; and Los Angeles. ABC News content will be integrated throughout the Yahoo! News network, including the Yahoo! front page. ABC News will maintain editorial control over ABCNews.com and GoodMorningAmerica.com, and Yahoo! News will maintain editorial control of all its sites.

The new GoodMorningAmerica.com site, powered by Yahoo!’s global technology platform, will feature an influx of original text and video content generated by ABC News. The video series launched today include “Newsmakers,” which features ABC News anchors like Diane Sawyer, George Stephanopoulos, Barbara Walters, Katie Couric, Robin Roberts and others interviewing global leaders and celebrities, starting with Stephanopoulos’ sitdown with President Barack Obama today.

The other two debuting video series are “Around the World with Christiane Amanpour,” in which the renowned global reporter and “This Week” anchor offers analysis and context on the international news headlines of the day, and “This Could Be Big,” anchored by Bill Weir, which spotlights hot new technology products and explores the future of innovation.

To commemorate the 10^th anniversary of 9/11, Yahoo! News has been collecting and posting stories about how the country has changed since the tragedy.

We told the story of Jack Grandcolas losing his pregnant wife on Flight 93 and dedicating a birthing room at his local hospital in her honor.

And how Jim Laychak took a 5 year leave from his job to work on the memorial for his brother and other victims of the Pentagon attack.

These and other original video stories are just one way Yahoo! is remembering this historic event. Yahoo! has also developed a deep partnership with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum (9/11 Memorial) for a co-produced memorial microsite which includes tools for users to tell their own stories. These will be published on Yahoo! for posterity.

The 9/11 Memorial organization’s mission is to honor the victims and heroes of 9/11. A physical memorial located at the site of the former World Trade Center complex will open to the public on September 12. Donate to the Memorial here.

And on September 11 at 8:46 am ET, business as usual on Yahoo! will come to a stop during a “Digital Moment of Silence.” Service on our site will be interrupted for one minute timed to coincide with the moment the first plane piloted by al-Qaida struck the World Trade Center. Users will be invited to reflect on the victims of the attack, and invited to publish their own 9/11 stories on Yahoo! for others to see.

How did 9/11 change you? Share your story with Yahoo! readers.

Second Act from Yahoo! News took home the Reality Webby Award in the Online Film & Video category, edging out nominations from reputable sources such as The Washington Post. If you haven’t checked it out already, Second Act is a Yahoo! Originals show that celebrates real people who discover their passions and reinvent themselves to reach for their dreams. Second Act has always aimed high with inspired storytelling, emotional resonance and graceful, artistic execution and has now been recognized as such in the eyes of the creative industry.  We hope you’ve enjoyed the program as much as we’ve enjoyed producing it, check out our season 1 recap below:

Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby – developed with our partners at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners – came away the winner of the Mobile & Experience Marketing award in the Interactive Advertising category, beating out campaigns from recognizable brand such as Unilever. At the end of 2010, Yahoo! ran a highly engaging and interactive local market activation program that showcased Yahoo! Mobile apps. The purpose of this initiative was to encourage people to download and use Yahoo! mobile apps in a meaningful way while showcasing our digital marketing innovation that would generate buzz, water cooler talk, and exhibit thought leadership. The Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby was a two-month citywide gaming challenge held in San Francisco, using first-of-their-kind 72-inch touch screens in transit shelters featuring interactive games tied to four key Yahoo! mobile apps: Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Sportacular, Yahoo! Messenger, and Flickr.

In addition to our two wins, our partners at Turner Sports won the People’s Voice award for Best Interactive Use of Video for their Ryder Cup Live Video player powered by Yahoo!. And of course, a big shout out to Yahoo! Finance, which was nominated for the Financial Services award in the Websites category and six Yahoo! properties recognized as honorees (some in more than one category), representing the top 10% of entries in their respective categories.

Congratulations to the Second Act from Yahoo! News and the Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby teams. They will be honored at the 15^th Annual Webby Awards on June 13^th in New York City.

Yahoo!’s royal wedding site will be an extension of Shine From Yahoo!, the leading Website for women’s lifestyle content, and demonstrates Yahoo!’s position as the premier Web destination for landmark global events. And speaking of global – the royal wedding site is localized and live in nine markets outside the US. We invite you to experience the royal wedding through all the features our site offers:

• Guestbook: The Royal Wedding Yahoo! Guestbook gives people a place to offer their marital advice and best wishes to Prince William and Kate Middleton, then share those wishes with users’ social networks.  Even celebrities have left messages for the couple on our guestbook!
• Photo galleries: View photos of the couple’s courtship, Kate Middleton as a child, and much more.
• Articles and blogs: The latest news on the royal wedding, plus articles on the wedding trends, fashion, the royal wedding’s participants and guests, and more.
• Wedding live stream: Watch the royal wedding live by visiting http://royalwedding.yahoo.com on April 29.
• Video:  Yahoo! will feature video from Associated Press, Reuters, and ABC News, along with original video content including a joint ABC News/Yahoo! News Web show called “Wedding Royale.” ABC News will also provide weekly flashback videos of the royal family. During the week of the wedding, Yahoo! will have a crew on the ground in London producing stories on topics people are most interested in.
• Mobile site: Yahoo! allows you to get your Royal Wedding fix anytime, anywhere, by visiting http://m.royalwedding.yahoo.com from your mobile phone.
• A chance to enter the “Live It Up Like Royalty” sweepstakes: By signing the Royal Wedding Yahoo! Guestbook or by “liking” Shine from Yahoo! on Facebook, users will automatically be entered to win a trip to Las Vegas to be treated like a king or queen.

Additionally, Flickr by Yahoo!, one of the world’s best places to post and share photos, features The Official British Monarchy Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishmonarchy/tags/rw2011/ Join the celebration, the Yahoo! way. Cheerio!

Earlier this week, the Yahoo! Contributor Network team announced the results of the 2010 Yahoo! Contributor Awards (YCAs) – a program honoring some of the Yahoo! superstars who shined the brightest during this extraordinary year of new opportunities, and showcasing content that exemplifies the spirit of this unique platform.

Our top prizes (“Outstanding Contributors of the Year”) went to three Associated Content veterans—Ayanna Guyhto, Carol Bengle Gilbert, and Steve Thompson —who have each built digital libraries of more than 1,000 pieces of unique, insightful content on a range of topics, and now regularly publish their work on some of our leading sites like Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! TV, Yahoo! Local, Shine and omg!. Similarly, our “Rookie of the Year,” gaming/music/outdoors enthusiast Shawn Humphrey, published a wide array of compelling pieces in his first months as a contributor, as has already been featured on five Yahoo! properties.

We also selected ten of the most powerful stories our contributors told in 2010 to call “Content of the Year” – a selection of more than 4,000 nominations submitted by our community. Among the honorees: a Hurricane Katrina victim’s gripping account of her return home, published to Yahoo! News on the five-year anniversary of the disaster; a long-time contributor’s once-in-a-lifetime interview with one of his personal idols, comic book king Stan Lee; a Cleveland reporter’s fascinating profile of a local man who makes art with an Etch A Sketch; and a filmmaker’s philosophical dissection of this year’s most talked about movie, The Social Network.

For a complete list of award winners, and a more information about each of these Yahoo! stars, visit the Yahoo! Contributor Network Blog:
·         Celebrating Our Contributors of the Year
·         Content of the Year: 2010
·         Content of the Year: 2010 (Part 2)

Congratulations to these talented and inspiring Yahoo! Contributor Award winners, who bring incredible value to Yahoo!’s family of leading websites, and do an amazing job of showing the world what our contributor community is capable of.

Interested in sharing your voice with Yahoo!’s online audience of millions? Join the Yahoo! Contributor Network now!

-Darnell Witt, Sr. Community Manager, Yahoo! Contributor Network

Weekend Edition programming will cover a wide range of topics, including travel and leisure, culture, family, and healthy living. In addition to featuring content from across the Yahoo! network and from Yahoo!’s content partners, Weekend Edition will be anchored by an original video series with several high-profile hosts, including:

• Dominique Dawes, a three-time Olympic gymnast who contributed to Yahoo! Sports as an analyst and correspondent from the Olympic Games in China and Vancouver
• Harry Hurt, an award-winning journalist and author of six books and the Executive Pursuits column in The New York Times, for which he hosted related Web videos
• Jim Brasher, host of the new series “Way of Life” that will air on The Discovery Channel’s international outlets

Buick will be seamlessly integrated into the Weekend Edition experience in a way that aligns with its goal of providing people with content that enriches and broadens their view of the world and keeps them ahead of the curve. One element of the integration is a branded segment, “Discovered by Buick,” at the end of every video, which will relate to the content of the video.

Weekend Edition will live on Yahoo! News and be promoted across the Yahoo! network.

Yahoo! has a long history of developing and distributing original premium programming that seamlessly incorporates advertiser messages into creative content that engages consumers and meets marketer objectives. Yahoo!’s successes in the original programming and branded entertainment space include: “Primetime in No Time,” the most watched original program online; “Tech Ticker,” the most watched finance show online; and “Who Knew?“, which recently became the most successful original program to launch on Yahoo!, with more than 40 million streams in the first four months.

So, what are you waiting for?  Get posting. Get your town talking.  You Have a Voice, Use it.

These are a few of the questions at the center of Yahoo! News’ Ask America experience, which launched today. It’s a site dedicated to educating and engaging citizens on the midterm election by empowering them to join the conversation and share their opinions.

On Ask America users will be able to:

• Browse issues that interest them, at a national and state level, via an array of colored tiles arranged in a wheel-like pattern. Each color represents a particular topic of interest/relevance to current events and political debate.
• Select issues by “spinning” the issue wheel to select various issue tiles from the list, thereby interacting with polls and other users on each issue.
• Read the latest news about these issues
• Take opinion polls related to each issue, and see how other users feel about the issues
• Leave comments supporting their choice or advocating their position to others
• Share information about issues and their comments to various social networks

As the #1 news site (according to August comScore), we’re expected to have first-rate election coverage. But what makes Ask America unique and different is that we’re not just telling you what’s happening – we’re asking compelling questions to provoke you, to inspire you and to get involved in what’s happening now.

So get involved, get heard, and get another perspective on the issues that are important to you.

-Mark Walker, VP / head of Yahoo! News

In the spirit of the factoid, here are some things you don’t know about Yahoo! News’ “Who Knew?” show:

• Yahoo!’s production partner on this program is Reveille, the masterminds behind TV’s The Office and The Biggest Loser, who also worked with Woody Thompson, creator of the original “Pop Up Video” show for VH-1.
• Reveille and Yahoo! have partnered up to create more fun and engaging video programs that offer advertisers a unique space to promote their brands.
• Toyota also collaborated with us in the development of the program, for the launch of the redesigned Toyota Avalon.
• Yahoo! News is the #1 news site on the Internet, reaching more than 43 million monthly unique visitors, or 21% of online adults.
• Who Knew? is the first original daily Web series on Yahoo! News.

Check out Who Knew? on Yahoo! News and follow the program on Twitter

-Mark L. Walker, vice president and head of Yahoo! News

As the place where over 500 million people visit every month, Yahoo!’s goal is to bring together social experiences from across the web, and provide one place for people to access information and stay in touch with the people they care about most.

Yahoo!’s integration of Facebook Connect will provide you with richer experiences across the Yahoo! products you use every day, such as Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Answers and Yahoo! Sports.  In the future, you’ll be able to choose where you want to update your status message – from destinations across Yahoo! – or directly on Facebook.

We are doing this as part of our commitment to deliver more personally relevant Internet experiences, so watch for more details in the New Year!

Jim Stoneham, VP of Communities for Yahoo!

In fact, people with Obama fever broke records across Yahoo! News on Tuesday, seeking as much news and information as possible. Let’s take a look at why:

• Historic milestone – That’s the no-brainer. It seemed that whether or not Americans voted for President Obama, they appreciated the significance of inaugurating our first African-American president. Global interest in this American tradition was never higher.
• Net news rules – As the Pew Research Center reported in December, the Internet has surpassed newspapers and all other mediums except television for national and international news. And even that is destined to change, considering 6 in 10 people under age 30 prefer the Web to TV for news. As more people turned to the Web on Tuesday, we saw our highest traffic day ever on Yahoo! News, with 12.3 million unique visitors (the equivalent of the populations of New York City and Los Angeles combined) logging 329 million page views. These eye-popping figures beat our previous records around Hurricanes Katrina and Ike.
• Web video has arrived – Online video is no longer seen as a spotty, unreliable medium fraught with outages and buffering, as it might have been in 2000 and 2004. While hiccups can still happen, it seems people now confidently log on to live news coverage online knowing they won’t miss a thing. That was paramount on Tuesday because the inauguration and ensuing festivities fell during the workday for Americans. Yahoo! News upped our video server capacity as we logged record video streams, surpassing even Election Day coverage.
• Photos attract – People like news stories, but they can’t seem to get enough of photos – both news agency and user generated. On average, people viewed more than 70 images per person among our 56 inauguration-related slideshows (vs. our normal 40 photos per person). Not surprisingly, the most viewed set was of First Daughters Malia and Sasha. Over at Flickr, people tagged more than 150,000 photos and videos with terms related to the inauguration, along with those newly submitted to the Commons by partners like the Smithsonian that show historic images of past inaugurations.

As demand for online news continues to grow, our team will look for new ways to help you sort through the volume of news information and formats available. Who knows what the next record-breaking event will be?

But one thing’s for sure. It’s nice to see Internet news come of age.

Neeraj Khemlani
VP & GM, Yahoo! News

• T-Mobile triumph: If you’re a T-Mobile subscriber in the U.S., you’ll be spending a whole lot less time trying to find things with your mobile phone. That’s because Yahoo! oneSearch is now the default mobile search for T-Mobile’s new web2go service, serving up search results designed specifically for your cell phone. After all, it’s an awfully small screen and wading through a sea of links is downright irritating. More here.
• Sticky search: Faithful Product Pulse readers will remember when we unveiled Glue Pages in India, an experimental concept for search that sticks text, images, and video content together into a single results page. It’s now a U.S. import, available as a slightly different experience as Yahoo! Glue beta. It assembles content from across the Web into a veritable microsite about your query. Topics are limited for now (we’ll expand over time), but go check out how it handles popular people, places and things like cupcakes, Sarah Palin, Twilight, and Citigroup. More here.
• Feel-good news: Recession, deflation, layoffs, bank meltdowns. C’mon, isn’t there some good news out there? Why, yes, there is. And the good people at Sears want to make sure you see it. Head to Good News Now, a new video channel on Yahoo! News that sees the world through rose-colored glasses — spotlighting strictly uplifting stories in the news. You’ll find profiles of heroes, medical triumphs, baby Obamas, charitable neighbors, natural disaster survivors, and more. The channel will run through New Year’s. Maybe headlines will improve by January?
• Britney, Britney, Britney: Whether you’re a tabloid subscriber or just read copies at the dentist’s office, you’re all too familiar with the world’s fascination with Britney Spears. Well, the volume increases on Monday, when Yahoo! TV will premiere the exclusive trailer of MTV’s upcoming documentary, “Britney: For the Record.” Then we’ll spend the rest of the week gearing you up for Britney’s 27th birthday and the release of her new album “Circus” on December 2, with special coverage across Yahoo!. On Monday, check out “Britney’s 27 Wildest Moments” on Yahoo! Music; Friday, omg will share “Britney’s 25 Most Memorable Looks;” and next Sunday, Shine will take a look at Brit’s relationships. Mark your calendar!
• Big time in no time: And a final note… I’d like to congratulate the team behind Primetime in No Time, the show that gives you a rapid-fire recap of the TV you missed the night before. They’ve just served their 100 millionth stream since launching in March, becoming one of the most successful original programs in the history of the Internet. Hosted by comedian Frank Nicotero, the show is clearly addictive. w00t! More here.

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In contrast to breaking news, it’s a luxury to prepare for a massive news event that falls on the calendar. And like a Guitar Hero tournament, we notched up the intensity the further we went along in the rehearsal. The goal? To create a setting as dramatic as Wolf Blitzer’s call of states on CNN to ensure that everyone was as prepared as possible to program what proved to be an historic night.

After covering the 2000 and 2004 elections at the New York Times, and watching news organizations all over the country make premature (and wrong) calls, I had just one rule for our team: “Get it right.” When you are the de facto news source for over 40 million a month, you feel a tremendous responsibility when it comes to accuracy.

To strike the right balance of keeping up with network calls without distributing misinformation, we spent time with editors from the AP before the election to understand their approach toward calling results, which is part science, part art, part gut call. You might remember the AP was the only news outlet that sent Americans to bed without a new president in 2000, saying the race was too close to call.

At Yahoo! News, our editors’ roles are to program headlines from dozens of national and international newspapers, wires, and broadcast networks. But on Election Night, we took on a more pronounced mandate as news filter. For example, if a network called a critical swing state, we would wait until at least another network called the state before announcing the news in our breaking news blog and breaking news bar. After all, we were serving what turned out to a record-breaking audience — today, comScore confirmed that we attracted 7.5 million people, the largest single day of traffic in online news history, surpassing CNN.com, MSNBC.com, AOL.com and FoxNews.com. We couldn’t afford to be wrong.

Journalists are known cynics. But when Barack Obama surpassed 270 electoral votes, we all knew it was a huge moment. The newsroom suddenly got very quiet. The sense of history was palpable. I think we all felt honored to be standing there, passing that word along to our readers.

And in my eight years at the Times — where I covered 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — I was never more proud of a newsroom operation.

Richard Vega
Senior Editor, Yahoo! News

Photo from jrejtman

Will we have our first African American president or our first female vice president? Who will be tasked with leading us out of these economic doldrums? Who will decide the fate of the war on terror? Who will solve the health care crisis and stop our addiction to oil?

If you’re an undecided voter or just want to make sure you’re watching this race to the finish, you might want to go live on Yahoo! Elections until November 4th. Even I was surprised by how jam-packed it is with helpful information. In addition to the latest news, you’ll find poll results, opinions and editorials, videos, the most blogged-about stories, great interactive modules like the Political Dashboard and Electoral College predictors, a candidate truth-o-meter, and a tally of newspaper endorsements.

And then there’s the fun stuff, like the campaign button you can put on your blog, candidate photos on Flickr, and a political quiz to see how much you’ve kept up with what the campaigns have said about each other. And don’t miss the “Create Your Scenario” feature in the Dashboard, which lets you try your hand at punditry and predict the election night outcome. Save it and compare it to calls by the likes of Arianna Huffington, Joe Trippi, and Newt Gingrich or even past elections. Sounds like a ballot party activity!

And if you’re like me, living in a state with its usual crushing number of propositions and referendums to decipher, you’ll appreciate the site’s “state” tab, which leads you to the latest wire headlines, local news and broadcast news for your locale.

Speaking of which, if you live in California, here’s a brief parenthetical. As you probably know, Proposition 8 is a proposed constitutional amendment that would overturn the state supreme court’s May decision to legalize same-sex marriage. More than 50 of Silicon Valley’s top leaders have given their personal support to No on Prop 8. Our own Jerry Yang, David Filo, Sue Decker, and Hilary Schneider are joining executives from organizations like Google, Intuit, Facebook, eBay, Cisco, Federated Media, Adobe, Reunion.com, Shopping.com, Sequoia Capital, and Twitter. They believe taking away rights from one group of people would set our state – and our country – back in the fight for fundamental fairness and equal rights. To learn more, head to pride.yahoo.com.

What seems like the longest campaign marathon in history will soon come to an end – along with the vitriol about socialism, terrorists, Caribou Barbies, mavericks, and sneaky tax policies. Hope, change. Reform, victory. Are you ready? Get out and vote!

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

• Searching for a president: With just 32 days to go until the next POTUS is decided, there’s no time to mess around. That’s why Yahoo! Search has launched a series of elections shortcuts. Want the latest on a particular candidate? Type in “Obama” or “McCain” and you’ll find links to the latest news, videos, photos, discussions, and poll results. Or type in “presidential election” for general updates as well as a link to register to vote. Curious about the contest from a state’s perspective? Type in “Iowa presidential election” and get the latest headlines and polling info for that state. More here.
• Mad dash to the finish line: Speaking of election polls and whatnot, Yahoo! News just updated its political dashboard. Just in time for the election’s home stretch, you can now see how the average poll numbers have trended over time, on a national and state-by-state basis. How has Obama fared in Ohio to date? Is McCain tracking up or down in Florida? Check it out and see if this race will be a photo finish.
• Cut to the chase: If there’s one thing we can thank the Internet for, it’s a short attention span. That’s why the new Yahoo! News beta, launched as an opt-in today, gives you just the first five paragraphs of a news story. Want more? It’s just a click away, although most people seem to drive on — proving the value of the news pyramid. (NB: If you’re a newshound getting your fix via news.yahoo.com, you’ll always get the full article.) You’ll also find relevant links to other stories and videos much higher on the page. And Yahoo! News is getting more and more open, providing links to outside sources like local newspapers, other news providers and bloggers through the Buzztracker tool. Was that short enough for you?
• Flickr’s mobile makeover: Attention iPhone-toting photographers: The new and improved mobile Flickr site (http://m.flickr.com) is now especially gorgeous for you too-cool-for-skool types. The site’s been refreshed with clearer navigation controls and puts your recent activity front and center. You can also browse sets more efficiently, thanks to arrow-topped thumbnails that help you move back and forth between photos. Trust me — it’s worth making room to your home screen.

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For the General Election, we’ve kept all of the cool features from the Primary Political Dashboard –- plus some new bells and whistles sure to enthrall the political junkie in all of us. At a glance, users still can see national and state poll averages and market predictions on the presidential prospects for Barack Obama and John McCain. Also, users can check out a new form of polling… candidate search results and popular search terms for each candidate. (It’s no surprise the most commonly search words for Barack Obama in recent days has been Joe Biden, but Jill Biden also has seen a big spike.) Users then can quickly scroll over each state to get a snapshot on how candidates are doing, or they can click on specific state to get key local headlines, state-wide searches, and voter demographic breakdowns. They also can click on the candidate images to pull up bios and campaign fund-raising totals. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

The new dashboard also includes a bevy of “Most Blogged About” election topics –- the first time BuzzTracker has been integrated into a Yahoo! News tool (stay tuned for more) — and gives users the chance to check out not only high-level blogs from a national standpoint, but also blogs from individual states. Who knew New Hampshire had so many bloggers writing about the election?

The “Create Your Scenario” tool allows anyone to make a call on every state based on the dashboard content and publish that content using a permalink in an email or blog. Essentially, we’ve put the power of the political pundits in your hands. Will Ohio go to Obama or McCain? Will Florida go blue or stay red? Take a stab at the electoral college and see how the numbers add up (remember: 270 electoral votes are needed to win the White House.) For inspiration, you can view celebrity scenarios (check out Arianna Huffington’s picks) and current and past election results. You can also compare your results to others to see where differences reside!

This Presidential Election truly marks a turning point — where distribution of information and content is no longer controlled by a few networks but rather can be created, consumed, and mashed up by the voters themselves. The Political Dashboard has been developed with you, the voter, in mind.

Have fun and enjoy the new features as we head into final few months of this historic election.

Alan Warms
Vice President and General Manager, Yahoo! News, Tech and Education

The highlight, of course, was the Yahoo! exclusive interview with South Korean President Myung-bak Lee. This was a historic event as it was President Lee’s first interview with an online news organization and the first foreign head of state ever interviewed by Yahoo! News.

So how did all of this come about? The success of Yahoo! News’ interview of President Bush (in partnership with Politico) got the wheels turning. Interviewing President Bush spurred discussions within Yahoo! over which other world leaders we could get to sit down with us. I’m eternally indebted to Yahoo! Korea CEO James Kim, whose entire team did a tremendous job of pursuing the issue with the Blue House and then executing a highly complex operation in a very short period of time.

It was a great honor for me to get to go to the Blue House, the President’s residence, and meet with President Lee, who was very gracious and generous with his time. I asked President Lee questions about a variety of topics, from the ultra-serious issue of relations with North Korea to lighter fare such as the success of South Korea’s Olympians. I also asked a question from a user after Y! Korea asked for submissions from its users (there were literally 1000s to choose from). The discussion of North-South relations was particularly relevant for me since my father is a Korean War veteran.

One of the other highlights of my trip to Korea was a visit to the DMZ, which is an amazing place on many levels. The DMZ is both a literal and figurative ‘front line’ for a war that technically isn’t over, but it’s also a place where sworn enemies have figured out a way to coexist –- and even partner in a joint economic development project in the area. That gives me some hope President Lee will be right when he expressed confidence reunification will occur in his lifetime — and possibly suddenly as was the case with the reunification of Germany.

As for the rest of my trip, I was struck by the advanced technology available to the “average” Korean. From video conferencing on cell phones, to GPS devices that double as TVs to high-speed Internet access anywhere/anytime, Korea is one of the world’s most wired countries. I got insights on the scene from several tech industry executives and also met the world champion Starcraft player (video games are a huge spectator sport in Korea) — stay tuned to “Tech Ticker” for additional clips from those interviews.

Finally, I was blown away by the incredible hospitality and generosity of the people I met. Everyone I met was amazingly friendly and helpful — from colleagues at Yahoo! to local CEOs to a friend of a friend’s brother who took a day off to show me around Seoul, to the little girl at the Korean Folk Village who wanted to practice her English.

My only regret is I didn’t get to try live octopus (a local delicacy), but apparently it’s not in season. Next time!

Aaron Task
Correspondent, Yahoo! Tech Ticker

You might have heard — we interviewed the President. George W. Bush, in the flesh, at the White House.

And, the best part? We made history. Believe it or not, this was the first on-camera interview the President has done for an online-only entity in his entire tenure in office. As we say in the news biz — what a “get”!

The White House was kind enough to let us conduct the interview in the Roosevelt Room — the President has only done one other on-camera interview there. It’s feet from the Oval Office and is usually used as a conference room (think cabinet meetings).

The White House says “President Richard Nixon named the room in 1969 to honor Theodore Roosevelt for building the West Wing and Franklin Roosevelt for expanding it.” Teddy’s Medal of Honor and Nobel Peace Prize hang on walls a few feet away from the large picture of him at the end of the room. All fine reminders that this was an historic event.

The interview was conducted by Mike Allen, the chief political correspondent for Politico (our Election 2008 partners). Our first-class production team shot the interview. Our exec producer and vice president of original programming, Neeraj Khemlani, came with us to oversee the whole production. (He used to work at 60 Minutes. Take a look at the interview — you can tell he had a hand in it. It looked sharp!)

The idea of interviewing Mr. Bush started when our friends and partners at Politico joined forces with us to cover the 2008 campaign. Eventually, we were interviewing presidential candidates (see interviews here) with Mike Allen. Then we were writing stories on the primaries. And ultimately, we’re hosting their first-class content on our site. We wondered what big “get” we could do next — all signs pointed to the White House.

We took a good look at our audience when we decided just what we’d ask President Bush when we sat down with him. Of our 40 million users, we were pretty sure not all of them are watching Meet the Press every week. So we posed a broad range of questions, touching on everything from the war in Iraq (and why it spurred him to quit golf) to his daughter’s wedding to which Saturday Night Live comedian pulled off the best impression. (It goes without saying that as Yahoo!, we can get away with questions that are outside Tim Russert’s domain.) We even got a Dr. Evil impression out of him. We also asked questions submitted by users, like whether he felt personally misled by pre-war Iraq intelligence and what he could do about the rising price of gas.

No matter which aspect of this President people were interested in, we’re proud to have brought it to you from a special place in a special format.

Erin Green
Producer, Yahoo! News

The focus of this event is to explore how new technologies and business models can support journalism and participatory democracy through a “concept/design mash-up.” This is a natural fit for us at Yahoo! — providing the platform for others to convene, share ideas and insights, and discover new ways to make a difference. Discussion topics will include how the concept and practice of journalism may adapt to search and social networks, crowdsourcing, diverse, fragmented audiences and digital, participatory politics. It’s all about best practices and new technologies that can facilitate fact/data-rich, citizen-supported, machine-using, inclusive journalism that promotes accountable government and open institutions.

I’ve been at Yahoo! since we were just a handful of people building a searchable directory of websites. From the beginning, we’ve been driven by sheer passion and enthusiasm for the transformative possibilities of the Web — we couldn’t wait to make it accessible to everyone, because we knew amazing things would happen when others applied their creativity, resourcefulness, and ingenuity. We’ve never had all the answers — the website directory was just a bunch of links to other people’s stuff — but we brought those links together to invite and inspire others to realize the possibilities of this medium.

Promoting freedom of expression and the open exchange of diverse ideas and information — that’s been at the core of everything we do. We believe information is power, and access to information is a democratizing force. And even though we started out merely linking to “other people’s stuff,” we thought a lot about how the mere act of aggregation is creation, and with that comes great responsibility. These very beliefs are at the heart of “journalism that matters.”

It’s these same beliefs, together with our passion for helping others apply their expertise to unlock the power of the Web, that drives our focus on making Yahoo! more open and social. We are creating flexible tools and platforms for others to build on, and look forward to working with like-minded collaborators in an evolving community.

To that end, several members of our news, front page, and central editorial teams will be in attendance this week. As always, we don’t have all the answers. But we can’t wait to see what emerges when we come together with those who do.

Srinija Srinivasan
VP and Editor-in-Chief
Yahoo! Editorial

• 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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Kevin was at Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale campus today to discuss the book he’s written about his experience, “In the Hot Zone: One Man, One Year, Twenty Wars.” Kevin was here today to share his stories, and I was asked to share a little about my experience “In the Hot Zone.”

You see, during his journey around the world, I was responsible for booking nearly all of his travel over the course of the year-long project. As you may imagine, Kevin is not your typical Yahoo! business traveler, and as a result our relationship has grown into a valuable friendship. And when you have a unique relationship with a “client” like him, it can make for some interesting stories.

For example, over the holidays in 2005 while in the middle of his project, Kevin ran out of cash. A major annoyance for anyone out on the road, but a potentially life-threatening problem for a solo war reporter who happens to be in Iran without money to pay his “fixer” (a foreign reporter’s lifeline who acts as a guide and translator). His American-based editorial team asked if they could pay by credit card or check, and quickly learned that not only was that not an option, but it was impossible for them to wire Kevin money while he was in Iran. Having been born in Iran, I happened to know of some folks who were about to go back home to Iran at this exact time. Because we had already established a trusting relationship with one another, I volunteered to help. The team gave me the cash Kevin needed, and I in turn gave it to my friend, who then took it to Iran and hand-delivered it to Kevin’s translator.

It’s not every day that I help my clients by facilitating the hand-delivery of cash across international borders, but it was definitely worth it. This story didn’t make it into the book, but there are plenty of important stories about Kevin’s experiences, and the people he met that did.

During today’s talk, Kevin took a moment to thank me for supporting the Hot Zone project, which I found both meaningful and unnecessary. Kevin is the most amazing client I have ever worked with, and I am proud to have been a part of the Hot Zone project.

I should also mention that at today’s discussion, Kevin was accepting donations the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), an organization that advocates on behalf of victims of armed conflict. He’s donated a portion of his royalties to this organization, and we raised more than $1000 today! Click here to learn more.

Farah Ravon
Lead Travel Agent
BCD Travel (Yahoo!’s on-site travel agency)