If online searches are any indication of who will win this year’s game, the New England Patriots would come out on top – this year they had 50% more Yahoo! searches than the New York Giants.

Still, the Patriots are in for a real fight when they take on the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI. The Patriots’ pass defense isn’t what it was four year ago when these two franchises tussled in Super Bowl XLII, and Eli Manning is running a far more productive passing game. Tom Brady’s offense isn’t quite as explosive as it was four years ago, and the Giants’ pass rush is every bit as ferocious as it was back then. Also, receiver Hakeem Nicks and running back Ahmad Bradshaw will play in this game, and neither player was available in the Week 9 game won by the Giants, 24-20.

However, there are aspects to the Patriots’ game that set them up for victory in ways that were not evident in the last Super matchup. Randy Moss is gone but the Pats compensate for their lack of a deep attack with some of the best formation diversity in the NFL. Tight ends Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski are the main men in the Pats’ aerial attack, and when they’re on the field together, they’re nearly unbeatable.

Gronkowski’s ankle sprain has been a big subject since he was hurt in the AFC Championship game, but I don’t think “Gronk” will be most valuable going out on routes. Where the Patriots will need him is as a blocker – and with all the things the second-year man does well, he blocks better than any tight end in the game. Brady balked against the furious pass rush of Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck in XLII, and the G-men still have Tuck to contend with. Add in Jason Pierre-Paul and Osi Umenyiora, and it’s a handful. But Gronkowski blocked at a dominant level in the AFC Championship game, even after he was hurt. He could make the difference right there.

Brady will still have problems with the Giants’ defense, and if the Pats do win, I don’t think he’ll be the deserving MVP. I see defensive lineman Vince Wilfork, who has been as dominant as any defender in the game over the last few weeks, continuing his rampage through the NFL in the Super Bowl and picking up the award if the voters aren’t too quarterback-centric.

Could the Giants win? Without question, and that’s what makes this particular matchup to intriguing, These teams tend to play close most of the time, and if Eli Manning gets in a groove like he was against the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round, the Pats could be in trouble. But between their improved defense, their just-good-enough passing game, and a few new wrinkles in their secondary, I think New England exacts a measure of revenge for what was the biggest upset in the history of the Super Bowl.

Call it a flip of the Week 9 game – the Patriots will beat the Giants this time, 24-20.

Doug Farrar
Editor, Yahoo! Sports Shutdown Corner Blog

Photo: Getty

To promote its G series of energy drinks, Gatorade kicked off its Win from Within campaign in G-force style with a rich media custom (sporting) event front and center on Yahoo! Sports.
This ad is a triathlon of rich media athleticism: Wallpaper featuring opposing football players leaning into the 950 x 60 banner along the top while a 300 x 250 screen on the right shows one of several brief montages and taglines that Gatorade suited up for this campaign.

If you accept the banner’s invitation to “view commercial,” it pushes down to play a 30-second spot featuring all the athletes you could’ve seen in the right-hand box, while the earnest voiceover admonishes you that you only get out of it what you put into it.

The video player is bracketed by the G logo and a “How Do You Win from Within?” link that takes over the banner after the commercial, inviting you to sprint over to the G series section of the Gatorade site.

Like any skilled athlete, this rich media ad makes full use of the field of play, a digital canvas that provides the ideal arena for advertisers to flex their muscles in an interactive style that spectators could find nowhere else.

Click here to find your mettle.

– Thomas T. Lady

Editor’s Note: This entry was reposted from the Yahoo! Advertising Blog. For more information, visit their site, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Bud Light Hotel Super Bowl concert broadcast live on Yahoo!: The night before the Super Bowl, Bud Light will host a special concert featuring 50 Cent, Lil Jon, and Pitbull that will be broadcast live only on omg! From Yahoo!. The concert can be seen on both omg! From Yahoo! and Yahoo! Screen, beginning at 10 pm EST on Saturday, February 4^th.

Daily coverage: omg! From Yahoo! and Yahoo! Sports will feature daily coverage from the Bud Light Hotel, including “blue-carpet” celebrity interviews, celebrity predictions, an omg! photo gallery collection, and coverage of all the weekend’s parties.

On-the-ground coverage
For an inside look at the week before the game, Yahoo! Sports Radio will stream its shows live from the Super Bowl media center, Wednesday through Friday, from 1-7 pm ET.  On Yahoo! Sports’ NFL homepage, fans can enjoy video access to insightful interviews with the hottest athletes and celebrities in Indianapolis.

In addition to expanded video coverage of this year’s Super Bowl featuring Yahoo! football analyst Eddie George and Yahoo! Sports host Danyelle Sargent, Yahoo! Sports’ NFL experts Mike Silver, Jason Cole, Les Carpenter, and Doug Farrar will be on the scene in Indianapolis. They’ll be covering all angles of the big game, from team and player news to local and entertainment stories, giving fans a complete picture of all the action.

Where do you check the scores?
If you couldn’t watch the Super Bowl, would you check the scores from your phone? A new survey from Yahoo! Sports found that men check NFL scores from some, well, inappropriate locations. The survey of 1,500 U.S. adults ages 18 to 64 indicates that 25 percent of male fans have checked a score while using the bathroom, and four percent have even looked at scores during a funeral! Other questionable locations where men have checked NFL game scores include:

• Classroom (22%)
• Date (18%)
• Wedding (12%)
• Child’s school event (12%)
• Church service (8%)

Other key findings:

• America’s game: With patriotism high as we start a presidential election year, a majority of Super Bowl watchers (65 percent) agree that an international city should not host the game.
• Game or commercials?: When it comes to why viewers tune into the Super Bowl, the majority (67 percent) of men say the game is their favorite part. Most women (58 percent) rank watching the commercials as their favorite part of the event.

After the game is over, fans can visit the Big Game Ad Network on Yahoo! Screen to re-watch their favorite commercials and catch any they missed.

Are you ready for some football? The 2011 NFL season is almost here with preseason already underway, and Yahoo! Fantasy Football is back in full swing!
I’m always excited for football season, but this year I’m more excited than ever because I’ll be playing in a Yahoo! Fantasy Football league with some of my favorite sports talk radio hosts from around the country.
I’m going up against the guys to see who’s got the football knowledge and dedication to be the Yahoo! Fantasy Football 2011 champion.
Want to know who’s in my league? You can check out my opponents, see who had the best draft, and keep tabs on all of our teams each week here: http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/radiorumble.
If your favorite radio personality is in my league, you can help him win by signing up on Yahoo! Sports for your own fantasy league. Help your guy win here: http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy.

Yahoo! also just named the top 10 NFL cities with the most Yahoo! Fantasy Football players per capita during the 2010 season. Did your city make the list? Check out the top 10 Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football Cities for 2011:

• Green Bay, WI
• Cincinnati, OH
• Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN
• Indianapolis, IN
• Kansas City, MO
• Washington, DC
• San Diego, CA
• Baltimore, MD
• Buffalo, NY
• Pittsburgh, PA

If you live in an NFL city that didn’t make the list this year, or any other city (fantasy football fans are everywhere!), be sure to sign up for your own fantasy league on Yahoo!, and follow along to see how my league is doing throughout the season. Let the countdown to kickoff begin!

-Angela Sun

The chants rained from all directions on commissioner Roger Goodell as he stepped to the lectern to formally commence the recent NFL Draft, only the second-ever to be televised in primetime.

“We Want Football!”

Fans wearing jerseys booed; some pumped their fists. The commissioner, half-smiling, did his best to deflect the reception. “I hear you,” he told the fans. “I hear you.”

But did he? Did he really?

Forgive fans for wondering. The NFL lockout stretches on, growing increasingly bitter by the day, leaving fans frustrated and impatient. Any hope for a speedy resolution died long ago; at 81 days and counting, this work stoppage has officially become the longest in league history. Should it continue, the regular season will be jeopardized.

The biggest losers in all of this are the fans, of course, who have no seat at the negotiating table, but much riding on the outcome; ditto for the stadium workers, bar owners and restaurateurs who make their livings largely by supporting NFL games.

Yahoo! Sports, in an effort to give fans a platform to make their voices heard and save the NFL season, has started “The Rally to Restore Football.” Fans can join by adding their signatures to an online petition; once 1 million signatures have been collected, Yahoo! will deliver a letter on behalf of the fans to the NFL and the NFL Players Association asking for a prompt resumption of normal football activities and an immediate end to the current labor dispute.

“We Want Football!”

The chants still echo, but remain unfulfilled. It’s time to rally. Football fans – fellow Yahoos – let your voices be heard.

Signed,
Football Fans Everywhere

We recently posed a few questions to five of our newest faces who are representative of the amazing new people who join us here at Yahoo! every day. Here’s what they had to say:

Tim Parsey, SVP, Design

What is the toughest job you’ve ever had?
When I started the task of building the Motorola’s global design organization, a product leader guy came up to me and asked for a phone design by the following week. He wanted it black and with sharp edges. I looked at him and smiled. He was a sincere, passionate person who had never experienced the buzz of ‘the magic triad’, when product, research-based design, and development form a deep trust-based. collaborative relationship driven by an enlightened vision and sharp strategies. Three years later we launched the Razr phone. It was the toughest job for me because I had to learn how to help research and design earn the trust and respect that is needed in the triad.

What’s your philosophy on designing great user experiences?
Great user experiences are simple, satisfying and relevant. These take mastery to design. You can’t pound them out based on linear logic, you need to creatively explore then synthesize multiple variables into magical solutions. My philosophy for achieving this is ‘the magic triad’ mentioned above. When the culture operates this way the respect-based relationships can be fed with edgy business thinking, rich visions, and profound design strategies, and then deliver the simple solutions that make a difference.

Randy Roumillat, SVP and Chief Information Officer

Who has been most influential in shaping your work style?

No one specific person, but having spent 25 years with the military between active duty and reserves, my work style was heavily influenced by that.

What one thing do you think made the biggest impact on the technology industry?

I think the development and proliferation of hand held devices like iPhones and tablets.  These devices are giving people much more flexibility and mobility to a computing platform.  We are no longer chained to a big desk side system in order to get the information we need to run our everyday life.

Steve Douty, VP of Product Management, Applications

What is one lesson you’ve learned through your career that you could share?
Stay focused.  There are always a million ideas and opportunities that will cross your path – the hardest thing to do is to say no to a great idea that doesn’t take you directly toward your goal.

What’s surprised you most about Yahoo! since you joined?
How much the vast majority of employees I have encountered here truly love their company.

Mark Ellis, VP, North America Field Sales

Why did you come to Yahoo!?
The truth is, I was tired of competing against Yahoo!.  I had done that for many years, and I was always envious of the great products and the scale Yahoo! had.  I also sensed that Yahoo! was an under-leveraged asset with tremendous upside, and that my skill set could help.  I’m not an investing genius, but I know you are supposed to buy low and sell high.

What is your favorite Yahoo! product/property and why?
I think the entire portfolio of properties and products is strong.  I’m a sports kook, and really like Yahoo! Sports.  It is a great product and I have been a user for several years.  I like the look and feel and voice, and I can invariably find things on Yahoo! Sports that I can’t find on AOL Sports, ESPN, Golf.com or other sites (fantasy advice, super current live leaderboards, etc.).  I also like the Y! homepage — I’m addicted to Trending Now and like the way the Today module works.  And, I’m a fan of Yahoo! Mail.  I just migrated over from a competitive product and find it to be really intuitive and easy to use.  Oh, and Yahoo! Finance…I guess I could go on and on!

Brett Wayn, VP of Product Management, Local

What is the one thing you can’t live without?
My Bialetti coffee pot. It may not make the best espresso ever, but it makes, predictably, a very good cup by deploying a simple, elegant design that has endured. It works quickly, is inexpensive, and easy to maintain. In some ways, a perfect consumer product. There should be more websites that deliver on this simple promise.

What’s surprised you most about Yahoo! since you joined?
What I like about Yahoo! is that it seems as though many disciplines have a seat at the table, and a voice in the debate. This is the key to success in online consumer services, in my opinion. If you just apply the technology filter, or just apply the marketing filter, or only the media filter etc. to the problem, you end up with orphan products that don’t succeed. Interdisciplinary respect and trust, getting the best from all the subject matter experts, and executing brilliantly is key.

“Whether we’re covering major events – like the NCAA tournament or the NFL playoffs – or chronicling the everyday world of sports, our team has an unparalleled knack for surfacing the topics most interesting to a broad audience of hardcore and casual fans alike,” said Mark Pesavento, Managing Editor, Yahoo! Sports Blogs.

“Yahoo!’s original blogging initiatives continue to experience unprecedented success, and we’re now operating at a scale that easily rivals the top mainstream blog networks,” said Jamie Mottram, Director of Blogging for Yahoo!

Here is a quick snapshot of page view growth by quarter since the inception of the Yahoo! Sports blogs, as well as the top Yahoo! Sports blogs and posts of Q1.

Top 5 Yahoo! Sports blogs of Q1

1. Shutdown Corner (NFL)
2. Ball Don’t Lie (NBA)
3. Prep Rally (High Schools)
4. The Dagger (NCAA basketball)
5. Busted Racquet (Tennis)

Top blogs posts of Q1

Prep star hits game-winning shot for perfect season, falls and dies – Prep Rally – High School

Video: Christina Aguilera goofs up the national anthem – Shutdown Corner – NFL

Racy Serena Williams commercial won’t appear on TV – Busted Racquet – Tennis Blog

McDonald’s employee fired for letting Peterson use the restroom – Shutdown Corner – NFL

Yahoo! Sports, the No. 1 online sports site, put Yahoo! Search Data to the test and let the top searched NCAA teams determine our March Madness bracket.

Yahoo! Search sifts through billions of searches to uncover trends, burning questions, popular personalities, and hopefully the winning college basketball team.  We asked to the team to rank which college teams’ garner the most buzz online and picked that team to win their respected games.

Here are the top searched college teams according to Yahoo!

1. Ohio State Basketball
2. Duke Basketball
3. BYU Basketball
4. Syracuse Basketball
5. Michigan State Basketball
6. UConn Basketball
7. Kentucky Basketball
8. Notre Dame Basketball
9. San Diego State Basketball
10. UCLA Basketball
11. Gonzaga Basketball
12. Purdue Basketball
13. Michigan Basketball
14. UNLV Basketball
15. Penn State Basketball
16. Marquette Basketball

Yahoo! continues to work hard to keep our users connected to relevant content, and this year the Tourney Pick’em can be experienced on mobile devices including iPhones, plus there is an iPad companion app. Users can now create a bracket and change their picks right from their mobile device!

Because everyone likes to brag when it comes to their bracket we’ve added more social features this year to make it easy to keep up with the latest results, deadlines and reminders. Make sure you and your friends click the Facebook “Like” button for Yahoo! Sports and check out the Check-in feature that let’s you show off your school pride.

To sweeten the pot, this year’s Tourney Pick’em 11 offers fans the chance to win one million dollars in exchange for a perfect bracket. What if there is no perfect bracket? Then the best bracket in the K-Swiss/Bank of America-sponsored Yahoo! Sports Tourney Pick’em contest wins $10,000, which as we noted earlier was won last year by a guinea pig.

Check back to see how our Yahoo! Search bracket turns out & good luck!

Yahoo! Sports Pop Quiz provides a quick jolt of current and historic questions to answer as you race against the clock for your high score. If you’re savvy enough to earn 1,000 points, you’ll be entered into our daily drawing for $100 worth of fan gear from the Yahoo! Sports Shop, as well as the grand-prize drawing for a year of sports tickets from SeatGeek.

How the game works: You have 60 seconds to answer as many multiple-choice questions as you can. You earn 200 points for a correct answer and lose 100 points for a wrong answer. If you don’t know an answer, you can click the “Get a Hint!” button for a hint from Yahoo! Sports. And if you want to learn more – there are links that explain the answers on the results page.

Play against the clock as many times as you’d like to get on the leader board and qualify to enter the daily and grand-prize drawings. And challenge your friends for extra drawing entries and see whose sports knowledge reigns supreme.

Just ‘Like’ the Yahoo! Sports Facebook page and start playing today. There will be new winners every day.

Show off your sports trivia dominance. Play now: http://yhoo.it/SportsQuizFB

· Yahoo! Philippines has a micro-site dedicated to Pacquiao: Ringside with Manny giving you a virtual seat for the bout, with photo galleries, behind-the-scenes video, a live blog and other features.

· At Yahoo! Sports Video there are previews of the fighters and features detailing their preparation, weigh-ins and much more behind-the-scenes footage.

· Award-winning veteran sports writer Kevin Iole is the national boxing and mixed martial arts reporter for Yahoo! Sports, and he’s been leading the coverage of Saturday’s title bout.

Kevin’s actually on the ground in Texas right now with the fighters, and just provided us with the following update of what’s going on:

“In the last few years, as Manny Pacquiao has developed into the best boxer in the world, his fights have become social events as much as sporting contests. Yahoo! Sports sent me to Dallas to cover Pacquiao’s fight on Saturday against Antonio Margarito at the beautiful Cowboys Stadium and it’s been an extraordinary week.

There’s been a lot of news, but even more excitement and I’ve tried to bring all of it to boxing fans around the world. As I checked into the hotel on Tuesday where the fighters and their camps are staying, I was instantly greeted by a group of Pacquiao fans, who are Yahoo! Sports readers. I posed for pictures and spent 15 minutes with them talking about the fight, giving my prediction, before heading to my room.

Manny has truly become an international celebrity and people just want to be in his presence. And if they can’t be in Manny’s presence, they want to meet and talk with those who have been.

I’ve tried to bring boxing fans all angles on the fight, from the extraordinary media interest, which included pieces on Manny and the fight in “60 Minutes,” the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and many other major media outlets, my take on the odds of Manny ever facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. as well as what I think Pacquiao needs to do to overcome Margarito’s size advantage .

On fight day, Yahoo! Sports will team up with Top Rank, Pacquiao’s promoter, to live stream all of the fights that aren’t part of the pay-per-view broadcast. And of course, Dan Wetzel and I will be live blogging the fight itself and we’ll have complete coverage of the bout and its aftermath.

It’s been an entertaining week, but I feel like I’ve been at a four-day party. It’s about time I got some sleep!”

View all of Kevin’s latest articles about Manny Pacquiao at Boxing on Yahoo! Sports

Follow Kevin on twitter @KevinI

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.

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

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

We ran the first version of Predictalot in the U.S. for the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament known as March Madness. Nearly 50,000 people placed 100,000 predictions. To our delight, we found that people went well beyond picking ordinary things, like who will win, to construct a huge array of highly customized predictions — selecting 10,000 different kinds of predictions, including almost 4,000 “3-D” predictions that compared one team against two others, like “Butler will advance further than Kentucky and Purdue.”

The latest version of Predictalot, now available for the global audience of World Cup fans, has several new features:

• You can create a group and challenge your friends to play, or join an existing group of like-minded players.
• You can track how your predictive acumen stacks up in each group you belong to and overall across the globe.
• You can watch streaming updates of what other people are predicting in your social circle and around the world.
• You can view live match updates right within the app for your convenience.
• You can choose from millions of predictions, but don’t worry, the on-screen wizard guides you to easily find and customize the exact prediction you want.

Our goal with Predictalot is to take the wisdom of crowds to the extreme by computing what all these different predictions, taken together, say about the likelihood of each of the 28 trillion possible ways the tournament could unfold. Predictalot is an example of what is technically called a combinatorial prediction market, a new kind of market made possible only now that computing power has increased so massively. Predictalot represents the evolution of markets in the digital age, empowering users – in this case football and soccer fans, though this could apply to other types of users like online advertisers –  with extreme customization. More and more, matching buyers with sellers — the core function of markets — requires sophisticated algorithms, including machine learning and optimization. Predictalot illustrates this trend in an entertaining way.

Bringing Predictalot to life has been a truly interdisciplinary effort. On our team we have computer scientists and economists to work out the market math (see our previous write-up for a look under the hood from a science perspective), and engineers to turn those equations into something real that is fast and easy to use. Predictalot is built on the Yahoo! Application Platform, an invaluable platform (open to any developer) that makes it easy to create engaging and social applications for a massive audience.  Yahoo!’s extensive cloud allows us to pull our global content and deliver it quickly to our worldwide audience.

And we owe a great deal of our success and exposure to the cooperation and support of other well-established Yahoo! properties like Fantasy Sports and Games.

We’re excited about this version of Predictalot and hope you join us as the matches begin in South Africa. We invite everyone to participate, though please do keep in mind that the application is in beta, or experimental, mode. (If you prefer a more polished experience, check out the official Yahoo! Fantasy Sports World Soccer game.) We hope Predictalot is both fun to play and helps us learn something scientifically interesting.

Thanks,
David Pennock, Yahoo! Labs

and the rest of the Predictalot team: Mani Abrol, Mohammad Mahdian, Mridul Muralidharan, Sudar Muthu, Navneet Nair, and Daniel Reeves

Are Kentucky and Syracuse on a collision course?

With No. 1 overall seed Kansas bowing out in the second round, fellow No. 1s Kentucky and Syracuse have assumed the role of co-favorites. The Wildcats won their first two games by a combined 59 points and the Orange clobbered their two opponents by 22 and 23 points, respectively.

Can any remaining Cinderella pull a George Mason?

Only three teams seeded ninth or worse have ever made the Final Four, the most recent being George Mason in 2006. This year alone, ninth-seeded Northern Iowa, 10th-seeded Saint Mary’s, and 11th-seeded Washington and 12th-seeded Cornell are each still alive and intent on adding another name to that list.

Hometown heroes?

One year after Michigan State defied the odds to earn a berth in the Final Four in nearby Detroit, Sweet 16 qualifiers Butler and Purdue are trying to repeat the hometown feat. Butler’s campus is five miles from Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium, while Purdue is approximately an hour to the Northwest.

Is Duke back?

Duke hasn’t made the Final Four since 2004, but there’s plenty of optimism in Durham that this might be the year the Blue Devils end that drought. An improved interior game, a favorable draw and the scoring of stars Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith propelled Duke to two easy victories in the first and second round.

Will the Big Ten stand strong?

Whereas the Big East and Big 12 were touted as the nation’s toughest conferences entering the NCAA tournament, it’s actually the Big Ten that has fared the best so far. Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue are all still alive, giving the Big Ten more Sweet 16 entrants than any other conference.

-Yahoo! Sports blogger Jeff Eisneberg

And now, Yahoo! is announcing that it has entered an agreement to acquire Citizen Sports, a leading social media company.  Home to the #1 fantasy football app on Facebook, Citizen Sports engages and unites fans across the globe around their favorite sports and teams.

As Yahoo! pursues our social strategy of enriching, aggregating and distributing social content from across the Web, Citizen Sports will strengthen how we go about doing this in the Sports category and beyond.  The combination of these two powerhouses will make the Yahoo! experience more personally relevant, create new opportunities for users and advertisers across Yahoo!, mobile and social networks and thrill sports fans everywhere.

Yahoo! Sports’ best in class news and information will be integrated into Citizen Sports’ range of products and applications for football, hockey, soccer, baseball, racing, rugby, hockey and cricket.  In addition, Yahoo! Sports users will be able to broadcast their allegiances, create or join a conversation with friends and fans and cheer for their teams through Citizen Sports’ applications.

So…what are you waiting for?  The race is on.  Go get your March Madness on with the Bracket Challenge by Citizen Sports app and Yahoo!’s Tourney Pick ‘Em!

– Jeff Kinder, SVP, Media Products & Solutions

As Spring Training heats up, we are very excited to announce an exclusive deal with Major League Baseball making Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ’10 the official fantasy baseball game of MLB.com.

The co-branded Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ‘10, will provide fans with the most relevant and engaging fantasy baseball experience on the Web. The combination of Yahoo!’s unmatched sports news and MLB.com’s in-game and post-game video highlights truly makes this the biggest and best game for passionate fantasy baseball fans.

Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ’10 players can purchase MLB.com’s new Fantasy Highlights package, giving them the opportunity to watch customized in-game and post-game video highlights of their fantasy players directly from their homepage. The unique feature, combined with Yahoo! Sports’ leading online news and insights, will provide players with the most comprehensive and interactive fantasy baseball experience anywhere, taking fans beyond the box score to watch the performance of their fantasy roster as it unfolds on the field.

Additionally, Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ‘10 will offer a new live online auction draft application and free live scoring, which gives fans the ability to view live stats and instant scoring for teams or matchups and get real-time league standings straight to their homepage.

Yahoo! is the partner of choice for content companies, working closely with major sports, entertainment, and media companies to deliver the world’s most relevant and engaging content to its consumers.  The MLB is the third official league relationship we’ve entered into, with the NHL and PGA Tour fantasy games already leading in their respective online categories. And now, with the combination of Yahoo!’s unmatched sports news, MLB.com’s wealth of statistical research tools and never-before-available live video highlights at users’ fingertips, we know Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball ’10 will quickly become the hottest product serving the incredibly passionate fantasy baseball audience. Check it out for yourself!

Everyone is doing it – from New Orleans to Las Vegas, and even Hawaii is involved in the college bowl fever. It doesn’t matter if your team didn’t make the cut, you can still have fun by joining Yahoo! Sports College Bowl Pick’em. This is your last chance to earn college glory, and this is the only time it doesn’t matter if you’re a duck or a gator. You can have fun picking the winners, even if your team isn’t playing.
 
Don’t let the fact that you’ve never played stop you, the rules are easy:

1. Sign up at Yahoo! Sports College Bowl Pick’em   
2. Pick the teams you think will win – there is expert advice available or just go with your favorite mascot or team colors
3. Then watch the points stack up!

Sign up now because the players hit the field this weekend and that’s when the boys will be separated from the men! And a big college cheer to the Yahoo! Sports team that delivered the most exciting college fantasy game of the season.

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!

• Cheapskates rule: There’s nothing like nuked portfolios and pink slips to make couponing de rigueur. This recession has spawned a generation of proud penny pinchers who enjoy the hunt for great bargains, and the refreshed Yahoo! Deals makes that even more sporting fun. In addition to daily deals, weekly electronic circulars, and online coupons from major retailers, you can now find great local bargains with coupons for groceries and neighborhood stores. You can even share your dollar-saving discoveries through social tools like Twitter, Facebook, Digg and Delicious. Get your save on. More here.
• Trash talking mayors: Politics and fantasies should rarely mix. But mayors from 11 big football cities are letting their imaginations run wild as they pick their teams for the Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football Mayoral Face-Off. From San Francisco to Oakland, Green Bay to Buffalo, mayors are squaring off to see who can assemble the winning team. What’s in it for them? A check for $15,000 to benefit their favorite local sports charity. What’s more, the city with the most votes from football fans scores another $15,000. So go hit the polls now. More here.
• Measure your mojo: If you know how to retweet your @replies with a hashtag, you’re on Twitter. But do you know what kind of Twitter user you are? In celebration of the launch of our new Yahoo! Homepage, we’ve launched Know Your Mojo with a sophisticated pipe thingy that analyzes your account and spits out your social mojo. If you’re a Crowd Pleaser, you’re into hashtags. If you’re a BFF, you’re big into @replies. If you’re a Wall Flower, you seem to have forgotten how to type. We’ll also recommend what websites you should add to your own Yahoo! homepage to help feed your mojo. We’re a Concierge. More here.
• You’re two-faced: Speaking of customizing your Yahoo! Homepage, we’ve developed a Facebook quiz that acknowledges that there’s more than one side to each of us. In our Split Personality quiz, you’ll answer ten multiple-choice questions to determine whether you’re more like Tiger Hilfiger, Galileo Cronkite or Bono Rockefeller (etc.). And then we’ll suggest websites to add to your Yahoo! Homepage that match your dueling passions. What’s your split personality?

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Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

I’ve decided to make this football season count by joining the Yahoo! Sports Mayoral Face-off, taking on ten other mayors from football havens around the country for a chance to win big money for charity. Mayors from cities like San Francisco, Kansas City, and Green Bay are putting together their dream fantasy teams. Whoever wins the league gets $15,000 to donate to a local sports program — my pick is NFL YET Tampa Bay. In addition, the city that collects the most votes from football fans scores another $15,000 for their non-profit. Take that, budget cuts!

I view this as not only an opportunity to compete for money, but as a chance to demonstrate why Tampa Bay easily has the best football fans in the country! Plus, it’s a great way to interact with my fellow mayors outside of politics. But most of all, this is an occasion for me to prove that I, Mayor Pam Iorio, know my football, how to craft a winning team and how to have fun.

However, I cannot do this alone. I’m calling on the great residents of Tampa and the entire Bay area as well as the citizens of other participating cities to show their support by voting in the poll for the top football city (poll opens tomorrow). In addition, I call on citizens from across the country to join us in the fun and awaken their competitive spirits by creating their own Yahoo! Fantasy Football leagues.

So here’s a heartfelt good luck to all the other Mayors in the league. Nation, we look forward to you joining us in the fun this season. You can follow our progress and your city’s polling status at Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football. Now it’s time to face off!

Pam Iorio
Mayor
Tampa, Florida

• 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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I’m also here to tell you why the 2009 fantasy baseball season is going to be the year that I bring you stat junkies a Yahoo! Sports fantasy baseball championship. Get ready to celebrate America’s favorite pastime with ballpark dogs, peanuts and your favorite fantasy cover athlete: me.

As free agents are starting to settle with their respective new teams, this fantasy baseball season will make for amazing and unpredictable baseball both on and off line. So start your draft prep, because spring training is just around the corner and Yahoo! Sports has all of the stats you need to leave the competition in the dirt.

If you don’t believe me, check out the Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball page or pick up a copy of Yahoo! Sports’ first magazine, Fantasy Baseball ’09 Draft Guide. It hits your local Borders or Barnes & Nobles in March. Don’t miss a second of the action with exclusive drafting information, player stats, streaming live games, MLB news, Yahoo! Fantasy expert tips and more.

Now, go round up your friends and family to join you in a harmless game of fantasy baseball. Little do they know that you’ve got all your bases covered to take home this year’s championship. Don’t forget to look for me, Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ’09 cover athlete, online at Yahoo! Sports. Let the smack talking begin!

Mark Teixeira
Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ’09 Cover Athlete
New York Yankees #25

• Messenger Number Nine: It’s official. The newest version of Yahoo! Messenger for Windows XP and Vista is out of beta. And now you can enjoy things like a total of 12 different skins, better “ignore” capabilities, inline video and picture viewing, great new emoticons (and they’re small again), ability to add contacts from other online services like Gmail and Hotmail, friend updates in your contact list, call forwarding and new voicemail delivery, the return of Yahoo! Games, and more control over your look and feel. And introducing Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox, which lets readers of your blog, website or social network page send you an IM without having to download or sign in. More here.
• (Back)check the video: What’s better than Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Hockey becoming the official fantasy game of the NHL? Being able to watch videos of killer moves on ice while you play your fantasy game. That’s right — now as you manage your rosters, player lists and line-ups, you’ll be able to watch video highlights of your favorite players on demand. A great new tool as you build your hockey dynasty. Sign up here.

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As a fantasy life coach, there are some tips I can offer you to help your game, including the most important one –- draft me, Braylon Edwards, wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns, first. Did you know I hold the team record for receiving yards and caught 16 touchdowns last season, second best in the NFL? Do you know how many points that is? That’s big time… enough to make you look silly if you don’t draft me this year.

Second, gather your family, friends and co-workers around the computer and kick-off the fantasy season at http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/. The new draft is so easy your mom can use it. Yes, invite your mom to play in your league, and like any good coach I must remind you not to talk smack to your mother.

Third, sign up for fantasy football mobile features. Do you think coaches just sit around all day? No, they are on the move and they can’t afford to let the team struggle because they’re moving and shaking. It’s not acceptable for your fantasy team to be left behind because you didn’t know your receiver was injured. As of September 2nd, sign up for Yahoo! mobile at http://m.yahoo.com/fantasy and manage your team while you’re on the go.

I hope these pearls of wisdom transform your ’08 fantasy team into a championship. Check out Yahoo! Sports this season for more of my coaching tips.

Braylon Edwards
Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football ’08 Cover Athlete

I’m no different, except my favorite moments were spent atop the Olympic medal podium. My formative years were with the U.S. gymnastics team, and for three unforgettable Games, I got to compete with and against the best in the world.

Needless to say, a lot has changed for me since I last wore the red, white and blue. Instead of worrying about my next floor exercise, I’m worrying about how I’ll be able to stay up late enough to watch the women compete. I’m a spectator now, and I want to make sure my next favorite sports moment isn’t happening while I’m sleeping or driving to the grocery store!

This made me realize I needed to be in Beijing this year, but I haven’t forgotten how it feels for everyone back at home. That’s why I’ll be joining fellow Olympians Gretchen Bleiler and Mike Powell to cover the 2008 Games on the Yahoo! Sports Summer Games site. We’ll work alongside Yahoo!’s experts to give every fan a minute-by-minute account of what’s happening with the world’s greatest athletes, day or night.

I know, you’re thinking that still won’t help when your favorite sport isn’t covered in the papers, or is only on Channel 390 at 3:25 a.m. But Yahoo! is offering some new features to help you stay on top of all the sports – like the Watch List, which lets fans track results, news and medals for their favorite countries, sports and athletes. You won’t even need to worry about staying next to your computer, because Yahoo!’s mobile Web site gives fans the option of tracking the medal count, getting the latest news, and seeing photos right on your mobile phone.

So while you’re half way around the world from the Games this summer, don’t wonder what it’s like to be there. Just visit Yahoo! Sports Summer Games and look for me and my friends; we’ll tell you – anytime you want. It’s not a trip to the podium, but it’s pretty close!

Dominique Dawes
Yahoo! Sports
1992, 1996, 2000 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team

I had the pleasure of watching every game from the best seat in the house, playing right field for the San Diego Padres for 20 years. Not everyone can be as lucky, and as much as they try, even the biggest fans struggle to catch every game.

We can’t help anyone make the team, but we’re definitely doing our part to make sure fans don’t miss out on any of the action this season. Yahoo! Sports just signed a deal with Major League Baseball to carry each and every game of the 2008 season – live and streaming – on Yahoo! Sports. As you know, we’re already the Internet’s leading sports destination, and this partnership will bring millions of the world’s most devoted fans to Yahoo!.

No more earpieces at the office. No more crowding into the sports bar during lunch. No more erasing your kid’s shows to make room on the DVR. I even had a friend who skipped his youngest brother’s wedding reception – including his speech as best man – so that he could catch the end of a game. Had we announced this partnership a couple of years ago, his sister-in-law may be talking to him today.

All you need to be a loyal fan now is a computer and Yahoo! Sports. Here I was, beginning to worry about how I was going to catch all of my son’s games (sorry, Tony, I’m a busy man!). Now we can all relax and know that America’s Pastime is conveniently waiting for us online, wherever we are at the time. Sorry, you’ll have to supply your own hotdog…

Tony Gwynn
Yahoo! Sports Baseball Expert

• Mobile March Madness: Now you can keep tabs on all the latest college hoops action wherever and whenever from your mobile phone with three new tools. You can get up-to-the minute news, scores, schedules and images on the dedicated mobile NCAA page, the new Men’s College Hoops mobile widget (you’ll need Yahoo! Go 3.0), and specially-configured Yahoo! oneSearch results, with specialized men’s college basketball content from Yahoo! Sports and Rivals.com. No need to be tied to your computer screen to keep score. More here.
• Team spirit: We’ve got more Audibles to cheer your NCAA team on Yahoo! Messenger. Whether it’s to jeer at your friends’ alma mater or boo a bad play, we’ve got Audibles (like a referee calling an offensive foul) and new avatar gear (find jerseys from more than 25 schools) to show your team pride. Make sure you’re using Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0 beta to get your spirit on.
• Staying on topic: You may have heard about the “New with Me” profile page on MyBlogLog that pulls together all your activity across the Internet and shows people what you’re up to (like a feed of all your updates and your friends’ updates). We’ve just added a new Tags page that combs through your “New with Me” page into relevant pages called Topics. What does this mean? Not only can you see an aggregation of your friends’ Internet whereabouts in one place, now you can find what your MyBlogLog community is saying, doing, thinking about any topic you find interesting quick and easy. BTW: Find out what the Easter chatter is here.

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Which brings me to this point — fans today have it really good.

It seems like a lifetime ago that I played in the NCAA tournament for North Carolina. That was back in the 80s, when life for a sports fan was nothing like it is today. A bit like walking to school uphill, in the snow, both ways.

Our fans would camp out in long lines to get tickets. If they missed the game, they would have to wait for the morning paper to get stats from the sports page (you know, the stats that some college freshman had to call in to the editor after the game). And they waited for the 11 pm news to catch the highlights. Those were some dedicated Tar Heels fans. But, man, it was hard.

Now don’t get me wrong. As I watch college hoops, I’m still in awe of the fans. Today’s college hoops fans continue to be passionate, but man, technology has made it a whole lot easier for them. They can buy tickets online, set their DVRs to catch the games they miss, sneak video highlights from their desks whenever they want, check stats and get alerts from their mobile phones, read reams of analysis from experts like, ahem, me. And they can use all that addiction to information to prove their mettle in fantasy sports leagues.

It’s a whole new world for fans. They are better informed, more involved and everybody’s an expert. By the way, for all those experts that aren’t as smart as they thought, Yahoo! Sports Tourney Pick’em is offering a Second Chance bracket worth $1 million. Busted bracket? Try it again before next week.

Man, today’s sports fans have it all.

Kenny Smith
Yahoo! Sports Analyst