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!

When it comes to leading men, Hugh Laurie of House is the hands down favorite – at least according to search.  He is the top searched best actor nominee on Yahoo! –  he has more look-ups than all the other drama contenders combined!  As for the ladies, Mariska Hargitay of Law and Order: SVU leads the pack.  Queries for her are nine times those of Juliana Margulies of The Good Wife.

Top Searched Best Series, Drama on Yahoo!
1. “Dexter”
2. “Mad Men”
3. “Friday Night Lights”
4. “Game of Thrones”
5. “Boardwalk Empire”
6. “The Good Wife”

Top Searched Best Series, Comedy on Yahoo!

1. “Glee”
2. “Modern Family”
3. “The Big Bang Theory”
4. “The Office”
5. “30 Rock”
6. “Parks and Recreation”

Top Searched Best Actor, Drama on Yahoo!

1. Michael C. Hall “Dexter”
2. Hugh Laurie “House”
3. Timothy Olyphant “Justified”
4. Jon Hamm “Mad Men”
5. Steve Buscemi “Empire Boardwalk”
6. Kyle Chandler “Friday Night Lights”

Top Searched Best Actor, Comedy on Yahoo!

1. Alec Baldwin “30 Rock”
2. Steve Carell “The Office”
3. Johnny Galecki “The Big Bang Theory”
4. Jim Parsons “The Big Bang Theory”
5. Louis C.K. “Louie”
6. Matt LeBlanc “Episodes”

Want to read about all of the nominees and get other fun information. Check out the Yahoo! TV Emmy site.

Kate Gosselin
Also in celebrity news this week, Kate Plus Eight’s swan song renewed interest in the reality star, her kids and ex-husband. Searches spiked this week for Kate Gosselin after her TLC finale aired and more than two million people tuned in.  Afterwards, they wanted to find her newly launched website and also check out what Anderson Cooper had to say when he named her to his riduclist.

What states search the most on Yahoo! for Kate Gosselin this year?

1. California
2. Texas
3. Illinois
4. Ohio
5. New York

Fashion & Target
Fashion week in New York City created quite the buzz this week.  A couple of celebrities who strutted down the catwalk captured the interest of Yahoo! users — including Kristie Allie showing off her new slimmed down figure and 14 year old Kylie Jenner – the youngest of the Kardashian Klan.
But the biggest style story online was all about Target stores and Missoni.  The rush to buy Missoni for Target’s new line crashed the big box store’s website this week as fashionistas everywhere tried to get their hands on the Italian designer’s colorful knit dresses and accessories. Searches for Missoni are up nearly 2000% on Yahoo!.

“Missoni for Target” received over 25 times the number of searches that “Zac Posen for Target” received in April of 2010 when the line launched.

-Yahoo! Search Trends Team

It’s been less than two years since we launched this show, so you can imagine my astonishment when we surpassed over 280 million streams and became the most watched show in the history of the internet.  As a longtime comedian and TV host, I was used to going it alone onstage and was content to continue doing so as the one and only host of the one and only original program on Yahoo! TV, but a partner in crime would be so much cooler!   Enter my fearless counterpart, Nikki Boyer, and Daytime in No Time on Yahoo! TV, a show recapping – you guessed it – the best moments of daytime TV.  Really, what is a conversation around the company coffee pot without all the daytime TV details to gossip about too?!  Nikki and I quickly ruled the roost over here at Yahoo! TV.  We got matching mugs and took all our lunch breaks together (ok, actually, we tape at different times, but we would if we could), and before we knew it, we learned our twosome would become a foursome.

The tribe had spoken; Yahoo! TV decided that you the viewers should get a say in the best moments of the week in television. What a great concept, huh?!
My newest friends, and hosts of the recently launched interactive show What’s So Funny? on Yahoo! TV, Shira Lazar and Mike Bachmann, debate the absolute funniest clips on TV from the day prior in a he said, she said format.

She of CBSNEWS.com, Reelz Channel and The Tomorrow Show with Mo Rocca fame, amongst many other hosting gigs, and he of ABC Family’s hit “Make it or Break it,” guest starring gigs on Gilmore Girls and Ugly Betty and my personal favorite – a writer for PiNT.  Monday through Friday these seasoned vets engage in friendly banter regarding the merits of the clip each has chosen from the previous day, but viewers get to make the ultimate decision by casting in votes.  Over the weekend, Shira and Mike reveal the winning clip from each night and present the “Top 5 Funniest Clips of the Week,” as selected by Yahoo! viewers.

It’s a great show, and I must say, I’m so proud to see the family growing. So “suit up,” enjoy the ride and welcome to the team, Shira and Mike, and just remember, I like my coffee with two sugars and creamJ  You know you love me.

xoxo,
Papa Frank Nicotero

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

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

Sibyl Goldman
GM, Yahoo! Entertainment

• 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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