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.”

Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft today announced agreements to offer each other’s premium non-reserved online display inventory to their respective advertising customers.  By early 2012, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL expect to have the opportunity to access each other’s non-reserved inventory to achieve the benefits of scale and efficiency.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Microsoft and AOL and bring to market what we believe will be a more efficient, effective and more effortless way to access true premium inventory and formats,” says Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo! EVP of the Americas. “There has a been a significant shift in how inventory is bought and sold, and we’re now 100% focused on controlling our own destiny, working directly with marketers and agencies and driving better returns for our advertising partners.”

The announcement underscores Yahoo!’s commitment to growth and innovation in the performance display advertising space.

The partnership is not exclusive, and the three companies will continue to compete with each other. Agencies, advertisers and publishers will still be able to do business with the individual Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft ad networks.

By integrating one another’s real-time bidding (RTB) technologies to facilitate the availability of non-reserved inventory, by early 2012, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL expect to have the opportunity to access each other’s non-reserved inventory to achieve the benefits of scale and efficiency. The Microsoft Advertising Exchange and Yahoo’s! Right Media Exchange will initially serve as the two marketplaces from which the partners can procure this inventory for resale to advertisers and agencies. AOL may, at its discretion, opt to use its own exchange technology solution subsequent to the launch of the partnership.

The partnership is based on the premise of audience-based selling across a large number of sites and is not expected to affect direct sales made by each partner’s respective internal teams. In addition to the United States, Yahoo! and AOL will have an agreement that extends to Canada. Microsoft’s Canada business is not participating directly in the agreement.

— The Team

The acquisition demonstrates further investment by Yahoo! in the performance display advertising space. Following the close, interclick’s innovative platform will allow Yahoo! to expand its targeting and data capabilities to deliver campaigns with stronger performance metrics.

Yahoo! will commence a public all cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of common stock of interclick at $9.00 per share. The transaction has an estimated total equity value of approximately $270 million. The acquisition is expected to close by early 2012.

Additional Information

The tender offer described in this communication has not yet commenced.  The description contained herein is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell any securities. The solicitation and the offer to buy shares of interclick’s common stock will only be made pursuant to a tender offer statement on Schedule TO, including an offer to purchase and other related materials that Yahoo! intends to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).  In addition, interclick intends to file with the SEC a Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 with respect to the tender offer. Once filed, interclick stockholders will be able to obtain the tender statement on Schedule TO, the offer to purchase, the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 and related materials with respect to the offer, free of charge on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov, from the information agent named in the tender offer materials or from Yahoo!. interclick’s stockholders are advised to read these documents, any amendments to these documents and any other documents relating to the tender offer that are filed with the SEC carefully and in their entirety prior to making any decisions with respect to the offer because they contain important information, including the terms and conditions of the offer.

Forward Looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements  concerning the proposed acquisition, the expected timetable for completing the transaction, future financial and operating results, benefits and synergies of the transaction, future opportunities for the combined businesses and any other statements regarding events or developments that the parties believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future.  Risks and uncertainties may cause actual results and benefits of the proposed acquisition to differ materially from management expectations.  Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others:  general economic conditions and conditions affecting the industries in which Yahoo! and Interclick operate; the uncertainty of regulatory approval; the parties’ ability to satisfy the tender offer and merger agreement conditions and consummate the transaction; Yahoo!’s ability to successfully integrate interclick’s operations and employees with Yahoo!’s existing business; the ability to realize anticipated growth, synergies and cost savings; and interclick’s performance and maintenance of important business relationships.  Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in Yahoo!’s SEC filings, including Yahoo!’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2011 as well as interclick’s SEC filings, including interclick’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2011. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this communication and neither Yahoo! nor interclick assumes any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events and developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

Yahoo! has always provided our users with an incredible breadth of content curated by an awesome staff of editors. In addition, we personalize the stories you see based on what you read on Yahoo!. Now, we are bringing you the ability to discover great stories through your friends. Just like you do in real life. You can now immerse yourself in the news on Yahoo! surrounded by the comfort of your friends. Let them be your guides on what to read.

Because sharing content isn’t confined to the web, we’re also making it possible for you to share your TV watching activity into Facebook through IntoNow from Yahoo!. This activity will be aggregated on people’s Facebook profile under “Most Watched” and “Most Recently Watched.”  Look out for an updated IntoNow from Yahoo! mobile app with this added functionality in the coming weeks.

Today’s announcement marks a new milestone in Yahoo!’s social strategy to infuse more social and personalized experiences around our premier digital media content.

To join the experience, go here and click on the “Connect with Facebook” button to get started.

And, for a quick look at what this feature looks like before signing up, check out the videos below.

Enjoy and let us know what you think!

- Alexandre Linares
Yahoo! Social and Personalization Team

Yahoo!, Collective Digital Studio, and Cat Dealey, host of FOX Broadcasting’s #1 dance show “So You Think You Can Dance” are teaming up to launch the new original web series “In the Dressing Room.”  The new show is live today on omg! from Yahoo!, the number one entertainment news site in the U.S. with more than 32 million unique visitors each month, more than twice the number of TMZ.  Yahoo! has eight of the top ten video shows online and “In the Dressing Room” will add to our premium portfolio of original programming.

“In the Dressing Room,” is a 20-episode twice-weekly series, which provides omg!’s audience backstage access to Cat’s dressing room before she goes live on “So You Think You Can Dance.” In each episode, Cat will provide viewers with fashion and beauty  tips, her wardrobe selections and the inside scoop about her fashion inspiration behind each look. Additionally, Cat will offer viewers the chance to win a personal item from her wardrobe by participating in a challenge  “In the Dressing Room,” will run for 10 weeks and will be promoted across the Yahoo! network.

Deeley, a former model turned television personality, has been hailed as one of the best dressed celebrities in the industry today, has graced the cover of several fashion magazines, and is often asked to provide style advice for other young starlets.

The launch of “In the Dressing Room” is a continuation of Yahoo!’ success in original programming and branded entertainment. Yahoo!’s original programming  U.S. audience for May was 24.2M unique visitors, one of its largest monthly audience ever, with users spending an average of 86.1M minutes, also one of the highest engagement numbers to date. Yahoo!’s successes in the original programming and branded entertainment space in the U.S. include:

• “Primetime in No Time” is a daily recap of previous night’s most popular TV shows, is the most watched original program online and just surpassed 500 million streams
• “The Daily Ticker” is the most successful online finance show (with millions of viewers on peak days) providing inside scoop on tech stocks
• “Who Knew?” on Yahoo! News has generated nearly 100M streams in one year and has spawned spin-offs on omg! as well as internationally – in the UK and France
• “Trending Now” is a daily newscast of top headlines & trending topics from Yahoo! search data and social media and has received over 5.5 millions streams its first week

As a sponsor, Yahoo! will premiere a select number of short films from the Festival on Yahoo! Movies, a leading online movie destination that reaches 27.5 million users per month.  Consumers will also be able to vote for an audience award, which will be presented to the winning filmmaker at the Short Film Awards party taking place during the Festival.  Stay tuned, as we will be announcing more details of our sponsorship at a later date.

We announced the news today at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.  Ross Levinsohn, executive vice president of Yahoo! Americas, hosted an on-stage dialog with Robert Redford, founder and president of Sundance Institute, as well as Ben Silverman, founder and CEO of Electus. The discussion focused on the power of storytelling and its role in creating premium content.  For more information about Yahoo! at the Cannes festival, visit yadvertisingblog.com or advertising.yahoo.com.

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

With 425,000-plus apps in the Apple App Store and 200,000 apps in Android Market, we know finding what you want can be exhausting.  And even more challenging: There are times you don’t know the specific name of the app, so you’re leaving it up to chance that you’re actually downloading the app you really want.

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

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

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

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

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

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

As a presenting sponsor of Internet Week, Yahoo! will of course be there. In fact, it will be hard to miss us. Look for us right at the get-go, as Yahoo! takes over a huge multimedia space at IWNY 2011 HQ on Monday, June 6. This immersive experience will take you deep into the Yahooverse with interactive, themed zones highlighting our leading content properties, like Yahoo! Finance, Entertainment, News and Sports. We’ll even have a studio set up for live webcasts with Yahoo! celebs like Breakout’s Matt Nesto and Jeff Macke, Trending Now’s Adrian Diaz, omg NOW’s Kristen Aldridge, and Angela Sun of the Yahoo! Sports Minute.  And for insider access to all things at Internet Week New York 2011, check out The Scene–including schedules, sessions, the players, photos, tweets and more.

For the second straight year, Yahoo!’s PROVOKE Summit will bring together advertising industry decision-makers, tech enthusiasts and creatives in one unique conference designed to “PROVOKE” discussion and ideas. Hosted by Yahoo!’s dynamic Bobby Figueroa, this event is sure to spark your creativity, plus Yahoo!’s Lauren Weinberg will provide fresh insight into the world of digital advertising based on Yahoo!’s own extensive research.  Get more on the Yahoo! PROVOKE Summit here.

We’ll also have several surprises that we don’t want to spoil for you, so be on the lookout for the Big Y! in and around Times Square and beyond.

And, of course, Yahoo! experts will be on hand to share their industry knowledge and perspectives. If you’re at IWNY 2011, don’t miss these key events featuring some great Yahoo thought leaders:

• OMMA Tablet Revolution Showcase featuring Alex Linde, Director, Mobile Advertising
• Realtime NY 11 featuring Ebele Okobi-Harris, Director, Business and Human Rights Program
• Federated Media Conversational Marketing Summit featuring Blake Irving, Chief Product Officer
• OMMA Mobile featuring Paul Cushman, Senior Director, Mobile Sales Strategy, Yahoo!
• Third Annual Digital Media Summit featuring Ross Levinsohn, EVP Americas
• IAB Innovation Days Keynote featuring Ross Levinsohn, EVP, Americas
• IAB Innovation Days Digital Video Workshop featuring Edwin Wong, Director, B2B Strategic Research and Insight
• OMMA Social featuring Patrick Albano, Senior Director, Social

We know that not everyone can be at Internet Week—and no one can be everywhere if they are there—but you can follow the action here on the Yahoo! Advertising Blog, as well as on Yahoo! Advertising’s Twitter and Facebook pages. Hashtags and handles to look out for include: #provoke, #iwny, #IABIW and @IAB and @internetweek.

Celebrity CMO Jeff Hayzlett  was a big hit at Yahoo’s Global Sales Conference–so much so that we invited him back to our Sunnyvale HQ as part of our “Outside In” speaker series.  We sat down with Jeff to talk about Yahoo!, his new  book “The Mirror Test” and what it’s like to appear on Celebrity Apprentice with Donald Trump.

Q: You’ve been described as a Celebrity CMO, Digital Thought Leader, and Cowboy. Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

A: I’m from South Dakota. I’ve been involved in many different businesses throughout my career. I’ve owned several businesses. I worked in the print industry for many years. I was a lobbyist. I was Vice President and CMO of Kodak. These days I’m speaking all over the globe, appearing on TV shows, I’ve written the best-selling book, The Mirror Test and am working on a second book. And I consult with a variety of great companies as well. I have two grown children, Tyler and Lindsey. I’m married to a great woman, Tami.

Q: For those who haven’t yet read it, can you tell us what your book, “The Mirror Test”, is about?

A: “The Mirror Test” is a book for anyone in business or even those who teach others about marketing and business. It’s about every company’s need to ask the tough questions, know their conditions of satisfaction and be willing to create tension and drive change–all of that in order to grow and succeed. I’ve watched so many companies and business people fail. Heck, I’ve failed a time or two myself. This book is the wake-up call that everyone in business needs to hear.

Q: You’ll be speaking with Yahoos this week as part of our “Outside In: speaker series. Can you give us a sneak preview of what you’ll be covering in your presentation?

A: What exactly is the Mirror Test, adapt or die, radical transparency, the 118 pitch, conditions of satisfaction, the themes and lessons from the book. And we’re going to have fun while we do it!

Q: Any other observations about Yahoo! as a brand and company, based your experience as a CMO and your research on strategic change?

A: Yahoo! is a great brand and company. I can’t see something purple without thinking about Yahoo!. Your success comes from taking a look in the mirror, driving change and continuing to do so often. Your grasp of the breadth and reach of the digital market is phenomenal. The new “Trending Now” video offering is a great example. As a company, you know your conditions of satisfaction and work toward meeting them with everything you do.

Q: What other companies do you see out there who are marketing success stories, and why?

A: I see a lot of companies that are doing it right. Ford and Pepsi are great examples. They know that the new age of marketing is not about ears and eyeballs but hearts and minds. In the mobile sector, Mojiva has been knocking it out of the park. Mobile is growing faster than anyone in the industry anticipated and they are ready.

Q: What is the most important lesson that you’ve learned over the course of your career?

A: It’s okay to take a risk. No one’s ever died – that I know of – as a result of a marketing campaign. You have to step out there and own it. If you fail, learn from it and either try it again or move on.

Being grateful and thankful is another important lesson. I’ve never forgotten the people who have helped me. When I was 12, Mr. Pinson, gave me a job in his plumbing company. My dad was in Vietnam and he hired me so I could earn money, join a hunting club and be part of the community.

I’m grateful to everyone that helps me be successful and supports what I do.

Q: Okay – here are the questions everyone is wondering about – what was it like to be on “The Celebrity Apprentice”, and what is Donald Trump really like?

A: Being a judge on The Celebrity Apprentice was a blast. I made some life-long friends from that show. And Donald is exactly how you expect him to be – bold, straight forward, and an expert at what he does. His success is directly related to who he is and how he is as a person. He’s one of the most authentic, radically transparent people I know.

Get ready world, the latest version of Yahoo! Mail is moving out of Beta and coming to an inbox near you! This faster, safer, and easier email experience will roll out to you and all of Yahoo! Mail’s 284-million users worldwide, offering fun, engaging and productive features consistent across PC, mobile and tablet devices. Here’s what we’ve been up to:

Prioritizes the People and Things that Matter Most: Yahoo! Mail now offers you a more personally relevant experience focused on the people and messages that matter most to you:

• Quickly view and reply to messages, photos and videos: You can instantly respond to messages from Facebook, Yahoo! Groups and webmail providers directly from your inbox with an easy reply bar.
• Conversations that matter: Yahoo! Mail prioritizes messages and contacts that matter most. Now, when you want to compose an IM, SMS or email you will find your most frequent contacts and lists readily available. And, you can store and easily search IM and SMS conversations in addition to emails. Oh and did we mention you can now chat with your Facebook friends right from within Yahoo! Mail?
• Useful applications: You can now track purchases, unsubscribe from unwanted emails or send 100mb (i.e. huge) messages right from your inbox.
• More personalized options: You can choose from many vibrant themes and stationery options to express your personality and customize how you view messages and contacts.

Read more about the new features here.

Designed for Everyone – New Accessibility Features: Yahoo! has made it a priority to make sure the latest version of Yahoo! Mail is even more accessible to people with disabilities. We are proud to say that Yahoo! Mail can be used via a keyboard only or a mouse and leverages context-sensitive instructional text to make it easier for people who use screen readers.  Learn about Yahoo! accessibility initiatives at http://accessibility.yahoo.com

Under the Hood Remodel: This is the largest redesign of Yahoo! Mail in six years, and we rebuilt it with a focus on performance to make it at least 2x faster than previous versions of Yahoo! Mail.  In addition, we upgraded our spam technology to ensure that you aren’t receiving unwanted messages. Did you know that Yahoo! Mail already blocks more than 550 billion spam messages per month? Read more about the improved performance and spam protection here.

Better, Richer, Advertising in Mail: Yahoo! is the market leader in delivering audiences to advertisers, and Yahoo! Mail is no different.  We bring a unique combination of Science, Art and Scale – the Science to understand and target an audience, the Art to engage them within premium content and canvases, and the Scale to reach them in meaningful numbers that drive their business.  Click here to learn more about the advertising features available in Yahoo! Mail.

Nokia Users Get Powered By Yahoo! Mail: All of these great new features and functionality will also be available for Yahoo! Mail’s global partners.  For example, Nokia email and chat services are now “Powered by Yahoo,” offering Nokia users an easier, safer and more social email and chat experience.  Take a look at the Mobile blog to find out more.

The best news:  you don’t have to wait for Yahoo! Mail to come to you. Click here to upgrade and start enjoying, in our humble opinion, the best communications experience on the web (or phone or tablet for that matter)!

Personally yours,

The Yahoo! Mail team

Cyclists heading to our Sunnyvale and Santa Clara offices stopped by Yahoo!’s two Energizer Stations, where Yahoo! Green Team volunteers greeted them, applauded their people-powered commutes, and rewarded them with a hearty breakfast spread.  Yahoos rode anywhere from 3 miles to 53 miles to get to work, and we’re proud of all of them!  Everyone was thrilled with the perfect weather, especially our brave first-time bike commuters.

Yahoo cyclists at our Sunnyvale headquarters enjoy showers with clean towels, saunas, toiletries, hair dryers, and irons to stay looking crisp after a ride into work.   Bikes are safely stored in bike lockers or open air racks, and we get monthly “house-calls” from a mobile Bike Doctor.  Yahoos also love to ride during lunch on local roads or on the nearby Bay Trail, and to keep up with the Yahoo Cycling Team’s latest achievements.

Bike to Work Day is a great way to highlight a fun, healthy, and low-impact commute.  And days like this remind us that we are lucky to be headquartered in an area where biking is always a pleasure, and riding with fellow Yahoos can makes the day even better.

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.

With the most qualified and comprehensive UGC, Wretch continuously optimizes the browsing and exchange experience of its users by professional editing and back-office technologies. The concept of the Fun! Party this year was to emphasize our on-going commitments to optimize the sharing and exchange of high quality content which is key to building a strong interaction between the virtual and physical worlds.

Ever wish you could have answers and direct access to websites before you complete a query, hit the search button, or go to a search results page? Welcome to Search Direct.

This new feature (currently in beta) taps into Yahoo!’s unique opportunity to combine content and structured data and to provide a rich search experience. Search Direct predicts search results as fast as a person types, character by character, and presents those results dynamically, generating a fast, simple search experience that goes beyond a list of blue links.  Search Direct rolls out in a public beta to Yahoo! users across the U.S. today, and will be available in other Yahoo! products and markets later this year.

With Search Direct, Yahoo! content is combined with information from the Web to provide rich answers, not just links, and to give people the option to immediately engage or continue to a traditional search results page. In this beta release, coverage includes top trending searches, movies, TV, sports teams and players, weather, local, travel, stocks, and shopping categories now available at search.yahoo.com.

• Trending Searches – The moment the cursor hits the search box, top search trends appear and are updated every 10 minutes to display the latest and greatest search trends.
• Search Previews – Search Direct predicts the search term as you type, providing the 10 most likely searches. You can then easily scan each option to see the related top results and find the best match for your needs.
• Direct Answers – For many common searches, Search Direct provides instant answers before you click the Search button. Find an address or phone number, a three-day weather forecast, financial stock performance, the top trending stories at Yahoo! News, or when and where a movie is playing – all without going to a results page.
• Direct Results – When you scan the search options and find the site you need, Search Direct provides exactly that – direct access to the site. No more overwhelming pages of links.
• Rich Content – For all top searches about sports, top news stories, and finance, Search Direct displays rich content that only the world’s largest digital media company can provide. For example, type “n” to get the Yahoo! News display, which always shows the top two trending stories.

We will continue to enhance and update Search Direct with new content, such as popular music and local listings.  For more information and a demo video of Search Direct from Yahoo!, visit search.yahoo.com

More than 400 women from across the leading tech companies will meet, network and share their wealth of tech experience, including diverse perspectives from women at different stages of their careers. Guests can participate in an informal Yahoo! panel discussion on ensuring the success of women in technology in the future, as well as a host of other fun events that will run throughout the night. There will be two photo booths, a “Women in History” Jeopardy game and an anagram puzzle station. Attendees will also be able to experience Yahoo! products, such as Livestand, Connected TV, Hadoop and YSlow – all of which have had major contributions from Yahoo!’s female technologists.

So you may be asking, what is a girl geek?  We define girl geeks as women who are passionate about technology and are making a difference in their field each and every day.  The organization behind the dinner, Yahoo! Women in Tech, touts more than 600 members across the globe and focuses on empowering female tech professionals to succeed, as well as encouraging K-12 girls to pursue technical careers.  The group is thrilled to host this event again and showcase the incredible contributions and achievements of both women at Yahoo! and the wider industry.

We hope you can join us for an informative and enjoyable evening that celebrates your efforts and achievements in tech!

The sweeps will run from March 8th thru April 8th on The Thread’s Facebook page where viewers can enter via a simple entry form. At the end of the month long period, three winners will be selected via random drawing and flown to New York merely weeks later for some ultimate pampering.

TO ENTER: http://www.facebook.com/yahoothethread

The Thread, Yahoo’s premier fashion program, airs weekly on Shine, Yahoo’s online destination geared towards women.

As our latest example of How Good Grows on Yahoo!, we’re encouraging you to share what matters to you, safely. We’ll be posting questions over the next few months to give you the opportunity to share your answers with the Yahoo! community.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, join us in kicking off the program by telling the world about a woman (across the globe, across the room, or across the ages) who amazes you.  Share your thoughts at howgoodgrows.safely.yahoo.com and see what people around the world are saying. Then keep coming back to the site to see other women who’ve made their mark.

International Women’s Day is just one opportunity you’ll have to share safely. Keep your eyes open for more opportunities to share:

Mother’s Day (May 8th)  – My mom’s best advice was…
Memorial Day (May 30th) – Today, and always, I remember…
International Children’s Day (June 1st) – A child taught me…

Join us in sharing what’s important to you. Spread the word, and watch How Good Grows on Yahoo!

But their passion for locating, identifying and editing information stored on the Internet – soon to be known as “David and Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web” – evolved into much more than a hobby, of course.

In March 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated as a business, and by April 1996, our company stock was already being sold publicly on the NASDAQ.

Today, more than 13,000 people from Sunnyvale to Singapore are proud to call themselves Yahoos.

Thank you for celebrating with us all these years–and here’s to many more!

The interactive app takes advantage of the iPad’s multi-touch capabilities so users can manipulate views of stock charts; the ability to scroll across hours, days or months of market action; plot points in time; and even compare multiple stock tickers in one compelling chart. Anyone interested in following the market, or specific stocks on the iPad can now use Yahoo! Finance’s reliable and personalized tools anywhere, anytime.

The potential for this is big. Imagine sitting in a meeting with colleagues discussing market trends you now have real-time pricing data at your side. Want to take a look at how your portfolio is doing today without booting up the computer? MarketDash makes it fast and easy. Every tailored detail fits perfectly to the iPad screen – breaking news, real-time stock updates, and your own personalized portfolio information.

We’ve become so dependent on our mobile devices that it’s important to have a seamless experience across all of the technology we use on a daily basis. That’s why Yahoo! Finance provides centralized storage of portfolios and watch lists. Add a stock to a watch list from your iPad and it will show up instantly in the Yahoo! Finance app for iPhone or Android phones or when you view your portfolio on Yahoo! Finance. No matter where users log into their account they will see updated and personalized portfolio data.

To download MarketDash, go to the App Store on iPad and let us know what you think!

Several hundred lucky Yahoos got the chance to take a picture with the trophy under the watchful eye of Giants representatives and security.  Yahoo! employees used the photo opportunity to get creative, bringing bats and gloves as props and doing their best crossed-arms gestures to honor Giants closer Brian Wilson–truly a once in a lifetime experience for Yahoos and die-hard Giants fans alike.

A few interesting trophy tidbits: affectionately nicknamed “Tiffany” in honor of manufacturer Tiffany & Co., the Commissioner’s Trophy weighs in at almost 30 pounds of sterling silver and gold, has a special branded pick-up truck that transports it,  and is valued at more than $15,000.

Given that more than 400 Yahoos turned out for the event sporting “Fear the Beard” and other Giants gear, our hometown heroes can expect to have a solid Yahoo fan base heading into the 2011 season.  Go Giants!

Check out the photos of all the festivities on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/corporateevents/sets/72157625823085657/

This week Yahoo! will be opening our network to third-party ID sign-in options with Facebook and Google.  We’re offering people who don’t already have a Yahoo! account (and even those who do) a new way to participate, create, and share their experiences across almost all of Yahoo!. Basically, we’re delivering a great personal experience on Yahoo!, whether you sign in with a Yahoo!, Facebook, or Google ID.

After you sign-in to Yahoo! with your Google or Facebook ID (check out the screen cast to see how easy it is) you’ll be able to start sharing articles, leaving comments, playing Fantasy Sports, personalizing your stock portfolio, rating movies, music and restaurants, and much more.

If you’ve been following Yahoo! you know that we’ve been moving in this direction for a while, innovating with new technologies and open standards (like OpenID) to create a more friendly and personal Web experience. In 2008, we became one of the world’s largest providers of OpenIDs and in October of last year we introduced OpenID log-in with Google on Flickr to make it easier for you to connect with fellow photo enthusiasts and share your photos with the world. We also deepened our commitment to integrating Yahoo! with other social networks when we integrated with Facebook in 2009. It’s our ongoing goal to find new ways to make logging into and engaging with all of the amazing experiences we offer at Yahoo! as effortless as possible.

As a place that over 600 million people visit every month, Yahoo! strives every day to bring you the content, information, tools and meaningful social connections relevant to you from across the Web. It’s our belief that by continuing to open up the Yahoo! network to third-party IDs, we can help more folks join in the fun and create exciting, more personalized and inclusive online experiences.  So sign-in and enjoy the new fast pass to your personal Web on Yahoo!.

The Yodel Editors

The magazine features one-on-one interviews between Yahoo! Sports experts and top talent, like this Q&A on Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard and an introduction to Tom Brady’s Guru. ThePostGame also includes The High Five, a daily line-up of the five hottest sports links; original content from numerous new blogs like Training Day for fitness, StylePoints on fashion, and Chompions the sports-themed food blog. All these features and more brings breadth and depth of content with a truly authentic voice, providing consumers and advertiser’s high-quality, personally relevant content.

Yahoo! Sports remains the #1 sports destination on the Web because sports enthusiasts and casual fans know they can depend on the site to deliver the stories they want to read. ThePostGame now allows Yahoo! Sports to enhance that content with long-form, in-depth stories that go beyond regular analysis and commentary, and delve into what happens off the field and behind the scenes.

I invite you all to check out all of ThePostGame’s stories, blogs, and features.

Kyle Laughlin, Head of Yahoo! Sports

Yahoo!Kimo recently hosted the  “Search Buzz Awards 2010” ceremony in Taiwan, honoring 34 outstanding celebrities across music, movie, TV shows, blogs and more. The awards were determined after tallying billions of online users’ search queries during 2010, helping to showcase Yahoo!Kimo’s influence and reinforce the vision to become the center of people’s online lives.

The honor of “Top Buzz Singer” was shared by both Rainie Yang and Show Lao, with Autumn’s Concerto being awarded triple crown honors. Jiang Hui wins the localized award of Community Achievement.  Yahoo!Kimo users also conferred Top Buzz status on Selina and prayed for her recovery.

Since many people were not able to attend the event in person, we wanted to share video coverage of the event:

Scroll down Santa’s Beard and see what fun surprises Yahoo! has in store for you this holiday season.  From the Gingerbread Man to a polar bear looking for warmth, Santa’s Beard is a haven for all sorts of goodness, including some fun video surprises.  And in the spirit of giving during the holiday season, you can share Santa’s Beard of Joy with friends on Facebook and Twitter!

What will you discover in Santa’s Beard of Joy?  Start exploring now at http://www.beardofjoy.com!

Today, we are excited to make the new Yahoo! Local available in limited beta. With rich hyper-local content, this new product provides people a truly personalized experience across desktop and mobile (currently available via the mobile web on iPhone and Android), enabling them to discover and contribute to the best local news, deals, and events nearby, all in one place.

Our goal with the new Yahoo! Local is to be the best place for people to find what’s happening in their neighborhoods, whether they’re at home or on the go.  As some of you may have noticed, we’re beta testing the experience in more than 30 neighborhoods and cities in the U.S., including San Francisco, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Brooklyn, NY as well as Birmingham, Ferndale, and Royal Oak in Michigan. We did this so that we can evolve the product quickly and enhance it based on a cross-section of user feedback and insights. You can access the new experience from your desktop or mobile phone by visiting: http://beta.local.yahoo.com.

Giving You the Best Local News and Information

When it comes to the best local news and information, we’re delivering relevant hyper-local neighborhood and city content created by the community, local publishers, and Yahoo! editors.  We’re featuring content from the best local blogs and newspapers.  And through a completely open ecosystem, we’re making it possible for any local publisher to be part of the new Yahoo! Local. By leveraging the power of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, the entire community can participate and publish stories on topics that matter to them. Individuals and organizations can also add events that are relevant to the local community.

Saving Money in Your Area

We are also fulfilling our commitment to personal relevance by delivering the best locally relevant offers from nearby spas, restaurants, and retailers – helping you save some cash while you support local businesses. This new hyper-local experience integrates our recently launched Local Offers program to provide consumers quick, easy access to the widest selection of local deals and offers from partners such as Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City, BloomSpot and more.

Convergence of Content and Advertising

There is a unique intersection between the content users find useful and what marketers want to advertise – especially in a local experience – and we recognize that. With the new Yahoo! Local we are fundamentally changing how users will interact with local content, including advertising. As we build out the experience, we’re exploring and experimenting with various advertising solutions that will enable our advertising partners to reach their target users.

What’s Under the Hood

Technology is at the heart of everything we do at Yahoo! This experience leverages our powerful geo-informatics and content enrichment platforms, including Where On Earth (WOE) and Placemaker, to identify and geo-tag every news story that appears on every page down to the neighborhood level.

During the coming weeks and months, you will see us continually improve and expand our new hyper-local product by rolling it out to more neighborhoods and cities and adding new features that will make this the best local starting point for our users.

Take the experience for a spin around the neighborhood and tell us what you think. Stay tuned for much more from the new Yahoo! Local.

Matt Idema

VP, Yahoo! Local

The campaign will use interactive games to highlight Yahoo!’s mobile app offerings to San Francisco residents and commuters, many of whom spend their down time at transit shelters using smart-phones to get information and stay connected on the go. Users will compete by choosing a neighborhood from a drop-­down menu on the interactive game screen at any transit shelter, then select from 4 fun and engaging Yahoo! Mobile app-related  games themed around Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo!  Messenger, Yahoo! Sportacular, and Flickr.

Participants earn points for  their neighborhoods as they compete against each other in the games, playing in either single-player or competitive mode against other neighborhoods around the city. A wide variety of neighborhoods across San Francisco are represented, including SOMA, North Beach, Mission, Castro, Hayes Valley and many others.

At the end of the campaign, the winning neighborhood will get a free concert from Grammy Award-winning rock band OK Go at a local neighborhood venue.

For complete rules and regulations, as well as a list of the Muni bus stops through out the city that will be included, please visit derby.yahoo.com

Game on, San Francisco riders!

Among Yahoo’s many users are a vast community of public school teachers, parents, students, and education advocates. Yahoo! is dedicated to supporting education and helping both students and teachers thrive. We’re continually sharing and hearing stories about what our community does to help our classrooms gain much needed funding – bake sales, magazine subscription sales, collecting empty cans, gift wrap and more. So today we launched Yahoo! Homepages for Homerooms, a program that gives everyone a new way to help teachers and classrooms get funding from now through Dec. 23, 2010.

Through Yahoo! Homepages for Homerooms, public school teachers are eligible to receive funding from Yahoo! if they have a project posted on DonorsChoose.org, a renowned education nonprofit through which public school teachers can request funds for needed classroom items – books, art supplies, a projector, you name it!. Yahoo! will provide full project funding (up to $600 per project) to the projects that receive the most Yahoo.com homepages. We’ll fund up to $350,000 by the end of the year.

If you’re a teacher and do not currently have a project on DonorsChoose.org, visit our Teachers page to find out more. If you already have a project on DonorsChoose.org, you’re automatically eligible to participate in Homepages for Homerooms, so start spreading the word to your community to make Yahoo! their homepage in support of your project.

To help support a public school project get funding:

1) Visit yahoo.homepagesforhomerooms.com/projects and find a project you’d like to support.

2) Click “Support this project” and follow the easy steps to make Yahoo! your homepage. Each person may participate once.

3) Spread the word to teachers, colleagues, and friends to help your favorite project get funding — the more homepages are generated, the more classroom projects we’ll fund

Yahoo! Koprol focuses on the intersection of community and mobile experience to enable users to interact and share knowledge on the go.

“Yahoo! Koprol has experienced huge growth since we were acquired by Yahoo! in May 2010. Our one millionth registered user demonstrates the continued relevance of Yahoo Koprol to Indonesians who continue to reach out to friends and build communities using location based services.” said Yahoo! Koprol Design and Community Manager Satya Witoelar.

Didit received Rp 1,000,000 and prizes from Yahoo! Koprol.  He said, “I was very happy to be the one millionth user. I had just signed up for Koprol for just a few hours before the Yahoo! Koprol team called and informed me that I was their one millionth user. The prize money has come in time for my birthday which fell on Sunday. Suddenly, I have a lot of friends on my Koprol account. It is fun, totally fun, to become so popular.”

Since its acquisition by Yahoo!, the Koprol user base has grown ten-fold; Yahoo! Koprol continues to leverage a rich community of information generated by users. On an hourly basis,Yahoo! Koprol:

• Attracts 400 new users
• Users create 4,875 streams
• Users comment 13,000 times
• 8 new venues are added (with a total of 20,000 places or location currently registered)

Today’s announcements include the following partnerships and product enhancements:

Share More With a Social Dimension Everywhere on Yahoo!

Yahoo! Messenger Beta – With the new Yahoo! Messenger Beta available today, people can now play social games from publishers like Zynga, ELEX and OMGPOP, share their status across networks, and view, comment on, and “like” updates from Yahoo! Pulse, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter – all from their instant messaging client. Interoperability with Facebook Chat also broadens the group of friends that people can instantly connect and chat with on Yahoo! Messenger. To get the new version of Yahoo! Messenger, visit here and click “Download Now.”

Yahoo! Contributor Network – Announced yesterday, Yahoo!’s new platform enables people to reach an audience of millions by publishing their fresh and authentic content on Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Contributor Network is an evolution of the Associated Content platform and will bring contributions from more than 400,000 writers, photographers, and videographers to the Internet’s largest media destinations, including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, and even the Yahoo! homepage, among many others. For more information, see here.

Zynga – Starting this week, the first phase of integration with Zynga will allow people to launch, play, and share Zynga’s popular games like Mafia Wars and FishVille on Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Games, My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Toolbar, and Yahoo! Pulse.

Twitter – Building on Yahoo!’s Facebook integration, people can now also connect their Yahoo! and Twitter accounts globally to see and share Twitter updates on the Yahoo! homepage, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Pulse.

Discover Local Treasures With Yahoo!

Local Offers – Yahoo! is launching its Local Offers program with more than a dozen partners to provide a wide selection of local deals, coupons, and other offers – from nearby spas, restaurants and other local retailers. Currently in limited beta in the U.S., Yahoo!’s Local Offers program will make it easy for millions of people to find the best local deals and savings on Yahoo!. Launch partners include Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City, BloomSpot, BuyWithMe, DealOn, Zozi, CrowdSavings, Lifebooker, FreshGuide, Scoop St, Goldstar, HomeRun, Tippr, Coupons.com, and Valpak, with more partners to come.  For more information, please see the press release here.

Local Search Enhancements – Locally relevant “Quick Apps” will empower people to find restaurants they want and take action on things they discover in a more productive Yahoo! Search. Apps launching later this week include a new and improved Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search for visually zeroing in on a street or neighborhood to find local restaurants – now available across connected devices, including PCs, iPhones, and iPads.  Other new apps will enable easy comparisons of local restaurants and let people make reservations through OpenTable right on the Yahoo! Search results page.  For more on these and other Yahoo! Search enhancements launching this week, visit the Yahoo! Search Blog.

All of these new features are built on Yahoo!’s cloud and technology platforms, allowing for in-depth partner integrations and broad distribution across Yahoo!’s consumer products. For example, the integration with Zynga is enabled by the Yahoo! Application Platform (YAP), which facilitates easy social sharing of game notifications across Yahoo!’s massive audience.