Filed under: Yahoo!

Yahoo! has come into Google's house, introducing apps for its competing services on the Android platform. Android is obviously geared up to work with Gmail and Google Apps from the start, but now you can use the Yahoo! versions instead. Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger (does anyone still use Yahoo! Messenger?) are now in the Android Market, and there's even a Yahoo! Search widget. The apps were announced in a blog post with the longest, most meandering title in history.

I don't know many Android users who would be interested in switching to Yahoo!, especially when Google's service is so convenient on Android phones, but at least you have the option now. Lifehacker reports that intregration with the OS is actually pretty good, too: Yahoo! Mail can access your phone's address book, for example. The apps have push notifications and the ability to download attachments, too.

There's a new redesign afoot over at Flickr, and it's a big one! It's not actually implemented quite yet, but you can opt-in to activate it for your account, which would let you use the new design when viewing Flickr photo pages. Other people would still see your account as normal if they haven't opted-in yet -- at least until Flickr makes it the new default design, at which point it will be "the exclusive viewing option for all images on Flickr."

First and foremost, they've finally changed the basic page layout to a slightly wider format, and changed the default image width from 500 pixels to 640 pixels. A jump like that makes a world of difference, but they didn't stop there. Instead of the classic "view all sizes" option being located directly on the front page, it's now an option in the "Actions" drop-down menu just above the image. Users can also either click on the image itself, or a magnification icon above the image to open a lightbox. The large size of the image is displayed in the lightbox.

User-actions like adding to gallery, viewing EXIF data, sharing the image, or adding to favorites are also available directly above the image.

Yahoo!'s relationship with Facebook just got a lot closer, with the launch of Yahoo! Pulse, a reboot of Yahoo! Profiles that offers seriously in-depth Facebook integration. You can link your Facebook and Pulse accounts, sign in on either site, and read your Facebook News Feed via Pulse. Of course, you can cross-post to both Pulse and Facebook, and comment on friends' posts on either one.

Basically, Yahoo! is making your Facebook stream just as prominent as its own updates when you use Yahoo! Pulse, and that's a big bet on Facebook's continued dominance. Ironically (considering Facebook's famous struggles with privacy settings) the other big change in Yahoo! Pulse is a new privacy dashboard where you can fine-tune your sharing settings and control the apps and sites you link to your Pulse account.

[via TechCrunch]

In a completely unrelated Yahoo! Mail Blog post about Valentine greetings, the developers at Yahoo might be hinting (inadvertently?) at social network integration in the pipeline.

It's just a screenshot, but 'My Social Networks' doesn't seem to exist on current Yahoo email accounts, nor does it make an appearance in the Application Gallery -- so what is it?

My guess is that Yahoo are about to leverage their huge (but waning) number of users to get in on the Facebook/Google Buzz game. You can presume that 'Update Status' will link in to a bunch of networks (like Ping.fm), so you'll be able to update Facebook, Twitter (and Buzz?) from inside Yahoo Mail.

As to what 'My Social Networks' is... it's probably something very like Buzz. But I imagine we'll find out soon enough -- or not, if I'm completely off the mark.

[thanks to Adam for the tip!]

Update: the app is available, but only to some users in Europe.

Clearly Google has Microsoft and Yahoo! shaking in their boots right now. While more often than not companies try not to bring attention to what their competitors are working on, fear can drive them to speak out when they might otherwise more wisely hold their tongue.

Google's announcement yesterday of a new social networking feature called Buzz that is integrated into Gmail prompted Yahoo! to comment on their Twitter account (how's that for irony?) "Two years after #Yahoo! launched #Buzz, Google follows suit. Check out the original: http://buzz.yahoo.com/"

Similarly, Microsoft aired their sour grapes with the following statement about Google Buzz:

Busy people don't want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation. We've done that. Hotmail customers have benefited from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008.

You'd think Microsoft could point to something better than (shudder) Hotmail when trying to claim supremacy over Google.

No word about Buzz from Facebook yet, but that just shows that they're more -- let's use the word "confident" -- about their place in the social networking space than Microsoft or Yahoo! are.

Delicious, the social bookmarking site arguably started it all, was recently updated with a couple of new features. They've added the ability to display only private or only public bookmarks, and the ability to choose whether you want to show or hide the history of who you've sent bookmarks to. You can also choose whether bookmarks open in the current tab or a new tab.

Delicious has also added a "Browse these bookmarks" function which will open a frame at the top of the page that allows you to navigate forward and back through the bookmarks. This might be one of the first times that I've heard of a browser frame that actually makes sense.

Hopefully this latest release is a signal that Delicious isn't dead, but was merely hibernating. The blog post announcing the new features states that there are lots of great new things to look forward to. I can't wait.

The watchful eyes at Phoronix noticed that a pair of small changes were announced yesterday on the Ubuntu dev list. Both will affect the browser in Lucid Lynx -- and both have to do with search.

The more subtle of the two is a small tweak within Firefox. When a user changes his or her default search, the Ubuntu start page's search box will send queries to that provider. While most users may never see this in action (just about everyone sets a custom home page, right?), it's a nice change and keeps the search experience consistent.

Now on to the not-so-subtle change.

In the same post, Canonical's Rick Spencer also announced that a revenue sharing deal has been reached and Yahoo! will replace Google as the default search option. Spencer stresses that the deal in no way affects the user's ability to change to a different engine and I'm fairly confident that most Ubuntu users are savvy enough to know how to do that.

The deal will provide additional income for Canonical -- which Spencer says will "will help Canonical to provide developers and resources to continue the open development of Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Platform." That's certainly good news. After all, if you allow users to download your OS for free, it's fairly critical to have alternative revenue streams to fuel your business.

One reply on the dev thread noted that it would be nice for Yahoo! to remove the "unsupported OS" warning from Yahoo! Mail since they're snuggling up to Linux. Seems like a good idea to me...

Virtualization software maker VMWare has acquired Zimbra, a company that essentially provides a web-based alternative to Outlook.

Yahoo! purchased Zimbra a few years back and used the startup's technology to tweak Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Calendar. But Zimbra has always been a bit more enterprise-based than Yahoo!, so it wasn't exactly a perfect fit.

VMWare gets all of Zimbra's intellectual property, but Yahoo! will still be able to use the company's email and communication technology, so don't expect any major changes to Yahoo! Mail right away.

The acquisition brings together two big players in virtualization and cloud computing technology, which could lead to powerful new web apps. VMWare will continue to support Zimbra's existing products. But the company also plans to use Zimbra's technology to expand the software available for customers to deploy using the VMware vCloud ecosystem.

Bet ya didn't know this: when the Feds want some information from Yahoo, or most likely any online service provider, they have to pay for it! Yahoo actually have a price list for services rendered. Want some basic records? Twenty dollah. Contents of a user's email account? Ooh, that'll set you back $30 or $40, but Yahoo will love you looong time.

There's even an incentive to buy the details of more than one user -- the first one only costs $20, but $10 for any extras. Now that's what I call value-added federal douchebaggery, Yahoo! (That was really an exclamation at the end of the sentence, if it's not clear from the context.)

Sadly, this is the kind of thing that goes on all over the place but is never reported because it's so darn secret. As an online service provider, or ISP, you just hope beyond all else, that such 'law enforcement compliance guides' never reach the eyes of the users. Unfortunately for Yahoo, they have: someone leaked the 'spy' booklet and submitted it to Cryptome, a site which collects sensitive and whistle-blower-esque documents. Not only does it contain a price list, it also details their data retention policies. I shan't link it here, but it's very easy to find if you visit the Cryptome website.

Poor Yahoo though, really. You can guarantee that other big companies charge law enforcement agencies for the interrogation of their records. And hey, at least with Yahoo you can now opt out of targeted ads...thank God for that.

[via Wired]

Despite a rather counter-intuitive name, Yahoo have just announced the next stage of their we-shall-be-great-again game plan: the Ad Interest Manager.

Like Google, Yahoo makes 'educated guesses' about what ads to show you, based on your surfing habits. Yahoo wants to go one step further (or one step back, depending on your point of view): you can now opt out of 'interest-based' ads. I can't imagine why you would want to -- Google's primary business is in matching ads to your particular interests -- but it's nice to have the option there, for privacy if nothing else. It does get a little grating when the only ads I get on Facebook are for dating services, I have to admit...

As of today, other than the opt-out, you can see the information Yahoo keeps about you. But this is just a beta of the Ad Interest Manager! You can expect to see other ways of controlling your surfing experience, and privacy, on the Yahoo! network of sites in the next few weeks.

[via The Business Insider]

It's been a number of months (if not longer) since Yahoo showed any love to its Upcoming events service. Since acquiring the service in October 2005, the service has seen just one re-design - and few additional features since. However, in a largely-uncovered announcement earlier in the week, Upcoming now offers a new Jumpstart feature that scans your Pandora, last.fm and iTunes libraries and then follows your favourite artists on the service - alerting you to forthcoming gigs listed on Upcoming.

Whilst other services, including last.fm, allow you to easily view your favourite artists, it's an interesting addition to the Upcoming service - and hopefully means that Yahoo are now looking at ways to build on a largely unloved product.

Yahoo! Go was an early mobile content service that started in 2006. It seems quaint by today's standards, though, which explains why Yahoo!'s shutting it down. With a mobile site that's available on pretty much any phone, plus a few different iPhone apps, Yahoo! simply has no reason to keep working on Go.

Go hasn't been updated in the past year, so current users probably saw this coming (or already have newer phones).

The official date on the headstone for Yahoo! Go is January 12, 2010. In the meantime, the team working on Go has been reassigned to improving Yahoo!'s mobile site. Other Yahoo! mobile properties include iPhone apps for Flickr and Yahoo! Finance.

[via TechCrunch]

It seems like just yesterday that Yahoo! Messenger 10 entered beta, showing off new video chat and social networking features. Now it's all grown up, out of beta, and replacing Y! Messenger 9 as the default version on Yahoo's download page. Folks upgrading to version 10 get the benefit of several nice new features, including video calling and integration of streams from social sites.

Yahoo! has made some big improvements to its webcam feature, adding better video quality, synched audio and a full-screen mode. You can also move your video call windows around and place them side-by-side. It also supports video effects. To make video calls, both sides need to be on Yahoo! Messenger 10.

The other big addition is a social streaming view called Y! Updates, which lets you see your contacts' updates from several social sites, including Twitter, Last.fm, and Yahoo!'s own Buzz. Of course, it also shows your friends' Messenger status messages. However, CNET suggests you do a custom install of Yahoo! Messenger 10 rather than the default installation, so you have more control over toolbars and other additional junk that comes with Messenger.

Every now and then I find myself working on slides in Keynote and writing Download Squad posts - and struggling to find a suitable image. Of course, Flickr is the best way to find images - their clear licencing and Creative Commons support makes finding images fairly straight forward. However, getting the image into Keynote isn't entirely painless. The workflow of browsing search results, viewing the image and then finding it at a suitable size (if it exists) takes time - however that's where Viewfinder steps in.

A native Mac OS X application (requiring Mac OS X Snow Leopard), Viewfinder allows you to search Flickr from the desktop apply filters to show only Creative Commons images, and specify a particular image size. Then, once you select an image you can download the image, set it as your desktop background - and most importantly - send images straight to Keynote for your slides.

If you're a heavy keynote user (or blogger) who frequently needs to find Flickr images for your work Viewfinder is indispensible. I've been testing it since early September and found it an incredibly convenient tool to have at hand. A licence costs £15 (roughly $25) and a free demo is available for you try from the Viewfinder webpage.

We've known for months that early-90's homepage service GeoCities was shutting down today, taking a big chunk of Internet history and a lot of hideous animated GIFs with it. That doesn't stop the web geeks at Download Squad from getting a little sentimental, though.

To paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi: we felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

So, let's take a moment to remember GeoCities. The easy website-creation service opened in 1995, and many Internet users set up their first homepages within its quirky "neighborhoods". Back before everyone had a .com, GeoCities sported long, convoluted URLs with directories like SiliconValley/Pines or SunsetStrip/Towers. In 1999, GeoCities was purchased by Yahoo!, and has been a Yahoo! property ever since.

Although GeoCities sites are all disappearing from Yahoo!'s servers today, you can still take a trip down memory lane. Archive.org has started a Special Collection to catalog the sites. The effort was supported by Archive Team and includes a collection of those ever-present "Under Construction" GIFs from the heydey of GeoCities.

Popular geek-centric webcomic XKCD paid its own tribute to GeoCities today, reskinning the site to look like a stereotypical homepage, circa 1996.