Yahoo Go 3.0 Beta

I installed the beta of Yahoo Go 3.0 for WM Smartphone and have been messing around with it for a while. Wanted to highlight some features and issues.

All in all it is an interesting application for mobile. The basic gist of the app is that all the information is navigated through small mobile “widgets”. You scroll thru them and when you launch a widget, you get a specialized version of the site or service off which the widget is based. Lets start with the interface:

The custom UI (carousel motif) is fun to use and is nice looking. It’s actually a refreshing UI. You can tell they spent a lot of time working out this motif.

There is a library of widgets available inside the app itself, from which you can choose to your liking or need. It also looks like there is an SDK that developers or companies can use to create these widgets.

I noticed that most of the “Yahoo Developed” widgets I tried were reliable. I didn’t have as much luck with some of the 3rd party ones, like Facebook and Trapster. Additionally, I had initially installed a MySpace widget, that ceased to work and was mysteriously no longer in the widget library when I tried to re-install it (though it is still advertised at the download site as one of the flagship widgets–I can only assume there are contract or technical issues pending).

The Wikipedia Widget is probably the most useful one, to me. It does a nice job of parsing and formatting the info.

As for all their news feeds widget… eh, I am probably more likely to use a mobile rss reader like mDigger or Viigo, but it’s nice to have the option to add some news.

The maps widget didn’t work with my GPS service and didn’t seem as useful to me as say, Google Maps or Windows Live search. Additionally, I couldn’t find a “full Screen” toggle for the maps, but I will keep looking.

Bottom line

While it has some issues, it’s important to remember that this is a Beta, and that it’s FREE. They obviously have some things to fix, and hopefully the politics over at Yahoo right now won’t get in the way of finishing this little app. It’s definitely more of a “consumer” app and not really a “power user” app, in my mind. I would use it for certain things, but probably not as my mobile hub (which is how I think they are pushing it).

Microsoft & Yahoo deal lives again!

from The Wall Street Journal moments ago…

May 18, 2008

“Microsoft said that it is considering an agreement with Yahoo and opened up the possibility that it would consider buying part of the Internet company. In a statement, Microsoft said that it “is considering and has raised with Yahoo an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo.” The Redmond, Wash., software maker didn’t provide details on the transaction being discussed. Microsoft on May 3 withdrew a bid for Yahoo that it made earlier in the year. Since Microsoft’s withdrawal, activist investor Carl Icahn has tried to push Yahoo into a deal with Microsoft by proposing an alternative slate of Yahoo directors and had bought 10 million shares and options to purchase 49 million more.”

But clearly a deal is not to be……

It looks as if the deal is off … or at least that is what Microsoft is saying.  Microsoft still believes that the acquisition made sense for Microsoft and would have created real value for all parties involved.  So what do you think will come out of all of this?  I would bet there is something in the works….

After the break is the text of the letter from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang.

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Yahoo!, MySpace and Google to Form Non-Profit OpenSocial Foundation

Community Organization to Assure Neutrality and Longevity of Specification for Building Social Applications Across the Web

Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google today announced they have agreed to form the OpenSocial Foundation to ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web. Yahoo!’s support of OpenSocial and role as a founding member of the new foundation are landmarks for the rapidly growing specification which will now offer developers the potential to connect with more than 500 million people worldwide.

The OpenSocial Foundation will be an independent non-profit entity with a formal intellectual property and governance framework; related assets will be assigned to the new organization by July 1, 2008. The foundation will provide transparency and operational guidelines around technology, documentation, intellectual property, and other issues related to the evolution of the OpenSocial platform, while also ensuring all stakeholders share influence over its future direction.

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Yahoo! Mobile Shoots and Scores: Brings Men’s College Hoop-La to the Mobile Masses

Trio of New Tools Allows Mobile Users to Follow Their Favorite Teams: Mobile Widget, Mobile Web Site, and Special Edition of Yahoo! oneSearch; Jaguar North America on Board for Mobile Advertising Campaign

Today Yahoo! announced a men’s college basketball mobile offering to help fans follow their favorite team from the first tip-off to the final buzzer — all via the convenience of their mobile phone. Fans can get up-to-the-minute information on the 65 teams vying for the men’s basketball national championship through three new mobile tools: the new Men’s College Hoops mobile widget, available to users of Yahoo! Go 3.0 flagship mobile offering; a dedicated mobile tournament website (http://m.yahoo.com/ncaa); and Yahoo! oneSearch, which has been specially configured to bring users specialized content to coincide with their men’s college basketball-related searches.

The power forward: Men’s College Basketball Mobile Web Site

Mobile users are also able to access all of the action with any Internet-enabled device by visiting the Yahoo! Men’s College Basketball mobile website on their phones (http://m.yahoo.com/ncaa) to get the latest about the tournament. Users can browse the mobile web on their device and take advantage of the rich features developed for both the Men’s College Basketball mobile widget and the innovations present in Yahoo! oneSearch, regardless of whether their phone is a walk-on freshman or the full-ride member of the starting five. With features like mobile alerts, Yahoo! oneSearch and top-tier content from Yahoo! Sports and Rivals.com, users will have their mobile devices with them at all times to get the best content during the tournament.

The #1 draft pick: Yahoo! Men’s College Hoops Widget

With the introduction of the Yahoo! Men’s College Hoops mobile widget (available in Go 3.0 or Yahoo!’s mobile home page at http://beta.m.yahoo.com), mobile users will be able to get continuous updates and information from the scores, news, schedules and images. With scores, headlines and other important hoops content from top sites including Yahoo! Sports and Rivals.com, users will always be on the winning team with the Yahoo! Men’s College Hoops mobile widget.

Since launching the Yahoo! Mobile Developer Platform earlier this year, the drive to the basket has been strong, starting with anchor partners like eBay, MySpace, and MTV News, Yahoo! Mobile Widgets are adding new players at a fast pace.

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Yahoo! Brings the Best of the Mobile Internet to Europe; Announces Availability of Yahoo! Go 3.0 and New Mobile Widgets for European Users

Eurosport and XING Among New Mobile Widgets From Europe

Yahoo! today announced at CeBIT 2008 the upcoming availability of Yahoo! Go 3.0 for a number of European countries, as well as several new European-based widgets that will be accessible across Yahoo!’s mobile browser and client-based offerings.

“Yahoo! Mobile has tremendous momentum in Europe and we are expanding our leadership with innovative offerings and key partnerships,” said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo!. “We believe delivering Yahoo! Go 3.0 and exciting widgets that markets demand will help make Yahoo! an even more indispensable starting point for users, as well as grow value for advertisers, publishers and developers across our mobile ecosystem.”

 

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Yahoo! onePlace Revolutionizes Mobile Content

Innovative Service to Offer Users a Better Way to Manage Important Internet Content on Mobile

Yahoo! continues to enable the global mobile ecosystem with the unveiling of Yahoo! onePlace – a revolutionary mobile content management solution. Following the company’s achievements in reinventing mobile search and mobile communications, Yahoo! onePlace is designed to be an essential tool to enable consumers to better manage the wide selection of content available across the Internet.

“Over the last three years, we have aggressively executed on our mobile strategy to deliver innovative and indispensable services to consumers globally and become the starting point for the most users. With the introduction of Yahoo! onePlace, we are announcing the next essential component to our mobile product line up,” said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo!. “Yahoo! onePlace is where users will be able to find what matters to them the most, no matter where their interests, passions and information come from. Yahoo! onePlace will provide mobile users with a rich and dynamic content experience.”

 

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New “Yahoo! Buzz”

Yahoo! Buzz Improves Yahoo.com with More of the Best Content from Across the Web

Yahoo! today introduced Yahoo! Buzz, an extension to Yahoo.com that opens up the Internet’s leading starting point by uncovering the most interesting and relevant content from websites across the Internet and bringing more buzz-worthy stories to the homepage of Yahoo!. Currently in beta, Yahoo! Buzz measures consumer votes and search patterns to identify interesting and timely stories and videos from large news sources as well as niche blogs around the Web. Top stories are then given primary editorial consideration for feature placement on Yahoo.com.

Yahoo! Buzz can highlight anything – a major news event, an intriguing video or image, or an interesting blog post – and instead of editors, real people vote and search for their favorite stories to determine the top rated content from across the Web. Yahoo! Buzz ranks the most popular content of the moment using a unique approach that combines consumer votes with search popularity to give a story a Buzz Score. This new initiative creates a lens on what people are most interested in to enhance relevance on the popular Yahoo.com, and help publishers deliver their best content to Yahoo!’s broad and diverse audience of more than 500 million users.

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Yahoo! Mails Letter to Stockholders

Yahoo! today announced that it has sent a letter to its stockholders, outlining the reasons the Board believes that Microsoft’s proposal significantly undervalues Yahoo! and is not in the best interests of Yahoo! stockholders.

In the letter Yahoo! says:

“[Yahoo!’s] assets – our brand and its audience, our relationships with marketers, our financial strength, our technology, and our strategic investments—are the core of our value and our leadership position in the industry.

“We have a huge market opportunity – and are uniquely positioned to capitalize on it. The global online advertising market is projected to grow from $45 billion in 2007 to $75 billion in 2010. And we are moving quickly to take advantage of what we see as a unique window of time in the growth – and evolution – of this market to build market share and to create value for stockholders.

“Today, Yahoo! is a faster-moving, better-organized, more nimble company than it was just a few months ago. We have redeployed our resources to drive Yahoo!’s key strategic priorities – taking important steps to streamline our organization and close down or scale back businesses that don’t support these critical growth initiatives. We are well on our way to transforming the experiences of Yahoo!’s users, advertisers, publishers and developers – an important shift that is at the heart of our plan to create stockholder value.”

A copy of the letter follows:

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MWC: Yahoo! to Reinvent Mobile Communications with Yahoo! oneConnect

Groundbreaking New Service to Aggregate Mobile Communications, Centered Around a Socially-Connected Address Book

Yahoo!, a leader in developing mobile-first experiences, is driving the industry towards the future of mobile communications with Yahoo! oneConnect. In 2007, Yahoo! revolutionized mobile search with Yahoo! oneSearch, an optimized search experience designed for the mobile device. Today the company will unveil a plan for similarly reinventing mobile communications by demonstrating its upcoming Yahoo! oneConnect service. Yahoo! oneConnect is expected to become available in the award-winning Yahoo! Go 3.0 and Yahoo!’s new mobile home page in Q2 2008.

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MWC: Yahoo! to Further Solidify Position as Premier Mobile Search Provider

Yahoo! and T-Mobile Agree to Enter into Strategic Partnership To Deliver Yahoo! oneSearch to Eleven European T-Mobile Markets Agreement Brings Total Number of Yahoo! oneSearch Partners to More Than 29

Yahoo!, a leader in developing mobile-first experiences, today extended its mobile leadership by announcing that it has agreed to enter into a strategic partnership with T-Mobile International to bring Yahoo!’s industry leading mobile services to millions of consumers in T-Mobile’s European footprint. This agreement sets the stage for Yahoo! oneSearch to become the exclusive mobile search service for T-Mobile customers in their 11 European markets beginning at the end of March 2008.

This announcement builds on the steady stream of Yahoo! oneSearch partnerships announced over the course of the last 13 months. In early 2007, Yahoo! reinvented the mobile search experience with the introduction of Yahoo! oneSearch, a search experience specifically designed for the mobile phone that delivers relevant results and instant answers in a user-friendly interface, removing the need for consumers to navigate through a sea of PC Web links. Since introducing Yahoo! oneSearch, Yahoo! has announced partnership agreements with more than 29 leading mobile operators and more than 600 million mobile subscribers around the world.

[Read more]

Microsoft Responds to Yahoo! Announcement

Reiterates Full and Fair Proposal for Microsoft-Yahoo! Combination

Microsoft Corp. today issued the following statement in response to the announcement by Yahoo! Inc. that its Board of Directors has rejected Microsoft’s previously announced proposal to acquire Yahoo!:

It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties.

We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company. The combination also offers an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.

A Microsoft-Yahoo! combination will create a more effective company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. Furthermore, the combination will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising.

The Yahoo! response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

On February 1, 2008, Microsoft announced a proposal to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion and a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock based on the closing prices of the stocks of both companies on Jan. 31, 2008, the last day of trading prior to Microsoft’s announcement. Microsoft’s proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock.

Source: Microsoft press release

Yahoo Closes Music Service

More and more of these music services are closing their virtual doors. Is iTunes forcing them out due to market dominance or is this just the first of the Yahoo services being sacrificed in the light of the possible Microsoft buyout.

 

Yet another iTunes competitor is going down the bit bucket–Yahoo will close its Music Unlimited service and move its remaining subscribers over to RealNetworks’ Rhapsody later this year.

Yahoo explained the move yesterday in a post on its corporate blog:

Around 25 million people visit Yahoo! Music each month. Relatively speaking, a small percentage of those use Yahoo! Music Unlimited, yet an large portion of our resources were being poured into this service. It was clear to us that we needed to make a major strategic shift.

The post goes on to say that Yahoo subscribers will be able to “easily take their music catalogs and migrate to Rhapsody.” But a press release at Real’s site notes that these people will wind up paying more for “a limited time” after they’re moved over to Rhapsody. Where Yahoo charges $8.99 a month for unlimited, “tethered” downloads to a computer (or $5.99/month if you prepay for a year), Rhapsody’s equivalent service costs $12.99 a month.

Yahoo’s pricing advantage was even stronger when it launched the service. But as the company ratcheted up its prices, then mysteriously dumped the “To Go” option that allowed copying these rented downloads to certain “PlaysForSure” music devices, Yahoo Music Unlimited had less and less to distinguish itself from Rhapsody and other services.

Some things are still unclear after Yahoo’s announcements:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2008/02/yahoo_hits_the_eject_button_on.html