Posts tagged Yahoo at Switched

Posts with tag yahoo

Yahoo! Offers Refunds to Music Store Customers

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jul 31st 2008 at 1:31PM

If you woke up this morning worried about what Yahoo! is planning to do for its Music Store customers who are about to be left in the lurch with its DRM server shut-down, have no fear. Yahoo! has announced that it will offer customers coupons or refunds for those songs you bought. Basically, you'll get a coupon that you can use at RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody download service. Their songs, of course, are DRM-free. For those of you who have "serious problems with this arrangement" (their words, not ours), refunds will be available. The servers go down on September 30, so start combing your collections, kids.

How to Get Paid for Your Flickr Photos

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 9th 2008 at 5:50PM

Getty Images provides photos to news outlets all over the world and is always looking to expand its pool of talent. Its newest source of material is the popular Yahoo!-owned Flickr photo sharing site. Getty has received permission from Yahoo! to troll Flickr for photos it thinks will make good additions to its archives.

If Getty likes a photo posted on Flickr, it'll send an e-mail to the photographer with an invitation to take part in the new program and acquire the proper rights and releases to market the photo to partner outlets (Web sites, magazines, even blogs like Switched). Getty generally charges customers between $500-$600 for exclusive rights to a photo and a photographer receives about 40-percent of that fee. Non-exclusive rights can be purchased for $250, and the photographer will get a lower, 20-percent cut.

This new program will have dual benefits. Getty will be able to expand it pool of talent without adding more contracted photographers to its payroll. The distributor also believes that many images on Flickr have an authenticity lacking in many professional photos. [Source: NY Times]

Yahoo! Now Offering YMail.com and RocketMail.com Addresses

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 19th 2008 at 1:04PM

Yahoo! Mail has been around a long time. As a consequence, getting yourself an e-mail address that isn't a non-sequitur followed by 17 digits (we hear that H0r53D1aper374689@Yahoo.com is still available!) is darn near impossible.

So to better serve its customers, Yahoo! is opening up two new domains for registering e-mails: @YMail.com and @RocketMail.com. Rocket Mail was actually snapped up by Yahoo! back in 1997 as the basis for Yahoo!'s free e-mail offering, but registration of new Rocket Mail addresses has been closed ever since.

You probably still wont be able to get JoeSmith@RocketMail.com or YMail.com, but you just might be able to squeeze a Smith in there somewhere. [Source: USA Today]

Microsoft and Yahoo! Restart Talks

by Joshua Topolsky, posted May 19th 2008 at 8:22AM

Yes -- they're at it again. Please for the love of all that is sacred, let somebody buy something... quick. From the horse's mouth;

"In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo!" [Source: Microsoft]

[Via Emiliano]

Yahoo to Rewire Itself Into Vast Social Network

by Evan Shamoon, posted Apr 28th 2008 at 8:06AM

You know how Google has managed to integrate all of its services – Google Maps, Google Docs, Gmail, etc -- into one intuitive, inter-connected whole? Yahoo's about to try to do the same thing.

But the plans go even bigger: specifically, to transform the site into a vast social network where Yahoo users can quickly find, communicate, and share information with one another.

"We are literally in the process of rewiring Yahoo from the inside out," said Ari Balogh, Yahoo's CTO, in a speech at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. They've made a bunch of acquisitions recently -- photo-sharing site Flickr, bookmarking site Del.icio.us and social calendar site Upcoming -- and now they want them all to play nice together.

"We are not building another social network," said Mr Balogh. "We are building social into everything we do."

Well, everything done by people sitting at home, alone, in front of their computers, with nothing but their cat, some Cheetos, and the blue glow of their monitors to keep them company, that is. [Source: BBC]

Yahoo and AOL Suddenly Close to Merging?

by Nilay Patel, posted Apr 9th 2008 at 10:46PM

Yahoo's done its best to fend off Microsoft's aggressive advances until now, but it suddenly looks like the struggling company might be getting some help -- both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters are reporting that the Yahoo is "closing in" on a deal to merge with Time Warner's AOL division and partner up with Google on search advertising. Yeah, that's pretty major, and it would probably do something about those declining shares Microsoft's been making noise about.

The idea is for Time Warner to sell AOL to Yahoo and make a large investment in the new company, which would probably be valued at around $10B. There's apparently a lot of work left to do on the deal, and it would still have to be approved by Yahoo and Time Warner shareholders, but it looks like Yahoo is no longer stuck taking Ballmer and Co. to the dance.

[Disclosure: Look up to the right. See that? Yeah, Switched is owned by AOL -- but trust us, we have no idea what's going on.]

Read - WSJ article
Read - Reuters article

From Engadget

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Yahoo! Launches Buzz, a Digg Competitor

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Apr 1st 2008 at 12:18AM

Even with talks of a potential buy out from Microsoft and it's imminent demise circulating Yahoo! is continuing to roll out new services and update its products at an almost frantic pace. The company has opened up its search services to third party developers, updated it's corporate focused Zimbra mail server platform, launched a live webcam site, updated it's Yahoo! Video service, picked up the rights to the FoxyTunes Firefox extension, and launched or updated a host of mobile initiatives, including a developer platform, a new version of its Yahoo! Go service, and OneConnect which allows you to see which of your Yahoo! contacts is near by.

Now Yahoo! is entering the social news aggregation field dominated by Digg. Yahoo!'s prominence may help its new news voting service 'Digg' out a niche for itself, but the social news arena is a crowded one. In addition to the powerful Digg, which can bring a site to its knees with traffic if one of its stories makes it to the front page, there is the whimsical Stumble Upon which is like hitting shuffle on the Internet, the Wired owned Reddit, the news and politics focused NewsVine, the AOL-Netscape powered Propeller, and many smaller competitors.

Yahoo! Buzz is not with out its unique features however. In addition to user votes, Buzz will incorporate Yahoo! search traffic. The more people search for a topic, the more buzz it will generate. Yahoo has also partnered with several large publishers such as Esquire, the New York Times, and the Economist to place Buzzed stories on the Yahoo! home portal.

Only time will tell if Yahoo! Buzz can find its place in this crowded market, or if the company is wasting its time and energy, but the integration with the Yahoo! portal gives it a big leg up on other competitors.

From The New York Times

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Microsoft Hints at Hostile Takeover of Yahoo

by Tim Stevens, posted Feb 12th 2008 at 10:33AM

Last week, Microsoft made a massive $44.6 billion offer to purchase Yahoo. The deal valued Yahoo's stock at 66% higher than it was trading for at the time. It was an offer that many considered to be quite fair indeed. Yahoo, however, didn't think so, and yesterday rejected the offer, indicating that the company is worth far more. The ball is now firmly in Microsoft's court, and some are saying it may be time to come out swinging.

So far, Microsoft has only responded by saying that Yahoo's response was "unfortunate," implying that the rejection was not in the best interest of the company's investors. That could be a subtle way of indicating a hostile takeover is in the works. A hostile takeover is when a company attempts to buy another without the full support of the takeover target's board of directors. In this case, Microsoft would simply go out and buy all the stock it could, establishing itself as the de facto owner of Yahoo.

Will it come down to this, or is Yahoo's rejection just a ploy to get some more money out of Microsoft? Time will tell, but apparently this should all go down by March 14, when Yahoo's next board of directors is nominated.

From Tech Trader Daily

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Yahoo to Close Subscription Music Service

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 4th 2008 at 4:44PM

Yahoo! is obviously having a tough week. First, Microsoft made a hostile bid to purchase the company; then, over the weekend, the Web pioneer announced it was closing down its popular Yahoo! Music service. Mid this year, Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription service will officially close its doors and offer customers the opportunity to move their subscription over to Real's Rhapsody. Rhapsody struck a deal with Yahoo! that will allow Yahoo! Music customers to continue to pay, for a limited time, the $8.99 a month that Yahoo! charges, though eventually they'll hav to decide on whether to continue their subscription with Rhapsody for $12.99 a month.

Oddly enough, just as Yahoo! was announcing the closing of its music subscription service, it also announced the acquisition of FoxyTunes, an extension for Firefox that allows you to control your music library from your browser's status bar.

After jettisoning its music service, Yahoo! hasn't said anything out its plans to leverage its in-browser music player, but we're sure the company has something surprising up its sleeve.

Presumably all those Sansa Connects that work exclusively with the Yahoo! Music Service will now work with Rhapsody -- or so we hope.

From Cnet

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Microsoft May Buy Yahoo!

by Tim Stevens, posted Feb 1st 2008 at 9:22AM

In the Internet search realm, there's one player that dominates the rest: Google. It's by far the most popular search engine out there. Exactly who is number two on the list is somewhat debatable, but it's generally held to be former search giant Yahoo!, whose share price is currently hovering at about a paltry (by comparison) $19. However, that price is set for something of a surge this morning as news of a takeover bid from Microsoft sweeps the Internet.

Microsoft is offering $44.6 billion for all outstanding shares of Yahoo! stock, a 62-percent increase over the closing price of the stock as of yesterday. That's quite a premium and shows that Microsoft is serious about adding the company to its portfolio. MS has already made a big investment to increasing the quality of its Live search, but it just hasn't managed to gain any foothold in the increasingly competitive search market.

Needless to say, the entire blogosphere is a-twitter discussing the implications. Fears of a monopoly is a common theme, while some think that this could just start a bidding war and that Google itself might counter-offer -- though we think that's a bit unlikely. Meanwhile, the Register reminds us that last year at this time Microsoft attempted the same buyout and was rebuffed. This time, however, with Yahoo! stock price down from the $30-range this time last year, it's doubtful many investors will be telling Microsoft to take a hike.

Indeed that seems to be the common reaction this morning, as Yahoo! stock was already up 60% in pre-market trading.

From Microsoft, Rev2.org, Gesterling, The Register, Money.aol.com

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Stolen Laptop Self-Uploads Photo of Suspect to Web

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 27th 2007 at 2:07PM

Look at that face. That's the face of some poor sap who is either the unluckiest thief ever, or a guy who keeps some really bad company. His misadventure began when one of five Mac laptops stolen from the offices of a Vancouver, BC-based Web startup landed in his hands.

WorkSpaces -- the victim company -- had used this particular laptop as a photo booth for its online guest book hosted at photo-sharing behemoth, Flickr. The Mac had been rigged up with Flickrbooth, an application that can be set up to automatically upload photos to Flickr when they're taken by the laptop's built-in iSight Web cam. After the robbery of the WorkSpaces offices, this photo suddenly appeared on the company's Flickr site. When WorkSpaces realized that this mystery man was in all likelihood the same person who'd knocked off their property, the self-produced Wanted poster began making its rounds on Flickr, and then the blogosphere. In no time, this guy was an Internet celebrity.

With nowhere to run, the unnamed man appeared at a Vancouver police station with laptop in tow. He claims he bought the laptop from a friend who'd bought it from another friend, and was unaware that is was stolen. At this time, no charges have been filed, but the matter is under investigation according to authorities.

This guy is a shoe-in for the 2007 Darwin Awards if there ever was one.

From Boing Boing

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Mercedes Ties Google and Yahoo! Maps to In-Car Navigation

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 5th 2007 at 11:01AM

A GPS unit for your car is nothing new, but how about a GPS unit that connects to Google or Yahoo! Maps? Mercedes has just announced the launch of Search and Send, a system that allows you to send driving directions from a PC to your car using either Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps depending on personal preference. Friends and family can even be granted access to the system, allowing them to send you coordinates when you're already out on the road. Once in your Benzo, you download the directions directly to the in-car navigation system where you can either chart a route immediately or save the destination for a later trip.

The Search and Send service is free with a subscription to Mercedes Tele Aid, a roadside assistance system similar to GM's OnStar. The system is free for the first year with the purchase of select Mercedes cars. Initially it will only be available on the '07 S-Class, '07 CL-Class and '08 C-Class vehicles when outfitted with the Multimedia and Navigation package.

Though the Mercedes program is the first like it in the U.S., BMW offers German drivers a very similar experience with its Drive Assist program. Drive Assist, however, is limited only to business addresses, where Search and Send can plot any location.

From Engadget

[CORRECTION: It actually turns out that MapQuest and GM announced a similar service called OnStar Web Destination Entry in April which should come out sometime in 2008.]

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10 Gadgets that Do it All

Take your Buddy List With You

by Tim Stevens, posted May 2nd 2007 at 10:14AM

While Web-based mail sites like Gmail and Hotmail make it easy to access your messages from anywhere -- even mobile devices -- instant messaging on the go isn't always so easy. Web-based solutions like Meebo have sprouted up to allow you to use several IM clients from almost any computer without having to download software. But point your mobile phone's browser to Meebo's site, and you'll find you're out of luck.

Thankfully there's eBuddy, a new Web-based IM service that's minimum requirement is a Javascript-enabled browser. It runs so light, it can access AOL, Yahoo! and MSN instant messengers on older mobile phones, smart phones, PDAs, and even the PSP and Nintendo DS. The browser-based PC version is a bit meatier, offering such features as smiley faces and sound effects. While eBuddy certainly doesn't offer the full functionality of a separately installed IM client, it's hard to beat if you're on the go.

From MobileCrunch

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Find Songs By Lyric at Yahoo! Music

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Apr 24th 2007 at 6:20PM

Starting today, Yahoo! Music will be the first online music store to legally offer lyrics. After a deal with Gracenote and the five major music labels, Yahoo! Music will sport more than 400,000 songs' lyrics in a completely searchable database.

While there are already several lyric sites, Yahoo!'s marks the first legal service of its kind, as the songwriters and labels own copyrights to the lyrics just as they do the music itself (they're just less vigilant about going after lyrics-thieves).

In this case, though, the lyrics will be paired with the download service. So what does that mean? Let's say you heard a great song on the radio but have no idea who sang it. Just go to Yahoo! Music, search the lyric based on what you remember, and ideally you'll get results that reveal the song you were looking for. Unfortunately, in our test, "la, la, la" returned over 1,000 results, so try to be a little more specific than we were.

The hook, of course, is that Yahoo! offers the song you found for sale right there on the results page. Convenient.

From TG Daily

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Yahoo! Offers Refunds to Music Store Customers

How to Get Paid for Your Flickr Photos

Yahoo! Now Offering YMail.com and RocketMail.com Addresses

Microsoft and Yahoo! Restart Talks

Yahoo to Rewire Itself Into Vast Social Network

Yahoo and AOL Suddenly Close to Merging?

Yahoo! Launches Buzz, a Digg Competitor

Microsoft Hints at Hostile Takeover of Yahoo

Yahoo to Close Subscription Music Service

Microsoft May Buy Yahoo!

Stolen Laptop Self-Uploads Photo of Suspect to Web

Mercedes Ties Google and Yahoo! Maps to In-Car Navigation

Take your Buddy List With You

Find Songs By Lyric at Yahoo! Music

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