Yahoo Video

Yahoo! India, the premier digital media company, today launched ‘Yahoo! Video’ video.yahoo.in, a dedicated premium video destination that offers original content across multiple genres such as News, Entertainment, Lifestyle and Movies. Yahoo! Video delivers a high quality video experience, free for all Internet users in India and guarantees a trusted and safe environment for publishers and providers to host their valuable content. Yahoo! India has currently partnered with 35 leading content producers including NDTV, Star TV, Shemaroo, Headlines Today, PVR Pictures and Ultra.

The launch of Yahoo! Video is a critical step towards meeting the growing appetite of Indian online users. According to a recent ComScore report, over 30 million unique users in India watch online videos each month and on average each user consumes about 58 videos a month.

At the launch, Arun Tadanki Managing Director, Yahoo! India said, “Online video consumption is growing at a rapid pace, however, what the Indian market lacked was a safe and piracy free destination delivering high quality and strictly original content. Yahoo! Video is a bold step and redefines the online video category through licensed, original and diverse content promising an unparalleled experience to Indian users.”

Yahoo! Video offers content acquired from original sources, spanning short and full-length movies, video capsules across news, entertainment, lifestyle, sports, providing access to an archive of thousands of videos. Important to note, Yahoo! India recently launched “Movieplex” – a destination where users enjoy licensed full-length movies for free.

Yahoo! Video also provides an unparalleled opportunity for advertisers to connect with their target audiences through a range of innovative video & display advertising solutions.

Suparna Singh, Deputy CEO and Managing Editor, NDTV Convergence said, “We are very excited about this partnership with a leading Internet brand like Yahoo!. NDTV doesn’t believe in walled gardens in the rapidly-expanding digital space. Early diagnosis has shown that Yahoo! does not cannibalize our business – it provides an additional audience and a new video platform that we believe users will enjoy. Yahoo! has shown respect and understanding for real news, and we look forward to increasing our reach together.”

On behalf of Star India, one of the key partners for Yahoo! Video, Lalit Bhagia, Vice President – Digital, Star India said, ““Yahoo! is the biggest web portal in the country with more than 38 mn unique users. What I like about Yahoo!’s video strategy is the whole concept of “content in context” , which is the real differentiator. With Yahoo! Mail, editorial, chat , News & now video it completes the picture for the consumer. As a broadcaster, it potentially becomes a place to build affinity to our shows and characters as well as sample new content. We plan to start with short form content and work on possible new show launches through the partnership.”

Talking about the association with Yahoo!, Mr. Jai Maroo, Director, Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd., “Our association with Yahoo! India is a harbinger of the exciting possibilities and potential in the digital entertainment space. We are working together to not only serve diverse audiences but to also provide a legal video content alternative. The association started with Shemaroo being one of the launch partners for Yahoo!’s Movieplex and we pushed the innovation quotient higher with our recent tie-up for the exclusive online premiere of “Super K” on the Movieplex platform on Yahoo! Movies.”

Key Partners for Yahoo! Video (List is indicative, not exhaustive)

Yahoo Big Idea Chair Award

It is that time of the year when the best digital advertising innovations will be cheered and celebrated by the Indian advertising fraternity. Yahoo! India, the premier digital media company today opened entries to the second annual Big Idea Chair award, one of the most prestigious awards in the advertising industry. With over 183 entries last year, the Big Idea Chair awards invite contributions by clients, agency strategists, media gurus and individuals who have creatively leveraged the digital advertising platform. The award ceremony will be held in October 2011 in New Delhi. Agencies can submit their entries on www.bigideachair.in by 5th September, 2011.

Celebrating the quest for innovative and impactful advertising campaigns, the Big Idea Chair, a global initiative by Yahoo!, recognizes some of the best work by the online advertising community and also fosters creative excellence that enabled marketing excellence in digital advertising. Advertising agencies can submit entries that have included the use of the Internet as part of their media mix strategy over the last twelve months. All entries will be adjudged on creativity, proven results and flawless execution.

This year’s Big Idea Chair award presents nine interesting award categories –

·         Best Use of Display Advertising: Most creative and innovative use of display advertising

·         Best Online Video Advertising: Online video ads or series of videos created for the digital medium

·         Best Use of Social Media: Innovative use of social media for brand advertising

·         Best Use of Technology: Innovative use of technology for digital advertising on the internet or mobile

·         Digital 360° Award: Campaigns that strategically used digital as the core medium and implemented all digital channels including display, search, social, mobile.

·         Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Award: The flagship award. The winner will win the prestigious purple Big Idea Chair award.

·         Best Use of Mobile Advertising: Campaigns that used mobile as a medium for digital advertising to effectively communicate the brand message, engage consumers or meet a brand objective.

·         Best Use of Search: Creative and effective use of search in a campaign

·         Best Use of Regional Languages: The best creative use of regional languages (beyond English) in digital advertising.

For more information regarding the Big Idea Chair, please visit http://www.bigideachair.in

Yahoo MoviePlex

One stop destination for premium entertainment content on the Yahoo! network offering full-length Bollywood movies on demand

Yahoo! India, the premier digital media company, today announced the launch of “Movieplex” (movies.yahoo.in/movieplex), a premium video destination allowing users to enjoy licensed full-length movies for free through the Internet on demand. Yahoo! India will collaborate with leading movie production houses to bring thousands of local “Bollywood” movies online to users for a piracy-free, quality entertainment experience.

Yahoo! delivers locally relevant content experiences to both consumers and advertisers and “Movieplex” offers an unparalleled opportunity for advertisers to connect with their target audiences through immersive video content. This content is easily discovered on Yahoo! India (www.yahoo.in) and users will be able to watch this from the comfort of their home or anywhere with an Internet connection. Movies currently available on Movieplex include Rock On, Rann, Dil to Baccha Hai Ji and more.

According to a ComScore report released in March’ 2011, the Indian audience is currently spending over 9.1 billion minutes watching online videos each month with entertainment as the leading category in online video content consumption ahead of news and sports content.

Arun Tadanki, Managing Director, Yahoo! India said, “Over 30 million Internet users consume 1.7 billion videos every month across India*. With the increasing demand for online video, both consumers and content providers are looking for a trusted destination where quality content can be consumed in a piracy-free environment at their leisure. Movieplex is an example of how Yahoo! connects people to what matters to them the most and Indian movie lovers now have the best full-length movies available to them at their convenience.”

A key advertiser on Movieplex, Mr. L.K. Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, LG Electronics commented, “The growth in online video viewing has been exponential and movies are passionately followed by the Indian audience online. We are delighted to work with Yahoo! on the launch of Movieplex and through our association, we aim to deliver the LG Cinema 3D Smart TV* proposition to millions of deeply engaged Yahoo! consumers. ”

Movieplex has been designed for sharing on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter making it easy for users to recommend their favorite movies to others.

According to comScore (Source: June 2011), Yahoo! India reached over 80% of the Indian Internet audience and is ranked #1 across General News, Movies, Sports, Entertainment News and Instant Messaging categories.

Yahoo

With the recovering global economy and nearing of the summer travel season, consumers are now starting to search and plan their travels for the next three months! In an attempt to find out the top travel preferences, Yahoo!, the premier digital media company, has meticulously aggregated searches from all over APAC (includes India, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia) to reveal the most popular destinations among APAC in April. Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan are the top five summer travel destinations for APAC users based on search query and ranking frequency!

According to collated statistics from travel searches in APAC, Singapore is the most popular destination among Southeast Asian online users such as India, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Taiwan is the most desirable destination for online users in Singapore and Hong Kong while Japan is also a highly popular destination for users in India and Malaysia. In addition to the top five destinations, Korea searches also resulted a spike of 625% in Europe indicating local user’s interests compared to April 2010, while Taiwan showed interests in Thailand with 148.57% increase and SEA and India users are more willing to travel within APAC region.

Planning for accommodation is also an important factor for travelers when planning their itinerary. From the collated hotel-related searches, online users’ travel preferences in the different Asian countries were reflected very clearly. India and Southeast Asian travelers preferred more affordable and economical options, South Korean travelers like boutique hotels while Taiwan and Hong Kong travelers prefer international hotel chains.

When it came to India, travelers enquired details about various famous festivals and the places that celebrated them in a big way so as to coincide their trips to these places accordingly. A lot of users also compared South India v/s North India to help them decide which part they wanted to visit. Users were equally cautious when it came to spending money and searched increasingly about affordable deals around air fares, hotel fares and travel packages. For international destinations, travelers wanted to make sure they planned well especially when it came to travel documents. They enquired in detail regarding visa details, passport related issues and other travel related documents.

Prem Panicker, Managing Editor, Yahoo! India said, “The recovery of the global economy continues, and this in turn has stimulated interest in travel. The volume of key word searches consolidated by Yahoo! APAC has increased by 121% on average, and we see this as a clear indicator that the travel sector has rebounded from its recession-driven slump.”

In order to discover users’ attitude towards travel planning, Yahoo! also revealed the results from its online travel survey done in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. The results showed that Hong Kong travelers love a good time; South Korean travelers have very different spending habits and Taiwanese travelers are the most careful planners. Yahoo! also discovered that online users prefer self-plan travel styles. More than 50% of Taiwanese and Hong Kong online users depend heavily on the Internet to search travel-related content.

According to the survey results, travel budgets remain constant among travelers in the three countries. Users are willing to spend up to 10% of their annual salaries. However more than 30% of South Korean users have expressed that they are willing to pay 20-30% of their annual salaries to travel, indicating that they have opposite travel expenditure habits.

The survey also revealed that the most frequent travelers are from Hong Kong where approximately 60% travel 1 or 2 times every year. Travelers from Taiwan and South Korea travel once every one to three years. As for travel destinations, Taiwanese travelers are the most careful planners and are very mindful about local living standards as compared to travelers from Hong Kong and South Korea.

What are the must-try food and souvenirs items in these countries when traveling? As to what local delicacies online users recommend to foreign tourists, Hong Kong users recommend Hong Kong Dim Sums, South Korea users recommend South Korean BBQ meats and Taiwanese users recommend bubble milk tea.

As for the souvenirs, Hong Kong users recommend the famous Chinese-style pastries; South Korean users recommend Ginseng Health Products and Taiwanese users recommend pineapple cakes. Pineapple cakes are very popular among tourists for its tangy, fruity flavor and pineapple also symbolizes good luck. It is not surprising that more than 100 million pineapple ckaes are sold each year in Taiwan, evidencing that they are very popular gifts!

Yahoo! Safely to provide online safety tips for educators, parents, children and all Internet users

Yahoo! Safely

Yahoo! India introduces Yahoo! Safely to demonstrate its longtime commitment to providing safer online experiences for users in the week leading up to Safer Internet Day on February 8, 2011.

Yahoo! Safely (http://in.safely.yahoo.com/) is an oasis of information designed to educate Internet users on how to make smart online choices. Yahoo! Safely informs parents, educators and children about important topics such as protecting online privacy, managing search queries and creating secure online identities. The unique website offers a number of valuable social web tips for teenagers including learning how to minimize risks on mobile devices. It also provides guidance on how to use Yahoo! products in a safe manner.

“The Internet is a remarkably inclusive destination that fulfils both our information and communication needs. Our online identity is our new face and our email ID is our virtual

address from where we chat, share, retrieve and research information each day, so it is important that we give our young people the tools they need to make smart digital decisions, shared Alka Sharma, spokesperson for Yahoo! Safely, Yahoo! India.

She further added “The first step to a safer Internet experience is awareness. In line with our commitment to make the Web a safe and secure place, Yahoo! created an online destination to help parents, educators and children find their answers from a trustworthy resource. From a password safety query to understanding cyber-bullying and protecting your digital identity, Yahoo! Safely provides the answers”.

Adding her comments on the matter of Internet safety for students, Ms. Priyanka Jetly, DAV Public School, New Delhi, states that, “Today’s students should be made aware about copyright issues, piracy and safe access on the Internet and at the same time they need to understand the inherent dangers of sharing personal information & identification to any sources online. The Web is a marvelous destination for everyone, so it is important that our students understand and can deal with the important online issues they face every day.”

In support of Safer Internet Day 2011 (www.saferinternet.org), Yahoo! is launching Yahoo! Safely in 26 countries and 14 languages across the globe, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada (English & French), Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, United Kingdom, Venezuela, Vietnam.

For Safer Internet Day 2011, Yahoo! is also sharing top 5 tips for Internet Users:

·         Own your digital reputation. Stop and think before you share a thought or forward a photo.  The Internet is a public space, so before you share photos or personal details, make sure it’s info that you’d share with teachers, colleges, or job prospects.

·         Think about what you text:  Texting is core to staying connected with your friends.  What you text is a reflection of you, so be thoughtful about what you text and confident that your texts portray you the right way.

·         Have a family chat. Talking with your parents or guardians doesn’t mean giving up your privacy. Everyone benefits when you’re on the same page about online activities, including when you can go online, how long you can stay, and what activities you can do online.

·         Know your rights. You have the right to not respond to email or other messages that are inappropriate or make you feel uncomfortable. If you get a message that doesn’t feel right, show it to your parents, guardians, or another trusted adult and report the incident to your Internet service provider.

·         Protect your personal information. When you send email, texts, photos or instant messages to people who are not trusted friends or family, don’t give out personal information they could use to find your physical location or exploit you. Guard your password like a hawk.

Hippo, Tata DoCoMo & Idea Cellular campaigns recognized for outstanding digital work by Yahoo!

Yahoo India

Yahoo! India announced the winners for its Big Idea Chair Awards 2010 for creative and media agencies across India. Bates 141 was awarded the ‘Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Award’ for their Virgin Mobile campaign – ‘Indian Panga League’ that showcased exceptional creative work in the digital community. The media agency for the campaign was Mindshare.

Arun Tadanki, Managing Director, Yahoo! India, said, “Digital advertising provides an opportunity for brand marketers to give life to fresh, dynamic and unbridled ideas. The award celebrates innovation, creativity and the elusive big idea. We at Yahoo! are committed to grow the digital ecosystem with the help of our partners, to showcase the power of digital and to help brands foster an online relationship with its consumers.”

For the Best Digital Brand Solution and the Best Engagement Idea categories, Creativeland Asia was awarded for the Hippo campaign – Consumer becomes inventory Trackers. In the Best Rich Media Ad category, Interface Business Solutions was awarded for its TATADoCoMo campaign – TATA DoCoMo Diet SMS. The Best Mobile Solution was awarded to Tribal DDB and Mindshare for their Idea Cellular campaign – Idea tree – use mobile save paper .

Originally launched in the United States, the Big Idea Chair award has since evolved to becoming a uniquely global award that recognizes creative works in the digital community.  The award is promoted to the advertising, creative and marketing communities and they are invited to make a submission in any appropriate category. The Judging panel looks at various criteria to select the winning entries. Above all, it is a measure of the creative ability to captivate and engage an online audience. Campaigns that connect to users by creating opportunities to interact uniquely with the brand through the digital medium are natural winners.

Yahoo! Big Idea Chair: The campaign was selected on creativity in relation to the concept, originality of the marketing initiative, relevance with the brand and integration of marketing campaigns.

* Virgin Mobile – Indian Panga League

Agencies – Bates 141 & Mindshare

Best Digital Brand Solution: The campaign was selected on efficiency of the role played by digital in the marketing plan, relevance with the Brand, uniqueness of the campaign with respect to the use of digital media.

* Hippo – Consumer becomes inventory Trackers

Agency – Creativeland Asia

Best Rich Media Ad: The campaign was selected on creativity in relation to concept, best use of Ad format and execution (Deployment of different techniques), art direction for navigation, audio & visual (if applicable)

* TATA DoCoMo – Tata DOCOMO Diet SMS

Agency – Interface Business Solutions

Best Engagement Idea: The campaign was selected on its ability to engage users on the banner Ad, uniqueness of the Ad concept, execution with the ability to arouse interest, engage participation and usability, winner Ad campaign.

* Hippo – Consumer becomes inventory Trackers

Agency – Creativeland Asia

Best Mobile Solution: The campaign was selected on creativity in relation to concept (Use of mobile technology to target on-the-go “mAudiences”), art direction for navigator, audio & visual, and campaign result – ability to meet objective, efficiency/integration of mobile technology.

* Idea Cellular – Idea tree Use mobile save paper

Agency – Tribal DDB, Mindshare

Yahoo! Messenger 11 Beta

Continuing its commitment to be the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo! announced the launch of Yahoo! Messenger Beta and Yahoo! Mail Beta, aimed to enhance the communication experience. Both the products exemplify more intuitive ways to navigate, connect and organize the relevant content by offering a much faster and safer experience.

People can opt-in to Yahoo! Mail Beta (to opt-in, go to http://in.features.mail.yahoo.com), and easily navigate and organize their inbox, browse photos and videos, more efficiently search for emails and benefit from improved spam protection.  Yahoo! Messenger Beta makes it fun and easy to share, connect, and play with friends and family – anywhere anytime. The new Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger give consumers an enriched and seamless online communications experience across all devices – desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.

Commenting on the announcement Mr. Arun Tadanki, Managing Director, Yahoo! India said “Online communication tools are an important part of people’s lives—whether they’re connecting with their friends and family, sharing pictures and videos, or keeping up on news across various networks. With an increasing number of new Internet users in India using email or messenger as a primary mode of online communication on both PC and connected devices, a faster, more engaging and safer Yahoo! Mail Beta and Yahoo! Messenger Beta will significantly enhance their experience.

Yahoo! Mail Beta offers:

Yahoo! Mail Beta

· Communicate faster and do more – Designed from the ground up to provide blazing fast performance, this new version will be at least twice as fast for most people around the world.  Yahoo! Mail Beta also speeds up tools that allow people to be more productive with the time they have, by more easily finding messages from contacts or using third-party applications directly within the inbox.

· Stay connected to social networks – As a central destination for social experiences from across the Web, Yahoo! Mail Beta lets people view and share updates from Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter, and beyond. Additional features include enhanced IM and SMS capabilities for seamless chatting and texting from within mail.

· Stay protected from spam – Independently verified as the world’s #1 email provider in protecting users from spam, Yahoo! Mail Beta uses Yahoo!’s global cloud computing infrastructure to further Yahoo!’s anti-spam efforts and provide an even safer mail experience.

· View photos and videos right from the inbox – Automatic slideshow features mean people can easily see photos and videos from sites like Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube from right within their email messages.

· Search through mail with ease – A new mail search tool leverages Yahoo!’s wealth of search science and technology to help people quickly find the right emails.  New search refinement features allow users to easily navigate, sort, and narrow search results by sender, attachment file, date, or folder location.

During this Beta period, Yahoo! will continually update and add new features to Yahoo! Mail and Messenger Beta.  All users can choose to switch between Yahoo! Mail/Messenger Beta and the current versions of Yahoo! Mail and Messenger. To get the new version, search on Yahoo.com for “Yahoo! Mail Beta” or visit http://in.features.mail.yahoo.com  and for Yahoo! Messenger visit http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/beta/win

Yahoo! Digital Innovation Award

Yahoo! India presented the Digital Media Innovation award to Mindshare at EMVIES 2010 organized by the Advertising Club Mumbai.  The Digital Media Innovation category recognizes excellence, originality and uniqueness in the digital medium. The coveted award symbolizes Yahoo!’s ongoing commitment towards redefining the art of advertising by enhancing the creative canvas online and providing opportunities for brands to create a stronger connect with its consumers.

Nitin Mathur, Senior Director Marketing, Yahoo! India said “Marketers with strong understanding of their existing and future consumers are aggressively adopting digital advertising. The “Yahoo! Digital media innovation award” recognizes the best in class digital media work in India. We are committed to encourage such talent across the industry. We congratulate Mindshare team on their great work.

Yahoo! will also sponsor 2 people from the winning agency in this category to attend ‘Spikes Asia” – A summit for creativity, learning and recognition of Asia Pacific’s best work in advertising,” Nitin added.

Speaking on the great show put up by the agency, Madan Sanglikar, Principal Partner – Invention and head of digital, Mindshare said, “This is the 5th year in a row that Mindshare has dominated the digital awards at EMVIES. This year has been special since all the shortlists have been Mindshare. It clearly shows Mindshare’s focus on innovations in emerging media. The recognition from Yahoo! is the icing on the cake.”

As an industry leader with 73% reach in Internet market, industry leading targeting tools and vast creative canvas, Yahoo! helps advertisers leverage the power of digital advertising with its unique combination of Science, Art and Scale.

Yahoo! India is celebrating the true spirit of creativity and innovation in the industry and reiterating the growth of digital media ecosystem. Previously, Yahoo! India has instituted the Yahoo! Big Idea Chair at the Advertising Club Mumbai’s flagship Effies event, which recognizes agencies for their creative ideas and integrated campaigns. Yahoo! India has recently commenced ‘Fresh Fridays’, a session to educate creative and media agencies on the digital medium.

Yahoo

Yahoo! India is proud to announce the ‘Digital Media Innovation’ Award at EMVIES 2010 to be held on August 27, in association with The Advertising Club Bombay. Among other categories, this award specifically celebrates the spirit of creativity and innovation in the digital advertising medium.

Yahoo! is committed to redefining the Art of advertising by enhancing the creative canvas online and provide opportunities for brands to create a strong emotional connect with consumers. Yahoo! continues to engage with creative agencies who play a critical role in evangelizing the digital medium.

Mr. Nitin Mathur, Senior Director-Marketing, Yahoo! India said, “Yahoo! is committed to educate the advertising fraternity, bring global best practices and promote digital evangelists in the industry. With millions of Indians online, this medium offers a unique platform for brands to engage with consumers. We strongly believe that there is a lot of work, understanding and expertise that agencies are bringing in, which needs to be encouraged and supported.” He added, “The Advertising Club Bombay is the most recognized platform of the Indian advertising sector and we are committed to partner with platforms like this to accelerate the growth of digital medium. EMVIES helps us inculcate confidence and belief amongst the Indian advertising fraternity to deliver the best and showcase the benefits of digital advertising.”

Sunil Lulla, Chairperson, EMVIES Committee, said, “EMVIES 2010 is all about celebrating the true spirit of creativity and innovation in media industry. We are pleased to associate with Yahoo! India for the Digital Media Innovation Award, which is a reiteration of the company’s commitment in enabling the growth of the digital medium ecosystem. This year too we have seen an increase in the response on the entries and the work on the Digital category.”

Previously, Yahoo! India has instituted the Yahoo! Big Idea Chair at the Advertising Club Bombay’s flagship Effies event, which recognizes agencies for their creative ideas and integrated campaigns. Yahoo! India has recently commenced ‘Fresh Fridays’, a session to educate creative and media agencies on the digital medium.

Yahoo

Continuing its commitment to be the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced new product integrations that continue bringing the best social experiences from across the Web to Yahoo! consumers around the world.

“More and more, people rely on social sites to share and discover information that matters to them, making Yahoo! uniquely positioned to provide people with all of the mainstream methods of content discovery – social, search, communications, and editorial,” said Cody Simms, senior director of Social Platforms and Yahoo! Developer Network (YDN) at Yahoo!. “Starting with Facebook, we are bringing all of these elements together to give people one simple, trusted place to share information and connect. We think this offers great benefit to people across the web, and it’s key to helping Yahoo! extend our reach and increase engagement.”

Today’s announcement covers:

• Facebook Integration — Yahoo! has reached an important milestone in its partnership with Facebook. Starting this week, people who use both Yahoo! and Facebook can link their accounts and view and share updates with friends across both networks. People who connect their accounts can consume their Facebook News Feed on the Yahoo! homepage and in Yahoo! Mail and other Yahoo! sites and services. Additionally, people who create and share content on Yahoo! sites – including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Flickr, and many Yahoo! entertainment sites, such as omg!, Yahoo! TV, and Yahoo! Movies – can easily share their actions with friends back on Facebook. Additional integrations will be ongoing.

• A Refresh of Yahoo! Profiles — Launched in October 2008, Yahoo! Profiles has allowed people to manage their identity and activities across Yahoo! from a central location. Yahoo! has refreshed the experience to make its privacy settings easier to use and to give people a central dashboard to manage what they share on Yahoo! from the external social accounts and apps that they have linked to Yahoo!, starting with Facebook and with others to come later this year. Yahoo! Profiles has been renamed Yahoo! Pulse to better reflect its broader ability to manage Yahoo! settings, privacy, and account links. The updated experience is available at http://pulse.yahoo.com.

“From news to sports to entertainment, Yahoo! sites provide ideal experiences to share with friends,” said Ethan Beard, director of Facebook Developer Network. “By integrating with Facebook on a global scale, Yahoo! is building upon an already valuable brand to give people easy ways to share the content they enjoy on Yahoo! with their friends on Facebook.”

Social and Yahoo! – Recent Milestones

Over the last few months, Yahoo! has been weaving the best social experiences from across the Web into the Yahoo! network to create more personally relevant online experiences for consumers worldwide, using its global cloud computing infrastructure. Upcoming and recent milestones include:
• Zynga Partnership- Later this year, Zynga, the company behind hit social games such as Farmville and Mafia Wars, has agreed to integrate its games into the Yahoo! Application Platform (YAP), making them available to people throughout the Yahoo! network.
• Koprol Acquisition- The recent acquisition of Koprol extends Yahoo!’s social, mobile, and local offerings and focuses on the intersection of location, community expertise, and mobile experiences.
• Yahoo! Updates “Firehose”- Earlier this year, the Yahoo! Updates firehose API — which aggregates social updates from Yahoo! and other sites across the Web and makes them easily available to publishers and developers — was rolled out.
• Citizen Sports Acquisition- Strengthening Yahoo!’s overall social strategy, the recent acquisition of Citizen Sports brings the world of sports to Facebook and mobile devices through innovative applications.
• Facebook Contacts Integration- Yahoo! Mail launched import contact functionality from Facebook into Yahoo! Contacts so people can build a more robust online address book.
• Facebook “Like button”- Facebook users who visit Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Sports can now easily “like” items such as sports teams or stock quote pages and share those actions with friends on Facebook.
• Twitter Partnership- Earlier this year, Yahoo! announced a global partnership to integrate Twitter’s real-time social experiences across Yahoo!. Yahoo! Search results already draw from the full stream of public tweets, and the broader agreement is scheduled for implementation later this year.
• Developer & Publisher Solutions- A suite of social APIs and services enable publishers like the Huffington Post and thousands of others to leverage the power of the Y!OS social platform via partnerships with JS-Kit Echo, Meebo, Gigya, Jan-Rain, among others. More information is at http://developer.yahoo.com/publisher.

Yahoo! is deeply committed to privacy – not just as a written policy, but as a fundamental consideration applied to each and every Yahoo! site and service. Yahoo! offers simple controls so that everyone can change who sees their updates, or turn off their updates stream at any time. To find out more, go to Yahoo.com and search for “Yahoo! privacy settings” or visit http://pulse.yahoo.com/y/settings.