News/Announcements Blog Posts

A few weeks ago, Yahoo! launched a brand marketing campaign called, "Be a Better ________" which was designed to inspire people to become better at whatever interests them and, in turn, explore how Yahoo! services can get them there. We hope Yahoo! users are inspired to fulfill their passions.

Here at Yahoo! we're taking our own advice and, as a result, have created the "Be a Better Planet" program to promote environmental dedication and to help affect climate change. The program invites everyone to participate in making a better planet, by doing one of three things: visiting Yahoo! Green and taking the "Green Pledge" to commit to lowering carbon emissions; contributing to the growing collection of knowledge and advice about environmental issues, by joining the conversations at Yahoo! Answers; or proactively looking for opportunities to live a greener life by performing "green" searches on Yahoo! OneSearch. Based on the total number of points earned for each green action, participants will receive a free energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulb and contribute to their hometown's overall ranking for a chance to win a fleet of hybrid taxis for their entire city.

For more details on how you can help "be a better planet," click here.

Anne Edwards
Yahoo! Search

We recently returned from our annual rendezvous at SES New York and, like always, learned a lot from our webmasters. The 'Robots.txt Summit' generated some healthy discussions and support for adding a tag to parts of a page that do not relate to the main content, such as navigation, menus repeated across the entire site, boilerplate text, or even advertising. We heard what people were asking for so we did a little homework and are now happy to introduce the 'robots-nocontent' tag.

This tag is really about our crawler focusing on the main content of your page and targeting the right pages on your site for specific search queries. Since a particular source is limited to the number of times it appears in the top ten, it's important that the proper matching and targeting occur in order to increase both the traffic as well as the conversion on your site. It also improves the abstracts for your pages in results by omitting unrelated text from search result summaries.

To do this, webmasters can now mark parts of a page with a 'robots-nocontent' tag which will indicate to our crawler what parts of a page are unrelated to the main content and are only useful for visitors. We won't use the terms contained in these special tagged sections as information for finding the page or for the abstract in the search results. Note: Using a "nocontent" tag to mark explicit sections of content is not considered "cloaking" because all of the content on the page is available to protect the relevance of the results (unlike "cloaking" where we may be served content that is different from what visitors see).

So for example, the header and boilerplate on Yahoo! Answers might be useful to visitors, but it's probably not helpful when searching for this particular page. The 'robots-nocontent' tag allows you to identify that for our crawler in order to improve the targeting and the abstract for the page.

Applying the "class=robots-nocontent" Attribute:
Here are a few examples of how to apply this attribute for various uses and different syntax options:

<div class="robots-nocontent"> This is the navigational menu of the site and is common on all pages. It contains many terms and keywords not related to this site</div>

<span class="robots-nocontent"> This is the site header that is present on all pages of the site and is not related to any particular page</span>

<p class="robots-nocontent"> This is a boilerplate legal disclaimer required on each page of the site</p>

<div class="robots-nocontent"> This is a section where ads are displayed on the page. Words that show up in ads may be entirely unrelated to the page contents</div>

We're rolling out an index update tonight for this change. As usual, you'll see some changes in ranking along with shuffling of the pages that are included in the index. Let us know what you think and share your thoughts on other forms of support you'd like to see down the road on our suggestion board.

Update: Addressing some comments and questions, with regards to links, the 'robots-nocontent' does not in any way affect how links are treated. All links will continue to be used to find targets and will carry attribution to the target if they do not have the 'rel=nofollow' tag on them, whether or not they are inside a 'robots-nocontent' section.

We deploy various algorithms and mechanisms to understand your website and pages including headers, navigation, footers, etc. However, using this and other markup such as the 'rel=nofollow', you can ensure we have more information to understand your site correctly.

On standards, we would be happy to make this into a microformat and are already reaching out to that community. We chose this mechanism because we saw that it was compatible with existing standards and microformats and that makes it easier to gather broader support, including from the other search engines.

Priyank Garg
Yahoo! Search

Normally our posts on the Yahoo! Search blog include new product launches, Yahoo! Search weather reports and feature the occasional guest blogger. But today we wanted to tip our cap to our brand marketing team, who just launched a new Yahoo! advertising campaign, "Be a Better _____." Over the next few weeks you'll see some TV spots highlighting how Yahoo! Answers and Yahoo! oneSearch (our new mobile search offering) can help you be a better whatever you want to be. Last fall our brand marketing team's "Garden" spot was rated the third funniest commercial in the U.S. We here at the search blog and Greg Sterling over at Search Engine Land seem to think this year's batch is pretty funny as well.

So if you want a quick break from a Monday morning, check out the ads and hopefully you'll get a quick laugh before you get back to Outlook / PowerPoint / Excel or whatever a Monday morning brings to you.

Raj Gossain
Yahoo! Search

Today we'd like to announce the next progression of Upcoming.org, Upcoming.yahoo.com.

Yep, it's official, we have moved into our new home inside Yahoo!, so from this point forward you'll be able to login to your account with your Yahoo! ID. For you Upcoming old-schoolers, please don't fret, all of your friends and settings are saved.

We also used this transition as an opportunity to implement several new ideas and enhancements that Upcoming users have shared with us over the last few months:

• Our redesigned home page highlights popular local events and surfaces the community's picks for the best happenings in your backyard each day. It also shows your friends' events and recommends conferences, meetings, parties, and such, just for you.
• The homepage, event pages and venue pages feature event photos from Flickr -- so you can see what happened and who showed up, or share your own photos for the world to see.
• You demanded better support for locations around the world, so we've delivered that. It's powered by the same geographical database used by Flickr and Yahoo! Search Marketing. It supports local neighborhoods, too.
• We've added more events from our growing community of musicians, artists, freaks, and geeks, combined with the depth of Yahoo! Local's events coverage.

We haven't forgotten about our amazing users, the community that makes Upcoming great. Not only will you get an old school badge to represent you on Upcoming, but we're throwing in a t-shirt, too. For old school users, we're giving away hundreds of tees to celebrate our new home, so tell us your size and we'll get one off to you (while supplies last).

In the meantime, check out this Upcoming post for additional details, give it a try and please continue to send us your ideas and thoughts for ways we can make Upcoming better.

The Upcoming Team

I tend to use the same online shops over and over again for convenience. I don't like having to enter my shipping, billing and credit card information multiple times, and using the same shops means I have fewer passwords to remember. Additionally, there's peace of mind knowing my credit card info isn't being scattered across multiple merchants. The downside of this behavior is pretty obvious: I rarely get the lowest price on things and I often have to wait longer to receive an item when my go-to merchant is out of stock.

For these reasons, today I'm personally very happy to announce that we have formed a partnership with PayPal, the most widely accepted checkout service on the web. We are integrating PayPal into Yahoo! Search, enabling people to checkout faster and with greater security when they make online purchases. Beginning today, when you search for a product on Yahoo! Search you will see little blue shopping cart icons next to some of our merchant listings. Those shopping carts identify merchants that accept PayPal:

The ability to quickly locate PayPal merchants will save you some time because the PayPal checkout system remembers all of your personal information, providing you (and me) with the convenience of a single username and password, as well as a consolidated look at your transaction history so you can view all of your purchases and track each items' shipping progress.

The Yahoo! Search Marketing blog has a great post up today about what this partnership means for advertisers and web merchants. We hope the PayPal integration makes your shopping experience faster, safer and more convenient on Yahoo! Search.

Tim Mayer
Yahoo! Search

The AIIM Conference & Expo, one of the largest annual gatherings of information management professionals, is taking place next week in Boston and we'll be there! The Yahoo! Search team, along with IBM, will be co-leading a SuperSession presentation entitled "Beyond Traditional Search: Unlocking Value from Web and Enterprise Information."

With search functioning as the dominant method for finding and accessing information today, it was inevitable that web search and enterprise search would join forces. We'll be discussing some new developments in the search space that enable companies to extract more value from their business data.

Specifically, we'll be talking about how web search can be used on top of enterprise content management to increase relevancy, and how tagging, collaboration and social networking can add value by leveraging expertise inside and outside the organization.

Panel Details:
IBM/Yahoo! SuperSession
Beyond Traditional Search: Unlocking Value from Web and Enterprise Information
Tuesday April 17, 2007
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM ET
Boston Conference and Exhibition Center, Room 52A/B

Stop by and visit Ariel Seidman from Yahoo! Search if you have any questions. Hope to see you there!

Yahoo! Search

We just took a step deeper into the linguistic mire that is the Internet, and launched a Tagalog interface for our Philippines search site. Users can access the new interface through a language toggle on the regular Philippines site or pull it up directly at pht.search.yahoo.com.

Tagalog (known in its standardized form as Filipino) is one of the official languages of the Republic of the Philippines. It's estimated that upwards of 40-60 million people worldwide speak the language, so it was a natural extension to create this interface. While Yahoo! has always had a lot of Tagalog content in our search index, this interface creates a new way for our Filipino users to access all of the information.

Find a Tagalog-English dictionary by searching for "diksyonaryong tagalog-ingles." Or, get a map of the Philippines by doing an image search for "mapa ng pilipinas." To learn what American Idol contestant Jasmine Trias is up to now that she is a big star in the Philippines, search for "jasmine trias kanta."

Give it a try. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments below.

Salamat!

Raymond Flournoy, Linguistic Product Manager
Yahoo! Search

Over here at the Yahoo! Search blog, we haven�t said much about the new advertising platform, code-named Panama, that�s been under development for some time. That�s not to say that we haven�t been looking forward to its official arrival � actually, it�s quite the opposite. We�ve followed the sentiment of Terry Semel and the YSM gang and waited for the perfect time to join in.

Today Yahoo! announced the launch of its new ranking model, which will improve the way in which ads are ranked on Yahoo! Search. Unlike the old system for ad ranking, which was essentially a �pay for placement� model, the new model takes into account both advertiser bids and ad quality, including user click feedback, resulting in ads that are more relevant to a user�s query. What does this mean to you? When you search on Yahoo! you will see an improved search results page with more relevant ads that makes it easier for you to find exactly what you want.

The new ranking model is a big step for Yahoo! that improves the search experience for both advertisers and consumers. Advertisers will be rewarded for creating more relevant ads and thus get better customer referrals. And the consumer will get a faster, more rewarding search experience.

This is just the most recent of many improvements to Yahoo! Search you can expect to see over the coming months.

Take it for a test drive, try it out and let me know what you think.

Tim Mayer
Director of Product Management
Yahoo! Search

Buying a house is all about location, and proximity to good schools is one of the big factors in choosing where to live. Today we launched nationwide schools search on Yahoo! Real Estate. Users can search and browse local schools via an interactive map interface, and refine and sort their search by school district, distance, grade level, or school type (e.g. public, private, charter).

We partnered with leading non-profit, GreatSchools.net, for detailed school information, statistics, parent reviews, and links to test scores and related content.

Each school detail page also features a neighborhood map that leverages the Yahoo! Local API to plot nearby grocery stores, parks, restaurants and other local businesses with user ratings and reviews to help users get a better feel for the neighborhood.

Please let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Thanks!
Brian Rothenberg, Yahoo! Real Estate

Look Ma, My Own Search Engine!

It?s always great to help a friend. A friend of mine who is a diver wanted a specialized search engine for his website focused on diving. At around the same time, an engineer at Yahoo! built a prototype that made building specialized search engines a snap. Now, whether you have a blog or website about diving, gaming, crafting, or anything in between you can create a search engine tailored for your users.

With Yahoo! Search Builder you can create a custom Web search engine by selecting a set of trusted sites to search across or you can tune the search algorithm to the topic of your choice. Beyond Web search, Search Builder includes Site search and News search.

Then generate the code you?ll need to add your search engine to your site. You also have control over the look and feel of the search box and search results page. Voila! Instant search engine!

Managing your search engine

We?ve created a basic suite of tools to help you understand your search traffic. With the popular search module, you?ll discover hot searches your users are interested in. With user and traffic reports, you?ll be able to monitor the growth of your search engine.

We look forward to your comments and feedback. Let us know what new features you would like us to add.

In the meantime, check out these cool search engines on diving and gaming. Try searching for "caves" on the diving search engine and you?ll find great spots for cave diving. Similarly, try "NFL" on the gaming search engine and you?ll find the new NFL game.

Lingxian Ding
Yahoo! Search

How time flies...

I just realized that it's been a while since I've made an appearance here. I've been spending more of my time on the Yahoo! Developer Network where a lot has been going on behind the scenes.

The developer network started roughly a year and a half ago with some search related web services and a BSD Licensed Software Development Kit (SDK). It quickly grew to encompass more and more of Yahoo! services and continues to do so.

Some of that behind the scenes work was an effort to update the SDK with newer libraries as well adding support for entirely new languages: Lua, for example. All told, the package now includes:

• C#
• Flash (ActionScript)
• Java
• JavaScript
• Lua
• Perl
• PHP
• Python
• Ruby
• VB.NET
• Widgets (JavaScript + XML)

If you'd like to track what's going with our APIs and services (search and more), check out the Yahoo! Developer Network and our blog.

Jeremy Zawodny
Yahoo! Developer Network

Today we are introducing a new search technology called Livesearch on AlltheWeb. It helps you find what you want faster, by showing search results instantaneously as you type. Livesearch also shows related queries, spelling suggestions, and enables you to use keyboard shortcuts to help you find the right query faster to get to the results that you want. As some of you might be thinking, this is an evolution of Instant Search and other search technologies we�ve been working on.

Personally, I hope this will level the playing field between my wife and I. You see, even though I work for Yahoo! Search, she has a PhD in communications research, and is clearly the better searcher. When we look for the same topic, she always finds the right answer before I do.

But now, the tables will be turned! Livesearch has that uncanny knack of figuring out exactly what is on my mind. As soon as I start to type a query, Livesearch suggests the right query and shows me the results page before I even press a search button. For example, I wanted to look for �mission impossible 3�. Just as I finished typing �mission�, Livesearch is already recommending �mission impossible 3� as the search, and then instantaneously shows me the results page. I am looking forward to surprising my wife with my new found speed next time we search together. Heh.

Give the product a try and then use our feedback form and message board to let us know how we should evolve and improve the Livesearch product for you in the future. Since it's a beta, we will be making improvements as we go. For example, we�d like to support Safari, so drop us a line if you�d like to see that.

AlltheWeb is a search destination that has its roots as a showcase of new and innovative technology - for example AlltheWeb was the first site to roll out the calculator functionality within the search box. The site will remain true to its roots as we continue to introduce new technologies there in the future.

Thanks!
Don Chennavasin
Yahoo! Search

I'd like to introduce you to someone - or perhaps I should say "reintroduce" you, since you've probably known him for years. (Sure, he's had a little work done, but who among us couldn't use the help of a pixel-painting designer to freshen our look now and then?) This is the Babel Fish: mascot, star, and proprietor of the oldest free, on-line translation service on the web, babelfish.altavista.com.

Today Babel Fish is hanging his shingle here at Yahoo!, debuting Yahoo! Babel Fish across our properties worldwide. For those of you new to Babel Fish, you can visit babelfish.yahoo.com and translate text or web pages across your choice of 38 language pairs, such as English => Korean, Dutch => French, and Greek => English. It's the same convenient, free, easy-to-use resource that people have relied on for years, and now we've added more features, such as:

• Two more language pair choices: Simplified Chinese into Traditional Chinese, and Traditional Chinese into Simplified Chinese;
• Yahoo! Search Translator Beta, currently available in Germany and in France, allowing users to translate queries and search for web pages, images, and videos in multiple languages simultaneously;
• Tighter integration with Yahoo! services such as:
  • Yahoo! Search - With one click, use your text translation result to search the web
  • Yahoo! Toolbar - Add the Babel Fish button to your Yahoo! Toolbar to enable one-click translation of web pages
  • The Yahoo! network - links to Babel Fish from Search Shortcuts, the Yahoo! Services pages, and other pages in the network for easy access.

Raymond Flournoy
Linguistic Product Manager

P.S. To help us celebrate the relaunch of Yahoo! Babel Fish, why not mix up a cocktail we�re calling "The Babbling Fish"!

The Babbling Fish

4 parts vodka
2 parts Blue Cura�ao
1 part key lime juice
a spash of Midori (approximately 1/2 part)

Shake all of the above with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Top with brut champagne.

Decorate with a scoop of mango sorbet. Enjoy!

The color is a nice aquamarine and the champagne gives your mango fish some bubbles. And by selecting ingredients carefully you can enjoy some Russian (vodka), Dutch (Cura�ao), Japanese (Midori), and French (champagne) flavors in one glass--all languages that we translate on Babel Fish!

We're in the midst of buying Dogg (a Web 2.0 cross between Digg and Dogster "Where Every Dog Has A Webpage"), and you know what? It's a lot of work. Buying up Web 2.0 companies here and there in piecemeal fashion gets old after a while.

It's a lot of work on our Corporate Development team, the Public Relations team, and really isn't that efficient. Plus, it just encourages VCs to pitch us the next "great" company in their portfolio, thereby creating even more work.

Man, the acquisition treadmill is tiring... And expensive!

So after some long discussions with Tim O'Reilly, Michael Arrington, and other Web 2.0 experts, we've decided to just buy Web 2.0.

All of it. All the people, the round cornered boxes, crazy business ideas, and pastel colors.

That's right, just like a trip to Costco, we're buying in bulk and expect to save a lot of cash.

Henceforth, "Yahoo!" will be synonymous with "Web 2.0."

We sincerely hope this will accelerate the move to Web 2.1 or even Web 3.0. This "Web 2.0" thing has gone on long enough.

(Oh, Tim. Sorry about having rename that conference.)

Just a quick heads-up. If you're in the Bay Area (or are exceptionally skilled at finding cheap flights here), drop by Yahoo! next Tuesday evening for another SDForum Search SIG. The topics this time are Tagging and Social Bookmarking.

As noted on the SDForum Search SIG blog, featured guests are:

• Joshua Schachter from Del.icio.us (and now Yahoo)
• Manish Chandra from Kaboodle
• Michael Tanne from Wink
• Kevin Rose from Digg

And Forrester's Charlene Li will be the panel moderator. Complete details are on the SDForum Search SIG blog.

See ya next Tuesday!

Jeremy Zawodny
Yahoo! Search

It's been another exhilarating year in the world of search. We've covered the search beat for over five years now and the buzz searchers create never ceases to intrigue me. It's something new every day, every week, every month, every year.

Predicting future buzz is folly, but as we head into 2006, looking back on the past year is a requirement. Without further adieu, we invite you to visit our look back at 2005's Top Searches. Britney Spears reclaimed her spot as the Top Web Search, and took home the same honor in our newest category, Top Video Searches. Searches for Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Asia were also top of mind. We're offering up the top ten searches in an array of categories and hope you'll find what we all searched for over the last 365 days both edifying and enjoyable.

Erik Gunther
Yahoo! Buzz Index Editor

P.S. While you�re ogling our domestic top searches, also check out the variety of Top 2005 search pages from Korea, Germany, Italy, Australia, Canada and France!

We will be making changes to the index tonight. You should see some changes in ranking as well as some shuffling of the pages that are included in the index. This update will be completed tomorrow (Thursday).

As always if you have any feedback for us about the new index please email: ystfeedback@yahoo.com. Please provide specific feedback that includes either:

1) Specific query terms where the results are good or bad.

2) Specific domains that you feel are either being under or over indexed.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Tim Mayer
Yahoo! Search

I've been a big fan of del.icio.us, the social bookmarking service Joshua Schachter created, for quite a while now. So much so that when Dave Taylor recently asked for "experts" to help explain What's so cool about del.icio.us?, I was glad to masquerade as an expert.

If you've heard about del.icio.us but never tried it or weren't quite sure what to make of it, read that article. I think it helps to demystify the cult-like following that many of us are part of.

The last question Dave asked during that interview was:

And so, is Yahoo interested in buying delicious and integrating it into the Yahoo offerings? :-)

I'd like to change the non-committal answer I gave to this: "Yes! And as of today, del.icio.us is part of the Yahoo! family."

As Joshua writes, the del.icio.us team will soon be working in close proximity to their fraternal twin, Flickr. And just like we've done with Flickr, we plan to give del.icio.us the resources, support, and room it needs to continue growing the service and community. Finally, don't be surprised if you see My Web and del.icio.us borrow a few ideas from each other in the future.

Welcome aboard!

Jeremy Zawodny
Yahoo! Search

The popularity of web search has changed the way we think about the Internet in some pretty odd ways. I've heard more than a few people struggling to answer a question who turn to their keyboard and proclaim, "I'll just ask the Internet�" while typing something into a search box.

Amazingly, that works in a lot of cases. When it comes to locating facts, such as the capital of India, web search rocks. But there are many times that keywords just don't cut it�times when you need to ask a question to a group of humans. You know, real people.

Personally, I usually just write up a blog post or use our internal "random" mailing list at work. It takes almost no time to send spam (err, I mean "email") to hundreds of coworkers who are willing to read and occasionally respond to seemingly random questions. But most people don't have ready access to such a group.

That's what Yahoo! Answers was designed for. We want to give anyone a place to tap the collective wisdom of the Internet for advice, recommendations, theories, jokes, ... whatever. Anyone can answer. It's free. And once your question is answered, you get to pick the best answer and the whole thread is archived and searchable. So in addition to getting answers, you're helping to add to the "the Internet's" collective knowledge.

Of course, it has categories for the questions, per category RSS feeds, notifications, and other goodies too. So if there's a topic you know a lot about or want to know more about, here's your chance to find a community of like minded people and spread the knowledge.

Jeremy Zawodny
Yahoo! Search

Today we released the Shoposphere and Pick Lists beta, plus enhancements to our core shopping search capabilities, which we hope you�ll try out during your holiday gift-giving spree.

The Shoposphere and Pick Lists are examples of social commerce. We believe the community of shoppers is one of the best sources for product information and advice. The Shoposphere is a place to discover interesting and cool products thematically arranged into Pick Lists by other shoppers. It�s always changing. It includes new lists in a �product stream� and highest rated lists which are a fun way to explore new products and trends. The Shoposphere will continue to evolve as a hub for other types of user-generated content.

Pick Lists are lists of products on any topic, and can include any of the 90 million products available through Yahoo! Shopping. With Pick Lists, users can share their knowledge about products they�ve researched for the benefit of the community. Anyone can view a Pick List in the Shoposphere, rate it, and comment on it. What we like most is that Pick Lists show off the 'long tail' of shopping search. It�s not just about digital cameras and iPods, but anything you can think of. You can peruse Pick Lists for such delights as fake food, denim leg warmers, and fuel cell experiment kits. And, we've also integrated the Yahoo! 360 social network into Pick Lists (and user reviews) so you can see if you�re connected to the creator of the content.

We�ve also done a lot to improve our core shopping search, starting with a new search UI with easier scanning of prices and product reviews. We've integrated deals into search results so that free shipping offers, rebates, and coupons are a click of the mouse away. My Lists allow you to easily save, organize, and share product lists. You can make multiple lists including wish lists for you or your friends or lists for researching products, etc. And these lists are easy to share with email and RSS or can be kept private. Finally we�ve launched a new product overview page that integrates editorial reviews, user reviews, product specs, deals and price comparison � all in one place to help you make informed buying decisions.

That�s it for now. Please check out the Shoposphere, build a Pick List, and tell us what you think of our shopping search capabilities. The beta is a first step and we plan on rolling out more and more features to make this the best experience possible. Look for tagging, search enhancements, more 360 integration, badges for putting a Pick List on your blog, and other surprises coming soon. We'd love your feedback on this.

David Beach
Product Manager, Yahoo! Shopping

Vivek Gupta
Engineering Manager, Yahoo! Shopping

We will be making changes to the index tonight. You should see some changes in ranking as well as some shuffling of the pages that are included in the index. This update will be complete by tomorrow (Monday) morning.

As always if you have any feedback for us about the new index please email: ystfeedback@yahoo.com. Please provide specific feedback that includes either:

1) Specific query terms where the results are good or bad.

2) Specific domains that you feel are either being under or over indexed.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Tim Mayer
Yahoo! Search

Today we're giving you a first look at the next generation of Yahoo! Maps which, we think, has a lot of features you're gonna like. We've really worked hard to make the product as intuitive as possible while building in some major upgrades in the interface, interactivity, and functionality. Have a look:

Aside from being far more interactive (click and drag!), there are some major differences we think you'll like.

1. Multi-point driving directions. Get yourself from point A to B and on to C all in one map.
2. Integrated Yahoo! Local. Includes our local search, a browseable interface, easy access to business ratings, reviews, and events.
3. The new overview map (in the upper-right hand corner) helps you get your bearings. The little grey box representing your big map is even drag-able. Use it to move around rapidly without losing context.

In addition to the major features, we added a lot of small touches, including address auto-complete from your Yahoo! Address Book, using your home area or most recently used address to start, and the mini-map and left panel, which can be hidden when you want to focus on just the map. Oh, and the maps are easy to bookmark too. There's no URL obfuscation.

We've got your Flash and AJAX here...

Our launch wouldn't be complete without developer APIs. We've got stuff for hard core hackers and map enthusiasts alike:

• Simple API. To get a custom Yahoo! Map up and running with our Simple API you need only a text editor and a web site.
• JavaScript-based APIs for Flash or AJAX let you choose the tools you'd like. You can host the maps on your site and include any features you like. Grab an application ID and get started with Yahoo Maps APIs.
• Building Block APIs make a lot of the heavy lifting easy. You get features like geo-coding, Yahoo! Local, traffic information and map images.

To get an idea of what's possible, check out the sample applications on our developer network.

We hope you'll give our APIs a try and see how easy it is to develop applications with Yahoo! Maps. Don't forget to join the Yahoo! Maps developer mailing list to ask questions and participate in our developer community. And after you've built something cool, don't forget to show us what you've done.

Michael Lawless
Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

Vince Maniago
Product Manager, Yahoo! Local

We will be making changes to the ranking of our index tonight. I would expect that this update will be mild and quick compared to recent ones but will impact the ranking of some sites.

If you have any feedback for us about the new index please email: ystfeedback@yahoo.com.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Tim Mayer
Yahoo! Search

How many of you own a car? How many of you love your car? Is your personal identity expressed by your car?

For years, the Yahoo! Autos team has focused on helping car shoppers figure out which car to buy, how much to pay, and where to buy it. In working on this product every day, we know that researching and buying a car represents only a small fraction of your "automotive life" -- the time you spend enjoying your car after you buy it dwarfs the few months that you invest in researching and buying your car.

As we thought about different ways to help people find, use, share, and expand their automotive knowledge, it was clear that we should broaden our site to serve people for whom cars are much more than transportation.

Today marks the beta launch of Yahoo! Autos Custom, a product for automotive enthusiasts - people who are crazy about their rides. If you've ever wanted to know how to fit twenty inch rims on your Honda, give your Charger a sick paint job or restore your '69 Porsche, check it out. See what others have done to their cars, connect with them, brag about what you've done, or just window shop.

In addition to connecting to other enthusiasts, we help you find additional information.

• Installer Search - We partnered with the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) to help you find local installers that can do modification work on your car. Find the top rated shops in your area, see pictures of their work, read user ratings and reviews, and get driving directions with embedded maps. This is the first time the SEMA database of installers has ever been available online.
• Car Enthusiast Search - We built a specialized search engine by crawling virtually all of the top car enthusiast sites to produce the most relevant search results for enthusiasts. Go right to the source of enthusiast sites. Try a search for "blazer" on our car search and compare that with web search and you'll see much more relevant results for one than the other.

Just as our team aspires day-in and day-out to empower users to make informed automotive purchase decisions, we hope our new offering inspires you to modify your car, to connect with other automotive enthusiasts, and to turn your dream car into reality.

We're just getting started in this space and hope that you will take a spin at Yahoo! Autos Custom. We look forward to your feedback!

Jerry De Soto
My Rides: Sticky Icky, Screwed & Chopped
Product Manager, Yahoo! Autos Custom

Evan Robinson
My Rides: Sheena
Technical Yahoo!, Yahoo! Autos Custom

Telly Chang
My Rides: Black Widow
Director of Marketing, Yahoo! Autos Custom

Thanks to those of you who dove in and tried it out the Video Search API / Video iPod example that I posted to the Yahoo! Search Blog last Friday.

Now we�ve got more new features to show you on Yahoo! Video Search. We've changed our search result pages to make it easier to find the videos you want, but also to help you learn more about other videos you might be interested in. Specifically, we've tightened up the default view of the product, now called the Grid View, to give you more information in the same amount of space.

We�ve also added a new List View that you can select at the upper-left corner of the search engine results page. In the new List View you�re able to see more text information describing your Video Search results, such as provider name, publication date, summary and/or transcript excerpt (when available), and more.

This is particularly useful when searching for news clips about Hurricane Katrina, where you can read a description to determine whether the clip is about the the cost of the cleanup or something else, as well as view it. Same for Bloomberg market reports. Try toggling between the views to see the differences and decide which is best for your needs. And expect to see more descriptions in the List View as we continue to uncover additional useful information about video available on the Internet.

In addition, you can view the Transcripts (when available) from the List View, view more clips from this site (for when you just want to see content from a single provider), and save it to My Web to keep a list of your favorite videos and share them with your friends.

The next time you're searching for video of news events, music videos, or the next web video microhit, try out our new features and let us know what you think by leaving a comment here.

Andy Volk
Product Manager, Yahoo! Video Search

In an offline world 80-90% of purchases happen within 8-10 miles of your home. We believe this will carry over into the online world and in an increasingly personalized internet, users should expect their search results to reflect their lives more precisely. Same for advertisers � they need to target users with more meaningful, relevant ads based on the user�s locality.

To that end, today we have signed an agreement to acquire local online search and advertising technology company, Whereonearth as part of our effort to provide consumers and businesses with the best internet experience possible.

Whereonearth�s very talented team of software engineers and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) experts have worked hard to develop sophisticated technology that contains a unique combination of global data and software algorithms that make local search possible. Together, we�ll be able to provide the most geo-relevant information across all of Yahoo!�s products and services.

With that, I welcome Whereonearth into the Yahoo! family. Keep an eye out for future implementations of this technology - you�ll soon find these enhanced services in search marketing, search, local/maps, mobile and personals.

For additional thoughts directly from the source, CEO Dev Patel, head on over to Whereonearth.

Bassel Ojjeh
Vice President, Strategic Data Solutions, Yahoo!

During Hurricane Katrina millions of people came to Yahoo! News for authoritative information. At the same time thousands of bloggers were posting first-hand accounts, photos, personal stories, and opinions. But without mainstream exposure, many important voices went unheard.

Today we've begun the integration of blogs in Yahoo! News Search. Now when you search on Yahoo! News you will see blog results as well as content from thousands of trusted news sites. The experiences and opinions published on blogs make a great addition to the mainstream news people read everyday. And major world events are further fueling the growth of blogs as platforms for anyone who wants to have a public voice. At times, even everyday bloggers beat the mainstream media to a story.

In addition to blog posts, we will also be including Flickr photos and links from My Web, tapping into a large grassroots media network. By bringing mainstream and personal media together we can offer a greater variety of sources and viewpoints to the millions of people who want to find out what�s going on in the world.

The search index we are beta testing currently contains content from a subset of blogs, but look for this to continue growing and ultimately include the 20+ million blogs from the blo.gs ping stream.

We're starting with News Search because we thought about all the places we could surface blog results on Yahoo! and Yahoo! News Search was the top of the list. Over time, expect to see more and more community created content (including Podcasts--see interview) appearing where they make the most sense.

Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Thanks,
Brian Stolte
Yahoo! Search Product Management

Cameron Marlow
Yahoo! Research Berkeley

Jeremy Zawodny
Yahoo! Technology Development

I'm finally able to talk about Yahoo! Podcasts, now in public beta. This new source for online audio programming uses Yahoo! Search to make it easier than ever to find and subscribe to audio content and listen wherever and whenever you want.

Chances are you're already tuned in to podcasting -- sipping from the fire hose of audio programming that's been pouring out onto the Net. From Harry Potter to the President, Coverville to the Bitterest Pill, Fantasy Sports-casting to food and wine reviews, NPR to NASA to Chinese language lessons -- there are podcasts about nearly everything. But with new shows popping up all the time, it can be a challenge to cut through the clutter and find content that's relevant and interesting to you.

Yahoo! Podcasts offers a comprehensive directory of podcast series and individual shows from across the Web, complete with detailed search results, most popular and highest rated lists, editorial picks, and a full collection of tools you can use. These community tools include ratings, reviews, and the ability to tag audio content, or view the tags that other people add. Why waste time on noise instead of signal �Yahoo! Podcasts can help you discover tasty stuff to feed your ears.

Our web-based player makes it simple and painless to listen right through your web browser. An accelerated playback feature (IE only) lets you "scan" a program at 2x speed to get the gist of it faster. You can use Yahoo! Podcasts with aggregators like iPodder (thanks to Andrew Grumet), with desktop media players like the Yahoo! Music Engine (the integration is beautiful!), iTunes, and with the latest version of iPodder, the Windows Media Player and even Winamp. Or, you can download the shows you want to any mp3 player, such as the iPod, iRiver, Dell DJ, Creative Zen, etc.

But wait, there's more ahead� We're already working on personalized podcast recommendations and friendly, easy-to-use tools so that anyone can create and publish a podcast or audio blog and share it with friends, family, coworkers, and the World Wide Web.

Needless to say, we eagerly await your feedback and your opinions. Please stop by and rate the podcasts you already enjoy. If you notice that we're missing something, you can submit a podcast feed URL here. The more you participate, the better it gets for publishers and listeners alike.

Yahoo! Podcasts beta is also available on Yahoo! Next.

Time to put your ear to the ground and listen to what the Internet is saying.

Lee Ott
Yahoo! Podcasts Team

A little over a month ago, our resident search guru, Reiner Kraft, blogged about contextual search with Toolbar, Messenger and Y!Q.  The idea of “searching without leaving the page you’re on” got us thinking; why not offer a simple and convenient way to search on the Web for more information about any topic, word or phrase in your desktop files and documents? As a result, we decided to make contextual web search part of Yahoo! Desktop Search

The next time you’re using YDS to search for e-mails, IM archives, contacts or documents, simply highlight some text within the preview pane and click the new “LiveWords” button  to start your search.  Selecting a word or phrase that you’d like to know more about will, as Reiner puts it, “automagically” present you with the most relevant results.

Thanks to your help and feedback, the latest version of Yahoo! Desktop Search is also no longer in Beta.  We’ve steadily been working on improving the core file, e-mail and document search capabilities and along the way we even managed to sneak in a new battery saver mode which defaults to index only when your PC is plugged in (Jeremy, we’re still listening).

Another round of thanks to all of our Beta testers and please keep that feedback coming…

Albert Lee
Sr. Product Manager
Yahoo! Search

If search engines are so smart, why do they give you millions of results when you type in "boston weather"? Why even ten, for that matter? Why not just one? Or better yet, why not just tell me what the weather is?

There are some very good reasons why search engines don't normally return just a single result. Sometimes you really do want to see results from multiple sources in order to get to the answer you�re looking for. Also, different words can have different meanings, any of which could imply a different intent on the part of the searcher and therefore warrant different kinds of results.

But sometimes there is one really good answer to your search. And that�s what led us to develop Instant Search, which went into beta today on our next.yahoo.com site. As you type your search into the Instant Search box, it checks to see if there is a single, relevant answer for your query. If there is, that single result instantly appears on the page, just below the search box in a kind of "speech bubble". You don't even have to hit the Search button or the Enter key, and you don't have to sort through pages of results (though of course that option is still available to you).

Although interactive "Ajax" Web applications like this one are gaining in notoriety, they�re still far from mainstream. Instant Search represents an experience that�s different from what most of us expect from a search engine, so it takes a little getting used to. But once you start using it, it's hard to stop. For example, in the past I would typically hit Enter as soon as I finished typing in my search, but after using Instant Search I now find myself pausing to look for the "bubble". And when I use other search boxes and an instant result doesn't appear, I feel strangely disappointed. I want my bubble! (Fortunately, you can add Instant Search to the Yahoo! Search homepage found at search.yahoo.com. That way, it�s always at your fingertips.)

The best way to really understand Instant Search is to try it yourself. You can go there now and try some of these examples:

• south beach diet (this one gives you three interesting results as you type)
• 701 1st ave sunnyvale (Yahoo!'s address; try your own address too!)
• san francisco giants scores (should be interesting to watch now that Barry's back)
• time in copenhagen (in case you�re planning a trip)
• katrina (Yahoo! News results are appearing because the hurricane is a top story right now)
• ninjas (do you want real ultimate power? I�m not sure I do...)
• convert 100 dollars to euros

Instant Search is still under development, so you can expect to see a few surprises along the way and some cool enhancements in the future, as well as answers to even more searches. But we wanted to share it with you as soon as we could and get your feedback.

http://instant.search.yahoo.com

What do you think?

Stephen Hood
Product Manager, Instant Search

On the heels of the release of Yahoo! Shopping APIs, we at Yahoo! Shopping have developed our own application based on those very web services. It's a great example of the innovation that can happen when building on our open APIs.

We're delighted to announce the availability of our new Shopping Search on Mobile. Yahoo! Shopping Search on Mobile (Beta) allows you to price compare product prices from your mobile phone, accessing our database of millions of offers.

Simply enter http://shopping.yahoo.com into your WAP 2.0-enabled browser, search for a product, and start comparing. Check your phone's user manual to see if it's WAP 2.0-enabled.

The Yahoo! Shopping APIs can be easily used by any developer. We're looking forward to many more cool and innovative sites and applications to be developed on top of these Web Services. Let us know if you've already developed something great, we'd love to see it.

Feel free to give us your feedback on this beta release. Get hacking!

Ben Strong,
Sr. Product Manager
Yahoo! Shopping

The Tech Buzz Game is back to test your mad prediction skillz for a second round. But first, many congratulations are in order to Rahulkul, Farmersckn and Zex, our first-round prize winners (subject to final verification), who walk away collectively with an Apple Mac Mini, Ipod, Ipod Shuffle, O'Reilly vouchers, and other swag, including the (not so) highly-coveted "I'm a Buzz Market Maven" t-shirt.

Round 2 features a number of new stocks, including Google Earth, iRobot Scooba, the decidedly droolworthy Kaleidescape, and a mini-concentration in open source technologies, including open source databases, licensing, and GUI toolkits.

If you're not familiar with the Tech Buzz Game, it's a fantasy prediction market for technology. Your goal is to predict what technologies people will be searching the web for in the future. You put your (fantasy) money where your mouth is by buying stock in the technologies you believe will be popular and selling stock in the technologies you think will flop.

Even if you never trade a single stock, the Buzz Game can be useful for tracking technology trends. For example, you can witness the rise of Google Maps, Ubuntu, and Ruby on Rails.You can even see that Gnutella/Limewire is the P2P system on the march, not BitTorrent. You can track your favorite stocks via the REST API.

The Tech Buzz Game is a joint effort between Yahoo! Research and O'Reilly Media. Markets in the game reflect a mix of companies, products, and technologies on O'Reilly's radar.

The game has two research goals: (1) to test whether the "wisdom of crowds" can foresee technology trends; and (2) to test out Yahoo! Research's new dynamic parimutuel exchange mechanism.

Registration is now open. Good luck and happy trading.

David Pennock & Bernard Mangold
Yahoo! Research

Ever wonder how to find the best pizza in Pacific Heights, or a great tailor in Tribeca? Tonight we unveiled our next generation Yahoo! Local, which is designed to make it easier for you to browse community content and search by neighborhood. With our new features and design, we showcase the recommendations from YOU throughout the site. After all, who knows better than you about your own neighborhood?

Start with our city pages, which we've built for every city, neighborhood, and zip across the US of A. Our new city pages highlight upcoming events, top user recommendations for restaurants and other favorite local spots -- all neatly plotted on a map of your city or neighborhood. On our search results pages, check out the "User recommended" refinement option to quickly see the best the area has to offer according to the community locals.

Maps are now incorporated throughout the site to be there when you need them but not get in the way when you don't. For instance, on our results page, hover over the small map to reveal a larger, interactive map with icons that link to the detailed listing record page. You'll also notice that we have the option to refine location by neighborhood in major cities and even support searching by neighborhood (see North Beach in San Francisco).

There are a bunch of other upgrades including comprehensive coverage of local events, a directory for browsing, recent history of searches and listings viewed, top searches in each city per week, more content culled from the web using YST, and the ability to search by phone number. And it's RSS enabled.

Of course, this is just the beginning, so please send over any feedback or enhancement requests so we can continue to improve. What you contribute to Yahoo! Local can make all the difference.

Brian Gil
Yahoo! Local

It�s hard to believe it�s been nearly a year since we launched the Yahoo! Search Blog. On this anniversary I thought this would be a good time to update you on some of what we�ve been up to at Yahoo! Search. If you are a regular reader then you�ve seen lots of posts over the past year highlighting what we�ve been working on:

• Vertical search � Local, Video, Audio, Creative Commons, Subscriptions as well as ongoing updates to Image Search
• Personal & social search � My Web and My Web 2.0
• Flickr
• Y!Q our contextual search technology
• Our award winning Yahoo! Desktop Search
• Open search APIs across all our verticals via the Yahoo! Developer Network

But you will notice we haven�t talked much about plain old Web search. You know, the one that gets used billions of times a month by people all over the world. We don�t blog about it as often as our other products, but since it is the foundation for everything we do it�s always top of mind. Since our first post on the search blog was about Yahoo! Search, I thought I would give you an update on what�s been happening.

As those of you who follow this blog know, I recently posted a weather report alerting you to material changes to our index. Since that post, we've seen some discussion from webmasters who have noticed more of their documents in our index. As it turns out we have grown our index and just reached a significant milestone at Yahoo! Search � our index now provides access to over 20 billion items. While we typically don't disclose size (since we've always said that size is only one dimension of the quality of a search engine), for those who are curious this update includes just over 19.2 billion web documents, 1.6 billion images, and over 50 million audio and video files. Note that as with all index updates we are still tuning things so you�ll continue to see some fluctuation in ranking over the next few weeks.

Ensuring you find what you're looking for is the true measure of search engine quality and something we strive for every day. We measure quality in terms of RCFP � Relevance, Comprehensiveness, Freshness, and Presentation and continue to work on improving those metrics. While we�re never satisfied, it is nice to see some of our efforts over the past year have been recognized � including winning the 5th annual Outstanding Search Service award from Search Engine Watch and our top position in the Search Engine Relevancy Challenge.

Going forward, I am most excited about the talent that we have on the team, including some notable new additions. Dr. Prabhakar Ragavan recently joined and is heading up Yahoo! Research Labs. We also just opened Yahoo! Research Labs � Berkeley and will be tapping into the world-class talent pool at U.C. Berkeley. Across labs and the Yahoo! Search team we will continue to explore new technologies in areas like information retrieval, machine learning, social search, and mobile search.

So what are you missing?

Chris Sherman over at Search Engine Watch wrote an article last week about the variance in search engine results among different providers. It was interesting to note how little overlap there is � nearly 85% of first page results are unique to one engine. Sort of makes you wonder what you are missing if you are stuck in a search engine rut...

Give us a spin at www.yahoo.com or search.yahoo.com and leave us a comment here to let us know what you think.

Tim Mayer
Yahoo! Search

It looks like online videos have rapidly become one of the biggest examples of the viral nature of the Web. Remember the Numa Numa clip that Andy Volk blogged about a while back? Since then I couldn't tell you the number of videos I've either received from friends or searched for and emailed myself. Here are some of my other favorites: Skating Dog and of course JibJab's Second Term Video. I'm a sucker for a short video clip and judging from the number of comments Andy's blogs always receive, so are a lot of other people.

We wanted to reward some of the best, funniest, quirkiest video clips out there so we created The Yammys - The Yahoo! Video Search Awards. The Yammys recognizes those fearless souls who give us stuff to search for on Yaho