Yahoo begins the rollout of its new user profile today, which marks the first tangible product release for the social part of the Yahoo Open Strategy, or YOS. The profile is one of the anchors (mail is the other) to Yahoo’s strategy of turning the site into one big social network.
…and, it doesnt work with my id at this point, some bug causes it to show in chinese. great!
from the Yahoo! Messenger Blog
Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 has officially launched as our newest version for Windows XP and Vista.
some of the features I worked on:
- Pingbox™: Introducing Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox, a new application that once embedded into your blog, website or social network page, lets visitors IM you anonymously (or they can identify themselves) without needing to download or even sign into Yahoo! Messenger. The good news is you’re anonymous too; visitors to your page never see your Yahoo! ID. Pingbox is great for giving your site/page/profile visitors a quick way to chat with you. I’ll do a full post on Pingbox later but in the meantime, go create your own custom Pingbox.
- Import Contacts wizard: Add friends to your Yahoo! Messenger contact list from address books you have on other online services like Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, Orkut…over twenty services in all.
- Yahoo! Updates: Keep up with your friends by checking their updates alongside their names in your contact list. If they Buzz up a story, update their profile on MyBlogLog or change their Avatar, you’ll know about it.
- Call forwarding & new voicemail delivery: Now you can forward incoming calls from Yahoo! Messenger to your mobile or regular phone (Phone Out account required). We’ve reworked voicemail too; new voicemails are delivered as MP3 attachments to the email address you specify.
Today, while I was taking part in a team-building go-kart race (I got second place), Yahoo! announced that it had inked a deal with Google.
The agreement will enable Yahoo! to run ads supplied by Google’s AdSense™ for Search and AdSense™ for Content services next to Yahoo!’s internally generated paid search and algorithmic search results.
Yahoo may also run Google-supplied ads on non-search Yahoo web properties, as well as on current members of its partner network. The agreement has a term of up to ten years: a four-year initial term and two, three-year renewals at Yahoo!’s option. It applies to Yahoo!’s operations in the U.S. and Canada only. Advertisers will continue to pay Yahoo! directly for clicks served by Yahoo! from Yahoo!’s Panama and Content Match marketplaces. Advertisers will pay Google directly for each click on Google paid search results appearing on Yahoo! owned and operated network or certain affiliate sites. Google will share a percentage of such revenue with Yahoo!.
In addition, Yahoo! and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services, bringing easier and broader communication to users.
As a follow-up to the Microsoft events, the advertising side of this deal was pretty much expected… but this IM thing… wow!
![[Aurora] Before and After](http://gaarf.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/before-aurora.gif)
On the Yahoo! Messenger blog, one can read:
we launched a brand new Yahoo! Messenger website this week. Same URL and products, just a new look and feel including a feature comparison chart across versions, and a new import contacts wizard that lets you add or invite friends to Yahoo! Messenger from your Yahoo! Address Book as well as other email services like Gmail, Hotmail, AOL and many more.
Indeed, after six month of hard work, and a last minute scramble to squash a mystery bug, we have released what has come to be known internally as Aurora, a complete redesign of all 29 localized versions of the messenger.yahoo.com website.
Credits where due:
Of course many more were involved, including QA, Ops, Marketing, IT, URL’s, BeanTrees, janitorial staff, Dr. Pepper, Runts, and Steve Ballmer.
Bravo to All !
And now for the obvious post: Anne and I are effectively married!
This has taken place on April 12th in Las Vegas. Yes, Elvis was there. All that could make it were welcome, but we both knew it was going to be a small committee and are fine with that since everyone is able to see the event ad-nauseam archived on the interweb. 
Official photos are available from the chapel photographer.
We have been back in California for a week now, and are only now starting to recover from our emotions. Luxurious hotel rooms with view on the strip have been slept in, Jewelry has been purchased and is now being sized, surprise parties have been thrown, champagne as been drunk(!), candid photos/videos from the gatherings in both the US and France have been exchanged, cards and gifts have accumulated… It has been a crazy ride, and we must now push forward in the administrative matters which triggered all these precipitations in the first place!
Special thanks to Pete and Sylvia for being there for us at this special time. Thanks to my mom for letting us do this our way and hosting the live video watching party. Thanks to Arnaud and Olivier for their pleasant last-minute arrival. Thanks to Ryan for the most relevant Hallmark card. Thanks to all at Yahoo! for being so flexible even in these turbulent times. And thanks to Elvis for making this such a great event!