hypnosec writes with report of the possible theft of up to 22 million user IDs revealed by Yahoo! Japan. That scale is massive, but, he writes, “According to Yahoo, the information that was stolen didn’t have passwords or any other information that would allow unauthorized users to carry out user identity verification.” A story at the Japan Times adds a bit more detail.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
We’ve all by now heard about how Yahoo is trying to get some “cool” with a supposed $ 1 billion purchase of hip blogging platform Tumblr, but it may be a moot point if Tumblr’s users fail to stick around post-sale. Microsoft and Facebook may be trying to make a move ahead of Yahoo, Tumblr may be inching ever closer to running out of cash, and (despite that) may not be afraid to play a little hardball. But here’s something you’re not hearing much about: Tumblr’s users are almost universally unhappy with the news that the site might get sold to Yahoo. And they may let their fingers do the talking, and the walking. Do a search on Tumblr for “yahoo” and you get a stream of distress, interspersed with the occasional bit of helpless resignation, and some calls for activism. The voices of reluctant acceptance (usually because of the aforementioned cash situation) or anything like positivity are few and far between. No outright enthusiasm. (Daddy!) See for yourself. It’s a problem that extends to some of Tumblr’s oldest users. “If Tumblr goes to Yahoo, I will seriously consider moving my personal blog to Medium, if that’s possible,” Alexia, co-editor over here at TC, told me. She’s had a blog on Tumblr since June 2009, and, while not part of that coveted 18-24 age bracket, is a significant representative of that other cadre of important users: digital influencers. “I don’t know exactly why, but my Tumblr is a part of my identity. And for whatever reason, I don’t want to identify with Yahoo.” Some have tried to start a petition, with a goal of 5 million signatures, although others are cynical about whether this will actually have any effect. User attrition is not something to be dismissed, especially when it appears to be underpinned by wider usage trends on the site. When I wrote a post in January about what might come next for Tumblr as a business (it focused on how it could make money; not how it might need to get sold because it doesn’t), I noted that in the prior month, December 2012, it had 167 million visitors and nearly 18 billion pageviews worldwide (Quantcast figures). The trend over the last six months are down, however: in the U.S. page views are down 21% to 5.3 billion, and uniques down 5% to 76 million. Worldwide the picture is better but still not growing: pageviews are down
TechCrunch
Yahoo has called a mystery press event in New York City on Monday afternoon, hot on the heels of rumors that it plans to buy Tumblr for US$ 1 billion.
Computerworld News
Yahoo’s board of directors will decide on an all-cash offer for the hip blogging site this weekend, AllThingsD reports. [Read more]
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The first rule of being cool is not telling people you want to be cool. Yahoo is not following this rule, with its M&A team in full pray-and-spray acquisition mode post-Marissa Mayer hire, hitting on everything that walks, or at least has traction.
Deals I have heard rumors Yahoo was trying to get into over the past couple of months: Foursquare (at an $ 800 million asking price). Path (at a $ 2 billion asking price). Pinterest. Hulu. Zynga. Daily Motion. And at a smaller scale: Gdgt. Wavii. Media Ocean (?). A spate of others. And now Tumblr. “Literally they talk to everyone,” said one person familiar with the matter on the matter.
An appeals court in Mexico has overturned an approximately US$ 2.7 billion judgment against Yahoo and Yahoo Mexico in a breach-of-contract suit concerning online directories.
Computerworld News
With rumors that Hulu may be looking for a new buyer, CEO Marissa Mayer allegedly meets with the video streaming service’s execs. [Read more]
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Yahoo's Flickr mobile app may be getting a completely new look in the months to come, as the company seeks to hire multiple iOS engineers to "radically improve" the photo-sharing site's app and attract new users, the company said in a recent job notice.
Computerworld News
Accel Partners is making a big talent announcement today, with former Groupon COO and Yahoo exec Rob Solomon joining the firm as a venture partner.
Solomon last served as Accel-backed Groupon’s President and COO. As AllThingsD reported, Solomon left the deals company in 2011.
TechCrunch
Still haven’t stopped laughing at Amy Poehler’s rap with Sarah Palin? Yahoo user will soon be able to watch episodes from all 38 seasons of SNL, CEO Marissa Mayer announced. [Read more]
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Get ready to say goodbye to another another batch of Yahoo products at the end of this month. As the company continues to streamline and focus its services, March 31st will be the last day of stand-alone existence for Upcoming, Yahoo Deals, Yahoo Kids, Yahoo SMS Alerts, Yahoo Mail and Messages for feature phones. Noting an aim to slim down to roughly 15 offerings from 75, as The Register points out, this follows a few weeks after the company nixed other services like its BlackBerry app. Additionally, if you’ve been hanging onto the old version of Yahoo! mail, you’ll have no choice but to switch to the new version by June 3rd. Yahoo! There’s not word on what we can expect next, although EVP of Platforms Jay Rossiter notes that cuts like these are needed so it can focus on the likes of its new Mail and Weather apps. You’ll find the details for each cut at the source link.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Register
Source: Yahoo
Yahoo has just appointed Tekedra N. Mawakana as its Deputy General Counsel and Vice President of Global Public Policy. Mawakana used to be the Senior Vice President of Pubic Policy and Deputy General Counsel at AOL, where she worked for around 12 years. At her new position, she will be working together with industry and
Yahoo is giving itself a bit of a makeover. Earlier this week it launched two new mobile apps for email and weather; now it's ditching numerous longstanding products, including Deals and SMS Alerts, in an attempt to sharpen its focus, the company announced Friday.
Computerworld News
This afternoon the folks at Yahoo have announced their intent to end services with Yahoo Deals, Yahoo SMS Alerts, Yahoo Kids, and the feature phone versions of Yahoo Mail and Messenger. While the smartphone versions of both Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Mail will (of course) continue to roll forward, both the feature phone versions and
The Yahoo Mail app extends its reach to the iPad and Android tablets, while a new Yahoo Weather app showers down upon the iPhone. [Read more]
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Yahoo's profits rose more than 30% in the first quarter, due to a variety of factors including lowered operating costs, though sales at the company declined.
Computerworld News
New submitter dolilmao was the first with the news of Yahoo’s first quarter results. From Techcrunch: “Yahoo just released its earnings report for the first quarter of 2013, with better-than-expected (non-GAAP) earnings of $ 420 million, or 38 cents per share. Revenue (excluding traffic acquisition costs) was flat compared to last year, at $ 1.07 billion. Analysts has predicted that the company would report revenue of $ 1.1 billion and 24 cents EPS. Wall Street normally evaluates Yahoo on an ex-TAC basis — including traffic acquisition costs, revenue was $ 1.14 billion, down 7 percent from last year.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Yahoo wants to accelerate its development of mobile products geared toward delivery of personalized content, CEO Marissa Mayer said Tuesday, as the company works to stay relevant in a world where smartphones and tablets are becoming dominant.
Computerworld News
Tech trade group whose members include Eric Schmidt, Marissa Mayer sends letter to House Intelligence panel commending its work on the controversial bill and expressing interest in added privacy protections. [Read more]
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The iPhone and iPad maker is said to be discussing a deeper partnership with Yahoo to get more of its services on iOS devices. [Read more]
CNET News
judgecorp writes “Seventeen year old Nick D’Aloisio has sold his smartphone app Summly to Yahoo for an undisclosed sum. The app — created when he was 15 — aggregates news stories by topic and condenses them for time-strapped readers. D’Aloisio and his team will go to work at Yahoo when the deal closes. From the article: ‘Summly was founded by 17-year old Nick D’Aloisio when he was just 15 from his home in London. The service works by sorting news stories by topic and condensing them into bite-sized chunks for time-conscious readers. The Summly application will be closed down and integrated with Yahoo’s existing range of mobile applications. D’Aloisio and the Summly team will be joining Yahoo as part of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Yahoo is considering acquiring video website Dailymotion, says sources. Such an acquisition would give Yahoo a popular piece of online video real estate, but nothing is guaranteed. The alleged acquisition is still in talks, and nothing may come of it. Dailymotion is owned by France Telecom-Orange, a telecommunications company. According to the sources, Yahoo is
First time accepted submitter voul writes “Iran is at it again. Taking a page from China’s playbook, Iran has moved to cut off illegal VPNs. ‘Quite aware of the censorship they face, many Iranians use proxy servers over virtual private networks to circumvent government restrictions and mask their activities,’ CNET reports. ‘However, officials now say they have blocked use of the “illegal” tool.’ Slashgear reports that users are ‘unable to access social networks like Facebook and Twitter, or use services like Skype to make phone calls. Along with the blocking of the VPNs, the Iranian government have also blocked access to Google and Yahoo.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The National Day of Unplugging is finally over, so go on and gather ’round your screen: It’s CrunchWeek time again! It was another action-packed week in the tech industry, so Leena Rao, Ryan Lawler and I had lots to talk about when we sat down together in the TechCrunch TV studio.
TechCrunch
It looks like the work-at-home program isn’t the only program Yahoo is shutting down. Yahoo is also planning on shutting down 7 other products that aren’t bringing in the kind of success Yahoo needs right now. Along with these products, Yahoo also plans on reducing their number of mobile apps from 60-75 to a measly
Yahoo, which is now officially a technology company, just announced a Google-like spring cleaning campaign. Just like Larry Page started shutting down a number of under-performing Google properties when he took over from Eric Schmidt, Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer is also in the process of shutting down a number of smaller Yahoo properties. According to today’s announcement, Yahoo will shut down its BlackBerry app, Avatars, App Search, Sports IQ and its Message Boards website on April 1st. In addition, it’s ending support for the Yahoo Updates API on April 16th. While it is shutting down the Message Boards website, individual message boards on sites like Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports will remain active. BlackBerry users will be able to continue to use the app, but it won’t be made available for download after April 1st. If you have no idea what all of these products are, you are probably not alone. Yahoo Avatars, for example, as the name implies, allowed you to build you own avatar and then export it to Facebook and Twitter. This is Yahoo’s second round of closures, following the demise of a number of Yahoo Messenger features at the end of last year. Yahoo Clues, which never made it out of beta, let you analyze search trends and features riveting content like a Top Trends leaderboard that told you who today’s most popular celebrities are. Virtually all of the other products Yahoo is shutting down were similarly underused, so chances are there won’t be a major outcry over today’s closures. As Yahoo EVP of Platforms Jay Rossiter notes in the announcement, the company is making these changes ” in an effort to sharpen our focus. By continuing to home in on our core products and experiences, we’ll be able to make our existing products the very best they can be.” Here is Yahoo’s full list of products that will get the ax next month: Yahoo! Avatars Effective April 1, 2013, we will no longer support Yahoo! Avatars across our properties. If you like your existing avatar and want to keep it, please go to the Avatars download page, pick a picture size and format, and click the appropriate download button. Similarly, if you want to edit your avatar, you can download the image and then use a photo editing service of your preference. If you want to continue using your avatar with our products,
TechCrunch
After creating a ruckus for calling all of its telecommuters back into the office, Yahoo is trying to quell some of the furor.
Computerworld News
Struggling Web pioneer says in a brief statement that the criticized work-at-home directive is what’s best for Yahoo. [Read more]
CNET News
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is reportedly tossing conventional business thought aside and calling in telecommuters.
Computerworld News
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer thinks workers are more efficient and creative when they’re in the office. Is ending employee telecommuting a smart idea or not?
Computerworld News
“We need to be one Yahoo,” reads a memo reportedly sent to staff, so come June any existing work-from-home arrangements will be rendered null and void. [Read more]
CNET News
It looks like Yahoo’s homepage isn’t the only thing getting a revamp. Yahoo is also gearing up to revamp its entire working structure. In a memo released out to all of the employees who work for Yahoo, working from home will no longer be an option. That’s right, those who work full-time from home and
With Microsoft making a big push with its free email service Outlook.com, Google’s Gmail and Yahoo Mail suddenly have a serious new rival.
Computerworld News
Yahoo has signed a global advertising deal with Google that will result in Google ads appearing on some of Yahoo's websites, the companies announced Wednesday.
Computerworld News
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer says the company plans on a big comeback in the Internet search business, which means directly taking on industry giant Google.
Computerworld News
In her first TV interview since taking over as Yahoo CEO, Mayer shares her thoughts about the company and the future of technology. [Read more]
CNET News
With Marissa Mayer at the helm, Yahoo is continuing to flex its M&A muscles, with a special focus on startups with smart teams that have made well-designed apps. The latest target: Snip.it, the San Francisco-based startup that created a web application for clipping news articles and arranging them in a visually compelling Pinterest-like format. The deal, which has been rumored to be in the works for several weeks now, was first reported this morning by AllThingsD’s Liz Gannes and subsequently confirmed by both Yahoo and Snip.it this afternoon.
TechCrunch
Digital rights and privacy advocates have welcomed Yahoo's decision to provide its users with an option to enable HTTPS (HTTP Secure) for their entire webmail sessions.
Computerworld News
Yahoo completed its exit from South Korea service today after operating for 15 years in that country, reports Yonhap News Agency. This move also marks the first Asian market Yahoo is leaving.
TechCrunch
Following the news that Google dropped its Chinese music service, Yahoo also decides that it needs to adjust its “product strategy.” [Read more]
CNET News
The PayPal co-founder says Mayer’s inspiration was just one factor of a few that helped him make his decision. [Read more]
CNET News
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer eyes the app, according to All Things D. If true, the iPhone app would fit nicely with Mayer’s recent mobile-focused purchases. [Read more]
CNET News
Alliance to include original video content for both sites, as well as live streaming of events and integration of Yahoo’s fantasy sports platform. [Read more]
CNET News
Yahoo! has snapped up video streaming startup and Google+ Hangout rival OnTheAir, as CEO Marissa Mayer continues to cherry-pick tech to make the company more competitive against her former employer Google. OnTheAir works as an ad-hoc webcast and video chat service, allowing for impromptu broadcasts with dynamic switching between participants, similar to the Google+ Hangouts
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