While the spotlight is only now really focusing sharply on this badly-written law, SOPA first attracted criticism months ago. Back in November, a letter [PDF] was sent to four high-seated U.S. politicians in the Senate and House of Representatives. It was signed by nine Internet behemoths: AOL, Google, Facebook, Ebay, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo!, and Zynga. In said letter, the companies said they “were concerned that [measures proposed by SOPA] pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job creation.” They wanted SOPA to be pulled down. They saw it as ham-fisted and harmful, and they were prepared to speak out about it.

Many of us found the united stance of these companies heartening. The Internet’s meanest gunslingers had rode into town to help the little guys. So why, as we enter SOPA Blackout Day, have so many of those outspoken tech firms delivered such limp-wristed protests?

Check the sites of those who signed that November 2011 letter, and anti-SOPA sentiment is all but invisible. AOL, Yahoo!, LinkedIn, Zynga, Ebay: at the time of writing, none of these have a single syllable about SOPA anywhere on their front pages. Twitter also skirts the issue, with CEO Dick Costolo even calling the shutting down of sites “foolish.” Mozilla does mention SOPA in a blog post linked on its front page, though it’s well below the fold. Next to all of these, Google’s response – an anti-SOPA Google Doodle and a link to a petition addressed to Congress – looks positively revolutionary.

Tellingly, Wikipedia (which didn’t sign the aforementioned letter, and hey – doesn’t answer to shareholders) is the only online giant to stage an effective protest, blacking itself out for 24 hours. It’s a powerful move from a site that remains the fifth most popular in the world, and it will have an effect. It is joined by Reddit, and then a further clump of middle-sized sites and companies, such as BoingBoing and the Cheezburger network. The gesture is appreciated by opponents of SOPA, but there’s a nagging feeling that the big boys, the heroes who signed that November letter, have let the side down.

There’s another reason the relative inaction of bigger sites is disappointing. Sites such as Reddit and BoingBoing are far more likely to be visited by educated readers, people who already know about the sinister SOPA. Temporarily closing a site like Reddit or BoingBoing is a ballsy move, and will justifiably win admirers, but it feels like these few bold sites are preaching to the choir.

I am convinced more courageous action from the Internet’s big players could have shut SOPA down for good. Imagine if Facebook had closed its doors: 800 million users shut out in an instant. Imagine if sites like Yahoo!, AOL, and Twitter had yanked the shutters up. More intriguingly, imagine the complete storm if Google had shut up shop for just a few hours. The coverage would be immense, surely a billion more people would be educated, and the signatures would weigh in the tens of millions. SOPA (and its ugly sister PIPA) would be dead in the water. All in return for a few hours of downtime.

As it is, the pusillanimous reaction of these big sites means SOPA will now be able to retreat to the shadows and bide its time. It will be tweaked, refined, and will likely return in the future, insufficiently diluted. SOPA Blackout Day was an opportunity for the web to truly stand as one and deliver the killing blow to an unreasonable, poorly conceived law. SOPA will be back. Next time, let’s hope a few more giants deliver actions as well as words.

[Op-Ed] Why the Internet Giants Have Let SOPA Protestors Down is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s been a long drawn out melodrama but word is that it’s official – Jerry Yang has called it quits by resigning from Yahoo’s Board of Directors and any other positions that he held within the company. Not only that but he has resigned from the Boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited.

Using the old excuse of “he’s off to pursue other interests” it really shouldn’t come as any surprise that Yang has exited stage left now that Yahoo has hired Scott Thompson as CEO and rumors of the company looking for buyers are being floated throughout the tech blogosphere.

Here is the press release from Yahoo announcing his resignation:

Yahoo! Announces Resignation of Jerry Yang

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today announced that Jerry Yang has resigned from its Board of Directors and all other positions with the company, effective today. In addition, Yang resigned from the Boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited, effective today.

In a letter to the Yahoo! Board Chairman Roy Bostock, Yang wrote:

“My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.”

Yang co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in 1995 with David Filo and served as a member of the Board of Directors since March 1995 and as Chief Executive Officer from June 2007 to January 2009. The Company went public in 1996.

“Jerry Yang is a visionary and a pioneer, who has contributed enormously to Yahoo! during his many years of service,” said Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board. “It has been a pleasure to work with Jerry. His unique strategic insights have been invaluable. He has always remained focused on the best interests of Yahoo!’s stakeholders, including shareholders, employees and more than 700 million users. And while I and the entire Board respect his decision, we will miss his remarkable perspective, vision and wise counsel. On behalf of the Board, we thank Jerry and wish him all the very best in his future endeavors.”

Bostock concluded, “We appreciate Jerry’s comments and share his enthusiasm for the company’s prospects. With Scott Thompson leading an outstanding team of Yahoos to deliver innovative products and an engaging customer experience, Yahoo!’s future is bright.”

“I am grateful for the warm welcome and support Jerry provided me during my early days here,” said Scott Thompson, Yahoo!’s Chief Executive Officer. “Jerry leaves behind a legacy of innovation and customer focus for this iconic brand, having shaped our culture by fostering a spirit of innovation that began 17 years ago and continues to grow even stronger today. Jerry has great confidence in the future of Yahoo!, and I share his confidence in the enormous potential of Yahoo! in the days ahead.”

Good luck Jerry and maybe it’s time to take a real vacation eh.

via Engadget

Jerry Yang calls it quits at Yahoo and Alibaba – we have the press release is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yahoo continues on the decline and this time it’s showing when it comes to search. New search numbers from comScore show that Microsoft’s search engine Bing is now in second place for the U.S. search market. Google, of course, is still number one.

The findings were from month to month. From November 2011 to December 2011, Bing only gained 0.1% market share which put it at 15.1%, however, Yahoo dropped from 15.1% to 14.5%, a 0.6% drop in just one month.

Google has been the top dog in the U.S. search market for quite a while now. They’re still the go to search engine and had 12 Billion requests in December which worked out to a whopping 65.9% market share. Quite the lead having over four times the share of Microsoft’s search engine.

Via USA Today:

“Other research firms track the Internet search market. But comScore’s numbers matter the most to industry analysts and the companies trying to attract queries so they can make more money from the ads that appear alongside the results. Google’s dominance of online search is the main reason it has established itself as the Internet’s most profitable company.”

With the news of Bing surpassing Yahoo, one could assume that means they’re doing well financially as well, though that doesn’t exactly mean that in this case.

“Pursuing Google has come at a huge cost for Microsoft, which still makes most of its money from the Windows operating software and other software it sells for personal computers. Microsoft’s online division, which is anchored by Bing, has suffered operating losses of about $7 billion since June 2008.”

Bing Beats Out Yahoo, Now Second Place To Google In U.S. Search is a post from: The Inquisitr

Tom Hanks’ long-awaited and oft-delayed sci-fi animated series Electric City will debut on Yahoo in four minute segments.

When all is said and done approximately twenty episodes of the show will debut online and each will premiere in the spring.

According to the Associate Press the show deals with an apparently peaceful city in a post-apocalyptic world that is dealing with relevant social issues that affect us today.

According to Yahoo’s head of original programming:

“On the surface, the Electric City is utopia and under the surface, Electric City is secrets and heavy-handed state control,” and  ”This is perfect for a lean-forward audience who likes to utilize the medium of the Internet.”

The Tom Hanks produced sci-fi series is the first scripted original programming to arrive at Yahoo. In the past the company has worked to secure mostly reality series and news summaries however they recently built a New York based studio in the hopes of extending their offered content.

Along with working on the project for several years Hanks will provide the voice for one of the characters.

Yahoo will make the new series available both online and through tablet based devices.

Will you be tuning in to see what Tom Hanks has in store for fans of the sci-fi genre?

Tom Hanks Sci-Fi Series ‘Electric City’ To Debut On Yahoo is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo is on the hunt for new board candidates to replace “possible outgoing directors”.

Citing sources “familiar with the matter”, WSJ says that Yahoo hired a third-party executive search firm, Heidrick & Struggles, to assist in the search. The search is reportedly aimed at replacing Chairman Roy Bostock and “directors who have been on the board for a long time”.

The news follows the recent appointment of Scott Thompson, the former president of PayPal, as Yahoo’s new CEO. Director Patti Hart, the leader of the search team for potential Yahoo board directors, also headed up the search which led to Thompson’s appointment.

If Yahoo’s looking to get itself out of the rut it’s currently in (to put it mildly), replacing its board members is a fantastic place to start. As Business Insider points out, the current board is responsible for hiring Carol Bartz as CEO, and is also responsible for the 100 days it took to find a new CEO after everyone realized, well, how terrible she was. And that’s just naming but a few of their transgressions.

Yahoo likely has a long way to go before they get out of their current bind, but it’s clear that they’re serious about making the appropriate changes to get themselves back on track, even if it means cutting some (good) fat. They’re off to a good start, at least.

Source: Wall Street Journal

[Image credit: Shutterstock]

Yahoo searching for new, less incompetent board members is a post from: The Inquisitr

Over the last several years, Yahoo has had a bit of a rough patch. The problem according to many industry experts was the lack of leadership and vision. While that may be the case, Yahoo announced the hiring of Scott Thompson today, the President of Paypal, one of the World’s largest online payment processors.

The goal is to bring the struggling company back to the forefront and start innovating once again.

What Scott Thompson had to say:

“What happens in the next five or the next ten years is hard to imagine. I expect Yahoo will be part of that,” Thompson said. “We’ll be back to innovation, back to disruption. You’ll see a great series of products.”

While all this talk of innovation and disruption is great, let’s not forget the fact that there’s a long way to go to get back to the “glory days” so to speak, and make Yahoo a better contender in the search marketplace.

“When Thompson takes over as Yahoo CEO and a member of its board on Monday, he’ll have a colossal challenge on his hands. Yahoo remains a fixture on the Internet, with 700 million unique users visiting each month, but it’s ceded initiative–and new revenue–to newer rivals such as Google and Facebook. And with Yahoo’s parade of CEOs in recent years, the company has to be suffering from reorg fatigue.”

It is a big challenge, but hopefully this is a step into the right direction. Change needs to happen and it’s now or never.

Yahoo Hires New CEO, Looks To Make A Comeback is a post from: The Inquisitr

As a person who basically routes their entire life through the internet- professional, personal, lifestyle- one of the things that gets me agitated about the whole SOPA brouhaha is how little the average web user is concerned with the ostensible end of the internet as we know it.

The few outside communities like Reddit who are aware of even the existence of SOPA don’t really seem to comprehend how seriously it could impact even basic web use, and many worryingly seem to believe that the delayed passage does not mean- in the words of a Daily Kos writer- that the bill is “favored to pass.” (Which, you guys, it still is.)

The continued failure of the bulk of web users to realize the threat SOPA poses means that the few who understand the impact need to do everything in their power to wake the web up to its imminent potential destruction. And it seems that some of the biggest entities are considering a “nuclear option” to get users active, to spur political action and maybe- just maybe- convince lawmakers to ignore special interests and ditch SOPA.

AOL, eBay, Facebook, foursquare, Google, IAC, Linkedin, Mozilla, OpenDNS, PayPal, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo! and the Zynga Game Network are all members of an organization called the NetCoalition, and there is said to be chatter about shutting off the sites for a time to drive home the message that a future with SOPA sucks for everyone. Daily Kos quotes:

When the home pages of Google.com, Amazon.com, Facebook.com, and their Internet allies simultaneously turn black with anti-censorship warnings that ask users to contact politicians about a vote in the U.S. Congress the next day on SOPA, you’ll know they’re finally serious…

“There have been some serious discussions about that,” says Markham Erickson, who heads the NetCoalition trade association that counts Google, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo as members. “It has never happened before.”

Scarily, not even the action proposed is guaranteed to stop SOPA or the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), but it would be a hell of a newfangled protest and could be a political game-changer.

Are you concerned about SOPA?

SOPA-Opposing Web Giants Consider ‘Nuclear Option’ to Thwart Law is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Yahoo Comedy Channel will soon hit the internet and to kick things off, Yahoo has enlisted the help of Bill Maher. A special Bill Maher stand-up special will air live, and free, on Yahoo on February 23rd.

Maher said:

“I’m excited to be doing something new in bringing a live stand-up show to a web giant like Yahoo. It is my goal to make people say, “Oh, no he di’nt” in every medium on earth.”

Reuters reports that the Yahoo Comedy Channel, which will be part of Yahoo’s new Screen Portal, will feature several original comedy shows. Seth Morris from “Step Brothers” and Mike O’Brien, a lead write from “SNL,” will both be involved with developing new shows. Yahoo will also collaborate with sites like Funny or Die and Electus to fill out the programming on the Yahoo Comedy Channel.

Bill Maher‘s show, “CrazyStupidPolitics: Bill Maher Live From Silicon Valley” will be held at the San Jose Performing Arts Center and on February 23rd. If you can’t make it out to the show, you’ll be able to watch it live and for free on Yahoo.

Here’s a clip of one of Bill Maher’s stand-up routines.

Erin McPherson, VP and head of video at Yahoo said in a statement:

“Bill Maher’s special is a groundbreaking event, not only for Yahoo! and Bill, but for the internet as the first ever, live, free broadcast online. We are focusing on fresh, original voices like Bill and our other original programs with the Yahoo! Comedy Channel to continue to provide our consumers and advertisers with the best premium content on the Web.”

Will you be watching Bill Maher’s stand-up on Yahoo? Do you think this is a groundbreaking event?

Bill Maher Stand-Up Show to Launch Yahoo Comedy Channel is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yahoo hasn’t exactly had the most stellar performance over the past several years, but the company’s recently started making a go at setting things straight – like the firing former CEO Carol Bartz back in September, for example.

Another step that Yahoo apparently deems necessary to get the company out of its over 30-month rut is shutting down four of its entertainment websites. The company announced today that movie and television blogs The Projector and The Set are getting axed, as well as gossip site The Famous and music blog The Amplifier.

Despite the shutting down of four of its sites, Yahoo insists that its coverage of all things entertainment-related would not be affected. Sibyl Goldman, vice president of Yahoo Entertainment, told TheWrap in a statement:

“We’re continuing to invest in original content and expert voices on the entertainment topics the fans want most such as awards season, first looks at blockbuster movies and red carpet fashion.”

A few of the casualties from the batch of closures include high profile writers such as Deadspin founder Will Leitch, former Defamer editor Mark Lisanti, Courtney Reimer and Lindsay Robertson.

“As was just announced, Yahoo has decided to let @YahooProjector shuffle off this mortal coil. It’s a damn shame: We were having such fun,” wrote Leitch in a tweet.

Lisanti also remarked on the news, saying: “Yeah, so: Yahoo’s shutting down our blogs. (Oh, and us.) Couldn’t be more honored and proud to have worked with such talented people…”

Source: Reuters

Yahoo shutting down four of its entertainment websites is a post from: The Inquisitr

Over the past several years, Yahoo has been struggling to remain relevant after Google walked right over the company, handily taking the top spot for everyone’s search engine needs. Couple that with a now vacant CEO position, and it would appear that Yahoo is in a bad way.

Yahoo isn’t about to let their woes get in the way of moving forward, however – today the company launched a new app for mobile devices aimed at strengthening Yahoo’s brand by displaying content from Yahoo’s content partners by way of a sleek, magazine-style app.

Called Livestand, the app displays content from Yahoo’s array of top content partners based on the user’s interests. Not only is the content catered towards a person’s interests, the ad system Yahoo is using takes into account a user’s interests as well, setting up a potentially powerful advertisement platform for advertisers to go after users with specific interests.

The app is currently available for the iPad, and Yahoo says that an Android version should be made available within the first half of next year.

In addition to the unveiling of Livestand, Yahoo also launched a new iPad app called IntoNow. The app determines what television program the user is watching based on the sound, and then allows the user to share what they’re watching on their social network of choice, or look up more information on the show and find related content.

via ZDNet, WSJ

[Image: Yahoo via ZDNet]

Yahoo unveils new mobile apps is a post from: The Inquisitr

When it comes to the online world and music you got to admit the music industry trade groups like RIAA and ASCAP are tenacious, stupid but tenacious.

Recently ASCAP has been trying to convince the courts that streaming or downloading of music from digital music lockers like Yahoo and Rhapsody constituted a “public performance” and as such companies like these needed to pay an extra licencing fee meant to go to the songwriters.

In the first decision by a district court ASCAP came out the winner as the court also came up with an extremely convoluted formula that involved all the revenue from the offending companies. This meant that companies like Yahoo would have had to pay some of its search revenue to ASCAP – explain that one.

Lucky for Yahoo and Rhapsody an appeals court overturned the ruling and in the process noted that a download does not constitute a public performance. Well obviously ASCAP wasn’t overly happy with the decision and appealed to the US Supreme Court.

It was announced today that the Supreme Court will not hear the case which means that the lower appeal court’s decision will stand and ASCAP can go back home with its tail tucked between its legs.

Finally some sense from the courts on what should have been common sense to begin with.

via Techdirt

US Supreme Courts says music downloads are not public performances is a post from: The Inquisitr

The new partnership was announced this morning on “Good Morning America.”

Ross Levinsohn, executive vice president of Americas at Yahoo! said:

“Yahoo! is committed to building the richest set of premium and personalized content experiences for our users. Our deep collaboration with ABC News further strengthens Yahoo! as the No. 1 online news source, greatly enhancing our already robust news content. ABC News and Ben Sherwood’s vision is completely symbiotic with ours; together we can create highly engaging experiences for more than 100 million users a month that will set the standard for the industry.”

The New York Times reports that ABC has struggled to find an online presence. This new partnership with Yahoo! will bring ABC’s content, including videos from “Good Morning America,” to a built in audience of more than 100 million viewers every month.

Yahoo! and ABC are already taking advantage of the new partnership. Yahoo! has been advertising an exclusive interview between ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos and President Obama. The video of the interview will be live-streamed on both ABC.com and Yahoo.com.

ABC will also be producing three new online shows for Yahoo!. “Newsmakers,” which will see Stephanopoulos talking with weekly guests, “Around The World” with Christiane Amanpour,” and “This Could Be Big,” a technology-focused series by Bill Weir.

Here’s a video about the new partnership.

The New York Times reports that Yahoo News is currently No.1 with 80 million unique visitors a month. ABC draws about 20 million unique visitors a month.

What do you think about the Yahoo! and ABC partnership?

Yahoo! and ABC Create ‘Online News Alliance’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Jack Ma, CEO of Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. says he’s very interested at the prospect of acquiring internet company Yahoo, Inc.

When speaking at Standford University on Friday Alibaba’s CEO told the audience that buying Yahoo has come up on several occasions as prospective buyers have visited with Ma. At this time Alibaba is not revealing who those prospective buyers might be.

Since firing Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz the company’s board of directors have come under fire to replace themselves or sell the company to a more competent management firm. In a late September email company founder Jerry Yang told employees that a possible acquisition would take at least several months to complete if a suitable buyer was revealed.

It should be noted that Yahoo owns a 40 percent stake in Alibaba and Ma in the past has made his disgust with much of the company’s management known, revealing at one point that he wanted to buy back the rest of his company from the one-time internet darling.

At this time however the search for a new CEO is still underway at Yahoo while Chief Financial Officer Time Morse plays the part of interim leader for the group.

Do you think Alibaba Group would make a good home for the content company? Given their complete lack of innovation and expansion during the Carol Bartz era I’m beginning to think that any new ownership that offers to buy the company would be a welcomed change for shareholders and Yahoo site users alike.

Alibaba CEO Says He Would Like To Buy Yahoo is a post from: The Inquisitr

Major League Baseball (MLB) and Yahoo! announced the debut of MLB.com Full Count, a new online video offering that would allow fans to follow live MLB action throughout the remainder of the regular season.

Starting next year, MLB.com Full Count will cover the entire regular season and will expand its distribution to mobile and tablet devices.

Expressing his aspirations for the partnership with MLB, Ken Fuchs, Yahoo! Media Network vide president, said:

“This product continues our seven-year relationship with MLB.com and builds on our leadership as the No. 1 general sports site online. MLB.com is one of our most innovative partners, and they have delivered a product that will provide avid baseball fans a fast-paced daily destination to follow their teams and the biggest games, players and moments as well as unique video and integrated solutions for our advertising partners.”

MLB.com Full Count features live look-ins to key plays and pivotal moments and in-progress video highlights from around the league, as well as statistical data and historical footage relevant to the day’s action. Additionally, fans can pause the live action or navigate back to content from earlier in the video stream to catch up on events from earlier in the day. MLB.com Full Count also includes an embedded Twitter feed for tracking MLB.com insiders, Yahoo! baseball reporters, expert analysts choosing upcoming live looks and social media activity buzzing around live MLB games.

The new offering doesn’t talk about any pricing. So, is this free? What happens with MLB.tv, the paid service offering of MLB? Also with Yahoo! naming this new offering, Full Count, it can only mean one thing in baseball for both batter and pitcher: this is make or break.

It’s “Full Count” for Yahoo! is a post from: The Inquisitr

How do you search? If you are like the majority of people in the United States, you probably use Google. Yep, Google is still the number one search engine by a large margin, but new data released by ComScore today shows that the search engine giant is losing a little steam.

But Google isn’t loosing too much steam. Google still accounts for 64.8 percent of core search traffic, which according to ComScore includes “partner searches, cross-channel searches and contextual searches.” That number is just .3 percent down than Google’s score in July.

Still, Google’s small dip is something that both Yahoo and Bing can be proud of. Yahoo! was able to increase its traffic for the second month in a row. Yahoo! accounted for 16.3% of searches in August, which is .2 percent increase from July. Bing is still slightly behind Yahoo! with 14.7% of search traffic, but Bing is also seeing some growth. Bing saw a .3% growth in August.

ComScore writes in its report:

“Americans conducted 19.5 billion total core search queries in August (up 1 percent). Google Sites ranked first with 12.5 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.6 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.6 billion.”

Google is still the front-runner by far. But Yahoo! and Bing are starting to catch up. Of course, those aren’t the only search engines in the game. The ComScore report shows that Ask.com is still getting a fair amount of traffic. Ask delivered more than 500 million searches in August. AOL is still a factor as well, but the former internet giant accounts for just over 1% of search traffic.

Is Google your go-to search engine? When was the last time you used AOL or Ask.com to find what you were looking for?

Google Slips in New Search Engine Study While Bing and Yahoo! Grow is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has been fired and like a bad relationship between two high school kids she was told of the break-up over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board Roy Bostock.

According to Bartz:

“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board.”

The termination comes after Chairman Roy Bostock and co-founder Jerry Yang finally decided 30 months of steady declines was enough. During her time at Yahoo the site has failed miserably to break into the mainstream video streaming arena and has watched market share continually shrink against Google and the relatively new Bing.com search engine.

Throw in awful financial results, a near complete lack of innovation and declining advertiser interest and it’s easy to see why the company would toss Bartz to the side, even without naming a new CEO or interim-CEO to helm the organization.

In the meantime rumors are escalating that several big investors and equity firms are interested in forming some type of deal with the former #1 search engine, possibly leading to a takeover in the near future.

After news that Bartz was fired shares at Yahoo were up by 6% in after-hours trading.

Do you think Yahoo made the right decision in firing Carol Bartz? I personally don’t think they could do much worse and some new, hopefully more innovated blood could help the company find a sustainable focus.

You know who won’t be calling Carol Bartz to offer their condolences? Michael Arrington.

Yahoo Finally Fires Carol Bartz After Years Of Declines is a post from: The Inquisitr

An unnamed company is said to be after Hulu for an acquisition and according to the Company Town blog by LA Times that company is none other than Yahoo.

According to reports the offer wasn’t solicited by Hulu however it does have company officials for the streaming video service considering offers from other heavy hitters in silicon valley.

The possible acquisition comes right after NBCUniversal had to give up their seats on the Hulu board in order to complete their Comcast merger.

Is the timing of the possible acquisition by Yahoo meant to coincide with the Comcast/NBC merger? I sure would like to think so.

[Rumor Mill] Yahoo Attempting To Purchase Hulu is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’ll admit it- I have a strong prejudice against certain email address domains and even occasionally try to convert people still using undesirable domains.

I don’t know what this says about me (I’m sure it’s not entirely positive), but it seems that the email domain attached to your address at least strongly correlates to some specific profiles. Hunch.com gathered demographic data on 70,000 people, and drafted some general illustrations of what email addresses say about users. The gold standard indicated was firstname.lastname@gmail.com, Vice president of marketing for Hunch Kelly Ford explained:

“It makes it easier for people to remember your name, plus it’s more professional than something that mentions your favorite brand or has a series of numbers… Just like you would carefully pick out clothes to wear to an interview, you want to choose your e-mail domain with the same precision and think about the impression you want to make.”

Email snob fist bump, Kelly. Ford also expounded upon the common threads found surrounding certain domains. GMail users, the study indicated, tended to be more “wordly” males, who were thin, young and have gone places and done things. GMail users also tended to be liberal, childless, prefer digital to physical media (MP3s to CDs) and probably spend a lot of time in coffeehouses talking about locally sourced tomatoes. Okay, I added that last part.

Hotmail users, on the other hand, were found to be more likely suburban females of “average build,” who still live with mom, have a pessimistic attitude, and like “contemporary fiction” and desserts. Users with Yahoo addresses tended to be overweight females ranging up to the age of 49, who, by the general description given, were not at all worldly and frankly, kind of slovenly. AOL users were- is this surprising?- the bottom of the worldliness barrel, as well as older and fatter than all users of the other domains included. (The Oatmeal called this a while back.)

Basically, what you can take away from this is stop using AOL for email if you haven’t already. Christ. Also, if you haven’t jumped on the GMail bandwagon, it’s probably a good idea to try to claim at least part of your actual name for professional use.

Are you judgmental about email address domains? Would you trust someone with your business if they’re emailing you professionally from an AOL account?

Study says email domain stereotypes really do bear out is a post from: The Inquisitr

Here’s a bunch of students missing their bus somewhere in San Francisco because Yahoo! installed a damn touch-screen videogame in their bus shelter. While giant video displays in bus shelters have been around for a few years now, this is the first time I’ve seen a fully playable game.

The name of said game is Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby, and it’s even got a multiplayer mode. Yahoo! put these bad boys in twenty San Fran shelters, letting commuters compete against other bored people at a different bus stop.

There are four simple games to play, and results are updated in real-time, with various cross-city neighborhoods going head-to-head. These games are being taken down on January 28th, at which point the neighborhood with the most points gains … er, nothing actually a deep sense of unified satisfaction. Yeah.

If you’re a San Franciscan who’s interested, here’s where you can play.

See also: Holycrapawesome: China planning giant buses that cars can drive under (bus-related, so, err, yeah, sorta works)

[Yahoo!, via Kotaku]

San Francisco bus shelters get giant touch-screen videogames is a post from: The Inquisitr

ComScore today updated their Facebook and Yahoo measurements, revealing that Facebook has overtaken Yahoo to become the most trafficked site worldwide.

Facebook managed to bring in 648 million unique visitors to the site, while Yahoo fell 18 million short at 630 million users visited.

It should be noted that ComScore lumps together “groups” sites and does not count individual URLs, which means Microsoft with their sites takes the overall number two spot.

Facebook Now Beating Yahoo In Worldwide Traffic [ComScore] is a post from: The Inquisitr