Planet Yahoo!

Ask Mike: The FBI’s first wanted man

2010-03-17T05:52:08+00:00

Hey Guys,

Monday marked the 60th anniversary of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “Top 10 Most Wanted” list. Over the years, the list has hosted hundreds of dangerous criminals, from armed robbers to terrorists to murderers. But, who was the first bad guy to ever make the list? Was he caught? Was it even a “he”?

I visited the FBI’s official site, found a section on the agency’s history, and began my search. While the FBI is over 100 years old, the Most Wanted list didn’t start until 1950, after a reporter asked for “the names and descriptions of the ‘toughest guys’ the Bureau would like to capture.” The story created a lot of attention. Soon enough FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover started the official “Most Wanted” list. It’s very first member: Thomas James Holden.

Mr. Holden was indeed a very bad guy and well deserving of the FBI’s full attention. Wanted by law enforcement for the murders of his wife, her brother, and her stepbrother, Holden had also made a reputation for himself as half of the Holden-Keating gang from the 1920s and 1930s.

According to Time magazine, he was caught in 1951 in Oregon. Wikipedia mentions that he was nabbed thanks to a tipster who had read the article on the “toughest guys.” Holden died in prison in 1953.

The Most Wanted List is still remarkebly successful. Since 1950, 494 fugitives have been placed on the list. 463 of them have been caught or located. That’s a success rate of around 94%. Not too shabby. And not all of them were men. Vanity Fair reports that eight infamous women have made the list over the years.

The current “Most Wanted” list is available here. You don’t need government clearance to check it out for yourself. And, yes, showing the list to citizens really does work. 152 of the 463 arrests came as a “direct result of citizen cooperation.” Go get ‘em.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

2010-03-17T04:50:57+00:00

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh! (Happy St. Patrick’s Day in Irish Gaelic)

St. Patrick’s Day… the one day of the year, the entire world becomes Irish!

For many, March 17th simply means wearing green and lots of Guinness whilst celebrating with friends and loved ones. For others, including the millions of Catholics worldwide, the day takes on more of a religious significance.

This got me thinking, what is the history behind St. Patrick’s Day and how did it move from a being a secular day to a celebration embraced by the world? Perhaps you can help me out:

What is the origin of St. Patrick’s Day?

My own family are of Irish background, I myself am both 1st-generation Irish and descended from Irish stock, harking back to the days of convict settlement in Australia.

The photo to the left is the home my Great, Great Grandparents lived in, it is still owned and occupied by members of my family to this day!

We participate by attending mass, wearing green and spending time with our friends and loved ones. We celebrate life and are generally thankful for the blessings of family and good friends.

Do you have any particular traditions for St. Patrick’s Day? Leave a comment below or on the question above

Kate
Community Manager

Welcome to Our Flightmare

2010-03-17T01:53:16+00:00

by Mike Krumboltz

Air travel is never fun, but rarely can a flight be described as a true "flightmare." However, that's the word that's being tossed about for a Los Angeles to New York flight that took 16 hours with delays.

The Virgin America flight took place this past weekend, but it wasn't until a story ran on MSNBC that the searches took off. Web lookups on "flightmare" and "flightmare delay" both surged into breakout status.

The story, which MSNBC recaps nicely, involves angry passengers, surly flight attendants and, believe it or not, rationed Pringles. "One passenger was said to have suffered a panic attack and was escorted off the plane by police, while others had to wait." And wait and wait and wait.

Here's to traveling by train.

"Predators" Reboot Buzz: Watch the Teaser Trailer

2010-03-16T23:30:55+00:00

by Claudine Zap

Let's be clear. Adrien Brody is no Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sure, Brody's got an Oscar. But does he have the bod? Because he's going to need some serious bulk in his next movie, "Predators."
Find more "Predator" movies.

Ah-nold starred in the original way back in 1987, about an elite force sent to rescue hostages in Central America—while unknowingly being hunted by extraterrestrial life. (The flick not only stars the current governor of California, but the former Minnestoa gov, Jesse Ventura. Go figure.) The first of the series was a critical and box-office success. The follow-up sequels involving aliens and predators, the predalien hybrid, well, not so much.

This latest version, out this summer, is stocked with solid actors like Brody and Laurence Fishburne—and is produced by Robert Rodriguez (who gave us "Sin City," "Planet Terror," and also, inexplicably, the "Spy Kids" franchise.")

So, how will the newest "Predator" stack up? We're promised that it will be a reboot of the original, and not feel like the fifth or sixth in a long series. (The newbie director, Nimrod Antal, helps.) The basic storyline involves a bunch of cold-blooded killers who are recruited to an "uninhabited" planet. Turns out, it's a game preserve. And they are the game. (Yes, that's Adrien Brody's line.) Not that we know how it ends, but if history of the franchise is our guide, it usually doesn't go so well for anyone battling the predators. But hope springs eternal when the fate of the planet is at stake.

News of the teaser video introduced at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival caused searches on the movie to surge. "Predators preview" moved up the search box 140% in one day alone. Queries for the sci-fi flick also included "predators teaser trailer," "predators movie 2010," and "sxsw predators."

You can take a look at the sneak peek, introduced by Rodriguez himself. The full trailer will be out soon.

Getting Results Through Search, Pronto

2010-03-16T22:01:30+00:00

How Yahoo’s enhanced pricing structure helped make Pronto’s digital advertising more efficient

Shopping comparison network Pronto Inc. realized a dynamic drop in CPCs and increased ROI with Yahoo!’s enhanced pricing structure. This enhancement, combined with optimization advice from a Yahoo! representative, helped Pronto to increase its overall ROI without increasing spend.

The Challenge
Pronto Inc., a comparison shopping network whose key sites include Pronto.com, ProntoStyle.com, ProntoHome.com and ProntoTech.com, wanted to increase the efficiency of its digital advertising, reaching more customers online without increasing its overall digital advertising spend. The company has more than ten million keywords across its four key web properties. “In one of the most competitive marketplaces, online shopping comparison, we needed to increase our advertising efficiency,” says Darren MacDonald, Pronto’s Vice President of Search Marketing Operations. “And we wanted Yahoo!, with its huge audience, to help show us the way.”

The Solution
In this highly competitive niche, keeping down cost-perclick (CPC)—the price advertisers pay for each qualified click—is vital. To help make it easier for advertisers to find more targeted customers, improve their search advertising performance, and keep CPCs down, Yahoo! unveiled a new pricing structure in 2009 that allowed advertisers to better align what they pay to the value of clicks they receive. The enhancement, combined with the optimization tips provided by a Yahoo! representative, allowed Pronto to advertise more efficiently withoutincreasing overall digital ad spend.

The Results
Taking advantage of the dynamic pricing enhancement, Pronto experienced a significant decrease in CPC across its four Web properties. This in turn allowed the company to re-invest in its bidded keywords, raising overall return on investment (ROI), without increasing its overall advertising budget.

“Our CPCs dropped ten to fifteen percent toward the end of Q4, which allowed us to increase our bids,” says Pronto’s MacDonald. “This combined with the roll-out of our new microsites, increased our ROI between five and eight percent.”

With more than ten million bidded keywords, a few percentage points improvement in ROI made all the difference. In addition to enhanced pricing, Yahoo! gave Pronto access to a vast network of engaged users and billions of monthly searches.

”We’re very happy with the performance gains that the enhanced pricing structure helped us get,” says MacDonald. “And our Yahoo! representative worked diligently to help us optimize our results.”

About Yahoo! Enhanced Pricing: Yahoo’s enhanced pricing structure allows advertisers to better align what they pay to the value of clicks they receive. Adjustments are made to click charges based on traffic performance from across the Yahoo! network. These include discounts on click charges for lower performing traffic, and potential premiums on click charges for higher performing traffic. Pricing adjustments are based on the performance of the traffic source, and are not affected by the quality of the ads.

About Pronto Inc: Pronto Inc. is a leading shopping comparison network offering more than 70 million products on its collection of sites. Across Pronto.com, ProntoStyle.com, ProntoTech.com and ProntoHome.com consumers can find premium brands at competitive prices. Developed by IAC/InterActiveCorp (IAC) and launched in 2006, Pronto.com and its network of sites is one of the top 100 most trafficked US properties.

— The Team

Here’s to the land of the Shamrock so green

2010-03-16T21:40:50+00:00

We’ve had a terrific response to our call for Then & Now photos celebrating the Library of Congress’ photochroms of Ireland! From Kylemore Abbey to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and over to the Lakes from Kenmare Road or Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge…. enjoy a bit of Irish charm today.

See more or add your own in the Irish Then & Now topic in the Flickr Commons group. The Commons on Flickr holds publicly-held photography collections and provides a way for you to contribute information and knowledge to the collection.

Photos by private miguev, _Inez, JessX, murphman61, JUDGE DREDD76 and Glenn Cartmill. Historical images from the Library of Congress.

The Heck's a Leprechaun, Anyway?

2010-03-16T21:11:34+00:00

by Mike Krumboltz

St. Patrick's Day is an incredibly popular holiday. After all, most holidays aren't 100% inclusive, but everybody's at least a little Irish on March 17.

One of the holiday's most endearing symbols is, of course, the leprechaun. Not surprisingly, searches on the mythical creature are huge on St. Paddy's Day. For example, Web interest in "what is a leprechaun" and "who created leprechauns" are both up over 500% in the Search box. Here's a brief rundown on the history of the merry trickster.

A video from the History Channel explains that the leprechaun in American culture is quite different than the traditional Irish version. In the US, the leprechaun is depicted as "frivolous, and silly," the Irish leprechaun is "part of a much older folk belief, connected to the Celtic folk religions that predated Christianity." Interestingly, the Americanized leprechaun, with the shabby clothes and tilted hat was inspired by cartoons that were used as propaganda "against the Irish in the 19th century."

An article from Time magazine explains the leprechaun dates back to the 8th century. He was long known as a grouchy shoe-maker, but was sanitized in the 1950s by advertisers and Walt Disney. Now, when most folks hear "leprechaun," they think of Lucky Charms cereal.

Another article from the History Channel explains that the word "leprechaun" comes from "lobaircin," which means "small-bodied fellow." According to Celtic folktales, "leprechauns were cranky souls, responsible for mending the shoes of the other fairies." This is, of course, much different than their caricature today, that of the "cheerful, friendly" leprechaun.

One thing that all cultures can seemingly agree on: the pot of gold. Legend has it that leprechauns all possess a secret treasure, but they aren't too eager to give it away. In order to score it, you'll have to capture a leprechaun (not easy, even if they did exist), and then keep a sharp eye on the little guy, because he'll make a break for it if you turn away for even a second. That must explain the sudden Search interest in "leprechaun traps." Good luck with that, and remember, we get 10% of anything you find (after taxes).

Storm batters the Northeastern U.S.

2010-03-16T20:57:21+00:00

Above are a few photos from Flickr members documenting heavy rainstorms over the last 3 days that have uprooted trees and caused flooding in the northeastern U.S.

Photos from Dave*B, nickdamiano, Nikonsharpshooter, Mundomatic, toolbags, and V-tography.

Connect with your website visitors on Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox

2010-03-16T20:28:06+00:00

One of our lesser known but very useful products is the Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox. With a copy and paste of some code, you can embed a chat window into your website, blog or social networking page. Then when visitors come to your page, they can see when you’re online and initiate a private IM conversation with you.

My friend Jim has a Pingbox on his neighborhood blog. While he’s on Yahoo! Messenger all day, his status says “Available” in his Pingbox. When visitors come to his site, he can see the counter change next to the Pingbox in his contact list. If someone wants to chat with him, they simply start typing in the Pingbox on the website, which in turn opens up a new IM conversation for Jim. His visitors can remain anonymous or give themselves a nickname while they chat.

One of the greatest things about Pingbox is that there is no need for anyone to know your Yahoo! ID or for you to know theirs. In fact visitors to your site don’t even need a Yahoo! ID to start chatting with you. You can also turn your Pingbox on or off right from your Yahoo! Messenger 10 contact list, so if you find you’re being interrupted too often by chatty visitors, you can go dark for awhile.

Jim says one of the things he really likes is that when he hovers on the Pingbox visitors in his contact list, it will show him what page on his site that visitor is on. But mostly he likes to see the number of people that are passing through his site all day and be available to them. He says he’s gotten some good tips about neighborhood stories from his Pingbox chats.

If you have your own blog, website or social networking page, it’s easy to add a Pingbox. Just visit the Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox Studio and click the “Create a Pingbox” button. You can customize your background, text size, display name, and whether or not you want to show your display image. You can even put in a custom message that users will see in the Pingbox when you’re online, or when you’re offline. Once you’re done, you’ll receive some code that you can copy and paste into your site.

Then just login to Yahoo! Messenger using the same Yahoo! ID under which you created your Pingbox and voila – you’ll see a new group in your contact list and if you have visitors, a count next to the group name. Note that in order to appear online and receive messages from your Pingbox, you need to be signed in to Yahoo! Messenger 10 or Yahoo! Messenger for Mac. However unlike version 10, the Mac version does not display your Pingbox visitors in your contact list.

Do you use a Pingbox on your website, blog or social networking page (e.g. Facebook, MySpace)? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

YDN supports Code Generation 2010

2010-03-16T19:00:13+00:00

Code Generation 2010. June 16 – 18. Cambridge, UK.

If you're interested in Model-Driven Software Development and Code Generation, and you're in the UK, you should check out Code Generation 2010. Now in its 4th year, the conference attracts participants from around the world for a once-a-year gathering focusing on what is possible now with model-driven development and code generation.

The event has a strong practical focus on applying model-driven software development methods to improve productivity, quality and time-to-market while reducing the cost of development. Keynote speakers this year are industry experts (pragmatic) Dave Thomas and Eelco Visser (Delft University of Technology). Expect 30+ tutorials, case studies, hands-on and panel sessions on all aspects of model-driven software development, and a wide range of respected speakers.

To see the full agenda, or to register, visit CodeGeneration.net. Registrations made before 31st March qualify for an early-bird discount of up to 20%. Hope you can make it!

Emilie de Ravin's New Role, GQ Magazine's Tell-All, Jessica Simpson's New Show: What's the Buzz

2010-03-16T18:15:30+00:00

by Claudine Zap

Our top picks from the day's hottest searches.

Emilie de Ravin (Searches increased by +3,326%). The "Lost" star has found a new role in "Remember Me," opposite teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson.
GQ Magazine (+1,557%). John Edwards' mistress bared way too much in a tell-all and photoshoot.
Red velvet cake (1,958%). The dessert is a crowd pleaser.
No Child Left Behind act (+764%). Obama wants to leave behind some of the original law's lowered standards.
"The Price of Beauty" (+333%). Jessica Simpson's new reality show will take her around the world to explore beauty in different cultures.

The Spark: Get 'Em Before They're Gone

2010-03-16T07:01:00+00:00

CBGB: Gone, but not forgotten, even if
it is an upscale men's store nowadays ...

As Joni Mitchell (and later, Counting Crows) sang, "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." We'd always heard the song was about the legendary Garden of Allah (hotel playground of the stars) in Hollywood, but apparently Mitchell was singing about a vacation in Hawaii. Regardless, as we speed into the 21st century, that sentiment is truer than ever -- particularly in the cases of places where some of our favorite bands took root and prospered.

Maybe, like us, you missed the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock (though, as the saying goes, "if you remember the '60s, you weren't there"), but it's not too late to search out and experience long-standing musical landmarks and venues from the past.

In San Francisco, there's The Fillmore, Bill Graham's auditorium which was pivotal to the '60s counterculture movement. It still offers guests a personal welcome, apples, and original venue posters at each show.

In Los Angeles, the Sunset Strip still thrives, and such venues as The Whisky A Go Go, The Rainbow, The Roxy, and The Troubadour continue to provide the same stages once haunted by the likes of The Doors and Elton John. Many earlier landmarks like The Trocadero, The Mocambo and Ciro's (long familiar to viewers of Warner Bros. cartoons) were either torn down or converted to other uses.

New Yorkers haven't been so lucky. While Hammerstein's Ballroom, The Apollo Theatre, and The Knitting Factory are still around -- not to mention the grande dames of them all: Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall -- in recent years, Manhattanites have mourned the closings of such landmarks as The Bottom Line, The Fillmore East, and CBGB, where the roots of NYC punk were planted by Television and The Ramones, as they transformed a dive bar into a safe haven for punk in the Bowery. Jazz mavens regret the transformation of 52nd Street from a jazz mecca into a series of faceless office buildings, but they can still flock to The Village Vanguard and Birdland, and (surprisingly) Harlem's Cotton Club, a prohibition-era nightspot once home to Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Ethel Waters.

Some of these venues may eventually close their doors, so don't get locked out of the chance to see your favorite bands -- and newer artists -- make musical history.

Suggested Sites...

Lost City - blog chronicling things in New York City that are vanishing or becoming rarer.
Los Angeles Time Machines - restaurants and clubs in Los Angeles that have vanished or been refurbished.
Cinema Treasures - it's not just live clubs that have vanished: it's movie theaters, too.
The Lost City - gallery of things and places that were once here and are now gone.
Vanished Restaurants We Miss - places you used to be able to go after seeing bands at places that no longer exist.

Directory categories: Music History, Bars, Pubs, and Clubs, Los Angeles Entertainment, New York City Entertainment, San Francisco Entertainment

Archived under: Buildings, Conservation, Entertainment, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Music, Music History, New York, Nostalgia, Punk, San Francisco, Tourist Attractions

Play? Exercise? Both?

2010-03-16T03:11:21+00:00

by Mike Krumboltz

The Nintendo Wii has earned a lot of good press for its ability to get gamers off the couch and exercising. Or, at least getting people to flail their arms to and fro. But the mighty Wii isn't the only gaming device to inspire some real life sweat. Behold, the PokeWalker!

The PokeWalker (a kind of pedometer) is a recently released peripheral that comes with two new Pokemon games for the Nintendo DS. The idea is for gamers to attach the PokeWalker to their clothing, get some exercise. When the gamer gets enough exercise, he or she is rewarded with new content for their Pokemon game. Provided you like Pokemon and need a little exercise, it's a win-win.

Searches on the PokeWalker, which comes with special editions of Pokemon SoulSilver and Pokemon HeartGold, are quite impressive. Despite being released in a month dominated by games like Final Fantasy XIII and God of War 3, Web lookups on the new Pokemon titles are up over 300%. Additionally, there are queries on "buy pokemon pokewalker." Music to Nintendo's ears, we're sure.

But not everybody is interested in getting exercise. Some gamers wanna have their cake and eat it, too. And thanks, but no thanks to this exercise bologna. To wit: There are a significant number of lookups on "how to cheat pokewalker." Maybe they should attach their PokeWalker to a dog collar? That way, at least Rex can feel good about himself.

Big News: Woman Wants to be World's Fattest

2010-03-16T01:27:28+00:00

by Claudine Zap

Step aside, Homer Simpson. This real-life Donna Simpson, of New Jersey, could eat circles around you. The 42-year-old already weighs 600 pounds but has a big goal: To be the fattest woman in the world by almost doubling her weight in the next two years. That's a lot of donuts.

With first lady Michelle Obama taking on the weighty topic of childhood obesity, it may come as a surprise that one woman would choose to be size very, very large.
Learn more about the first lady's anti-obesity campaign.

As described by the Telegraph, Simpson already holds the Guinness Book of World Records for world's largest mom: She gave birth to her daughter when she tipped the scales at 520 pounds. Which almost seems petite compared to what she wants to weigh next: 1,000 pounds. To further her goal, the mega mom gorges on entire cakes and bags of donuts to hit 12,000 calories a day. She also tries to maximize weight gain by moving as little as possible, which she admits is hard with a three year-old to run after.
Find easy ways to count calories.

Simpson says she's healthy: Her favorite food is sushi. She just eats 70 pieces at a sitting. If that sounds like an event worth watching, you're in luck: Simpson foots her $750-a-week food bill by broadcasting her jumbo meals on the Web—for a fee.

By the way, her svelte 150-pound boyfriend is totally behind her weight gain: He's a "belly man" according to Simpson, who thinks that bigger is better.

Right Media “Eggs-perts” Share Useful Information Over Breakfast

2010-03-16T00:06:26+00:00

Dozens of Right Media clients got “eggs-actly” the information they needed at our Eggs & Exchanges breakfast series held on March 2 in New York and March 11 in Santa Monica.

Sleepy kitten Tuesday

2010-03-16T00:01:20+00:00

Photos from @takumi, dominiqs, zamario, Hilali, Eric Lafforgue, and pmin00.

Get your questions in!

2010-03-15T23:56:34+00:00

There’s just a little over an hour left to get your open questions in for our celebration of the Food & Drink category, happening throughout March and April.

For details, please visit our post on The Taste of Autumn!

Good luck!

Kate
Community Manager

Previewing AlloyUI, a YUI 3-based Component Library from Liferay

2010-03-15T22:53:35+00:00

Nate Cavanaugh and Eduardo Lundgren of Liferay have spent the last six months building out a new widget library, AlloyUI, based on YUI 3. Nate wrote about the project recently on his Liferay blog. AlloyUI is available as a preview release today and early April is the GA release target.

AlloyUI comprises a wide array of components — more than 60 in all — that range from utilities to sugar layers to full-blown UI widgets. All of Alloy’s component’s are built on YUI 3; some of the widgets are based to some degree on YUI 2. All are free to use under an LGPL license. Nate and Eduardo intend to share AlloyUI components on the YUI 3 Gallery, making them as easy to use as any YUI 3, YUI 2, or other Gallery module; they hope to have more news on that effort soon.

AlloyUI components include:

AutoComplete
Calendar
Charts
ColorPicker
Dialog
Image Gallery
Paginator
Rating
Resize
Sortable
Tabs
TextBox List

Check out their demos page to explore all of these and many others.

If you’re pinching yourself and asking, “Are Nate, Eduardo and Liferay contributing dozens of components into the YUI ecosystem, core UI and utility elements that I can use in my everyday development?”, the answer is yes…that’s pretty much what they’re doing. Although we’ve known about the project since late last year, we had the chance to visit with Nate and Eduardo at Yahoo! today and we’re extremely impressed with the work they’ve done.

Happy Birthday, Dear Domain Name

2010-03-15T21:16:28+00:00

Domain names turn 25

It’s tough being in your twenties. You may still be young enough to party like a rock star, but no one yet respects you. (Try pulling up your pants and getting a hair cut. Maybe that will help.) Today domain names turned 25 years old. The first .com domain name, “Symbolics.com,” was registered by a Massachusetts computer company on March 15, 1985.

The first ten domains:

Symbolics.com – March 15, 1985
BBN.com – April 24, 1985
Think.com – May 24, 1985
MCC.com – July 11, 1985
DEC.com – Sept. 30, 1985
Northrop.com – Nov. 7, 1985
Serox.com – Jan. 9, 1986
SRI.com – Jan. 17, 1986
HP.com – March 3, 1986
Bellcore.com – March 5, 1986

“Yahoo.com”—you’ve heard of them—was registered Jan. 18, 1995. For more, read Benny Evangelista’s piece on SFGate.com.

— The Team

(Image by jessica.diamond via Flickr, CC 2.0)

Harold and Kumar Can't Be Stopped

2010-03-15T20:28:57+00:00

by Mike Krumboltz

Perhaps this announcement should have waited until April 20, but there was no holding back the news. Harold and Kumar are coming back for a third big screen adventure.

A buzzy blog from IGN explains that actor John Cho (aka "Harold") told Collider that "the film is moving forward and the plan is to shoot this June." The film is currently titled "A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas," and, yes, Neil Patrick Harris is expected to sign on. It wouldn't be the same without Doogie.

Jude Law, SXSW, Weekend Box Office: What's the Buzz

2010-03-15T18:56:46+00:00

by Claudine Zap

Our top picks from the day's hottest searches.

SXSW (Searches increased by +628%). The search engine Wolfram Alpha, which delivers actual answers instead of links to queries, won "best in show" at the South by Southwest awards ceremony.
Jude Law (+558%). The "Hamlet" star hosted "SNL" for the second time, and mocked his role in the Shakespeare play.
"Mission Impossible" (+396%). Peter Graves, who starred in the suspenseful TV show and the satiric "Airplane" movies, died at 83.
Weekend box office (+342%). The 3-D "Alice in Wonderland" continued to lead at the box office the second week running.
NCAA (+245%). March Madness has begun.

YAP code sample: Cross-view font styling

2010-03-15T18:54:14+00:00

Would you like to set consistent font styles for different YAP views, e.g., small and canvas? The code below demonstrates one way to do this.

Usage:

Create a YAP app in the YDN dashboard:
Copy/paste this code into the base file of your app, eg if your app’s base url is http://example.com/index.php, put this code in index.php
Set the following as your default small view code: <yml:include params="?view=small">loading...</yml:include>

Requirements:

PHP w/ short tags enabled
A server accessible via a domain name and capable of receiving POST requests (YAP sends user data via POST with the request for content)

Code:

For those using a feed reader, you can see the code on Github

This code has a BSD license detailed, along with usage instructions and other information, in the code’s readme file.

Erik Eldridge
Yahoo! Developer Network (@ydn)

#yui-main ul,#yui-main li{list-style:square;}#yui-main ul{margin-left:1em;}

Monochrome reflection

2010-03-15T18:06:09+00:00

Photos from andrébernardo.com, Michael Penn Photography, Chris Andersen Photography, Andross, Quiet Corners, and .: Philipp Klinger – 5.000.000 views – THANKS! :..

Demand-Side Platforms: The Pilot

2010-03-15T16:26:04+00:00

Earlier this month at the 4A’s conference, we talked a lot about how Yahoo!’s unique combination of science, art and scale unlocks exciting new opportunities for advertisers.

You Asked for It… A Collapse Ad Button in the All-New Yahoo! Mail

2010-03-15T14:36:46+00:00

As you know, we are always listening to your feedback. Many of you that have small computer screens have told us that you would like more space to read your emails. You spoke and we listened.

To give you more real estate to read your emails, we are adding a button just to the left of the advertisement in the All-New Yahoo! Mail. Clicking that button will hide the ad temporarily, while you read your email.

This is a handy tool, especially if you are using a computer with a smaller screen resolution like a small laptop or netbook. While it doesn’t permanently remove ads, it will give you more space while you read an email. Ads are what allow us to provide you Yahoo! Mail as a free service and hopefully they’re sometimes useful and interesting too. If you would like permanently disable ads you can sign up for Mail Plus which offers an ad-free experience and other enhanced features.

The Spark: Keep Calm and Carrion

2010-03-15T07:01:00+00:00

The majestic turkey vulture
(Photo by curryosity)

Spring is in the air. The snow is melting, crocuses are poking through the muddy ground, and buzzards are circling over Hinckley, Ohio. No, there hasn't been a recent crime spree or zombie attack. The small township southwest of Cleveland has the distinction of being known for one thing and one thing alone: it is the home of strangely punctual buzzards.

Each year on March 15, as if on cue, large flocks of the ominous birds swoop into Hinckley to the delight of the assembled crowds of buzzard fans. We're not making this up, we promise: Hinckley's annual "Buzzard Day" celebration began in 1957 and draws tens of thousands of visitors each year. Maybe it's the festival's unique theme, or maybe people just can't resist a good entrance.

Though everyone calls the Hinckley birds "buzzards," the winged creatures in question are technically turkey vultures. It's a long, convoluted story of convergent evolution involving Old World Vultures (which are raptors, related to eagles and actual buzzards -- which are hawks) versus New World Vultures (which are, scientifically speaking, creepy, bald-headed carrion-scavengers that tend to freak people out). Things are further complicated by the fact that the same bird is also known as "John Crow" or "carrion crow" in some places. But Cathartes aura is neither turkey nor buzzard nor crow (and we can only assume they're not all called "John"). It is, however, an intriguing bird.

Want to learn more about these roadkill-loving charmers? Allow us to share a few exciting facts we've learned. Turkey vultures have a wingspan of about six feet. They're one of the only North American birds with a sense of smell and have been used to locate natural gas leaks. Turkey vultures' heads are bald so that they don't get their feathers caked with blood and decomposing matter when they stick their heads into carcasses (yum!). They intentionally defecate on their own legs because the strong acids kill any bacteria picked up while standing around in rotting corpses. And finally, a vulture's primary means of defense is vomiting semi-digested carrion at predators.

So... who's up for Buzzard Day? Hinckley, Ohio, here we come!

Suggested Sites...

The Turkey Vulture Society - would like to remind you that it is illegal to keep turkey vultures as pets.
AvianWeb: Turkey Vultures - fascinating facts and pretty pictures.
Andy Mather: "Hinckley Buzzards" - he was so inspired by the buzzards that he wrote a song about them.
Cleveland Metroparks: Buzzard Sunday! - party with the buzzards this Sunday at Buzzard Roost in the Hinckley Reservation.
"Old Turkey Buzzard" - Jose Feliciano and David Letterman salute America's favorite scavenging raptor.

Directory categories: Raptors, Birding, Bird Identification, Raptor Migration, Ornithology

Archived under: Animals, Biology, Bird Migration, Birds, Events, Ohio, Science

Ask Mike: The first Girl Scout cookies

2010-03-15T04:17:47+00:00

Hey Guys,

When I was a kid and I saw the ice cream man on my street, I ran toward it like a bat out of hell. Now that I’m older, my opportunities to chase the ice cream vender around the block are all too rare. Fortunately, I do have access to the next best thing: Girl Scout cookies.

I recently took delivery of a few boxes from a coworker whose daughter enlisted in the Scouts. It all got me wondering — when did this cookie tradition begin? In the old days, did Girl Scouts make the cookies themselves? And who makes ‘em now?

According to the organization’s official website, the Girl Scouts began in 1912. However it wasn’t until 1917 that one particular troop began to sell cookies as a way to pay for their activities. The Mistletoe Troop out of Muskogee, Oklahoma sold home-baked cookies in the local high school cafeteria in December of 1917. They didn’t know it then, but they were starting something very special.

As the Girl Scouts expanded, so too did the sales of cookies. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, young girls, with the help of their mothers, baked sugar cookies to sell. In 1936, according to the Scouts, the national organization “began the process to license the first commercial baker to produce cookies that would be sold by girls in Girl Scout councils.” Interestingly, sales of the cookies stopped during World War II, due to a national shortage of flour, butter, and sugar.

These days, Girl Scout Cookies are sold all over the country, especially the ever-popular Thin Mints. They account for roughly 25% of all Girl Scout Cookie sales. In second place — the caramel and coconut-flavored Samoas with a formidible 19%. Two big bakeries churn out the cookies for the Girl Scouts: ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers.

Got a favorite flavor? What about requests for future varieties? I’ve always wondered why they don’t sell chocolate chip cookies. Seems like a rather odd omission…

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Wise Words for the Wall Street Journal

2010-03-15T00:52:25+00:00

Right Media’s General Manager Bill Wise was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal last week

Y'all be hacking now? Georgia Tech Hack Week was a blast!

2010-03-14T04:29:32+00:00

We just finished the Georgia Tech Hack Week in Atlanta, Georgia, where the Hack U team (consisting of Jamie Lockwood, Paul Tarjan, Jeremy Hubert, and Chris Heilmann) spent a week with the students and talked about the goodies Yahoo has for mashing up the web. In detail, we talked about geolocation services, Hadoop, YQL, YUI, and building fast prototypes.

After the 24-hour hacking period (during which almost all students stayed at the uni and churned out code and designs) we had over 40 hacks to choose our winners from. In the end, we settled on the following:

First prize: Video in Ymail by Shauvik Roy Choudhary, Sahil Miglani and Utkarsh Shrivastava
Second prize: Importance Filter for Gmail by Roger Pincombe
Third prize: Lyricist by Mike Hirth and Daniel Hooper

Mobile - Music in Town by Craig Campbell and Phillip Vassenkov
Hack For Good - Succor by Mandar Samant, Mrunal Upadhyay, Pradnyesh Gore and Ameya Nerurkar
Design - Game Creator by Joy Buolamwini and Andrew Panfel
Hardware - The ultimate Couch Potato by Ketaki Deo, Kedar Toraskar and Aneesh Tarun
Flood the Hack - 7 hacks by Andrew Guyton and Hillary Lipko
Best homage to dead technology - In Memoriam: 1994 - 2009 by Sean Hussey and Jenny Rainwater
Smooth transition hack - Google Road Trip by Azhar Bande-Ali
What the hell are you on about hack - Project Narwhal by David Hollis, James King, Josh Anderson and Anna Coley

For a full list of all the hacks and the details on the winners, check the Hack U hack tracker

All in all we were very impressed with both the amount and range of the hacks created. All the hackers challenged themselves by using technologies they hadn't used before and there was a lot of collaboration and students helping each other during the whole night. The event showed that by using libraries, hosted services, and taking the time to read documentation before trying to re-build already existing technology, you can surprise both yourself and the world.

Chris Heilmann
YDN Evangelist

Follow @ydn on Twitter.

Runaway Toyota, Glenn Beck, and Lindsay's Lawsuit: Buzz Week in Review

2010-03-13T02:17:09+00:00

by Mike Krumboltz

What. A. Week. One of Hollywood's most famous starlets filed a lawsuit so bizarre, so unintentionally hilarious, laughter was the only suitable response. Elsewhere, Toyota continued to struggle with runaway cars, and a popular cable commentator was upstaged during a wacky interview. Read on for those stories and more with the Buzz Week in Review.

Runaway Prius alert
It was just another day for Toyota owner James Sikes when he took to the San Diego highway. Things quickly turned terrifying when he realized the gas pedal of his 2008 Prius was stuck and he had no way to slow down. Mr. Sikes called 911, and a member of the highway patrol was able to pull up alongside, told him to put the car in neutral, and then pulled in front of the Toyota to help slow it down. All things considered, the story had a happy ending. But much like the car itself, the searches were absolutely out of control. Immediately, lookups on "runaway prius" and "toyota with no brakes" both soared. But now, there are some rumblings about the runaway Prius being a hoax a la the "balloon boy." The company admitted to being "mystified" by the problem, and a writer for Forbes is highly suspicious. But law enforcement insists that "no evidence has emerged to suggest that Sikes was dishonest." The investigation will continue, but in the meantime Toyota put together a video to watch in the event that your car starts accelerating uncontrollably. Handy!

Glenn Beck: Speechless
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck isn't often upstaged. However, even the excitable Beck couldn't control disgraced Rep. Eric Massa from going on a strange, stream-of-conscious rant during an appearance this past week. Mr. Massa had recently resigned his post due to an ethics inquiry and allegations that he had harassed employees. During the interview with Beck, Massa admitted to "sexless groping and tickling of his staff, sending inappropriate text messages" as well as other personal failings. However, Massa contended, it was his "no" vote on health care reform that got him booted. During the interview, Beck often interrupted Massa, in an attempt to talk about his own problems. An article from Time magazine that broke down the odd exchange was one of our buzziest pieces of the week. Additionally, Web queries for "eric massa resigned" and "glenn beck interview" just wouldn't shut up in the Search box.

The law according to Lindsay
Actress and professional party girl Lindsay Lohan sued E-Trade for $100 million over a commercial that features a baby named Lindsay. Ms. Lohan contends that the ad, in which the baby Lindsay is referred to as a "milkaholic," capitalizes on her name and is clearly based on her. Ms. Lohan's lawyer contends that her client has "elevated 'Lindsay' to the same sort of one-off recognition status as 'Madonna' or 'Cher.'" Of course, that's debatable, and E-Trade has spoken out, saying it plans to defend itself "vigorously" and calling the lawsuit "without merit" (a nice way to put it, in our opinion). Regardless of (or more likely, due to) the apparent insanity of the lawsuit, searches on "lindsay lohan lawsuit" and "lindsay lohan etrade" both soared over 1,000% this past week. We can only assume amused law firms around the country forwarded articles about the story with record speed.

Also buzzing this week...
• Hollywood dreamboat Robert Pattinson has a new movie.
• Steve Jobs will gladly accept your money now.
• The ironically titled video game "Final Fantasy XIII" hit store shelves.

Follow Buzz Log on Twitter.

Searching for Daylight Savings

2010-03-13T01:15:52+00:00

by Claudine Zap

Daylight Saving Time is coming, and with it, longer, more light-filled days are on the way. Some may be surprised that Daylight Saving Time is already here. But there's a reason for that. Below, your Buzz round up of searches on the time change.

When is it?
We spring ahead the second Sunday in March. This year it's Sunday, March 14. While the first day of spring isn't for another week, we've gotten a jump on the season since 2007. In fact, we now get four more weeks of longer days, since Daylight Saving now goes through the first Sunday of November. You're welcome. Not all states observe the time difference: Hawaii and most of Arizona opt out.

Why do we have daylight saving time?
The hope is that we save energy -- since there's less of a need to switch on the lights if natural light will do. Studies have shown the electricity conserved on the new schedule is actually pretty nominal. But look on the bright side. Literally. Those longer light-filled days are sure nice. Searches on the time switch have increased 100% in the last week. The sunlight-deprived would like to know "what is daylight saving time," "daylight saving time dates," and "origins of daylight saving time."

What is the history of daylight saving time?
Fun fact: The idea was first floated back in 1784 by one Benjamin Franklin. While minister of France he wrote the essay "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light." The idea failed to, um, see the light of day until practically 100 years later, when the U.S. railroads instituted a standardized time for their train schedules. That time change was imposed nationally during the first World War to conserve energy, but was repealed after the war ended. It became the national time again during World War II. After that, it was a free-for-all of states deciding if they wanted it, and when it would start and end. Congress finally enacted the Uniform Time Act in 1966, which decreed that if a state chose to opt in to daylight saving, it had to be at the same time as everyone else.

Why does it start at 2 a.m.?
The website LiveScience explains that's it's pretty much the least disruptive time of day to make a switch. After all, most of us are asleep. Those who work on Sunday usually start later than 2 a.m. And fair warning for anyone planning on attending church services or brunch that day.

While the shift is only one hour, according to UPI, sleep disorder specialists say you should prepare yourself: You actually can lose sleep over the time change. Experts suggest going to bed 15 minutes earlier a few days before. Our unscientific suggestion: Sleep in on Sunday.

Gentleman Penguins

2010-03-12T23:12:20+00:00

Photos from laihiu, MARTIN @ SHA, bigcatslover, ddsnet, and Lee Wei-I.

Orange Crush

2010-03-12T23:10:54+00:00

Inspired by the gallery Orange Crush, curated by ArtByChrysti. Photos from ebergcanada, TiagoBrazil, dyniss, and andertho.

Testing the Wisdom of Crowds on the Madness of NCAA Basketball

2010-03-12T21:36:18+00:00

We invite you to join a new experiment we cooked up at Yahoo! Labs called Predictalot, a game that takes NCAA tournament pick ‘em to entirely new extremes.

Here’s how it works. You can invest virtual points on almost any prediction you can think of about the men’s college basketball tournament, like “Duke will advance further than Texas,” or “Every final four team’s name will start with the letter U.” For example, you can invest one point predicting that “there will be exactly 2 upsets in the Elite Eight” and, according to the current Predictalot odds, you’ll win ten points if you’re right.

You can keep your predictions and see how they turn out, or you can sell them at any time, even while you’re following the action on the court. How does that work? Think of your predictions like stocks that can be priced, sold and traded (for virtual points, of course) just like you’d buy and sell stocks, options and futures on the financial exchanges of the world. Predictalot offers hundreds of millions of such predictions, constantly computing prices for them all.

Throughout the tournament, the prices of all the predictions in the system will go up and down based on what’s actually happening in the tournament and on what everyone else thinks those predictions are worth. Based on the value of the predictions you invest in you’ll accumulate points and climb your way to the top of the Predictalot leader board.

In technical terms, Predictalot is what is called a combinatorial prediction market. Some of us at Yahoo! Labs, along with academics like George Mason University professor Robin Hanson, have been studying and writing about them for quite some time, and dreaming about trying them out in the real world. We built the first version of Predictalot during an internal Yahoo! Hack Day. And this year we used the Yahoo! Application Platform to finally build a public version of the game. Like any Yahoo! App, you can install Predictalot to play right on the Yahoo! homepage. (Note that we’re not special in that regard: anyone can develop a Yahoo! App that’s available to millions of Yahoo! users — there’s good sample code, it supports YUI and OpenSocial, and it’s easy to get started. Seriously, try it.)

After some fits and starts, a few late nights, and eventually a few all nighters, we’re proud and excited to go live with Predictalot, version 1.0. I can’t rave enough about the talent and dedication of the research engineers who gave the game a professional look and feel and some real production speed. They turned a very pie-in-the-sky idea into a reality. We have a lot feature ideas in mind for future versions, but the core is in place and we hope you enjoy the game.

With 9.2 quintillion outcomes, or nearly as many as the number of individual insects on Earth, Predictalot is to our knowledge the largest prediction market ever built. We hope that with your participation it will prove a great test to the limits of what the wisdom of crowds can produce. We’d also like to pave the way for the serious use of combinatorial prediction market technology in a host of other arenas down the road.

Smarter markets will be extremely valuable in a variety of applications, especially online, where markets and exchanges decide prices and allocations for all kinds of goods and services, including advertising inventory. And more and more, the matching of buyers with sellers – which is the core function of any market – is requiring sophisticated algorithms, machine learning and optimization technology. Predictalot attempts to help us better understand these dynamics while also giving us the great satisfaction of picking Duke to go all the way.

(Duke alum) David Pennock and the Predictalot Team:
Mani Abrol, Janet George, Tom Gulik, Mridul Muralidharan, Sudar Muthu, Navneet Nair, Abe Othman, Daniel Reeves, Pras Sarkar

P.S. If you’d like to learn more about the technology hidden in the engine and the scientific factors at play, read our post about Predictalot on the Yahoo! Research website. And don’t forget to also check out all of Yahoo!’s fun tourney experiences.

YAP code sample: tabbed small view navigation

2010-03-12T20:39:55+00:00

Want to use tab navigation in the small view of your Yahoo! Application Platform (YAP) app? Here’s one way to approach it:

For those using feed readers, you can see the code on Github.

The script’s operation flows like this:

The small view will first load the default content (see below), which will callback to this code to fetch the output defined in the else clause of this code.
That content will then use a yml:include tag to call back to itself with the parameter “item=1”.
The script will then execute the if statement and return the default body content for the app.

To use the script, do the following:

Copy/paste this code into the index file at the root of your app. For example, if the base url for your app is http://example.com/index.php, put this code in index.php. Be sure to remove/comment-out any code already in index.php that may interfere.
Put the following code in the default small view code box in the YAP dashboard: loading…. Note that because the “params” attribute is omitted from the yml:include tag, the tag will call back to the app’s base url by default.
Preview your app’s small view in the YAP dashboard. You should see “loading…”, followed by the appearance of your “tabs” (“item 1 | item 2 | item 3”) above the text “loading …”, followed by the replacement of the loading text with “this is item 1 content”

This little snippet has a BSD license detailed, along with usage instructions and other information, in the code’s readme file.

Erik Eldridge
Yahoo! Developer Network (@ydn)

In the Wild for March 12, 2010

2010-03-12T19:20:03+00:00

Here at YUI HQ, we’re working toward the next major release of YUI, YUI 3.1.0. Yesterday we shared some YUI 3 loader work that Adam Moore has done for 3.1.0. His “YUI 2 in 3″ project allows you to use components like YUI 2 DataTable simply and efficiently in YUI 3. Meanwhile, his loader improvements also mean you can bring in YUI 3 Gallery modules like Storage Lite with the same ease and efficiency. 3.1.0 will also mark the GA release of Satyen Desai’s component/widget foundation for YUI 3.

We’re also running the YUI 3 Gallery Contest, the winner getting a JSConf conference pass and $500 at Expedia.com to help with travel. You’ve got two full weekends left of hacking before the deadline!

In the meantime, there’s been a lot going on in the community — here are a few of the things we’ve noted recently:

In the YUI 3 Gallery — Jeff Craig’s Slideshow Module: Jeff Craig, author of the Chromahash and Crypto modules, has released his Slideshow module for the YUI 3 Gallery. His writeup on his blog provides a good introduction to the component, which he used for the Washington State University commencement site.

Recently, at work, we had a desire to update an instance of a flash-based slideshow widget on our commencement website. This widget did absolutely nothing special, but the real problem we had was that, we didn’t actually have a license for Flash, and the way the slideshow had been built, we needed to be able to build the SWF file from scratch in order to update the order. Since our users rarely come to us with anything that isn’t some sort of emergency, we had to take the flash files to another department to make our quick change and compile a new SWF.

You can read Jeff’s full writeup on his blog.

Stoyan Stefanov on YUI’s CSS Compressor: Stoyan has signed on to work on the YUI Compressor, and he’s written about the CSS minification component of that tool on PHPied.com: “Originally written in PHP by Isaac Schlueter and ported to Java by Julien Lecomte, CSSMin got a JavaScript port by yours truly some time ago. Because, after all, JavaScript is the language of the web, isn’t it? You can play with the latest git version of the JS port online here. I’m also happy to report that the JS port is now used in PageSpeed and YSlow (as you probably know Firefox extensions are written in JavaScript).” (Original source.)

Satyam’s YQLDataSource for YUI 2: “Thanks to Jonathan LeBlanc’s article on the YUI Blog I thought that it would be cool to have a YQLDataSource to make it easier to use YQL data in YUI 2 DataTable, YUI 2 Charts and YUI 2 AutoComplete. The table below is built using such a DataSource…The YQLDataSource does not require any parameters. It will automatically use the YUI 2 Get Utility to access the YQL servers using JSON format and providing a suitable callback. The DataSource just needs to be instanced like: var ds = new YAHOO.util.YQLDataSource();.” Check out Satyam’s full documented example for all the details.

German-language Screencast on Using YUI in DreamWeaver CS4: According to the author, ‘In diesem Film zeigt Ihnen der Trainer die Verwendung und Konfiguration des Web Widgets “YUI TreeView“. Sie lernen die HTML-Struktur dieses Widgets kennen.” This is a beautifully produced screencast on using CS4’s YUI support, focusing on the YUI TreeView Control.

Ajaxian Covers SVG Wow, SVG + YUI 3 Animation: Brad Neuberg notes on Ajaxian the debut of Vincent Hardy and Erik Dahlström’s SVG Wow site. Many of Vincent’s examples, including the flying song-lyric animation called out by Brad, are powered by YUI 3’s Animation library running within the SVG document.

Simple File Upload in Grails (using YUI Connection Manager): Simon Palmer shows you how he leveraged Thomas Sha’s YUI Connection Manager and Matthew Taylor’s slick Grails UI package to add asynchronous file upload to his Grails project. (Note: You may be able to lighten the kweight of this solution by not including the full utilities.js package but rather cherrypicking the components you need — in this case, that might result in just

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/combo?2.8.0r4/build/yahoo/yahoo-min.js&2.8.0r4/build/event/event-min.js&2.8.0r4/build/connection/connection-min.js"></script>

Chris P. Jobling on Watching YUI Theater: Writes Chris: “This last week or so I’ve been watching a lot of Yahoo! YUI Theatre videos on JavaScript, starting with Douglas Crockford’s excellent five-part series Crockford on JavaScript and ending yesterday with Christian Heillman’s inspiring talk on YQL and YUI. This has inspired me to explore how I can use YUI (a JavaScript library) in the next version of my Proman dissertation project management application which will be needed for 2010-2011 allocation round in May. If it works out, there’ll also be some new teaching material for next year’s Web Applications module (EG-259). I’ll post more in the under the tag YUI on the Proman, Man blog as I get to grips with this stuff.”

YUI Panel: Changing Buttons and Re-using a Panel on Same Page: Ciitronian.com has posted a brief YUI 2 Panel tutorial: “The requirement was to make a modal panel in YUI, which work at its own as a activation widget using Ajax (YUI 2 Connection Manager). The idea was pop up a YUI Panel when a user clicks on ‘Activate’, that modal panel will allow the user to enter details of when he/she wants to schedule the activation (where user can choose now or a later date) and then user can hit Submit and Cancel buttons.” Click through for the full tutorial.

YUI 2 Calendar: Using and Modifying Multiple Calendar Picker Instances on Single Page: Ciitronian.com “explains how to create multiple instances of calendar widget of YUI 2. There are many examples of how to use Calendar widget on YUI’s official website but for my application, the requirement was to to schedule multiple actions on the same page, giving each one a date of its own, so I developed my calendar widget” to solve that problem. Click through for the full tutorial.

Lady Gaga's New Video, Conan O'Brien's Road Show, Illegal Whale Sushi: What's the Buzz

2010-03-12T18:24:40+00:00

by Claudine Zap

Our top picks from the day's hottest searches.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (Searches increased by +20,422%). The former model/singer and first lady of France disputed rumors that both she and President Sarkozy are having extra-marital affairs.
Conan O'Brien (+999%). The comedian who left his "Tonight Show" job has taken the show on the road.
Sei whale (+645%). A restaurant and sushi chef were charged with illegally serving up the endangered whale meat.
Harry Reid (+547%). The senate majority leader's wife and daughter were hospitalized from a car accident.
Lady Gaga "Telephone" video (+526%). The just-released music video features Beyonce. Hott.

If you’re lucky enough to be Irish, then you’re lucky enough

2010-03-12T17:00:28+00:00

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day on the horizon, the Library of Congress today posted over 100 delightful photochroms of Ireland from from the Detroit Publishing Company. Take an armchair trip to the green Irish countryside, indulge in a seaside stroll, or look for your Irish kin.

Got a photo taken from the same view as the ones in this collection? Show us your Then & Now series in the Flickr Commons group.

Historical photos from the Library of Congress. Contemporary photo by SciFiGeek.

Search Out Your Own Entertainment Experiences with Yahoo!

2010-03-12T14:00:35+00:00

At Yahoo! Search, we pay attention to what’s popular on the Web and what matters most to you. We know that celebrities rank near the top of the buzziest searches on Yahoo!, so this is one area in search that we’ve been working on to make even better. As we’ve already started to do with news, local, sports, music and movies searches, we want to make your pop culture search results more useful. Now you can find photos, videos, news and other interesting information right on top of our Search results page, without digging through all 10 blue links.

Our brilliant scientists are working hard behind the scenes to uncover the relevant details and content hidden in the billions of pages on the Web. What this means is that we can surface the nuggets scattered across what we call the “Web of Things” to show you the stuff that matters to you, right on your Search results page. Our aim is to save you many clicks and a lot of time, while creating a fun way to conduct searches for related topics of interest.

For entertainment junkies, there is all kinds of great information we can find for you in our rich Search results. For example, if you’re a TV fan looking for details on your favorite show we just launched a new TV shortcut that will display the latest video clips, bonus videos (or even entire episodes), episodes list, ratings, show times from Yahoo! TV, and photos – all with just one click from the Search results page.

On the left side of the page, we show suggestions of related celebrities, movies or TV shows related to your entertainment queries. Check out the search results for “Days of our Lives” actor Jensen Ackles. If you click on Ackles’ result, we’ll show you a brand new rich shortcut with photos, videos and tweets about him. Plus you’ll get new suggestions to explore more Search results for his co-stars, like Jessica Alba and Orlando Bloom, or some of the movies he’s been in.

Click on Orlando Bloom and you’ll see that the new Celebrity shortcut brings up news, along with his photos, videos and tweets.

So go on and search for your favorite entertainment topics on Yahoo! We are curious to know what you think!

P.S. If your favorite celebrity has an official Twitter feed, you can see their tweets right on the search results page! This way, you won’t miss a minute of their lives.

P.P.S. We’re also now showing enhanced shortcuts for a broader range of movies and music to include even more of your favorite stuff. Take a look at our search results for music artist Tommy Emmanuel or the movie Pretty Woman.

Alexandra Levich and Yuko Kamae

Yahoo! Search

The Spark: Art or Obscenity?

2010-03-12T08:01:00+00:00

A woman in Málaga, Spain
considers Mapplethorpe's photos
(Photo by César de la Hoz)

His work was controversial, not only in its frank eroticism and challenging subject matter, but more for the argument his images incited: an argument about the difference between "art" and "pornography," and about whether the government should be supporting either. His intention was never to shock: He told ARTnews, "I don't like that particular word 'shocking.' I'm looking for the unexpected. I'm looking for things I've never seen before ... I was in a position to take those pictures. I felt an obligation to do them." An obligation fulfilled, we might add, with consummate artistry and sheer technical prowess, for Robert Mapplethorpe was a true master of the lens.

His body of photographs, almost entirely in stark black and white, consisted mainly of portraits, floral subjects, nude men and women, homoeroticism, and underground sexuality. There was, in all his work, an undercurrent of sexual freedom coupled with classic technique that proved to be too provocative for some institutions. Mapplethorpe's images caused minor scandals at Washington D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art and at the University of Central England, but it was his traveling exhibition "The Perfect Moment" in the early '90s that brought national attention to his more explicit work.

Partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, "The Perfect Moment" became the target of religious and conservative groups, like the American Family Association, who bristled at the idea of the government supporting work which they deemed to be obscene. A national debate ignited over issues of free speech, whether art should be included in the First Amendment, where to draw the line between art and obscenity, and whether tax dollars should go towards funding either. Mapplethorpe became the poster-boy for a new American culture war -- a war that is still being fought today.

Robert Mapplethorpe died of AIDS-related illness on March 9, 1989. He left us a vast and important collection of photographs which are widely exhibited and studied in museums and institutions around the world. But more importantly, like any true artist, he left us with a challenge to view our world and ourselves with new and wondering eyes. He felt obligated to put his unique vision out in the world, and whether you see it as art of the highest form or base obscenity, you can't deny that Mapplethorpe was master of his own truth and beauty.

Suggested Sites...

Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation - promotes photography, supports museums that exhibit photographic art, and funds medical research in the fight against AIDS and HIV-related infection.
Wikipedia: Robert Mapplethorpe - information on the photographer known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers, and naked men.
Patti Smith - official site of singer and author Patti Smith, who was a close friend and frequent collaborator of Robert Mapplethorpe.
Artcyclopedia: Robert Mapplethorpe - information on various Mapplethorpe works in museums and galleries, as well as links to resources.
Mapplethorpe - archive of Robert Mapplethorpe images.

Directory categories: Robert Mapplethorpe, Photographers, Photography, Erotic Photography, National Endowment for the Arts

Archived under: Art Museums, Artists, Arts, Censorship, Photography, Scandals, Sex and Sexuality

The New Real-Time Bidding

2010-03-12T06:28:51+00:00

There’s an article in today’s New York Times about real-time bidding that includes Yahoo!’s Right Media. We are really excited about the momentum we’re seeing in the real-time bidding space. Right Media was the first marketplace to offer real-time bidding (RTB) in our own marketplace over five years ago (see the story we posted on this [...]

The Taste of Autumn

2010-03-12T04:31:20+00:00

Photo by James Bowe

Throughout the month of March and into April, we will be celebrating the Food & Drink category on Yahoo!7 Answers with a menu of Autumn food created by you!

Unlike the rest of Yahoo! Answers globally who are currently preparing to embrace Spring the days here in Australia are getting steadily shorter and the weather is growing colder, so we will be focussing on foods suitable for eating during the season of Autumn. With your help, the menu will feature dishes for an entree (starter), main and dessert.

What do I need to do?

We’re glad you asked! By 12 noon AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on Tuesday, the 16th of March (that’s next week, 4 days away), we’d like you to submit open questions to us about a recipe you’d like to know for an entree, main dish or a dessert. They should be for dishes suitable for Autumn fare.

You can submit them by leaving a comment here with your link or by sending an email to us at y_answrs_team_au@yahoo.com.au.

Make sure your questions are open for the duration of a week. If you want to extend the duration of your question, simply click on the “Expiration Date” available in the action bar below your question via the “Edit” dropdown.

What next?

Stay tuned to our blog!

If your question is selected, it could appear for a full week in the Best of Answers module on our Answers front page and receive 50 bonus points to your Answers account. If at the end of the opening period of your question, you carefully select a better quality response, we will offer 20 extra points.

Be sure to keep an eye on this blog for further details as they emerge.

We look forward to your questions!

Kate
Community Manager

March food celebration on Answers!

2010-03-12T04:26:59+00:00

Ask any hostess – the biggest and most daunting task every hostess faces is the selection of the menu for that special occasion and those very special guests. We all know that a typical meal includes a choice of starters, the main course, and the dessert. We’ve decided on Answers to make this task easy for every hostess.

This March we celebrate the Food & Drink category on Answers. As a part of this celebration, you can share your best recipes for starters, main-course, and desserts as answers to the three open questions we’ve posted.

With this celebration you not only get a list of recipes from the Answers community that you can try out, but also get a chance to be selected as the best answerer. The answerer whose recipe is chosen as the best answer will receive 200 points on Answers.

And since it’s a celebration, we’ve decided that we will also choose 4 more recipes as ‘good answers’ for each question. Each answerer whose recipe is chosen as the ‘good answer’ will receive 100 points.

Of course, this choice will be with the community’s help which is why we urge you to use the thumbs up feature and vote for the recipe you loved.

So if you would like to share your recipe for an exciting starter answer:
Which recipe for a starter would you like to share with the community?

If you have the perfect recipe for an easy-to-make main course, share the recipe here:
What’s your best easy-to-make main course recipe?

Go ahead and share that sweet temptation you indulge in. Answer with your best dessert recipe:
What’s the recipe for your perfect pick-me-up dessert?

But before you rush to share your recipes, brush up on the 5 Golden Rules to Answering and do remember to follow our Community Guidelines.

If you are new to Yahoo! India Answers, here’s all that you need to know.

So now, get sharing and start cooking!

Make sure your recipes are in before 12 pm (IST) Friday, March 19, 2010.

Let’s celebrate March with food!

Deliciously,
Bhumika Anand
Community Manager

Correctness of gossip-based membership under message loss

2010-03-12T02:17:50+00:00

A chat with Victor Tsaran, Accessibility Program Manager

2010-03-12T00:04:15+00:00

One of my fellow Yahoos, Victor Tsaran, was on a local morning news show this week, talking about his work. Victor is a program manager on the Accessibility team here at Yahoo!.

The Accessibility team’s charter is to work with product teams, including Messenger, to make our technologies as usable as possible for disabled users.

Seeing Victor on TV reminded me of the interview I did with him in early 2007, not long after the blog started. In the video below, Victor shows me how a blind person can use Yahoo! Messenger. Close your own eyes, pretend your mouse is useless, and then think about how you would use Yahoo! Messenger.

With the help of screen reader software, a visually impaired user can enjoy the Internet and products like Yahoo! Messenger. This kind of software responds to a user’s key commands. It scans the page or application and reads the content aloud. In this way, visually impaired users can “hear” where they are on the screen or web page.

Because it reads the words aloud, a screen reader may sound wordy to people unaccustomed to it. But a visually impaired user who is adept at using the reader can set the audio playback at a lightening pace. When Victor demonstrated how he uses Yahoo! Messenger with a screen reader, it sounded to me like supersonic gibberish. But as you’ll see in the video below, Victor slowed it down for my (and perhaps yours) less able ears.

Needless to say, it gave me a unique perspective on what it’s like for a visually impaired user to use Yahoo! Messenger. For more about Victor – even his life outside of Yahoo! – check out this article and video from the Yahoo! Corporate Blog.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

'Remember Me,' 'Green Zone,' 'She's Out of My League': Critics Roundup

2010-03-11T23:49:28+00:00

by Michael Krumboltz

Three new movies hit theaters this weekend, and they couldn't be more different. "Remember Me," a romantic drama, stars Hollywood "It Boy" Robert Pattinson. For action lovers who prefer to see buildings explode than lovers swoon, there's "Green Zone," starring Matt Damon. And if it's a comedy you want, "She's Out of My League" might do the job. What say those cranky critics?

Remember Me
Robert Pattinson rocketed to the top of Hollywood's A list after his breakout role as Edward Cullen, a vampire with a heart of gold, in the "Twilight" films. Fans (especially the ladies) love him, but the question remains: Can he carry a movie that doesn't feature bloodsucking studs? "Remember Me" is his chance.

Reviews are mixed-to-negative. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter was clearly impressed with the film and with Pattinson's performance. Mr. Honeycutt calls the film "a strong romantic drama in which Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin really shine." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also gives the movie a favorable review. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist gives the film three out of four stars, calling it "a well-made movie." Ebert continues, "I cared about the characters. I felt for them."

Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum would have to disagree with Ebert's assessment. Strongly disagree. Giving the movie a "D+," the critic calls "Remember Me" a "shameless contraption of ridiculously sad things befalling attractive people." Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe is even harsher. The movie, he argues, "crassly repurposes tragedy to excuse its clichés." Morris' ranking: half a star out of four.

Green Zone
Matt Damon reteams with director Paul Greengrass, who helmed two of the "Bourne" films, for this action flick with a political point of view. The film takes place during the quest for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — a quest that, it turned out, was just a wild goose chase.

Mr. Ebert is a believer in the film's vision. Awarding it four out of four stars, Ebert remarks that it "looks at an American war in a way almost no Hollywood movie ever has." Online critic James Berardinelli was also impressed, giving "Green Zone" three and a half stars out of four. It's "a high energy thriller," he writes. The critic also compliments Damon: "Damon's prior appearances as Jason Bourne make him credible in this role. There's never a disconnect to see him in this heroic, action-oriented part."

Taking the praise down a couple of notches is Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly. She gives the movie a modest "C+" and describes it as "strangely dated" and "foolishly grandiose." She continues that Damon boasts an "understated efficiency and physical stolidity," but argues that the film feels like it should have come out two years ago.

She's Out of My League
What happens when a "hard 10" (the luminous Alice Eve) falls for a "5" (Jay Baruchel)? That's the question that "She's Out of My League" aims to answer. A male-insecurity comedy in the tradition of Judd Apatow's "40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," the critics have this film closer to a 5 than a 10. Lucy Barber of The Boston Globe gives "League" two out of four stars, noting that while the movie's premise is "as tired as the Fray songs littering the soundtrack," snappy dialogue saves the movie.

Matt Pais of Metromix is less generous with his grade. Giving the flick just one and half stars out of five, Pais argues that the movie is "mean-spirited" and "unbelievable." Baruchel's character is just too pathetic, he argues. Nobody wants to date a "spineless dope," let alone a bona fide bombshell. Mr. Ebert concedes that the movie "is not a comedy classic," but it is better than average. Using the film's own scale of worthiness, he gives it a 6.5.

Key Scientific Challenges: Machine Learning

2010-03-11T23:39:40+00:00

The Invisible Hand of Machine Learning

Key Scientific Challenges, Entry #6: Machine Learning

On January 27, we announced the kick-off of our 2010 Key Scientific Challenges Program. To highlight the scientific challenge areas included in the program, we launched a series of guest blog posts on Yodel Anecdotal. Our most recent post covered Web Information Management.

Another big challenge our Yahoo! research scientists are continually examining is machine learning. In this entry, John Langford from Yahoo! Labs shares some thoughts on how Yahoo! is driving research into machine learning and why it’s a fascinating field.

When I wake up in the morning, I can’t resist checking my email and browsing the Internet to see if anything has come up. Then I get to work thinking, writing, searching, finding, and learning various things, all using an Internet that’s powered by machine learning in dozens of ways. When I go to sleep at night, I smile because I know that in addition to using machine learning throughout my day, I’ve also done my part to advance machine learning technology, many others have done likewise, and that by doing so we’re making a major impact on people’s lives.

Even though machine learning has such a broad influence on the Internet, it can be quite difficult to recognize. This is primarily because machine learning’s benefits are often hidden — they are the spam emails you don’t see, the uninteresting news articles you don’t see, and the irrelevant search results you don’t see, just to name a few. In this sense, machine learning is like an invisible hand. It’s also sometimes easier to recognize the flaws in a machine learning system – like “Why did my email end up in my friend’s spam folder?” – than it is to notice its benefits. But despite these quirks, machine learning is one of the best technologies we have for solving some of the biggest problems on the Web.

The problem of spam is representative of why machine learning is so effective. Spammers are constantly changing and adapting their strategies and technology to evade even the most capable filters. Machine learning attacks this problem by aiming to build an automatic system able to stay ahead of the game and continually refine itself in response to its environment. We haven’t completely achieved that goal yet, but progress is steady. Machine learning systems can always get better, learn more, work faster and in ever more ways, because people will always want less spam and more interesting and relevant news articles.
Naturally, this reality means we’re constantly running into both the empirical and theoretical boundaries of machine learning and statistics. How do I learn from so much data that we can’t fit it on a machine? How do we extract evidence of what the best decision was? What if the best decision changes? How do I minimize the need to know the best decision? How do I effectively use the incredibly large quantities of information available on the Internet? And how do I fit it all together in an automatic way that is useful to someone? And how do you know it’s useful?

Good answers to these questions can improve the life of just about everyone, which is the core reason why Yahoo! is sponsoring the Key Scientific Challenges Program. If you are a graduate student working on these questions, you understand how exciting and challenging this field is. And if you aren’t, consider the satisfaction associated with changing fields. :-)

John Langford

Yahoo! Labs

"Foxy Knoxy" Back in Buzz

2010-03-11T23:30:29+00:00

by Claudine Zap

Seems that some people can't stop talking about the Amanda Knox murder case. Even if those people are already in prison for murder.

Here's the quick recap: Known by the press as "Foxy Knoxy," the American study-abroad student and her then boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted, along with local resident Rudy Guede, of the 2007 sexual assault and murder of college student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy.
Learn more about the murder case.

End of story, right? Not even close. Knox and Sollecito have always maintained their innocence, and their lawyers are working to overturn the case. And now this: A prisoner, Mario Alessi, went on record to deliver new testimony that he says exonerates the two. But as always with this case, nothing about the information is clear-cut.

The convict is serving his own life sentence for a vicious crime. Alessi bunked with Rudy Guede, who was tried for Kercher's murder separately from Knox and Sollecito and supposedly confided in his cellmate.

The latest bombshell: Alessi says that Guede confessed to him that the other two were not present at the time of Kercher's murder. News of the taped testimony caused searches on "amanda knox" to immediately skyrocket.

Reactions predictably fell into Amanda or Meredith camps. Kercher's family called the claim "groundless," while Knox's mother said she was "encouraged" that her daughter's conviction could be overturned.

Meanwhile, Guede denies he ever spoke to Alessi about the case, saying his were the ramblings of a "sick and twisted mind." Stay tuned.

Getting There With Search

2010-03-11T22:24:38+00:00

Six steps you can take to help search engines find and index your content

You’re trying to get your website noticed and search engines are an excellent channel for visibility. In this article, we’ll look at some basic things you can do to make sure your content is being indexed by search engines. The more of the items you can implement below, the more noticeable your site will be to the search engines.

1. Check your “Robots.TXT” file
One little line of code in a simple txt file can be very costly if it’s blocking your site from search engines. A robots.txt file allows you to tell search engines to crawl or not crawl certain directories or files in your site.

For example, this simple line of code disallows all crawlers (a.k.a. robots):

User-agent: *
Disallow: /
To find your robots.txt file simply type in your domain followed by /robots.txt. For example, here is the robots.txt file for the W3C: www.w3.org/robots.txt. For more details on what can be in this file and how search engines treat it visit robotstxt.org.

2. Make sure your content is indexable
Although search engines have come a long way over the years in terms of indexing all kinds of content on the web, there are still some types of content that may not be fully indexed or not indexed at all. If you are seeing missing content when you look at the search engine’s cache of your page, you may want to check if the content is presented in one of the tough-to-index ways below.

This is also true for people using screen readers due to a disability. A screen reader “sees” the page much in the same way a search engine crawler does – by crawling content and deciphering the elements.

JavaScript
Some JavaScript is crawled by search engines today and more will likely be in the future, but JavaScript (including its related scriping technique AJAX) can still present an issue. Because most content in JavaScript is usually not indexed, things like navigation, on-page apps, and any other content presented by using JavaScript may not be seen and therefore cannot contribute to the context of the page (or sometimes cannot be followed, in the case of links) for search engines.

Flash
With better indexing capabilities coming about recently, Flash sites are becoming more prevalent in SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages), although a site built entirely in Flash is still probably not the best idea if you care about search engine traffic.

Today search engines primarily attempt to index links and text from Flash files. While this is better than it used to be, 100 percent of content still may not be indexed depending on how your Flash site is created. Navigation through “pages” in a Flash file is all contained within a single swf file that lives on one URL, eliminating separate topical content for separate pages. This can be problematic when you’re up against competitors with much more targeted topical and sub-topical content living on distinct URLs (with links to each of those specific URLs providing even more context).

To minimize indexing difficulties, try to use Flash in smaller pieces. Make sure each topical page of your site has its own unique URL first, then put Flash elements on each page if you like. Beware though—the more of your content you put in Flash, the less content and context you may be providing to the search engines.

Image Text
It’s rare to see the entire content of a page posted as a .jpg or other image these days, but it still happens. And when it does, a crawler goes through the code and just sees an image instead of seeing all of the pictures, content, and link text on the page. Search engines simply cannot read any textual content you present in an image, whether it is the entire content of the page or just titles or headers. You will see the images displayed when you check the cached version of a page. This is because it is displaying the actual image that is cached, not reading the text content within it.

3. Strenghten your link structure
Links to and from your pages are very important for the “findability” of your pages. If a page has no links connecting it with any other indexed pages on the web, it may not be found by search engines, since they follow links to discover new content.

Internal links
Make sure you have a sensible linking structure in place on your site that is crawlable, links to top level as well as deeper level pages, and links to content relevant to the page the links are on.

Crawlable links are links that can be seen by search engines, meaning they’re not in JavaScript or in unindexable links within a Flash file. Also link to different pages within your site, not just from the home page, but all pages. Deeper pages in a site tend to be tougher to find and index, since they are linked to less often, or from more obscure pages in a site. Try to include links to pages most relevant to the content of each page, to give the search engines better context, and to provide a good mix of deeper links.

You can also include a sitemap page on the site (similarly named xml sitemap files are discussed later). Provide the sitemap link from your home page and/or from a header or footer on all pages.

External links
If you provide worthwhile content, your site and the pages within it will attract links naturally. These links from external sites help search engines find and classify your site, especially if your site is newly published. To kick-start your visibility,you can add your site to trusted directories like The Open Directory Project and Yahoo! Directory. If it is relevant, you can also add your site to online local listings pages like Yelp, Yahoo! Local or CitySearch.

Promote your website in your advertising campaigns, add it to your business card, and provide any other means for visibility that you can. If people find your site interesting and useful they will link to it.

To see what your inlinks looks like, go to https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/ and type in your URL. Click on the Inlinks button. Use the dropdowns to look at links to one page or the entire site, or to look at links from all pages, all pages except that subdomain, or all pages except that domain.

4. Create a sitemap XML file
The major search engines we’re addressing here all support xml sitemap files. These sitemap files are different from the onsite sitemap pages previously described. They are xml files that contain a list of the URLs on your site along with a small amount of information about the URLs that is placed on your server and crawled by search engines. This allows you to tell search engines about your URLs, even if they haven’t crawled them naturally by following links on the Web.

Visit sitemaps.org for more information, or see Yahoo!, Google, and Bing’s support of sitemaps.

5. Verify your “nofollow” and “noindex” tags
Noindex and nofollow tags can be used to block search engines from crawling specific links or content.

Noindex
The noindex meta tag tells search engines not to index a page. It looks like this:

To check for noindex tags on any of your pages, right click on the page in the browser and choose “View Source”. Search for noindex on the page.

For more information on the search engines’ support of noindex, see these Yahoo!, Google and Bing pages mentioning it.

Nofollow
Nofollow tags can be found in a robots meta tag at the page level, or within the <a> tag at the link level.

Nofollow at the page level tells search engine robots not to follow any of the links in the body of the page that the nofollow meta tag is on. It looks like this:

Nofollow at the link level tells search engine robots not to follow that particular link that the nofollow attribute is applied to. It looks like this:

To check for nofollows on any page, you can look at the source code of the page by right clicking on the page and choosing “View Source.” Then do a search for the word nofollow in the source code.

For more information on nofollows, see this Wikipedia article, or see Yahoo!, Google and Bing’s support of nofollow.

6. Specify your site’s language
You can also help search engines by specifying what language your site is written in. This is a simple meta tag that looks like this:

See all ISO codes at the Library of Congress site for more information.

To check for language meta tags on any page, you can look at the source code of the page by right clicking on the page and choosing “View Source.” Then do a search for the word language (or content-language) in the source code.

Still having problems?
If you’ve tried everything above and believe you still have indexing issues, browse the webmaster guidelines below for more information, troubleshooting, and contact information for the search engines.

Search Engine Guidelines for webmasters

For more on getting your site noticed, refer to Laura Lippay’s previous post “Is Your Site Invisible?”

— Laura Lippay, Director of Technical Marketing

(Image by Kapungo via Flicker, CC 2.0)

Ask Mike: The longest word

2010-03-11T21:27:28+00:00

Hey Guys,

Anyone who has seen “Mary Poppins” might think that “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is the longest word in the English language. And, if it were a real word, it might be the longest. But gibberish does not a word make. So, what is the “real” longest word in English? Let’s consult our old all-knowing friend, the Web.

A quick Yahoo! search on “longest word in English language” led me to this page from the Oxford Dictionary. The language enthusiasts listed a slew of candidates for the longest word in the English language. Some contenders: radioimmunoelectrophoresis (length: 26 letters; definition: no clue, but probably something medical), floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters; “the estimation of something as valueless“), and antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters; “opposition to the withdrawal of state support or recognition from an established church“).

All hilariously long words, but according to the Oxford Dictionary, one word trumps ‘em all: the little used “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.” That’s 45 letters, kids. Dictionary.com explains that it refers to “a lung disease caused by silica dust.” The word is, thankfully, quite obscure, so some might argue that it doesn’t count. However, Oxford explains that the word (which I refuse to re-type) is included in its dictionaries. So, I say the title belongs to it.

How about the longest English word that’s only one syllable? Again, I turned to the Oxford Dictionary, and it didn’t let me down. Apparently, there are several nine-letter words that hold the record. They are, in no particular order of loquaciousness: screeched, scratched, scrounged, scrunched, stretched, straights, and strengths.

Phew, got all that? Do you guys have a favorite word you like to drop in conversations to make you seem smart? Whenever I’m looking to impress somebody I like to haughtily say the word “thus” whenever making my point. When I want to be passive aggressive, I drop the word “actually” as often as possible. Got any other tricks for impressing and annoying others with language? Please leave a comment below. And thus, you will be heard.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

YUI 2 in 3: Coming in YUI 3.1.0, a Simpler Way To Use YUI 2 Modules

2010-03-11T20:44:45+00:00

Using YUI 2 components in the context of YUI 3 implementations is important for some implementers making the transition between YUI 2 and YUI 3. In some cases, we simply want to transition our code in stages, but we want to do so within the context of a YUI 3 implementation pattern. In other cases, we may be relying on high-level components like YUI DataTable that aren’t yet present in YUI 3.

As part of the upcoming 3.1.0 release, Adam has improved the experience of using YUI 2 components from within YUI 3. To this end, he’s added some intelligence to YUI 3’s loader that allows you to load YUI 2 modules directly from your YUI().use() statement:

YUI().use("yui2-button", function(Y) {

	//YAHOO is not a global object; it is sandboxed along
	//with the rest of your YUI 3 functionality.  This line
	//is necessary if you want to use existing implementation
        //code:
	var YAHOO = Y.YUI2;

	//YUI 2 implementation code
	var button = new YAHOO.widget.button("mybutton");

});

You’ll find this functionality in the YUI 3 codeline as of build 1933, and we’ve deployed an experimental YUI 3 build (nominally “yui3.1.0pr2″) and an early build of YUI 2.8.0 functionality wrapped for use in YUI 3.

When you download YUI 3’s latest source from GitHub you’ll find some working examples in sandbox/loader (look for files with the 2in3 prefix). These examples demonstrate the use of a number of YUI 2 modules. We’ve posted a simple live example that shows how to use YUI 2 DataTable within YUI 3, which is one of the most frequently requested transitional features.

Key points about the YUI 2 in 3 effort:

This work is available in the latest builds of the upcoming 3.1.0 release (build 1933 and later). It is not available in 3.0.0 or in the 3.1.0pr1 preview.
The project is in an experimental state. Neither the yui3.1.0pr2 build nor the wrapped YUI 2 builds from which it pulls have been extensively tested, although we’ve staged them on the CDN to make it convenient to explore the implementation.
Download the latest build for examples. You’ll find a few of Adam’s proof-of-concept files in sandbox/loader — other than the simple example above, those are the best code references available until the official 3.1.0 release (which is still about a month out).
Your feedback in the forums is welcome — and, if you find problems, we’re interested in hearing about them.
When used this way, YUI 2 does not create a global YAHOO object. YUI 2 components are wrapped in YUI 3 module definitions and they stay contained in the YUI 3 sandbox to which they’re attached. The line from the codesample above, var YAHOO = Y.YUI2;, is needed in order to cut and paste YUI 2-style implementation code — or you can change YAHOO references to Y.YUI2.
YUI 2 releases are supported back to 2.2.2 — the latest bug-fix release for every minor version is supported (2.2.2, 2.3.1, 2.4.1, 2.5.2, 2.6.0, 2.7.0, 2.8.0). You can specify the YUI 2 version to use as follows: YUI({yui2: '2.7.0'}).use('yui2-button', ...). The goal here is to allow you to avoid migrating to 2.8.0 (or later) prior to a YUI 3 migration.

Gallery Is Easier To Use, Too

Adam’s enhancements to YUI 3’s intrinsic loader have improved the experience of working with the rapidly growing YUI 3 Gallery, too. As of 3.1.0, you’ll be able to bring gallery modules into the page from the use() statement without additional configuration — the loader will be able to determine and resolve dependencies for you and will do the right thing with respect to combo’ing the gallery source code with other YUI files. Here’s an example Dav Glass put together for 3.1.0 that demonstrates the use of his YQL Query gallery module in combination with a pre-release build of 3.1.0.

Idol Talk: It Takes Woman's Work to Do a Man's Job

2010-03-11T20:23:56+00:00

by Vera H-C Chan

Weak warbling has made the male competitors look like the weak sisters in this season's "American Idol." But in the anchor spot, Big Mike belted out a ballad that brought judge DioGuardi to tears and vaulted him as the man to beat. Check out how the boys' Buzz ranked on performance night.

Top 8 Male "American Idol" Contestants on Yahoo!, Wednesday night performance

Michael Lynche. Last week we joked that he should put his baby girl on stage to get the female vote. The savvy new daddy metaphorically put parenthood front and center with "This Woman's Work." The ballad—and that range of falsetto to big notes—got plaudits and tears. Big Mike went from likable to formidable, and leapfrogged all other male contenders to the top.

Casey James. The pretty boy tied his hair back and stripped down to musical basics with a gee-tar and Keith Urban. His "honesty" got him some relieved compliments — but really, with his blond tresses and that audition striptease, he could sit on his haunches, howling at the spotlights and still get a pass. And probably a "Twilight" cameo.

Tim Urban. The baby-faced Texan took on "Hallelujah" (which, as Time rightly and rioteously points out, "has become 'And I Am Telling You' for the boys"), and the "Idol" judicial chorus saw the light. Sure, they were grading against his own curve, but a puppy dog who rescues himself is hard to resist.

Alex Lambert. A natural talent but achingly petrified, Lambert delivered a decent rendition of "Trouble" underneath all that stiffness. The performance, though, made the panel feel so tense that judge Cowell suggested imagining Jackson in a bikini, thereby ruining the appetites of "Idol" watchers everywhere.

Andrew Garcia. Can someone really peak during Hollywood week? That's what the judges fear for this musician. If you add in searches for "andrew garcia straight up," his cumulative Buzz number would be higher than Casey James. But his "Genie in a Bottle" was no savior, so his chances for a Top 12 spot rides on past glory... and the benevolent spirit of Paula Abdul.

Lee Dewyze. The second-best performance started off the night. His "Fireflies" didn't set off any sparklers, but it was enough for the panel to declare him a strong contender. Then again, his weekend-construction-job look of plaids and light blue jeans does cry out for a little makeover. His searches may be lower because people aren't that worried about him — but he may not be wowing audiences either.

Aaron Kelly. Arguably among the most assured of the males, the 16-year-old has been cursed with making bad choices. He too went for a parenthood theme with "I'm Already There" (actually a fascinating choice given his childhood problems), but judge DioGuardi felt a big disconnect. Despite his boy-band potential, he's in the danger zone.

Todrick Hall. Run for cover—in this case, a cover of Queen's "Somebody to Love," a move so bold, so out-of-whack, that Hall knows it's his make-or-break moment. He wrung out the rock and shoved the song up to the rafters for a soaring Broadway gospel number. He got kudos for bravery and Judge Cowell commended him for revealing his aspirations (the stage). Looks like the move got Hall some decent Buzz compared to previous weeks — but he's still dead last.

Release Notes: Yahoo! Updates and Social APIs

2010-03-11T19:24:38+00:00

Some of you may have heard about the Yahoo! – Twitter agreement that was announced a couple of weeks ago. The deal complements the Facebook agreement that we announced in December last year. Both these agreements are key enablers the Yahoo! Open Strategy, which is all about opening up Yahoo like never before to help our users connect with the best of the web. In particular, these partnerships with Facebook and Twitter will help us do several things:

Aggregation of social activity from across the web into Yahoo! Updates to enrich products like Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Homepage, Yahoo! Messenger other content experiences across Yahoo!
Distribution of Yahoo!’s social activity and content (we call this, collectively, Yahoo! Updates) from Yahoo! out to Twitter, Facebook, and the web at large (think of Yahoo! as a massive client for updating your status out to your network(s) of choice).

We’ve been working towards enabling our social APIs to support these objectives and today we have accomplished a major milestone by launching a release that upgrades most of our social platforms. We’d like to share with you some specific features we’ve released this week. Many of these won't directly affect you, as developers, but we're excited that our social platform now supports these key capabilities:

In order to enable social aggregation, we’ve built a platform that allows us to centrally store credentials issued to Yahoo! by third parties such as Facebook & Twitter. This central platform provides a secure and scalable way for us to aggregate social across all of Yahoo!. Users will soon be able to link their Yahoo! account to Facebook & Twitter thereby making their Yahoo! ID a gateway to their accounts on these third party networks.
We’ve upgraded our Updates API such that updates that are inserted into Yahoo! using our default update types will be broadcast to all third party networks that the user has linked their Yahoo! account to. This provides a single entry point to distribute updates to all third parties. As soon as we enable users to link their accounts to third parties across Yahoo! in near future, you will be able to get more distribution by using the Updates API without the need to integrate with multiple third parties. Users will also be able to syndicate their Yahoo! activities, like buzz, ratings, reviews etc to these third party networks.
Similarly, you will soon be able to use the Status API to syndicate status updates to all networks, including Yahoo!, in one API call. You don’t have to worry about publishing to multiple third party APIs.
You can easily allow your users to login to your site with their Yahoo! ID and request access to submit Updates and Status to Yahoo! (and again then out to Facebook and Twitter), all in one flow via our Hybrid Auth interface.
We’ve added the ability for Yahoo! users to import their Facebook friends into their Yahoo! Contacts. The imported friends are available through our Contacts API which significantly increases the number of social relationships and the amount of data you get from the API.
We’ve added the ability to add comments & likes on Yahoo! Updates in Profiles and we will soon be enabling this feature on other destinations such as Yahoo! Mail & Homepage. We expect to see a significant improvement in the consumption experience of Yahoo! Updates as we continue to iterate with features such as this which will drive more clicks per update inserted into the Updates API.

We're committed to continuously enhancing our social APIs to provide you with the necessary tools to build innovative and engaging applications. To get started, visit the Social API documentation. Suggestions? We're all ears! Leave them in the comments below.

Shirish Anand Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Social Platforms #yui-main ul,#yui-main li{list-style:square;}#yui-main ul{margin-left:1em;}

Get the Best Results from Yahoo’s Partner Network

2010-03-11T18:46:50+00:00

Efficient Frontier offers insights

Recently, we introduced some new features and functionalities that make it easier and more efficient for you to manage your account and better target your campaigns. These were pretty much a hit with the search marketing cogniscenti.

So how are these updates performing? Pretty well, according to Efficeint Frontier’s Shay O’Reilly. He offers several tips on how to make them perform even better.

— The Team

Marion Jones' New Career, Botox Rx, "Eclipse" Trailer: What's the Buzz

2010-03-11T18:17:51+00:00

by Claudine Zap

Our top picks from the day's hottest searches.

Marion Jones (Searches increased by +9,079%). The former track star, stripped of her Olympic medals for steroid use, has a new career with the WNBA.
Tasmanian Devil (+2,527%). A colony of the species that is immune to a contagious cancer could save the population.
Botox (+2,476%). Really, we get the treatment for medical purposes.
"Twilight Saga: Eclipse" (+1,958%). The movie isn't out till June, but the trailer is here.
Soda tax (+1,947%). The latest theory on how to slim people's waist lines: Go through their wallets.

Iditarod 2010

2010-03-11T18:04:35+00:00

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race started on March 6. During the course of the race, teams of dogs and mushers will cover 1,161 miles (1,868 km). To see more photos as they come in try a search for Iditarod sorted by most recent.

Photos from pwrplantgirl, Alaskan Dude, uzumewinter, auroraanc, Cold Press Publishing, and akphotograph.com.

Questions about the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance

2010-03-11T16:52:07+00:00

Advertisers and agencies have questions; we have answers

A few weeks ago, we announced U.S. and E.U clearance for the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance. This was, naturally, big news in the search marketing world. That post garnered some 60 comments from our engaged advertising and agency customers. Most of these comments were positive.

Understandably, some of you had questions and concerns about your accounts. But the most important fact for you to know regarding the search alliance is that, as noted in our FAQ’s:

We will begin with the algorithmic search transition, with a goal of completing transition of at least the U.S. market by the end of 2010. We also hope to make significant progress transitioning U.S. advertisers and publishers in 2010 prior to the crucial holiday season, but may wait until 2011 if we determine that the transition will be more effective after the holiday season. All global customers and partners are expected to be transitioned by early 2012.

What do I do now?
This naturally invokes the question, “So what do I, as an advertiser, need to do in the meantime?” The short answer is “nothing.” Keep on doing what you’re doing. During this time, we’ll continue innovating and we’ll ping you when routine updates and enhancements are made available—just as we do now. When the time comes to transition your account to Microsoft adCenter, you’ll be informed about what you’ll need to do, with instructions on how to do it.

What about all of Yahoo’s bells and whistles?
Several of you asked, in short, if all the bells and whistles that you have come to expect from Yahoo! will be ported over to your future Microsoft adCenter account—things like negative keywords, character length of ads, and so forth. Our answer:

As you might expect, Yahoo!’s Sponsored Search platform and Microsoft’s adCenter platform are not identical, but they offer many similar features, tools and reports. Before any advertiser transitions begin, Yahoo! and Microsoft will work together so that our advertisers have a high-quality product that is as familiar as possible and easy to use.

Finally, here are answers to some of your very specific questions:

Nick Gowdy asks: Are we still going to be able to choose the networks on which we advertise? E.g. Yahoo! Search, Bing Search, Yahoo! Search Partners, Bing Search Partners, etc.

Answer: Once Yahoo! Sponsored Search advertisers are transitioned to Microsoft’s search platforms, advertisers will not be permitted to select traffic solely from Bing or solely from Yahoo!

Avromie asks: Anybody know what will happen with SearchMonkey results?

Answer: Yahoo! and Microsoft are sharing ideas for how to advance the SearchMonkey vision of building an ecosystem for developers, publishers, and the semantic web. The landscape is complex, so we’re working hard to determine which path provides the best value for site owners and end users.

SEM All Stars asks: I use YWA (Yahoo! Web Analytics). Is that still going to work?

Answer: Yahoo! and Microsoft plan to provide high-quality, competitive search analytics, but the details are still being determined. As transition plans are established, we will communicate more detail about what you can expect in terms of analytics tools.

Jo asks: Why not give people the choice—those who want to switch can, but those who want to stay with YSM should be able to have that option as well. Is this possible?

Answer: Sorry, no: All Sponsored Search advertisers will use the adCenter platform for their paid search campaigns following their transition, and the “Panama” system will no longer be available. The post-transition unified search marketplace will provide numerous benefits to advertisers, including increased volume, greater ease of doing business, and increased innovation.

Brett West asks: When the alliance takes effect, will it be necessary to maintain advertising accounts with both Yahoo! and Bing/Microsoft or will they be merged somehow?

Answer: Approximately three months in advance, advertisers will receive multiple communications from Yahoo! and Microsoft that will provide details on what to expect during the transition process. When the transition date arrives, Yahoo! and Microsoft will work together to transition your account to the adCenter platform. You will have flexibility to keep your existing adCenter accounts or create new accounts for the unified search marketplace.

Was your question not answered?
As the agreement between Yahoo! and Microsoft only recently received regulatory clearance, we have not had the opportunity to fully discuss every one of your questions with Microsoft and make a determination on each. But we will certainly provide more details to both agencies and advertisers before the transition occurs. Stay tuned.

For more, visit the Yahoo! Transition Center.

— The Team

The Invisible Hand of Machine Learning

2010-03-11T15:43:35+00:00

Key Scientific Challenges, Entry #6: Machine Learning

Spring into a Clean Inbox

2010-03-11T14:18:32+00:00

Tired of spending countless hours on cleaning up those emails that have piled up over the years? Spring is just around the corner and you know what that means – spring cleaning. Don’t suffer from the stress and get a jump-start on spring cleaning with an organized Yahoo! Mail inbox.

We understand the drill. Make a New Years resolution, and then somehow, months go by, and it gets lost in the chaos of life. But if your resolution was to finally have an organized inbox free of all the clutter, then we can help you!

One of our Yahoo! Mail partners, OtherInbox, created the Automatic Organizer app found right in the handy Applications box on the lower left-hand corner of your inbox. This app allows you to keep your “clean inbox” resolution. Automatic Organizer prioritizes your Yahoo! inbox by automatically filing messages that aren’t from real people into pre-defined folders (Travel, Auto, Social Networking), while leaving you with a clean and clutter-free inbox manageable on your own schedule. Easy enough, right?

So try Automatic Organizer for free and feel good about spring cleaning for a change.

Tech Thursday - CSS3 please, Trojans via USB, IBM visualization engine and Mosaic source code

2010-03-11T12:21:01+00:00

It is tech Thursday and here is a random pick of cool technical links from our bookmarks collection:

The difference between article, div and section - semantic HTML5 info
CSS3 Please is an interactive demo of CSS3 features with live rendering
The graph of the water consumption in Edmonton during the Canada vs US Olympics hockey final is interesting. Guess when the advertising breaks occured.
USB battery chargers can contain Trojans - another reminder that hardware is as suspicious as software when it comes to security
Many eyes is a visualization engine by IBM.
Pure CSS3 speech bubbles is a CSS include to turn any DIV into a speech bubble without any images
Twitter Quiz is built 100% in YUI and allows you to post little multiple choice quizzes on Twitter
If you want to re-live the birth moments of the web, you can now download NCSA mosaic on GitHub
Jonathan Snook explains the ins and outs of background-position-x
What the JavaScript RegEx engine got wrong and how to fix it has some very good information how to avoid frustration when you come from Perl or PHP to JavaScript