Yahoo Inc.'s problems with Indian bloggers over unauthorized reproduction of their content on its Indian portals may be just beginning.
Bloggers claim they have identified more instances of their content being reproduced without permission on Yahoo's Indian portals. Yahoo's Indian subsidiary has yet to come up with an appropriate response that satisfies the bloggers.
After bloggers complained about Yahoo India's unauthorized publication of recipes from a blogger called Su, the subsidiary apologized on Thursday. In a statement, it said it regretted any inconvenience caused by the inadvertent posting of the recipe without attribution on its Malayalam-language portal.
Yahoo did not refer to Su or her blog by name, and also blamed the mistake on its content provider Webdunia.com (India) Pvt. Ltd. A Malayalam-language version of the statement was posted by Yahoo on its Malayalam portal, but that did not satisfy the bloggers.
The issue is not about Yahoo publishing her content without attribution, said Su reacting to Yahoo's statement in an e-mail Saturday. The bloggers, whose content she said was stolen, are fighting against Yahoo violating their copyrights, she wrote.
Su has demanded a written apology from Yahoo for allegedly stealing her blog content. The blogger describes herself as a housewife from Kerala in south India in her blog.
She said that her next step would be to take the dispute to court on a number of charges including copyright violation, if "Yahoo keeps on washing their hands off and tries to do a mockery of an apology."
Bloggers in India are also compiling a list of content allegedly stolen from them by Yahoo's content provider, and posted to Yahoo's portals in India. The 12 incidents of copyright violation and content theft identified so far may be only be the tip of the iceberg, a blogger wrote Sunday.
The content on Yahoo's seven Indian languages portals is provided by Webdunia.com under the express representation that Webdunia.com has all the necessary rights and authorization for all the content provided by them, Yahoo India said last week. Yahoo India did not comment on the most recent allegations by bloggers, but a spokeswoman said on Monday that the company is likely to issue another statement soon.
Showing posts with label yahoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yahoo. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
My Yahoo Upgrade Coming Soon
Yahoo Inc.'s My Yahoo service, which lets users aggregate content and services on a single Web page, will soon get a significant upgrade, the company's chief executive officer said Tuesday.
The enhancement to My Yahoo is part of the company's continued emphasis on giving its users tools to personalize their Internet experience, said CEO Terry Semel at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco, which was webcast.
"In the next few weeks, you'll see My Yahoo take on a new form and a new shape," Semel said. "We've been working on it for some time."
My Yahoo was launched in July 1996, and as such is a precursor to the many customizable Web pages and personalization services that came later and are a standard feature of many news sites and consumer and enterprise portals.
At My Yahoo, people can access services like Yahoo Mail and choose, to an extent, the types of news, information and sources that get featured on the page.
Some of My Yahoo's most recent enhancements, introduced over two years ago, include support for content syndication feeds like RSS and Atom and a version for mobile devices.
The enhancement to My Yahoo is part of the company's continued emphasis on giving its users tools to personalize their Internet experience, said CEO Terry Semel at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco, which was webcast.
"In the next few weeks, you'll see My Yahoo take on a new form and a new shape," Semel said. "We've been working on it for some time."
My Yahoo was launched in July 1996, and as such is a precursor to the many customizable Web pages and personalization services that came later and are a standard feature of many news sites and consumer and enterprise portals.
At My Yahoo, people can access services like Yahoo Mail and choose, to an extent, the types of news, information and sources that get featured on the page.
Some of My Yahoo's most recent enhancements, introduced over two years ago, include support for content syndication feeds like RSS and Atom and a version for mobile devices.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Yahoo To Preview Messenger For Windows Vista
Yahoo will give users a preview of what it will be like to use a new and improved version of Yahoo Messenger on Microsoft's Windows Vista at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show this year.
Yahoo will show off an early version of Yahoo Messenger optimized for Vista, with new features that take advantage of some of the user interface enhancements Microsoft has added to the OS.
"It feels very much at home as though it's living and breathing in Windows Vista," said Joshua Jacobson, a Yahoo senior product manager, of the version of Messenger built for Vista. The company plans to release a beta of the application in the second quarter of 2007, and a final version should be available four to six weeks after that, pending feedback, he said.
New Features
Windows Vista is already available for business users, and is expected to be available to consumers on Jan. 30.
Yahoo used the new GUI (graphical user interface) development framework in Vista called Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) as the basis for several of the new features of Messenger. New abilities to scale up in size the avatar and contact information for people in a user's contact list, a color wheel that allows users to choose a new color for Messenger's skin, and a feature that shows a large-sized emoticon that goes beyond the boundaries of the Messenger window before shrinking to its normal size all use WPF, Jacobson said.
Yahoo also has added a feature called Yahoo Show and Tell that allows users who are connecting via voice on Messenger to share photos so they can converse or send IMs (instant messages) about them while they are talking. Eventually, Messenger will allow users to share videos this way as well, Jacobson said.
Tabs Similar To Firefox
Another new feature in the Vista version of Messenger follows the lead of both Internet Explorer 7 -- the browser included in Vista -- and Mozilla's Firefox browser. Like those applications, which allow users to create tabs for new browser windows to more efficiently keep track of where they are surfing, Yahoo Messenger will do the same for instant messages, Jacobson said.
The application does not automatically create tabs as some IM software does, however; it lets users create the tabs themselves so they have control over which conversations they would like tabbed, he said.
Voice Visualization
Finally, Yahoo has added a new "voice visualization" feature to Messenger that lets Vista users see their voice on the IM window coming through as a visual sound wave, Jacobson said. This will help let them know if the person they are speaking with can hear them and if their voice is at an appropriate volume level, as well as to make the connection between users a more "intimate" experience, he said.
"We're trying to let people express themselves through Messenger and make it more engaging to communicate," Jacobson said.
Yahoo will be exhibiting at CES, which is being held this week through Thursday in Las Vegas.
Yahoo will show off an early version of Yahoo Messenger optimized for Vista, with new features that take advantage of some of the user interface enhancements Microsoft has added to the OS.
"It feels very much at home as though it's living and breathing in Windows Vista," said Joshua Jacobson, a Yahoo senior product manager, of the version of Messenger built for Vista. The company plans to release a beta of the application in the second quarter of 2007, and a final version should be available four to six weeks after that, pending feedback, he said.
New Features
Windows Vista is already available for business users, and is expected to be available to consumers on Jan. 30.
Yahoo used the new GUI (graphical user interface) development framework in Vista called Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) as the basis for several of the new features of Messenger. New abilities to scale up in size the avatar and contact information for people in a user's contact list, a color wheel that allows users to choose a new color for Messenger's skin, and a feature that shows a large-sized emoticon that goes beyond the boundaries of the Messenger window before shrinking to its normal size all use WPF, Jacobson said.
Yahoo also has added a feature called Yahoo Show and Tell that allows users who are connecting via voice on Messenger to share photos so they can converse or send IMs (instant messages) about them while they are talking. Eventually, Messenger will allow users to share videos this way as well, Jacobson said.
Tabs Similar To Firefox
Another new feature in the Vista version of Messenger follows the lead of both Internet Explorer 7 -- the browser included in Vista -- and Mozilla's Firefox browser. Like those applications, which allow users to create tabs for new browser windows to more efficiently keep track of where they are surfing, Yahoo Messenger will do the same for instant messages, Jacobson said.
The application does not automatically create tabs as some IM software does, however; it lets users create the tabs themselves so they have control over which conversations they would like tabbed, he said.
Voice Visualization
Finally, Yahoo has added a new "voice visualization" feature to Messenger that lets Vista users see their voice on the IM window coming through as a visual sound wave, Jacobson said. This will help let them know if the person they are speaking with can hear them and if their voice is at an appropriate volume level, as well as to make the connection between users a more "intimate" experience, he said.
"We're trying to let people express themselves through Messenger and make it more engaging to communicate," Jacobson said.
Yahoo will be exhibiting at CES, which is being held this week through Thursday in Las Vegas.
The easiest way to share photos is to publish them online, and the new Picasa Web Albums (from Google) and Yahoo Photos make that easier than ever. I liked aspects of both beta services, but I give Yahoo's service the early edge for its solid search features.
In what Google describes as "pre-beta" form, Picasa Web Albums feels as polished as some of its longer-running rivals. Google ties the site to beta version 2.5 of its Picasa software. You edit and organize your photos in Picasa, and then click the Web Album button to post them online. Picasa's defaults make albums public--so anyone with an invitation can browse them--but switching albums to private viewing is easy. You can upload photos at their original resolution or let the service downsize them to save storage space. Google offers 250MB of space free; you can pay $25 per year for 6GB.
Google's site layout is attractive and functional. You can switch freely among your entire collection, your public albums, and other people's bookmarked albums. You can also see photo metadata like the camera model and exposure information for a selected image, view slide shows, and download photos (yours or others') to your PC.
Strangely, Picasa Web Albums forgoes Google's search prowess, and the company will not say whether such a function is coming later. Currently you have no way to tag photos or search for images.
In contrast, the single best feature of Yahoo Photos is its search function. You can easily add Flickr-like tags to your images so that you can find specific photos via a search box at the top of the page. And whereas Google's photo editing tools are all in the Picasa software, Yahoo's site includes exposure adjustments, cropping tools, red-eye reduction, and even fancy border effects.
Yahoo Photos' biggest weakness is its design. The interface is cluttered with ads and tiered menus that I had to experiment with--even then, I never really felt at home.
The upload system lacks an organizer application. And Yahoo sets images to private by default--odd, since the Web is all about sharing. Also, it's easy to miss the fact that you can upload images at their full size, because that feature is hidden behind a check box that describes the settings in terms of upload speed. At least for now, Yahoo supplies free, unlimited storage.
What Picasa Web Albums lacks in features it makes up for in polish and charm. On the other hand, Yahoo Photos will appeal to folks who like the idea of sharing and editing their photos, all online.
Google Picasa Web Albums
Beta Product, not rated
Desktop photo organizer combined with Web sharing is elegant, but why is there no search or tagging?
Price when reviewed: Free (250MB storage), $25 per year (6GB storage)
picasaweb.google.com
Yahoo Photos
Beta product, not rated
This powerful but cluttered photo organizer is a virtual replacement for your desktop photo apps--and it has a strong search function.
Price when reviewed: Free
photos.yahoo.com
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Yahoo to Google: It's usability, stupid!
Google may have an overwhelming market share in the online search market, the company has been famously incapable of making as much as a dent in areas such as web mail, or instant messaging.
Yahoousability Yahoo's Jeff Bonforte today offered some free advice on what caused this failure: a complete lack of usability.
Google is ruled by engineers, but they make for a lousy target audience because they will try any new application that has a blinking light and makes rattling sounds. The challenge is to get to the masses.
In the video below Bonforte explains the challenges that Yahoo is facing, as well as Google's faillure in web usability.
Yahoousability Yahoo's Jeff Bonforte today offered some free advice on what caused this failure: a complete lack of usability.
Google is ruled by engineers, but they make for a lousy target audience because they will try any new application that has a blinking light and makes rattling sounds. The challenge is to get to the masses.
In the video below Bonforte explains the challenges that Yahoo is facing, as well as Google's faillure in web usability.
Yahoo Slams Google’s Usability
I guess Yahoo felt they needed to be in the news this week - no matter what the reason. It’s the only explanation I can think of for Yahoo’s Jeff Bonforte, senior director of real time communications, attacking Google’s usability efforts.
“[Google] definitely is lacking in usability,” Bonforte said in a meeting with reporters at Yahoo’s corporate headquarters.
“They don’t have this intimate connection in usability with consumers that Yahoo has had for 10 years. When it comes to consumer applications, no-one is more successful than Yahoo hands down. And it happens over and over and over again. In every application, we are number one or two.”
I can’t resist pointing out something interesting about Bonforte.
Bonforte joined Yahoo 18 months ago and heads up the company’s messenger product…Online application providers should focus on limiting the number of features that they deliver, he argued. Where adding features will alienate users, the company found that removing them can increase the time that users spend using them.
Is this the same messenger product that tries to hijack your browser settings and change your default search engine to Yahoo? Well, I guess removing clear indications that Yahoo’s about to hijack your settings, is one way to “increase the time that users spend using them.”
“[Google] definitely is lacking in usability,” Bonforte said in a meeting with reporters at Yahoo’s corporate headquarters.
“They don’t have this intimate connection in usability with consumers that Yahoo has had for 10 years. When it comes to consumer applications, no-one is more successful than Yahoo hands down. And it happens over and over and over again. In every application, we are number one or two.”
I can’t resist pointing out something interesting about Bonforte.
Bonforte joined Yahoo 18 months ago and heads up the company’s messenger product…Online application providers should focus on limiting the number of features that they deliver, he argued. Where adding features will alienate users, the company found that removing them can increase the time that users spend using them.
Is this the same messenger product that tries to hijack your browser settings and change your default search engine to Yahoo? Well, I guess removing clear indications that Yahoo’s about to hijack your settings, is one way to “increase the time that users spend using them.”
Yahoo!, Google and Bloglines Dominate Web-based RSS Reader Market
Yahoo!, Google and Bloglines Dominate Web-based RSS Reader Market
Recent discussions on changes in RSS subscriber reporting at FeedBurner as a result of Google’s starting to report Google Reader and Google Personalized Homepage subscribers have prompted Rick Klau at FeedBurner to post an analysis of how people are reading feeds and interacting with them.
The FeedBurner analysis is based on 604,533 feeds managed by FeedBurner on behalf of 347,000 bloggers, podcasters and commercial publishers. FeedBurner notes that the service sees more than 3,000 feed reading clients on a regular basis. There is adequate data in a sample of this size to gauge the impact of the various aggregators whose subscriber data FeedBurner publishes.
Because FeedBurner provides stats on item views and clicks, the service can provide a sense of audience engagement level based on the client used. Are users of one client reading the posts more than users with a different client? Are these users clicking back to the original site in smaller or greater numbers? Rick Klau of FeedBurner addresses these issues in an extended post filled with documentation. He notes that:
Looking at engagement across the top web-based aggregators, several top readers are driving the lion's share of clicks and views back to our publishers' content.
In clicks, Yahoo! (54%) leads the pack. This is not surprising since users of Yahoo! are presented just headlines with links to the content. My Yahoo!, Google Reader/Personalized Homepage, Bloglines and Netvibes - account for 95% of all web aggregator clicks to FeedBurner publisher's content.
For views the FeedBurner sample shows that Google Reader, Bloglines, NewsGator and Netvibes - account for 98% of all item views. It should be noted that how an aggregator chooses to display a feed in the reader can influence the number of views recorded.
There are several conclusions can be drawn from this data. First, the Google Reader has rapidly grabbed a significant share of the market. The intricacy of the data shows that there are number of variables that must be taken into consideration in reporting feed consumption. Finally, this post just looks at users consuming feeds in Web-based aggregators. Feeds are so flexible that these readers just cover a small portion of the consumption methods available. Today readers consume content in a number of different places -- directly from the content provider’s site, through a feed-reading client, within a widget, via resyndicated headlines on another site, or on a social-networking site.
Recent discussions on changes in RSS subscriber reporting at FeedBurner as a result of Google’s starting to report Google Reader and Google Personalized Homepage subscribers have prompted Rick Klau at FeedBurner to post an analysis of how people are reading feeds and interacting with them.
The FeedBurner analysis is based on 604,533 feeds managed by FeedBurner on behalf of 347,000 bloggers, podcasters and commercial publishers. FeedBurner notes that the service sees more than 3,000 feed reading clients on a regular basis. There is adequate data in a sample of this size to gauge the impact of the various aggregators whose subscriber data FeedBurner publishes.
Because FeedBurner provides stats on item views and clicks, the service can provide a sense of audience engagement level based on the client used. Are users of one client reading the posts more than users with a different client? Are these users clicking back to the original site in smaller or greater numbers? Rick Klau of FeedBurner addresses these issues in an extended post filled with documentation. He notes that:
Looking at engagement across the top web-based aggregators, several top readers are driving the lion's share of clicks and views back to our publishers' content.
In clicks, Yahoo! (54%) leads the pack. This is not surprising since users of Yahoo! are presented just headlines with links to the content. My Yahoo!, Google Reader/Personalized Homepage, Bloglines and Netvibes - account for 95% of all web aggregator clicks to FeedBurner publisher's content.
For views the FeedBurner sample shows that Google Reader, Bloglines, NewsGator and Netvibes - account for 98% of all item views. It should be noted that how an aggregator chooses to display a feed in the reader can influence the number of views recorded.
There are several conclusions can be drawn from this data. First, the Google Reader has rapidly grabbed a significant share of the market. The intricacy of the data shows that there are number of variables that must be taken into consideration in reporting feed consumption. Finally, this post just looks at users consuming feeds in Web-based aggregators. Feeds are so flexible that these readers just cover a small portion of the consumption methods available. Today readers consume content in a number of different places -- directly from the content provider’s site, through a feed-reading client, within a widget, via resyndicated headlines on another site, or on a social-networking site.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Inspect-our-Gadget – Yahoo! Search Gadget for Vista
Hi, I’m Jonathan from the Yahoo! Desktop Products team. The Yahoo! Search team invited me to write about our latest collaboration, the Yahoo! Search gadget for the Windows Vista Sidebar. My team’s mission is to enable users to access Yahoo! services from anywhere on their personal computer desktop. And while we have quite a few Yahoo! products already available for Windows Vista, today I wanted to focus on our first Vista-only product, the Yahoo! Search gadget.
The Windows Vista Sidebar is a new feature in Vista that, similar to our own Yahoo! Widgets or Apple’s Dashboard, allows you to run mini applications (called gadgets) on your desktop that are connected to the Internet without having to open a browser. Since Yahoo! Search is one of our most popular services, it was a logical choice for our first ever Windows Vista Sidebar gadget. We designed the Yahoo! Search gadget to feel at home in Vista’s new visually rich environment with animations and four shiny colors to choose from. And whether docked in your Sidebar or floating on your desktop, the Yahoo! Search gadget puts Yahoo! Web Search, Answers, Local, Video, and more at your fingertips. Of course, there are a number of other ways to integrate Yahoo! Search into your Vista experience, including search plug-ins for IE7 and Firefox as well as the Yahoo! Toolbar also for IE7 and Firefox.
We’ve got a lot of stuff in the Vista pipeline, including more gadgets and a new Yahoo! Messenger client, which you can preview here. Stay tuned…
The Windows Vista Sidebar is a new feature in Vista that, similar to our own Yahoo! Widgets or Apple’s Dashboard, allows you to run mini applications (called gadgets) on your desktop that are connected to the Internet without having to open a browser. Since Yahoo! Search is one of our most popular services, it was a logical choice for our first ever Windows Vista Sidebar gadget. We designed the Yahoo! Search gadget to feel at home in Vista’s new visually rich environment with animations and four shiny colors to choose from. And whether docked in your Sidebar or floating on your desktop, the Yahoo! Search gadget puts Yahoo! Web Search, Answers, Local, Video, and more at your fingertips. Of course, there are a number of other ways to integrate Yahoo! Search into your Vista experience, including search plug-ins for IE7 and Firefox as well as the Yahoo! Toolbar also for IE7 and Firefox.
We’ve got a lot of stuff in the Vista pipeline, including more gadgets and a new Yahoo! Messenger client, which you can preview here. Stay tuned…
Keeping Ad Tracking and Dead URLs out of Yahoo! Search
We’re often asked how Yahoo! Search determines which pages get indexed and which pages are left un-crawled. First and foremost, we honor the industry-standard robots.txt file format, which gives Webmasters several layers of control over which sites, pages and specific URLs should be indexed. Lately we’ve heard from a number of Webmasters asking how best to prevent ad tracking URLs and dead URLs from getting indexed, so we thought we’d respond via this post.
Ad tracking URLs
Ad tracking URLs are used by Webmasters to help determine what traffic is coming in from advertisements (e.g., Yahoo! Sponsored Search and Yahoo! Publisher Network) but aren’t necessary to include in the Yahoo! Search index. Sometimes you might notice that these URLs still appear in the index. That’s because they’ve appeared on pages that are “crawlable” or may have been copied over to crawlable pages by users. If you don’t want Yahoo! Slurp, our Web crawler to index these URLs you can use wildcards in robots.txt. For example, if you are using the parameter 'ref' to track ad sources, you can use a rule like the one below to keep your tracking URLs from being Slurped:
User-Agent: Yahoo! Slurp
Disallow: /*ref=YahooPublisherNetwork
Dead URLs
The best way to remove dead URLs from the Yahoo! Search index is to return an HTTP Error 404 when our crawler requests the page. If you want to act before the 404 discovery and URL removal process completes, you can use Site Explorer to quickly delete the URLs from the index. One advantage to using Site Explorer is that you can delete multiple URLs including an entire subpath so long as the URL prefix is the same. As Danny Sullivan points out in his deep-dive post on the delete function, if you delete http://domain.com/subarea1/, then all the pages that begin with “domain.com/subarea1” will get removed. E.g.:
http://domain.com/subarea1/page1.html
http://domain.com/subarea1/page45.html
We’ll continue to visit the Yahoo! Search blog to give Webmasters like you pointers on how to better manage your sites in the Yahoo! Search index. Be sure to visit us at the Site Explorer Suggestion Board if there are specific areas that you’d like us address in more detail.
Ad tracking URLs
Ad tracking URLs are used by Webmasters to help determine what traffic is coming in from advertisements (e.g., Yahoo! Sponsored Search and Yahoo! Publisher Network) but aren’t necessary to include in the Yahoo! Search index. Sometimes you might notice that these URLs still appear in the index. That’s because they’ve appeared on pages that are “crawlable” or may have been copied over to crawlable pages by users. If you don’t want Yahoo! Slurp, our Web crawler to index these URLs you can use wildcards in robots.txt. For example, if you are using the parameter 'ref' to track ad sources, you can use a rule like the one below to keep your tracking URLs from being Slurped:
User-Agent: Yahoo! Slurp
Disallow: /*ref=YahooPublisherNetwork
Dead URLs
The best way to remove dead URLs from the Yahoo! Search index is to return an HTTP Error 404 when our crawler requests the page. If you want to act before the 404 discovery and URL removal process completes, you can use Site Explorer to quickly delete the URLs from the index. One advantage to using Site Explorer is that you can delete multiple URLs including an entire subpath so long as the URL prefix is the same. As Danny Sullivan points out in his deep-dive post on the delete function, if you delete http://domain.com/subarea1/, then all the pages that begin with “domain.com/subarea1” will get removed. E.g.:
http://domain.com/subarea1/page1.html
http://domain.com/subarea1/page45.html
We’ll continue to visit the Yahoo! Search blog to give Webmasters like you pointers on how to better manage your sites in the Yahoo! Search index. Be sure to visit us at the Site Explorer Suggestion Board if there are specific areas that you’d like us address in more detail.
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