Yahoo! poaching YouTube content creators?

Yahoo has made a number of radical changes since Marissa Mayer took over the helm back in May 2012, Including the acquisition of Tumblr for $1.1 billion in May of last year. Since then Yahoo! Have rebranded many of their services such as Flickr and more recently their logo. In Yahoo's latest bid to stay relevant in a world where Google and other giants dominate they are turning their attentions to online video creators and in particular YouTube content creators.

Yahoo! Is reportedly looking to create an alternative to YouTube has reportedly began to try and lure away some of the most successful YouTube creators to join them with the promise of making more money. Yahoo hopes that offering better ad revenues, guaranteed advertisement rates and extensive marketing will lure away some of the content creators away from YouTube and the mighty Google.

Marissa has been particularly interested in video since taking over at Yahoo! and has signed some big partnership deals and releasing content through a new app called Yahoo! Screen. In today’s report by ReCode the new video competitor would have a similar focus and look to poach big YouTube stars rather than launching and open to all service. Whilst there is no solid date for a launch Yahoo! is said to be launching this new service in the coming months.

What are you thoughts on Yahoo’s venture into YouTube’s territory? As usual we would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.  

YOUNG AND OLD: A SIDE-BY-SIDE LOOK AT TUMBLR, YAHOO AUDIENCES

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Yahoo has agreed to acquire 6-year-old blogging powerhouse Tumblr for $1.1 billion. The mammoth deal has sent the Internet into a tizzy, especially since most would have pegged the two companies as unlikely bedfellows just a week ago.

The simplest and most obvious reason for Yahoo's interest in Tumblr can be seen in the chart above, which highlights the dramatically differing demographic profiles for the media portal and the blogging network.

It's a tale of two audiences. Tumblr is a fountain of youth. Yahoo is practically a retirement community. Specially, a majority of people, or 61 percent, who visited Tumblr properties from Web or mobile in March are 34 or younger, according to analytics firm ComScore. Conversely, 56 percent of Yahoo visitors in March are over the age of 35.

With the $1.1 billion buy, Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer has purchased some much-needed insurance for Yahoo's future.

Source: CNET

Yahoo Wants to Forge a Deeper Partnership With Apple

In addition to powering iOS’s Weather and Stocks apps, Yahoo is reportedly in talks with Apple to play a more prominent role in the Cupertino company’s ecosystem. According to theWall Street Journal, the two companies are discussing “new arrangements, including possible deals to get more content from Yahoo Sports, Yahoo News” and other properties. Apple-style BlinkFeed?

Talks are preliminary at the moment, meaning no deal is imminent. Yahoo also provides data for Siri, and could look to further integrate its data into Apple’s virtual assistant. The  Internet company is allegedly drawing up plans to entice Apple to make use of Yahoo’s Web-search results—through both Safari on the desktop and iOS—but current partnerships would make that deal difficult. Right now, Microsoft’s Bing powers Yahoo Search, while Google still remains the default engine on iOS.

Yahoo’s motives are apparently to grow the company’s mobile presence, and a deeper partnership with Apple could certainly achieve that. The window of opportunity to rely less on Google seems to be opening for Apple, but whether the company will capitalize remains to be seen. Sources claim Apple has stated that it isn’t willing to ditch Google if that means a worsened search experience, so it seems Yahoo will certainly have some convincing to do.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Sky swamped with complaints after Yahoo email switch

Sky customers have been complaining in their droves after being deluged with thousands of irrelevant messages after the company switched email providers.

Sky switched from Google to Yahoo, but it's been far from a smooth transition, the BBC reports. Sky customers have been receiving old and deleted messages again and again, meaning hours of wasted time clearing out inboxes. Now Sky has offered a solution, but you're not going to like it.

Sky promised to have a fix sorted by 5pm yesterday, but it missed that deadline. It has posted astep-by-step guide to fixing your inbox, but it basically consists of 'delete any emails you don't want'. Which is exactly what many customers have been doing, and what had them up in arms in the first place.

Over on the support forums, one customer complained of having to sift through 17,000 unwanted emails. Others are also grumbling about not being able to send email, aliases being deleted, filters being reset, and Outlook just plain not working since the switch. Some say they can't even access their email accounts through a browser or on their mobiles, which will impact business and well as personal use.

I think the entry under "Everyone's Tags" at the bottom of this page sums up customer feeling on the matter.

Sky, which has more than 4 million broadband customers, says the problem occurred during migration of all email addresses to Yahoo's servers. As soon as the servers synchronise, the issue should be solved, according to Sky. Though there's no word on when that will be.

Shame it's not as confident as it was the other week about possible network strain.

[Source: CNET]

Yahoo to close 7 products, including BlackBerry app

Yahoo is taking a leaf out of Google's business book, and closing down seven products that aren't bringing home the bacon.

These are: Yahoo App Search, Yahoo Sports IQ, Yahoo Clues, Yahoo Message Boards, Yahoo Updates API, Yahoo Avatars, and the Yahoo app for BlackBerry.

Yahoo announced the closures on its company blog. It said it was regulating its product line-up, and would do so regularly. "The most critical question we ask is whether the experience is truly a daily habit that still resonates for all of you today," Jay Rossiter, Yahoo's executive vice president of Platforms, wrote on the blog.

It's the second batch of products that have been given the heave-ho since Marissa Meyer took over as CEO. Mayer was previously at Google, where "spring cleaning" announcements -- in which it nixes products and services that aren't performing well -- are a regular occurrence.

Mayer also banned Yahoo employees from working from home recently, sparking a debate over whether it was more productive to go to an office every day.

More cuts are on the way, too. Mayer told a conference last month that Yahoo would reduce the number of mobile apps it offers from its current total of between 60 and 75 to a more manageable 12 to 15.

Yahoo's Blackberry app won't be available for download, or be supported, after 1 April. It shows Yahoo doesn't have much faith in the platform, seeing as its apps for other mobile operating systems will continue as they are.

Yahoo Avatars tend to be quite popular, with many using custom avatars on the Yahoo Answers boards. If you want to keep your avatar, you'll have to download it and manually re-upload it as your profile picture.

[Source: CNET]

Go Daddy hires former Microsoft and Yahoo exec Blake Irving as next CEO

Just in time to stand behind what will undoubtedly be the most grotesque Super Bowl ad of the 2013 contest, Blake Irving is taking the top seat over at Go Daddy. The infamous, flip-flopping domain registrar has confirmed that Irving will begin duties as CEO starting January 7th of next year, succeeding interim CEO Scott Wagner. Prior to this, Irving spent a grand total of 15 years in various hallways at Microsoft, most recently as Corporate Vice President of the Windows Live Platform. He also served as the Chief Product Officer at Yahoo, while he presently serves on the Board of GolfLogix. Mum's the word on whether or not his introductory video will be too risque for American television.

[Source: Engadget]

Yahoo launches Mail redesign, with eye on speed and simplicity

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer used her company's official blog to announced a Mail redesign. According to the exec, the company's shiny new inbox was revamped with speed in mind, letting users access their messages "faster than ever before." Mayer also promised fewer distractions for consumers, with messages at the center of the new design, as well as a "consistent look and feel across devices," including platforms like Windows 8, iOS, Android and the web. All of Mayer's comments can be found in the source link below.

[Source: Engadget]

Facebook Passed Yahoo To Become The Second Largest Video Site In The U.S. In July

comScore’s monthly online video data is in and it looks Facebook passed Yahoo in July to become the second largest video site in the U.S. behind Google/YouTube. According to comScore, more than 184 million U.S. Internet users watched 36.9 billion online content videos in July, while video ad views totaled 9.6 billion.

Google/YouTube still outpaced the rest of the online properties with 157 million unique viewers in July, compared to 53 million from Facebook, 48.7 million from Yahoo, 44.8 million from Vevo and 42.7 million from Microsoft. Nearly 36.9 billion video content views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 19.6 billion, followed by AOL with 665 million. Google also took the top spot for engagement as well.

Facebook has passed Yahoo in terms of views in the past, but more recently the social network has been behind Google, Yahoo, and even Vevo (from May).

In terms of ads, Google ranked first with 1.5 billion ads, followed by Hulu with 1.2 billion, Adap.tv with 1.1 billion, SpotXchange Video Ad Marketplace with 1 billion and TubeMogul Video Ad Platform with 830 million. Time spent watching video ads totaled 3.9 billion minutes, with Adap.tv delivering the highest duration of video ads at 627 million minutes. Video ads reached 52 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 61 times during the month. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 46, while ESPN delivered an average of 26 ads per viewer.

[Source: TechCrunch - Read more here]