February 12, 2008 on 1:55 pm | In Fun Stuff | 6 Comments
Love’s official holiday is almost here, so we thought we’d start spreading the cheer a little early. Last year, we heard about a couple who had met in a chat room and later married, and this year our Community Manager, Michael Brito, received another nice story in our inbox:
“My fiancé and I met on Yahoo! Personals almost 2 years ago and used Messenger to get to know each other better before we took the steps to meet in person. Our wedding date is set for May 23, 2009!! Thank you for everything and keep up the good work!!”
Ain’t love grand?
Of course there’s lots of ways to send love with Yahoo! Messenger on February 14th:
Falling Hearts IMVironment: Shower your IM buddy with love and hit the Buzz button (ctrl+g) to send a big smooch. Try it now if you’re on Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0.
Flirt with audibles: Whether you’re summoning the courage to declare your love or just want to make sure your sweetie knows, send a flirtatious audible.
Loving emoticons: Sprinkle your IM’s with these favorites. In Yahoo! Messenger for Vista they’re even more loving! 
Hint: Hover on the emoticon with your mouse to see the text shortcut.
Call to say “I love you”: Call the one you love with Messenger. If your sweetie is also on Messenger, the call is free. Or use Phone Out to call regular and mobile phones worldwide for as low as 1¢ a minute.
Share your favorite love song: While on a PC call, use the soundtrack feature in Sound Effects to upload a song that plays in the background of your call.
Dress it up: Change your Avatar into some love-inspired gear.
Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
February 8, 2008 on 9:15 am | In News | 6 Comments
Yahoo! has a small group in San Francisco known as the Advanced Products (AP) team. Designed to be an incubator for new products and services, the AP team develops new ideas and quickly turns them into working products we can test with our users. Their latest experiment is called Yahoo! Live, and if you’ve got a webcam hooked up to your computer, I think you’ll enjoy playing around with it.
On Yahoo! Live, you can use your webcam to broadcast your own live video channel. Or just tune in to other people’s channels. The video and audio are in real time, and as you watch someone’s channel or broadcast your own, you can interact chat-room style with other viewers. On Yahoo! Live there are limitless channels and anyone can be a star.
Even if you don’t want to broadcast your own channel, you can still activate your webcam to broadcast while you’re viewing someone else’s channel. When you do, other viewers can see what you’re up to while they’re hanging out. Just click the “Go Live” button next to your webcam window in the Yahoo! Live window. Think of your webcam as the source of your display image; while you’re on Yahoo! Live, viewers identify you by what you’re broadcasting.
If you’re more the shy type and prefer to view Yahoo! Live channels without broadcasting your own webcam video, just be sure not to click the “Go Live” button once you’re signed in. If you do, click the “Stop” button to end your broadcast.
While you’re watching or broadcasting, you can see how many viewers are tuned in and follow along with the live chat. You can also jump into the conversation; just type in your text like you would in an IM conversation and then click “Send”. To find out more about the channel owner, click their “Profile” link beneath their window; to see a fellow viewer’s profile, click their name and then choose “View profile”.
Found a Yahoo! Live channel you want to share with others? Send them the link or click the “Embed Video” button below the channel window to copy some code you can then paste into your own website, blog, or social network profile to display the Yahoo! Live window. This is also a great way to spread the word about your own channel if you’re a Yahoo! Live broadcaster.
Click here for more information on getting started with Yahoo! Live or visit their blog at http://www.yliveblog.com. To find out more about the experimental projects and products from the Yahoo! Advanced Products team, head over to their blog at http://next.yahoo.net.
Ok, ready for your closeup?
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
P.S. – Keep in mind that Yahoo! Live is an experimental release with limited capacity. Yahoo! Live may reach its limits in periods of high traffic, so bear with us as the AP team tunes the service and scales it. Got feedback for the Yahoo! Live team? Send your comments to ylive@yahoogroups.com.
February 5, 2008 on 12:36 pm | In Features | 9 Comments
Several years ago, when Yahoo! Messenger was in its very early version numbers, a new feature came to life that is now known as IMVironments (we like to call them IMVs around here). IMVs are interactive backgrounds you can load during your IM conversation to play games, share stuff and just have fun with a friend. They’re available to users on Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 and 9.0.
There’s quite a few IMVs – just click the IMVironment button in your IM window to access the menu. When you load an IMV, it also loads in your friend’s IM window (they also need to be on 8.1 or 9.0). Every IMV is a little different; one might include fun video clips, while another may feature a game you can challenge your friend to play.
You’ll also notice that some IMVs have the name of a company in it, such as Pop Tarts, Arizona Jeans, or US Navy. This is because Yahoo! sometimes works with partners to design an IMV that helps promote things like their product, brand, or event (e.g. an upcoming movie release).
While IMVs do come and go depending on the time of year or our partners’ schedules, there are many permanent IMVs that users love. Try the Snowflakes IMV to add a little winter cheer to your conversation or load the Falling Hearts IMV to send your friend a heartfelt greeting. Like many IMVs, these have great custom Buzz effects so be sure to try them out! And if you’re feeling stressed, load the Fishtank IMV for some underwater therapy.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
February 1, 2008 on 2:52 pm | In News | 75 Comments
From the Yahoo! Yodel Corporate Blog:
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Microsoft made an unsolicited proposal to acquire Yahoo! yesterday evening. Since then, we’ve gotten quite a number of questions about what this means for Yahoo!. Right now our board of directors is evaluating the proposal and looking at all of our strategic alternatives, including maintaining Yahoo! as an independent company.
A review process like this is fluid and can take quite a bit of time, so while there’s not much we can say right now, we did want to refer you to this brief FAQ for more information.
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Thanks,
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
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