Yahoo adds PayPal co-founder Max Levchin in boardroom shake-up

Yahoo Inc said on Thursday that two of its directors have resigned and that PayPal co-founder Max Levchin has been appointed to its board of directors, the latest change to the struggling Internet company under its new chief executive.

Yahoo revamps Flickr iPhone app to make it more Instagram-like

Yahoo! joined the fray over smartphone photo-sharing Wednesday by making it more enticing for iPhone users to use its Flickr service amid a rift between Twitter and the popular photo app Instagram.

Go Daddy appoints former Yahoo executive as CEO

Go Daddy, one of the world's biggest Internet hosting firms, appointed Yahoo Inc's former Chief Product Officer Blake Irving as chief executive.

Yahoo revamps email; pushes new iPhone, Android, Windows 8 apps

Yahoo Inc rolled out new versions of its popular Web email on Tuesday, the first major product makeover since Chief Executive Marissa Mayer took the helm of the struggling Internet company five months ago.

Facebook, Yahoo, Google most accessed sites by mobile Internet users: Airtel

Facebook, Google and Yahoo are the most accessed websites among mobile Internet users, who tend to consume maximum data between 10-11 PM, shows a survey by Bharti Airtel.

"Mobile Internet sees maximum data consumption between 10 pm - 11pm and Google is most visited website in terms of unique users, while Facebook clocks maximum time spent and leads all websites in terms of page views as well as data consumption," fourth edition of Airtel Mobitude 2012 survey said.
The annual survey of customer preferences is conducted to capture the 'mobile attitude' of over 186 million Airtel customers in the country.
According to the survey, wallpaper downloads witnessed a 300 percent jump and recorded 75 million downloads while music downloads number stood at over 150 million.
"Chikni Chameli from Agneepath was the most downloaded song of the year, its actress Katrina Kaif continued to maintain the leading position in the category of images downloaded for the 4th consecutive year," the survey said.
Among actors, Shah Rukh Khan led the category of Bollywood actors' wallpaper downloads, it added.
During the year, MMS crossed the one million mark on Diwali and jumped 145 percent on the festive day for the first time.
This year's analysis also highlighted a fast increasing customer preference for MobileTV, thus resulting in a 65 percent jump in traffic experienced by the service over last year.
"The data reveals an exciting picture of India's love for movies, music, gaming and social networking. The study also brings to light India's increasing dependence on smart devices and data usage as they access a whole host of new services on the go," Bharti Airtel Chief Marketing Officer Consumer Business N Rajaram said.

Yahoo acquires video chat startup OnTheAir

Yahoo has bought another Silicon Valley mobile startup as CEO Marissa Mayer tries to create more compelling products for smartphones and tablet computers.
Tuesday's acquisition of OnTheAir follows Yahoo's recent purchase of a mobile startup called Stamped. In both cases, Yahoo was drawn more by the engineering talent working at the startups than the services that they have been offering.
Yahoo Inc., which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., didn't disclose how much it paid for OnTheAir, which is based in San Francisco.
The service enables users to hold online video chats in a talk-show format. Yahoo didn't say whether it intends to continue OnTheAir's service.
Yahoo is in the process of closing Stamped's service just six weeks after announcing that acquisition so the engineers picked up in that deal can focus on other projects. Five of the 11 Stamped employees used to work for Google Inc., where Mayer was a top executive before Yahoo lured her away to become its CEO in mid-July.
One of OnTheAir's employees, Daniel Hopkins, also used to work at Google. The resumes of the four other OnTheAir workers being scooped up by Yahoo list stints at Apple Inc. and instant messaging service Meebo.
"Hiring the most talented mobile product thinkers and engineers is a big priority for us moving forward," Adam Cahan, Yahoo's senior vice president of emerging products and technology, said in a statement.
Mayer has said she believes half of Yahoo's engineering talent must eventually consist of mobile computing specialists.
Yahoo's stock gained 38 cents, or 2 percent, to close Tuesday at $18.93.

Apple iPhone 5 the most-searched gadget on Yahoo! in 2012

The U.S. presidential election became the most-searched item and Kim Kardashian was the most-searched person on Yahoo! in a year when online searches were dominated by big news stories and pop culture obsessions, the search engine company said on Monday.

The search term "election" topped the list of searches and the term "political polls" was No. 8 of the top 10 Yahoo! searches of the year.
"The 2012 elections dominated the online searches, which is amazing because if something is in the news, it's already accessible people were really saturated by it, but even so, that was a key word that people typed throughout the year," Vera Chan, Yahoo!'s web trend analyst, said in a conference call.
Chan said only two other news stories have topped the list in the past decade, those being the death of Michael Jackson in 2009 and the BP oil spill in 2010.
"iPhone 5" came in at No. 2, which Chan said was interesting "in a post-Steve Jobs era" because while Apple Inc's iPhone has featured regularly in the top searches since the first generation emerged in 2007, this was the first time a specific model had appeared high on the list.
Reality star Kim Kardashian was the most-searched person on the website, coming in at No. 3 and leading six famous women in the top 10.
Chan said Kardashian's "notoriety has kept her at the top," citing her ongoing divorce saga with ex-husband Kris Humphries, her high-profile relationship with rapper Kanye West and her E! channel reality shows.
Sports Illustrated cover model Kate Upton, British royal Kate Middleton, late singer Whitney Houston, troubled former child star Lindsay Lohan and pop star and former "American Idol" judge Jennifer Lopez all featured in the top 10 after being in the news prominently throughout the year.
Middleton, who was followed eagerly by fans and critics in her first year as a royal married to Britain's Prince William and being a staple at the London Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, also garnered the most-searched scandal of the year when a French magazine published photos of her topless.
"olympics" came in at No. 7 on the list, as many turned to online media to watch and keep tabs on the global sporting event held in London during the summer.
On Yahoo!'s separate list of top-searched obsessions, pop culture dominated this year, with "The Hunger Games," reality star Honey Boo Boo, erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey," British boy band One Direction, Carly Rae Jepsen's hit song "Call Me Maybe" and Korean rapper Psy's "Gangnam Style" featuring in the top 10.
Yahoo! Inc compiles its annual search lists based on aggregated visitor activity on the network and billions of consumer searches.

Yahoo ordered to pay $2.7 billion by Mexican court

Yahoo! said Friday it was ordered to pay $2.7 billion by a Mexican court in a lawsuit stemming from allegations of breach of contract and lost profits related to a yellow pages listing service.
The US Internet giant said in a statement it "believes the plaintiffs' claims are without merit and will vigorously pursue all appeals."
The California company's statement offered few details on the case.
It said the 49th Civil Court of the Federal District of Mexico City has "entered a non-final judgment of US $2.7 billion against Yahoo! Inc. and Yahoo de Mexico" in the case.
The lawsuit was brought by Worldwide Directories SA de CV and Ideas Interactivas, and "alleged claims of breach of contract, breach of promise, and lost profits arising from contracts related to a yellow pages listings service," Yahoo! said.
Yahoo! shares were down 1.4 percent in after-hours trade on the news.
Yahoo! in October reported that its quarterly profit rocketed above $3 billion, fueled by the sale of part of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
The California company's revenue from display advertising was little changed from the same quarter last year but Yahoo! reported its income from ads served up with online search results was up 11 percent.
It has been trying to reinvent itself as the search pioneer has been overtaken by Google.