Yahoo! Contest Winners go to that Great Power Lunch in the Sky

You voted in the Yahoo! Ultimate Connection contest and three Yahoo! small business owners yesterday enjoyed a power lunch in the sky and a meeting with entrepreneur Ivanka Trump.

Crooked house builder, Glen Halliday, faerie lady, Melissa Balland, and type-o-phile, Mike Willner, also each got a $25,000 search marketing budget as well as other prizes. For more, check out our post on Yodel Anecdotal along with coverage here and here.

See their stories at the Ultimate Connection web site.

 Congrats to Melissa, Mike and Glen!

—The Team

News and notes from around the water cooler and beyond

MyBlogLog Enhanced
MyBlogLog, the social networking site and widgetizer that allows you to see who’s reading your site or blog and promote your own, has upgraded its messaging function. You can now send a message to your whole community with one quick step, instead of having to send messages one by one.

Those members of your community who have opted to receive email when they receive a message will be notified via email. Those who don’t will still see your message when they log into their accounts.

Try to use this feature sparingly, and only when you really have something important to say. Otherwise, your community may abandon you and you wouldn’t want that! For more information, visit the MyBlogLog Blog (say that five times fast).

Where’s the Winner?
A while back we mentioned that Yahoo! had been nominated in several categories in CNET’s Webware 100 2007 contest. You voted and Yahoo! Maps won best-in-show in its category. Visit the Yahoo! Maps blog for more.

Digg Those Pipes
Over at the Yahoo! Developer Network blog, our old pal Jeremy Zawodny calls our attention to a pretty impressive use of Yahoo! Pipes, the aggregator and manipulator that lets even semi-techies mash up their fave feeds for free. This Pipe lets you analyze Digg submissions and votes. For more, see Jeremy’s post.

Uncommonly Creative Carousing
Creative Commons, the Yahoo! content partner that allows you to search, use and distribute “open source” content, is throwing a rock-and-roll shindig up in Portland later this month during the Open Source Convention (OSCON). Both digerati and literati will be representing. Here are the deets:

When: July 25, 2007, 6:30 p.m.
Where: The Wonder Ballroom
Why: Because open source likes to open up

—Michael Mattis, Blogeratus

Good Luck Terry; Congrats to Jerry and Sue

Yesterday, Terry Semel, our CEO and the man who successfully guided our company through the rocky years of the early ’00s, stepped down. Terry will continue to act as the head of our board of directors. Co-founder Jerry Yang, who has always been our chief Yahoo!, has stepped into the CEO’s shoes. Also, Sue Decker, formerly the head of our Advertiser & Publisher Group and another longtime Yahoo, can rightfully be addressed as “Madame President” in her new role.

It’s kind of big news.

We’re incredibly proud of Terry’s work over the past six years, and we’re glad he’s maintaining an important role on the board. We’re also really excited for the future, and can’t wait to see what Jerry and Sue will do. Expect more cool stuff.

To get the full take, see Jerry’s post on Yodel Anectdotal. Also, check out:

The Official Press Release

Letter from Terry Semel to Yahoo! Board of Directors

Letter from Yahoo! Board of Directors to Terry Semel

Meanwhile, we’re keeping our noses to the grindstone, and this change shouldn’t impact our publishers. We’ll continue to strive to serve up relevant, contextual ads to your websites and offer a first-class experience to our users.

—The Team

Ultimate Connection final-list

Though they may never be mentioned by name on the financial news networks, small businesses have a huge impact. In fact, according to the Small Business Administration, a U.S. government agency, small businesses were responsible for more than half of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) of $11,712,500,000,000 in 2004.

That’s not chump change.

We like the kind of gutsy people who take a chance in small biz, because that’s how Yahoo! was born. Jerry Yang and David Filo originally started this little enterprise called Yahoo! Inc., now 13,000-odd (very odd) Yahoos strong, out of a trailer on the campus of Stanford University in Northern California.

The Big Five
Our passion for small businesses is one of the reasons that we got into the Small Business business to begin with—yes, we sell shovels to gold miners—and it’s one of the reasons we’re sponsoring the Ultimate Connection.

The five finalists for the Ultimate Connection have been chosen, and we want you to have a part in deciding the winners. Here are the five small businesspeople who stood out from the thousands of entries we received:

Glen Halliday, who builds custom “crooked houses” that make children smile.

Chris Pratt, a start-small entrepreneur with a big sweet tooth.

Melissa Belland, who has brought the fantasy world of the fairies to real life.

Elena Neitlich, who offers help for hard working moms, by hard working moms.

Mike Willner, an inventor who has taken typing to a whole new level.

Each one of these entrepreneurs shows a passion not just for the business of business, but for what their businesses share with their customers. Now it’s up to you to decide which three of these five will get the proverbial Golden Ticket to New York to meet with Ivanka Trump, enjoy a power lunch high above the city, and receive a $25,000 Yahoo! Search Marketing budget.

Go to the Ultimate Connection website and vote for your favorite.

—Michael Mattis

Yahoo! News profiles the provocative

Are you the sort of someone who lives and breathes the online world? Who’s doing something with the medium that’s challenging and different? The kind of person who likes to stir things up? Maybe a bit of an agent provocateur?

If you think those descriptions apt—and if you’re regular reader here, you probably do—you may be one of the “People of the Web.”

“People of the Web” is a new series of profiles by Yahoo! News, highlighting the adventurers, pot-stirrers, pioneers, firebrands, loose cannons, privateers, mischief-makers and assorted wise-acres making waves, while making it, on the Web right now.

Recent “People of the Web” profiles include former “Growing Pains” sitcom start turned online evangelist, Kirk Cameron, Caleb Shickles, the creator of “Hug Nation,” and Josh Wolf the journalist (or is he really an activist?) who served jail time for refusing to reveal his sources to a grand jury.

You or someone you know could be next. To suggest a “People of the Web” profile, visit the POTW feedback page. And be sure to join MyBlogLog before you visit POTW. That way, even if you’re not chosen to be profiled, everyone will know you’ve been there—it’s like leaving a little link bait everywhere you go. (That’s me in the upper left.)

—Michael Mattis

Ultimate Connection Entry Deadline next Wednesday, May 30 

If you’re like me you’re always waiting until the last minute. In fact, if I hadn’t spent so much time straightening my paper clips and refilling my Swingline stapler, I’d have posted this blog entry two hours ago and could’ve gone home early.

Sadly, the deadline for entries for the Ultimate Connection Contest is not as flexible as my deadline for getting this post live. You remember the Ultimate Connection, right? That’s where you could be one of three lucky small business owners who will win:

• An executive meeting with Ivanka Trump
• A $25,000 Yahoo! Search Marketing budget
• A power lunch with your marketing mentor in New York City
• Access to your marketing mentor and a Yahoo! Search marketing mentor throughout the year
• A web site makeover from Yahoo! Small Business and FastPivot

The deadline for your 500-word essay on what your business needs to succeed and how the Ultimate Connection can help you achieve it is May 30, 2007 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. So, unless you want your life to feel like a scene in “Little Miss Sunshine,” you might want to think about getting started on your essay now.

For more details, check out the Ultimate Connection website.

—The Team

Yahoo! apps nominated for the Webware 100

The CNET blog, Webware, just announced that 11 Yahoo! apps and services made the finalist list for its Webware 100 Awards, out of almost 2,000 nominations. The 100 winners—the ten best in ten different categories—will be chosen by popular vote. Voting began today at noon, Pacific Time and will close June 11 at 9:00 a.m.

The Yahoo! finalists are:

Bix
del.icio.us
Flickr
Jumpcut
MyBlogLog
My Yahoo!
Yahoo! Pipes
Upcoming
Widgets
Yahoo! Maps
Yahoo! Search

To vote for (or against) any of these Yahoo! apps, click on the app name. Keep in mind that some Yahoo! apps are actually competing with others in the same categories, so pick your favorites carefully!

—The Team

It’s not who you are. It’s who you know

That’s how the old truism goes, and rarely has a truer truism been spoken, especially in business. Don’t get us wrong. Hard work, inspiration, dedication, passion and all that are vital. But making the right connections can make the difference between success and Success! And it’s as true for small business people as it is for major corporate execs.

Yahoo! Ultimate Connection Contest
If you could have a power lunch with anyone in business you wanted, who would you put on the guest list? Someone famous, like, I don’t know, Merv Griffin? Perhaps you’d prefer a table full of up-and-coming entrepreneurs like yourself with whom you could talk shop and swap tips. Maybe you’d like both.

Well, win the Yahoo! Ultimate Connection Contest and that’s what you’ll get, and a lot more. Additionally, Ivanka Trump, Trump Organization development leader and daughter of Donald Trump, will participate in the contest and help select the finalists.
 
The prize package includes:

• An “Ultimate Connection” power lunch in New York City with the up-and-coming entrepreneur winners and top-ranking marketing stars 
• A $25,000 budget from Yahoo! Search Marketing to use toward a keyword ad campaign
• Mentoring from a legendary marketing expert throughout the year
• Access to a Yahoo! Search Marketing expert throughout the year
• A website makeover, courtesy of Yahoo! Small Business and Web site development firm FastPivot.

Pencils Down
To win, submit a 500-word essay focusing on what your business needs to be successful, and how winning the “Ultimate Connection” contest can help you achieve that success.

The deadline to submit essay entries is May 30, 2007. Yahoo! will select five finalists from the entries. Members of the Yahoo! community will be invited to vote for their favorites beginning on June 11, and contest winners will be announced in July.

For more information and to submit your entry, go to the Ultimate Connection Contest web site.

—The Team

The new VP of Marketplace Quality shares insights on Yahoo!’s higher traffic quality goals

As an advertiser or publisher, you may have some concerns regarding traffic quality. Yahoo! places a great importance on quality traffic and we’ve dedicated significant resources to create the world’s highest quality search and display advertising network.

We also hear that you want more transparency and dialogue with us, and that’s part of my new responsibilities in leading the company’s marketplace quality efforts and helping to drive the industry forward on these issues.

Click fraud is an industry-wide issue and there’s no question that click fraud is receiving increased media coverage recently, casting a dark cloud over the industry. I want to make it clear that we hear your concerns, and we’re putting a vast amount of resources to combat click fraud.

Since 1998, our Click Protection System has operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, monitoring all traffic with the goal of filtering out click fraud, as well as other clicks that we believe shouldn’t be billed to our advertisers.

Today at Search Engine Strategies New York 2007 Conference (SES) we’re happy to announce that in the next few months, we plan to launch the Yahoo! Marketplace Quality Center, an online resource designed to help provide more visibility into what we’re doing to help define, prevent and protect against click fraud, plus provide information on other aspects of traffic quality.

Its features will include:

• Directions on how to submit a click investigation request
• News on traffic quality
• Tips on how to detect click fraud
• Articles on best practices and more

We plan to continue expanding and enhancing the Marketplace Quality Center with more features in the following months after the official launch.

We are also working with the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) to develop industry standards around click fraud. Once agreed-upon standards are in place, we’re fully committed to undergoing regular audits to provide advertisers with greater visibility into our protection efforts.

At SES, I’m gathering feedback regarding key areas of concern around traffic quality, and I want to give you the same opportunity here—just add your comments below, and I will read every one.

I’m excited about the opportunities to work with and help our advertisers and publishers in this area, and I want to assure you that we’re listening to your feedback and concerns.

—Reggie Davis, VP, Marketplace Quality

Overture Japan Launches a Blog of its Own

Moshi moshi—say it real fast—is the charming Japanese phrase for “hello!” when answering the phone. Well, on Wednesday, Overture Japan (Yahoo!’s search marketing operation in in that country), launched its own blog and we’d like to say “hello” to the team over the Internets.

Kicked off with a post from Yahoo’s Mark Morrissey, the Overture Japan blog opens a new line of interactive communication between Overture and its search advertisers in the Japanese market. 

So to our friends across the Pacific, moshi moshi. Tonight we raise a cup of saki to you and say kanpai!

—The Team