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ALL ABOUT YAHOO!



TABLE OF CONTENTS



REFERENCE SERIES VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2



— - n the early, chaotic days of the World Wide Web
there were two ways to find out about new Web
. sites: by accident or by word- of- mouth. Happily, a
pair of enterprising doctoral students from Stanford
created a list of their favorite Web haunts and decided
to share it online with friends, and thus began one of
the Internet's most resounding success stories.

Yahoo! is now one of the premier destinations on
the Web, with hundreds of millions of users world-
wide. The site has become a juggernaut, and it adds
new features and content every day. Read this issue
and you'll discover all the latest offerings from Yahoo!.



Inside Yahoo!



4 Yahoo! Then & Now

Charting The Growth Of An Internet Colossus

12 Yahoo! Goes Social

The Web 2.0

1 5 Your Door To The Web

Find Your Way Around Yahoo!

20 Identify Yourself

Get A Yahoo! ID To Make The Most Of Yahooi's Tools

22 My Yahoo!

Give Yourself The Ultimate Home Page



25 Safe Surfing

Keeping Kids Safe Is All Relative
With Yahoo! Family Accounts

26 Yahoo! Broadens Its Horizons

Yahoo! International



Information



27 Browser's Digest

Find Your Way Through The Yahoo! Directory

31 Using Yahoo! Search

Find Yawho, Yawhat, Yawhere

35 My Web 2.0

The Web Your Way

37 The Doctor's In

Resources At Yahoo! Health Keep You Healthy & Informed



42 Yahoo! Finance

Stocks, Loans & Everything In Between

47 Ripped From Today's Headlines

From Domestic To Global Events,
Yahoo! News Keeps You Informed



Shopping




49 Yahoo! Shopping

Find Everything You're Looking For
Without Leaving Home

52 Another Man's Treasure

Bid, Buy & Sell With Yahoo! Auctions



55 Yahoo! Autos

A Pit Stop Before You Shop

58 Yahoo! Classifieds

Put Your Goods On The 'Net

61 Flowers & Gifts

Shop Big For Small Gifts

62 Real Estate

Yahoo! Takes You Home



65 The Online Bargain Basement

Yahoo! Bargains & Sales Is A Haven For The Thrifty

66 Yahoo! Points

Purchases Lead To Prizes

67 Yahoo! Wallet

Shopping Online Takes A Turn For The Simple

68 Yahoo! Yellow Pages

Throw Away The Paper Version




Entertainment



69 Lights, Camera, Action!

Yahoo! Entertainment Gives You The Lowdown
On Movies, Music & Television

70 Fun & Games

Yahoo! Games Is A Great Place To Play

72 A Look Into The Future

Yahoo! Astrology Can Show You
What's Written In The Stars



73 Yahoo! Movies

Everything But The Sticky Floor

74 The Sound Of Music

March To The Beat Of The Yahoo! Music Drum

77 Fantasy Fulfillment

Coach Your Own Pro Sports Team On Yahoo!

79 Travel Unraveled

Yahoo! Demystifies Online Trip Planning

82 Yahoo! TV

Check Your Local Listings & So Much More

84 The Buzz Index

Yahoo! Keeps Tabs On Today's
Water Cooler Subjects



Business Services



106 Yahoo! Small Business Center

Increase Your Productivity With Tools From Yahoo!

107 Web Hosting & Merchant Solutions

Get Your Small Business Off The Starting Block

110 Domain Names

Yahoo! Domains Is A Convenient Option

111 Business Email Accounts

Give Your Company Email A Professional Edge

112 Small Business Savvy

Yahooi's Tools Help Create
Web Commerce Powerhouses



Communication



85 Yahoo! Mail

Send & Receive Email From Nearly Anywhere

88 Stay In Touch With Yahoo! Messenger

Instant Message, Voice Chat, & More

91 Yahoo! Chat

Talk It Up

93 Fun Comes Full Circle

Yahoo! 360° Simplifies Online Socializing

96 Up Close & Personal

Online Dating With Yahoo!

98 DIY Web Design

Let GeoCities Host Your Web Site For Free

100 Yahoo! Groups

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

102 Signed, Sealed & Delivered

Send Personalized Cards With Yahoo! Greetings

1 04 Coordinate Your Schedule Online

Yahoo! Calendar Lets You Get A Handle
On Your Schedule



116 Internet Access

Yahoo! Partners With AT&T & Verizon To Offer
Several Service Packages

118 Yahoo! HotJobs

Find That Ideal Employee

119 Articles & Resources

Hidden Gems From Yahoo! Small Business



Yahoo! Next



122 Yahoo! Next

A Preview Of Coming Attractions



124 Yahoo! Maps

Your Online Atlas

126 Yahoo! Podcast

Radio To Go

128 Yahoo! Site Explorer

Be A Web Site Sleuth



130 Instant Search

This Tool Could Change The Way You Search

132 Mobile Shopping Search

Bargain Hunters Will Love This Tool — For A Price




105 YahooS's Member Directory

How To Search & Find Yahoo! Member Information



134 Yahoo! Audio Search

Scour The Web For Music & Sound



136 Yahoo! Search Subscriptions

Find Web Pages From Subscription Services

138 Yahoo! Mindset

Putting Your Web Searches In The Right Context



140 Yahoo! Y!Q

Providing Context-Sensitive Search For More Relevant Results

1 42 My Yahoo! Ticker

News & Info That Comes To You

144 Yahoo! FareChase

New Service Helps Track Down Travel Deals




Extras



146 Use Yahoo! For Everything Under The Sun

Your Comprehensive Activity Center

148 Yahoo! Toolbar

The Better To Surf With, My Dear

151 Especially For Mobile Users

Use Yahoo! Services When You're On The Go

153 For The Kids

Yahooligans! Presents Facts & Laughs Just For Juniors



1 56 Lose Yourself Online

25 Fun Things To Do On Yahoo!

160 Yahoo! By The Numbers



or:




Web-Only Articles



The following articles are available online at SmartComputing.com.

Point, Click, Sit & Stay

Fetch Pet Information At Yahoo! Pets
(www.smartcomputing.com/yahoo/pets)

Back To School

Yahoo! Education Can Teach You A Lesson
(www.smartcomputing.com/yahoo/education)



Editorial Staff: Ronald D. Kobler/
Christopher Trumble / Michael Sweet /
Corey Russman / Rod Scher / Calvin
Clinchard / Katie Sommer / Kimberly Fitzke /
Katie Dolan / Blaine Flamig / Raejean Brooks /
Sally Curran / Nate Hoppe / Trista Kunce /
Sheila Allen / Linne Ourada / Joy Martin /
Ashley Finter / Brian Weed / Marty Sems /
Chad Denton / Nathan Chandler / Kylee
Dickey / Josh Gulick / Andrew Leibman /
Vince Cogley / Sam Evans /Jennifer Johnson
Web Staff: Laura Curry / Brandie Humphrey
Customer Service: Becky Rezabek/
Lana Matic / Lindsay Albers
Subscription Renewals: Connie Beatty / Matt
Boiling / Patrick Kean / Charmaine Vondra /
Miden Ebert / Kathy DeCoito / Stephanie
Contreras / Nicole Buckendahl
Art & Design: Lesa Call / Fred Schneider/
Carrie Benes / Ginger Falldorf / Sonja Warner /
Aaron Weston / Aaron D. Clark / Lori Garris /
Jason Codr / Andria Schultz / Erin Rodriguez /
Lindsay Anker

Newsstand: Garth Lienemann / Kelly
Richardson / Jeff Schnittker
Advertising Sales: Grant Ossenkop/
Cindy Pieper / Brooke Wolzen / Eric Cobb
Marketing: Mark Peery / Liz Kohout / Marcy
Gunn / Jen Clausen / Scot Banks / Ashley
Hannant / Luke Vavricek / Travis Brock



Copyright 2006 by Sandhills Publishing Company. All rights
reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in Smart Computing
REFERENCE SERIES: All About Yahoo! is strictly prohibited with-
out written permission. Printed in the U.S.A. GST #
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Inside Yahoo!



Yahoo!, Then & Now

Charting The Growth Of An Internet Colossus



Do you Yahoo!? If you
use the Internet, the
answer to that ad
slogan is most likely
"yes." Yahoo! is con-
sistently ranked as the No. 1 English
language site at Alexa.com and also
consistently ranks as the No. 1 Inter-
net brand according to Nielson Net-
Ratings reports. Over the past 12
years, the site has grown from the
grassroots dream of a few tech geeks
into an international Internet giant
that measures its profits in billions of
dollars, constantly evolving in the face
of competitors and an ever- expanding
Internet. Everyone Yahoo!'s, and
here's why.

Salad Days

Yahoo! has been around since
January 1994, which doesn't seem all
that impressive until you put it in
perspective. Back then, most people
were still using MS-DOS and Win-
dows 3.1. The Internet was a luxury
that few people outside of the mili-
tary or educational institutions had
access to, but it was still growing at a
tremendous rate. This was mainly
due to the release of Mosaic 1.0 in
April 1993, which was the first real
Web browser. According to statistics
compiled by Matthew Gray of the
Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology, there were only about 130
Web sites in June of 1993, with only
1.5% of those sites belonging to .com
domains. By June 1994 that number




had grown to approximately 2,738
Web sites (13.5% were .com sites)
and by the end of 1994 there were
more than 10,000 Web sites (with
.corns accounting for about a third of
that figure).

Before Yahoo! went live, finding
information on the Internet was a
crapshoot. There was Archie (named
by removing the "v" from "ar-
chive"), but that only indexed FTP
(File Transfer Protocol) sites, which
were very popular at the time be-
cause they offered the easiest way to
share files across the Internet. Most
university, library, company, and re-
search computers used a technology
called Gopher to organize the con-
tents of their servers into hierar-
chical lists, but there was no way to
search all of the servers at once.
Home users were still dialing into
BBS (Bulletin Board System) mes-
sage boards, which let users chat,



send email, and share files locally,
but again there was no way to search
every BBS in the nation.

Even when Archie, Gopher, and
BBS computers were eventually con-
nected to the Internet, there was no
good way to find out about them. It
seems ridiculous to today's Internet
users, but imagine loading up your
Web browser and suddenly discov-
ering that every search engine is gone.
The only way to connect to another
computer on the Internet in that case
is to type its exact domain name into
your Web browser, but how do you
find out the domain names for the
Web sites you want to visit?

That's the situation Jerry Yang and
David Filo — two electrical engi-
neering doctorate candidates at Stan-
ford — faced in 1994. To keep track of
their favorite sites, they created a list
that they maintained for their per-
sonal use. Eventually the list got so



4 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



nside Yahoo!



long that the two decided to break it
down into various categories, and
then they made the fateful move of
turning their catalog of favorites into
a Web site called Jerry and David's
Guide to the World Wide Web.

Back then, the Internet was used by
a relatively small number of people,
and any site as useful as Jerry and
David's Guide to the World Wide
Web was bookmarked by pretty much
everybody. As the site grew in size and
popularity (thanks to word-of-mouth
advertising), Yang and Filo knew they
were on to something and decided to
take their idea to the next level. They
gave it a new name — Yahoo! — which
the company claims is an acronym for
Yet Another Hierarchical Officious
Oracle, although Yang and Filo have
denied that claim at various times



over the years and may have just liked
the way the word sounded. They also
spurned buyout offers from a number
of companies that would have made
them instant millionaires and instead
secured their own venture capital so
they could continue to helm the com-
pany. By March 1995 Yahoo! was in-
corporated. Just over a year later on
April 12, 1996, the company success-
fully went public. Yang and Filo still
haven't completed their doctorates,
but by way of compensation they
are now billionaires who still work
at the company they created: Yang
serves as Co-Founder, Chief Yahoo!,
and Director, and Filo serves as
Co-founder and Chief Yahoo!. Amaz-
ingly, while most of Yahoo !'s under-
lying technology has changed since
1994, one thing remains the same: A



Sizing Up The Competition



Much has happened on the Web since Yahoo! got its start, and an increasing
number of sites are out to commandeer the same sets of eyeballs Yahoo!
caters to. There's Google, of course, which has quickly grown from an advanced
search engine into other markets such as Web-based email, Internet chat, and
detailed maps. Microsoft's MSN site gets a huge boost from being the first thing
people see when they launch a fresh installation of Internet Explorer. AOL offers
everything from free email and picture storage to on-demand videos and Hog-
ging tools to its vast captive audience of subscribers. How does Yahoo! stack up
to its competitors in some key categories?

(NOTE: All financial figures are from Jan. 31, 2005, or from companies' most recent annual reports.)



team of editors still maintains the
Yahoo! directory, rather than a pro-
gram. If you want to submit a site for
inclusion, someone at Yahoo! still
needs to visit it and make the call.

Yahoo! Today

Much has happened since Yang
and Filo decided to keep a list of their
favorite Web sites. Today Yahoo! is an
enormous company with a market
cap of more than $50 billion. In an
average month, the site delivers about
73 billion Web pages to 345 million
worldwide users, and it has evolved
from a simple directory of sites into a
full-fledged Web portal designed as a
one-stop-shop to suit the needs of
nearly any visitor. The company's
goal now is to "provide users with the
information they want, when they
want it, how they want it, and on any
device," and it's accomplishing that in
a variety of ways.

The company's search engine has re-
ceived major improvements over the
years to sift through the billions of Web
pages that have appeared since the
founding of Yahoo!. Yahoo! also pro-
vides reams of its own content, much
of it licensed from respected publica-
tions such as Consumer Reports, Sports
Illustrated, BusinessWeek Online,
Reuters, the Associated Press, and



Web Site



America Online (AOL)

www.aol.com



Microsoft Network (MSN)

www.msn.com



Google

www.google.com



Yahoo!

www.yahoo.com



What Is It?


Internet portal and
Internet Service Provider


Internet portal and
Internet Service Provider


Search engine and
Web directory


Internet portal


Revenue Sources


Advertising, premium
services, Internet service
subscriptions


Advertising and
premium services


Advertising, business
consulting and services,
technology licensing


Advertising and
premium services


Key Features


Search, email,
instant messaging,
Internet access


Search, email,
instant messaging,
Internet access


Search, email,
instant messaging


Search, email,
instant messaging


Audience


110 million per month
(U.S. figure only, including
20 million U.S. subscribers)


400 million per
month worldwide


380 million per month
worldwide


345 million per month
worldwide


Market Cap


N/A (division of Time Warner)


N/A (division of Microsoft)


$128.36 billion


$49.37 billion


Revenue


$8.84 billion


$2,274 billion


$5.25 billion


$5.26 billion


Net Income


$934 million
(operating income)


N/A

(not listed separately in

Microsoft annual report)


$1.3 billion


$1.9 billion



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 5



Inside Yahoo!



many others. There's a lot to like about
Yahoo!, but perhaps the main reason
for the site's popularity is the stag-
gering number of services it offers to
users. At last count, anyone with a
Yahoo! account can access nearly 120
services, and that number is growing all
of the time as Yahoo! snaps up tech
companies and continues to research
its own technologies. We don't have
enough space to talk about all of
Yahoo!'s offerings, but here's a quick
breakdown of the standouts:

Yahoo! Mail

If you have a Yahoo! account, you
have a Yahoo! Mail address, and en-
hancements over the years have
turned it into one of the finest free
Web-based email services on the
planet. Storage space was limited
until Google announced it would
provide Gmail users with 1GB (giga-
byte) of storage space (Gmail ac-
counts currently have more than
2.6GB of storage space). Yahoo! Mail
accounts now have 1GB of storage



Before Yahoo! went live, finding
information on the Internet
was a crapshoot.



space, which is plenty for most email
purposes. Beyond that, however,
Yahoo! Mail accounts come with a
host of features that are rare in free
packages, including powerful bulk
email filters, antivirus scanning for
file attachments, and the ability to
easily synchronize your account with
mobile devices.

Perhaps best of all is the way
Yahoo! Mail is integrated into so
many of Yahoo!'s other services. It
plays well with the company's pop-
ular Yahoo! Messenger software,
makes it easy to attach photos from
your Yahoo! Pictures account, and
provides easy access to Yahoo!
Calendar. If you use Yahoo! a lot,



Yahoo! Mail is a no-brainer. For
more about Yahoo! Mail, check out
"Yahoo! Mail" on page 85.

Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger has always been
a powerful and popular instant mes-
saging service, and it recently re-
ceived some major enhancements.
In addition to its ability to let people
communicate instantly via text mes-
sages, the service supports voice so
users can make free, unlimited PC-
to-PC calls worldwide. It integrates
with your Yahoo! address book so
you can easily add friends and other
important contacts to the Messenger



Yahoo! Timeline








>8, 1999


June 21, 1999


January 1994


August


1995 Aug. 29, 1997 Jan.!




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Dec. 8, 1999


More than Jerry and


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Yahoo! goes Yahool's audi-


With the


tech boom Yahoo! is


100,000 people Guide to


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public. ence surpasses


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David's Guide changes i


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to the World to Yahoo


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stock.





6 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



nside Yahoo!



list, and now you can share pictures
with others by simply dragging and
dropping them into your Yahoo!
Messenger window. Yahoo! recently
announced that it is working with
MSN to make both companies' in-
stant messaging packages talk with
and share contacts with one another,
which will merge two enormous in-
stant messaging communities when
the technology is implemented
sometime in the first half of 2006.
To learn more about Messenger, see
"Stay In Touch With Yahoo! Mes-
senger" on page 88.

Yahoo! Photos & Flikr

Yahoo! Photos is an anomaly
amongst free photo management and
online storage services in that you can
upload as many pictures as you like.
There's no storage limit whatsoever,
and the only catch is that you must
log in to your account at least once
every six months to keep your Yahoo!
Photos account active. You can easily
create photo albums to organize



shots, and the Yahoo! Photos service
integrates with nearly every other
Yahoo! service to make it much easier
to share your photos.

Yahoo!'s recent acquisition of the
popular Flikr photo service means
that a lot of improvements are likely
to happen to Yahoo! Photos, and
Flikr users will be able to enjoy more
storage space at a lower cost.

Yahoo! 360°

One of Yahoo !'s newest services is
the previously invitation -only Yahoo!
360°, which pulls together many of
the company's other online services to
make it easier for you to communi-
cate with friends and family members.
At its heart, it's a blog where users can
easily post their thoughts and pictures
and share them with others, but it is
much more than a simple blog. You
can be very selective with who gets ac-
cess to what information, placing
your contacts in different categories
and only allowing people in certain
categories to see everything you post.



If your friends use Yahoo! 360°, you'll
also see the latest items they've posted
or uploaded every time you log in to
your Yahoo! 360° account, so you can
easily keep up with them without
having to constantly check their
blogs. Of course, 360° is also tightly
integrated with Yahoo!'s other ser-
vices. You can easily import pictures
from Yahoo! Photos or send invites to
people in your Yahoo! contacts list,
for example. Find out more about
Yahoo! 360° on page 93 in the article
"Fun Comes Full Circle".

Yahoo! Mobile

Yahoo! Mobile may not get as
much attention as some of the other
other Yahoo! services such as Yahoo!
Mail, but it's one of the best benefits
of having a Yahoo! account. Service
support varies from phone to phone,
but includes access to Yahoo!
Messenger, Yahoo! Mail, mobile
blogging to your Yahoo! 360° ac-
count, Yahoo! Photos, and much,
much more. You can use your



Oct. 30, 2000

Yahoo! Buzz launches,
giving visitors up-to-the-
minute feedback about
what other Yahoo! users
are searching for.



2000



Dec 27, 2001

Yahoo! acquires
Hotjobs for $436
million in stock
and cash.



Dec. 23, 2002

Yahoo! buys Web search
company Inktomi for
$235 million in cash to
incorporate Inktomi's
technology in Yahoo!'s
search engine.



Jan. 29, 2003

Yahoo! releases
LAUNCHcast Plus,
its first digital
music subscription
service.



Oct. 7, 2003

Yahoo! buys commercial search com-
pany Overture for $1.63 billion, using
Overture's technology to eventually
create Yahoo! Search Marketing, which
lets companies place their ads on search
results pages.



March 20, 2005

Yahoo! acquires the
Flikr online digital
photo sharing and
management service
for approximately $40



2005



Oct. 12, 2005

Microsoft and Yahoo! announce
that users of their instant mes-
saging services will be able to
communicate with one another
through either Microsoft or
Yahoo!'s software.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 7



Inside Yahoo!



Yahoo! account to send alerts to a
mobile phone at a specific time
(great for birthday and anniver-
sary reminders), and you can also ac-
cess Yahool's search engine or
backup your mobile phone's contacts
to your Yahoo! account very easily.



Yahoo! Mobile works with most
modern cell phones as well as Palm
OS, Pocket PC, Windows CE, and
Symbian/EPOC devices. Pre-mium
Yahoo! services, such as ringtones,
games, and screen savers, also are
available. We look at Yahoo! Mobile



in-depth on page 151 in the article
"Especially For Mobile Users".

Yahoo! Widgets

This isn't the most important or
useful Yahoo! service by a long shot,



Yahool's Top Yahoos



Yahoo! has become far more than the hobby of two ambitious doctorate candidates. It now takes a whole team of savvy business
leaders to manage one of the world's most popular Web sites. Here's a quick introduction to some of the past and present faces
behind Yahoo!.





David Filo

One of the co-founders of Yahoo!,
David Filo has done quite well for him-
self. He was on the Forbes list as one of
the 10 richest Americans under 40, and
his net worth is reported to be more
than $3 billion. But this native of Moss
Bluff, La., hasn't forgotten his roots. In
2005, he donated $30 million to his
alma mater, Tulane University, the
Louisiana university where he received
his B.S. in Computer Engineering.



Jerry Yang

Co-founder and current director of
Yahoo!, Jerry Yang has also done well
for himself, landing on the Forbes list
as the sixth richest American under
40. He started life in Taiwan, and when
he was 10, his widowed mother
moved the family to San Jose, Calif.
(According to Wikipedia, Yang knew
only one word of English when he
landed in the States.) He holds B.S.
and M.S. degrees in Electrical
Engineering from Stanford University
and is currently on sabbatical from
Stanford's Ph.D. program.



Terry Semel

Q: What do "The Matrix," "Chariots of
Fire," and "Lethal Weapon" have in
common? A: Terry Semel. The co-
founders of Yahoo! didn't have media
roots before founding the company,
but the same can't be said of the cur-
rent CEO and director. Semel has an
enviable track record; he and partner
Robert Daly built Warner Brothers
from a $1 billion company to an $11
billion company. During his tenure,
Warner Brothers experienced 18 con-
secutive years of record profits (and
made the aforementioned movies,
among others).



8 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



nside Yahoo!



but it's certainly one of the most fun.
Widgets (widgets.yahoo.com), which
are small applications that have their
own unique look instead of matching
that of the operating system, were pio-
neered by Pixoria in a product called
Konfabulator. They were first available



for Macs, and then a PC version was
released, and both versions proved in-
credibly popular. Instead of simply
making some Yahoo! -branded widgets
that would work with Konfabulator,
Yahoo! bought Pixoria and rebranded
its product as Yahoo! Widget Engine.



Now there are dozens of Yahoo!
Widgets ranging from a Yahoo!
Weather viewer to a Yahoo! Maps
viewer, and Yahoo! is safe in the
knowledge that if competing compa-
nies want to create compatible widgets,
users must access them via Yahoo!





Farzad Nazem

Yahoo! has been through many
changes in its history, and Farzad
Nazem has been through most of
them. He's the CTO and executive
vice president, which means that the
buck stops with him when it comes to
all engineering areas of the site, in-
eluding site operations and product
development. His technical expertise
(he has a B.S. in Computer Science
from California Polytechnic State
University) led to stints at Oracle,
SYDIS, and Rolm before he joined
Yahoo! in early 1996.



Tim Koogle

The first chief executive of Yahoo!,
Tim Koogle wore many hats. He was
president and CEO of Yahoo! from
1995 to May 2001, chairman from
1999 to 2001, and a member of the
board of directors until 2003. He is
widely credited with building Yahoo!
into a viable, leading Internet media
company, and he was named one of
BusinessWeek's top 25 executives in
1999 and 2000. He continues to work
with technology startups.



JeffMallett

The former chief operating officer and
president of Yahoo! from 1995 to
2002, Jeff Mallett is a man of many tal-
ents. Not only did help grow Yahoo!,
but he was founder of Novell's
WordPerfect consumer division and
once turned down an opportunity to
play pro soccer with the North
American Soccer League.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 9



Inside Yahoo!



One of the main reasons Yahoo! has been around so long
and has been able to grow so large is that it is profitable.



software. This is also Yahool's first
product that has nothing to do with a
Web browser.

Making Money

One of the main reasons Yahoo! has
been around so long and has been able
to grow so large is that it is profitable.
It generated $5.2 billion in revenue just
in 2005, for a net income of $1.9 bil-
lion. Those are some big numbers —
especially for a Web site — so with all of
the free services Yahoo! offers, how
does it make all of that money?

Like most of its online competitors,
Yahoo! rakes in the majority of its
cash through advertising. According
to the company's 2004 annual report,
ads and related products such
as sponsored search results ac-
counted for approximately 88%
of the company's total revenue.
Much of this money comes from
the Overture Search Advertising
service Yahoo! offers to busi-
nesses (price varies), which uses
technology Yahoo! acquired
when it bought Overture for
$1.63 billion in 2003. Overture
Search Advertising lets companies
bid to have links to their compa-
nies placed at the top of related
search results lists at Yahoo!,
MSN, AltaVista, CNN.com, and
InfoSpace. Yahoo! claims these
sponsored links are seen by more than
80% of people who use the Web as
long as they use search terms that
match up with keywords that are re-
lated to your site.

So what about the remaining 22%
of the billions Yahoo! generates? It
comes from the fees Yahoo! charges
for its numerous services. Yahoo! Mail
is free, for example, but the company



also offers Yahoo! Mail Plus for $19.99
per year that comes with twice the
amount of storage space and no ad-
vertisements and has better unso-
licited email filters and many other
features unavailable to users of the
free service. There's also GeoCities
Plus (currently $2.48 per month) and
GeoCities Pro (currently $4.48 per
month) for Web site hosting, addi-
tional online storage for Yahoo!
Briefcase ($2.95 to $4.95 per month),
Yahoo! By Phone that lets you access
the site on a telephone ($4.95 per
month), and Yahoo! DSL (Digital
Subscriber Line) Internet Access plans
($14.99 to $21.99 per month). The
company also makes money from its
Yahoo! Bill Pay service ($4.95 per




Let Yahoo! take over your Desktop with Yahoo! Widgets,
fun little programs that don't require a browser.



month), which lets users pay bills over
the Internet; its Yahoo! Real-Time
Quotes stock quote service ($13.95 per
month); and its Yahoo! Personals
($24.95 per month) and Yahoo!
Personals Premier ($39.95 per month)
matchmaking services.

Yahoo! sells digital music through
its Yahoo! Music Unlimited ($6.99
per month) download service and its



LAUNCHcast Plus ($3.99 per month)
online commercial- free radio service.
It offers domain name registration for
$2.99 per year (as of press time), has a
classified ad service, and lets users
listen to college sports broadcasts for
$4.95 to $9.95 per month. Even if few
of these numerous premium services
are hugely profitable, they (along with
their free counterparts) help draw
new users to the site and keep them
there for long periods of time, which
in turn fuels Yahool's ability to gen-
erate ad revenue.

The Future Of Yahoo!

All of that income gives Yahoo!
the ability to continue growing at a
tremendous pace, and the site is
poised to become bigger and
better in the future. In December
2005 Yahoo! acquired Del.icio.us,
a Web site with more than 300,000
users that lets people easily share
their favorite Web sites and links
with friends and family members.
Yahoo! also recently acquired
Upcoming.org, a calendar and
scheduling Web site. Both of these
sites rely heavily on social net-
working, so it's a safe bet that the
technology they use will find its
way into Yahoo! 360°.

Yahoo! Mail will soon get an
upgrade, as well. Yahoo! snapped
up the excellent online Web-based
email site Oddpost in July 2004, and a
major upgrade of Yahoo! Mail that
incorporates most of Oddpost's best
features is currently in beta testing.
Look for it, and who knows what else,
at Yahoo! sometime later in 2006. H

by Tracy Baker



10 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



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Inside Yahoo!



Yahoo!
Goes Social



The Web 2.0



Big changes are afoot in the
Yahoo! Universe. In fact, if
you're one of the nearly 200
million active registered Yahoo! users,
you've probably noticed some of
them already. Over the past several
months, many of Yahoo!'s content
areas have been revamped and several
new services have launched, incorpo-
rating tools and technologies that
make it easy for users to create and
share their own content.

While encouraging user participa-
tion and content creation isn't a new
concept for Yahoo! — witness the
millions of product ratings and re-
views in the Shopping area — the
methods and motivation and types of
content Yahoo! is cultivating are.
Some call it "social media." Others
refer to "a culture of participation."
Marketing folk and the digerati
might talk about "Web 2.0."

Whatever the label, Yahoo! is
joining the ranks of companies that are
harnessing the power of the many and
embracing the idea that users, both in-
dividually and collectively as a large so-
cial network, can actively participate in
the co-creation of content. And just as
importantly, they're embracing the
idea that through the networking ef-
fect, user content adds value, and the
more users that participate, the more
valuable the content becomes.

Why the shift from top-down con-
tent provider to this more democra-
tized model? Certainly one of the
issues at the heart of the strategic
change is Yahoo! 's need to differen-
tiate itself from its competitors (read:
Google) in the search engine/portal




market. While Google might have its
much-touted PageRank technology,
Yahoo! is aiming to supplement its
own algorithmic search and catego-
rized list of links with a social search
feature based on tagging and so-called
"folksonomy" — categorization by the
people rather than a structured tax-
onomy handed down by the experts.

Web 2.0: Marketing Hype Or The
Next Web Wave?

The other driving force is that the
Web itself is evolving. Users who
never felt the need (or had the ability)
to create a "home page" are now
blogging or, if they're more inclined
to talk rather than write, podcasting.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
feeds, which are Web content or sum-
maries of content often combined
with hyperlinks to more content, are
everywhere, and people are sub-
scribing to RSS feeds and pushing out
their own in droves.

Applications are becoming Web-
based, allowing for collaboration
across time and space that wasn't pos-
sible just a few years ago. And many
of these applications remain in "per-
petual beta" for months, even years,
with frequent releases (transparent to
the user) as new features are rolled
into the product. Users are encour-
aged to provide feedback, and much



of the feedback is then incorporated
into future releases — a nice little loop
of co-creation.

All of these changes fall under the
umbrella of what is coming to be
known as "Web 2.0." The term has
been gaining popularity as a way of de-
scribing the direction in which the Web
has evolved in the post dot-com bust
years (which might be retroactively la-
beled "Web 1.0"). Yahoo! is clearly
making a shift along these Web 2.0 lines
as evidenced both by its recent acquisi-
tions and its application development.

Flickr&MyWeb2.0

Yahoo!'s shift in focus can be
traced back to its March 2005 acquisi-
tion of a young Web site called Flickr
(www.flickr.com). A digital photo-
sharing site, Flickr zoomed to popu-
larity shortly after making its debut in
early 2004. Flickr lets users easily up-
load photos (particularly from mobile
phones and other mobile devices), tag
and organize them, and share them
with others. It also boasts some nifty
features, such as social discussion
groups built around particular photo-
graphic themes and the ability to
annotate photos with electronic
sticky-type notes. These features
quickly gained Flickr a large and fa-
natically devoted membership of over
1.5 million users and counting.



12 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



nside Yahoo!



Although some Flickrites were wor-
ried that the unique and quirky site
that they had grown to love would be-
come just another cog in the Yahoo!
machine, the opposite seems to have
happened. The marriage between
Yahoo! and Flickr has resulted not in
a corporatization of Flickr, but in-
stead in a Flickrization of Yahoo! with
many of the features that users found
so appealing in Flickr being propa-
gated to existing content areas and
spawning new ones.

An example of this is My Web
2.0 (myweb2.search.yahoo.com),
launched in June 2005. My Web
2.0 is a social search tool that lets
users create and save bookmarks
on the Web rather than on their
home computer. These links can
be annotated, tagged, and shared
with either a select group of
people or with anyone at all, as
users can create RSS-like feeds
that are updated and pushed out
every time they add a link.

Once more exemplifying how
things tend to come full circle,
Yahoo !'s foray into social search
might be seen as a return to its
roots. Yahoo! began in 1994 as a
hand-edited list of links known
simply as "Jerry and David's Guide to
the World Wide Web," as two
Stanford students gathered together
and published links related to their
own interests, eventually organizing
the list into categories when it became
too unwieldy.

With My Web 2.0, Yahoo! again
turns to hand-edited lists, the big differ-
ence being that this time there are mil-
lions of hands doing the editing and
categorizing. The theory is that people
who are interested in a particular sub-
ject will spend time searching for links
that are truly relevant to that interest.
When they find a link, after separating
the wheat of good links from the chaff
of irrelevant or unreliable ones, they
can save and categorize it with key-
words that make sense to them and that
will likely make sense to others who
have a similar subject-matter interest.



Bradley Horowitz, director of tech-
nology development at Yahoo! Search,
has publicly criticized the industry-
wide habit of letting Webmasters con-
trol how Web sites and pages are
ranked. Rather, he feels that search
relevance should be assessed based
on the searcher's context and/or that
searcher's elected community of
friends, family, and/or colleagues.

In December 2005, Yahoo! acquired
del.icio.us (del.icio.us), the site that
popularized social bookmarking and



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the one that My Web 2.0 had been
most often compared to. How this
move will impact the development of
My Web 2.0 remains to be seen. As
with Flickr, del.icio.us brings with it a
highly dedicated user base — about
300,000 strong with more than 10 mil-
lion saved pages and half a million
tags. Contrast this to the slow-growing
My Web 2.0, with about 600,000 saved
pages and 130,000 tags, and it's clear
that Yahoo!'s product could benefit
from this influx of users if the two sys-
tems merge.

At the same time, there is a lot of
skepticism among del.icio.us afi-
cionados, with some threatening to
withdraw their content if Yahoo! tries
to silo it into a "walled garden" avail-
able only to those with a Yahoo! ac-
count and who are willing to stay
inside the Yahoo! network. Given the



positive way in which Yahoo! handled
the Flickr transition, and the evidence
that Yahoo! is letting go of some
control over content on its network
(such as opening up the APIs [Appli-
cation Programming Interfaces] for
many of its new areas and not re-
quiring that all content associated be
hosted on the Yahoo! network), that
fear is hopefully unfounded.

In fact, for Yahoo! to succeed in the
emerging world of social networking
and Web 2.0, it will have to become
more open and more willing to let
control of a user's content remain
in the user's hands. If the company
tries to restrict it, many will simply
find other services and applications
that don't have strings attached.

Putting The Network To Work

My Web 2.0, though the most
"Flickr-like" in terms of the
ability to apply tags, is only one of
the areas that has benefited from
Yahoo!'s adoption of Web 2.0
and social networking tools.
Below are several others, and
more can be found at Yahoo!
Next, (next.yahoo.com), a show-
case of some of Yahoo!'s up-
coming projects (see "Yahoo Next!"
on page 122 for more information
about Yahoo! Next).

Yahoo! 360°. Introduced in March
2005, Yahoo! 360° (360.yahoo.com)
is a social networking tool (a la
Friendster) that integrates blogging,
photo sharing (with either a Yahoo!
photo album or Flickr stream), and
other Yahoo! Services, such as Local,
Launch, Messenger, and Groups.
Users can also customize RSS feeds
and create a feed of their own blog.
The look of a page is determined by
selecting one of the dozens of
themes provided. As with any social
networking tool, friends need to be
invited and accept the invitation
to be added to a network, and
Yahoo! 360° allows filtering of con-
tent to different friend groups via
user-defined tags.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 13



Inside Yahoo!



Yahoo! Answers. If you've got a
question, there's a good chance that
somebody, somewhere on the Inter-
net has the answer. Or at least an an-
swer. If that somebody is a Yahoo!
Answers (answers.yahoo.com) user,
you're in luck. Unlike the Google
Answers approach, where a) you pay
$2.50 or more to have your question
answered and b) the answers are
provided by "carefully screened
Researchers," Yahoo! Answers,
launched in December 2005, relies
on other users to share their facts,
opinions, or personal experiences
to scratch your knowledge itch.
Questions are categorized and are
browseable and searchable. When
multiple answers are given, the best
answer is chosen by either the asker
or by a community vote. Answerers
gain points by giving accurate and
frequent answers, and the more
points they have, the higher their ex-
pert level rating.

Yahoo! Shoposphere. While Ya-
hoo!'s shopping site has long al-
lowed users to rate and review items,
Shoposphere, launched in Novem-
ber 2005, introduces user-created
shopping recommendations via
"Pick Lists." After pulling together a
themed list of items, such as "My fa-
vorite gadgets" or "Gifts for those
who love to cook," users can add
commentary and share these recom-
mendations with other shoppers.
Shoppers can then comment on the
lists, subscribe to them via RSS, and
vote on their usefulness. The highest




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Yahoo's version of a
tag cloud also allows
sorting that shows
the tags shared by a
user's community.



rated pick lists get pushed to the
Shoposphere landing page (shop
ping.yahoo.com/shoposphere).
Coming soon: Users will be able to
tag their lists for easier searching,
and Yahoo! will start revenue
sharing with various Pick Lists pub-
lishers to encourage them to adver-
tise their lists and drive traffic to the
Yahoo! domain.

Yahoo! Local. Launched in August
2005, the newest version of Yahoo!
Local (local.yahoo.com) lets users dig
down to the heart of what "local"
means. Though a search is still initi-
ated with a city or ZIP code, users can
now select a neighborhood within a
larger city to access or add their own
user reviews of shops, services, and
restaurants in that specific neighbor-
hood. Additionally, the Yahoo! Local
search box shows a list of the most
popular local searches for that week
so users can see what others are
checking out in their area.



"X&ElOOf, A N S W E R S



Whether you have a

question or just

want to see what

other people are

asking about, Yahoo!

Answers provides an

easy way to learn

something new.




the Web I I _



answer.



Featured Question



discover.



Why do bears (not in
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L * &_ Cooking



Ready to participate?- '^r. ;:>';; !



Meet the team behind Yahoo! Answers -- read our blog !



Share what you know. Answer open questions.



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; ;



Yahoo! Maps. Ap-
pearing in November
2005, the next genera-
tion of Yahoo! Maps
(maps.yahoo.com/beta
/index.php) is a flash application that
integrates seamlessly with the Yahoo!
Local business directory, letting you
browse or search for restaurants,
ATMs, mass transit, and other relevant
locations. Because it's Flash-based, the
maps are updated immediately with-
out a redraw. Other cool features in-
clude a live traffic monitor, the ability
to create multipoint driving directions
with as many stops along the way as
needed, and an option to either email
a map or send it to a mobile phone.
Taking a cue from Google maps,
Yahoo! has opened its APIs so that
anyone with a little know-how can
create custom maps. Expect to see
some mashups (applications built on
top of Yahoo! maps using data from
other sources) soon.

Yahoo! Travel Trip Planner. When
you're getting ready to travel to some-
place completely unknown, one of the
first things you often do is ask for trip
planning tips from friends who have
gone before. In October 2005, the
Yahoo! Trip Planner (travel. yahoo
.com/trip) service debuted, letting
you browse through itineraries that
others have published as a starting
point for planning your own trip.
Then, after you create your own itin-
erary, you can publish it on Trip
Planner along with photos, reviews,
tips, and customized maps so that
others can benefit from your travel
experiences — good and bad. H

by William Van Winkle



14 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



nside Yahoo!



Your Door
To The Web

Find Your Way Around Yahoo!




In 1994 Yahoo! started out as
Jerry Yang and David Filo's per-
sonal collection of useful and in-
teresting links collected from the
burgeoning Internet. Over the course
of 12 years, Yahoo!'s exponential
growth has paralleled that of the
Internet itself, and today, Yahoo!
(www.yahoo.com) is the preeminent
portal, a superpower of a Web desti-
nation where millions of people go for
the information they want.

The Internet In A Nutshell

At first glance, Yahoo! 's home page
looks crammed with information, but
Yahoo! has made a concerted effort to
let you customize what you see using
My Yahoo! (learn more about My
Yahoo! on page 22). Although the
layout of the page can change once
you setup your My Yahoo! prefer-
ences, there are a number of features
and services that appear by default.

Because Yahoo! relies heavily on
advertising revenue, you'll find con-
text-sensitive advertisements sprin-
kled throughout Yahoo!'s pages. If
you click any of the ads, you'll leave
Yahoo! 's site. For the most part, the
ads are labeled as Advertisements, and
some even include a link for submit-
ting feedback.

When you visit Yahoo!, one of the
first things you'll notice are the col-
orful icons at the top of the page. The
three icons on the right side of the
Yahoo! logo are for Mail, My Yahoo!,
and Messenger. To use these services,
you'll need a Yahoo! ID. For more
information about how to register with



Yahoo!, check out the article "Identify
Yourself on page 20. The three icons
on the left side of the Yahoo! logo in-
clude drop-down menus for choosing
specific services you want Yahoo! to
display each time you load the home
page. You can choose from all 50 of
Yahoo!'s services, such as Autos,
Finance, Groups, Health, Kids, Maps,
Movies, and Games. You can even set
up these icons to take you to any of
Yahoo !'s international sites.

Below the main logo, you'll find the
Yahoo! search engine, which lets you
enter a query and explore the Inter-
net. By clicking the search categories
above the text box, you can find spe-
cific items such as news, images,
video, directory services, local busi-
nesses and services, and shopping.
The most well-known aspects of
Yahoo! include the search engine,
Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Messenger,
but those items only represent a frac-
tion of Yahoo!'s host of services.

The remaining sections of the
Yahoo! home page consist of boxes
that contain links to other services,
news headlines, popular searches, and
a couple of advertisements. If you're a
news buff, then check out the upper-
right side of the page for the In The
News box. Here you'll find the latest
national and international headlines,
updated minute by minute.

For the latest weather and traffic in-
formation, see the box directly below
the news headlines. Simply type your
ZIP code and click Go. By default,
Yahoo! checks the Save Location On
This Page checkbox so that you can
instantly see local information every



time you load the
Yahoo! home page.
Once you have given
Yahoo! your ZIP code,
you'll see a brief report
of today's weather and
tomorrow's outlook.
Click the Traffic link to
load the Yahoo! Maps page
for a look at traffic congestion, the lo-
cation and severity of traffic incidents,
and overall road conditions.

The Marketplace box displays ad-
vertisements and shopping links. If
you own a small business, then check
out the Yahoo! Advertising Solutions
box in the lower-right corner of the
page, which lets you access details
about advertising on Yahoo!. Business
owners may also be interested in the
Yahoo! Small Business services box in
the middle left of the Yahoo! home
page, which includes links for Web
Hosting, Domain Names, Sell Online,
and Search Listings.

Yahoo! also has a list of Featured
Services next to the Small Business
box, including Downloads, Hotjobs
(for finding and posting jobs offers),
and Personal Website. The Buzz Log
section is a pop culture potpourri,
featuring data about the most popular
Web searches and current Internet
trends. If you still haven't found what
you're looking for, scan the left side of
the page for Entertainment, Yahoo!
Web Directory, and More Yahoo!
Services links.

Tip Of The Iceberg

The items you see on the home
page represent only a small sampling
of Yahoo!'s total features. If you're
looking for more in-depth informa-
tion, click any of the box titles or click
the "More" links to the right of the
box titles. H

by Andrew Leibman



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 15



Scratching Yahool's Surface



Think of Yahool's home page as a snapshot of the entire
Web. Once you dive in, you'll quickly see how easy it is to
find what you want, no matter what that is. Although the
interface may appear cluttered at first glance, you can get
more information about your desired topic by accessing
any of the dozens of links that take you deeper into
Yahool's gallery of Web resources.



I Advanced Search

If you find the generic word search from the home page a little
too vague for your tastes, then click the Advanced link next to
the Yahoo! Search button to add nuance to your query.



File Edit View Favorites


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If you can picture it in your mind (or even if you can't), Yahoo!
Images search feature can probably show you what "it" looks
like. You can even filter pictures by size, including Wallpaper,
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As we went to press, Yahoo! had just added the Audio option
to its search categories. Enter an audio search term, such as a
musician or a sound, and then click Search. Each result details
the service or Web site offering the audio file, the format of
the file, platform (such as Windows or Mac), length, and size.



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Search for Reviews



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T" Shopping

Click the Marketplace or Shopping link on the Yahoo! home
page to go to the Yahoo! Shopping page. Choose a product
category or just browse the page for special offers that
scream your name.



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kJ News

Click the In The News link on the right side of the home page
to see Yahoofs News page, which boasts headlines from the
AP, Reuters, AFP, USATODAY.com, CSMonitor.com, and NPR.
Scroll down the page for Top Stories, Most Popular, Business,
Science, Entertainment, Sports, and Opinion.



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confirmation, defending his judicial record to

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would replace — Sandra Day O'Connor.
SI Slideshow: U.S. Supreme Court



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Ariel Sharon

The latest news
analysis, photos,
video and more.







16 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! At Your Service



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Horoscopes


Autos


HotJobs


Finance


Kids






GeoCities


Mail


Groups


Maps


Health


Mobile



Yahoo! is more than
just a snazzy search en-
gine. When you park
yourself at Yahoofs
home page, you'll in-
stantly see a number of services that you can use for free.
For just a taste of what lies within Yahoofs bag of tricks,
check out the box of links below the Search The Web box.



U Yahoo! Mail

Yahoofs email service first launched in 1997 and has seen
more than a few updates and revamps. Today's version looks
more like a desktop-style email application and offers 1GB of
storage space, free virus cleaning, and the ability to access your
email from your mobile phone.



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Yahoo! Mail not only scans your email attach
i I im-i ii. -. - . tan messages.

Now you can rest easy.





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/ Yahoo! Music

Yahoo! offers both free and subscription-based music services,
which let you access Internet radio, music downloads, and all
the latest information about your favorite artists.




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O Yahoo! Messenger

You can download and use the
Yahoo! Messenger to send and re-
ceive instant messages and voice
chat with others directly from your
Desktop via the Internet. Yahoo!
Messenger also lets you drag and
drop photos and transfer files that
you can share with your Yahoo!
Messenger buddies. Furthermore,
you can view your Yahoo! Mail and
catch up on the latest news, sports
scores, and stock quotes.



*7 GeoCities

If you're interested in creating your own Web page, then Yahoo!
has you covered. The GeoCities Web Hosting service has three
tiers, the most basic of which is free. GeoCities PLUS and
GeoCities PRO offer no advertisements and more storage space,
plus other features, for $4.95 and $8.95 a month, respectively.



Messenger Contacts Actions Help
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GeoCities FREE

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GeoCities PLUS No ads plus extra storage

it$4.95/m



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Web Hosting STARTER

Need even more?



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10



Yahoo! Local

This useful page lets you search for maps and driving directions
by filling out the text boxes with your geographical specifics.



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How to get there
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Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 17



Inside Yahoo!




The Whole Enchilada



With so many pages, it's easy to get lost on Yahooi's site. To access the
sitemap, click the All Y! Services link from the box at the upper-left
side of the home page and below the Search The Web bar. The Everything
Yahoo! page consists of an A to Z index of more than a hundred links. If you
need something online, then the Everything Yahoo! page can probably help
you find it fast.

Yahoo!'s Everything page displays a box of What's New At Yahoo! items
just above the list of A-Z links. To the right you'll find the See What's Hot
On Yahoo! Search links.

The upper portion of the Everything Yahoo! page features four links la-
beled Information, Communication, Shopping, and Entertainment. Clicking
any of them will display a handful of other links and drop boxes in the sec-
tion immediately below the links to make navigating to the information
you want a little easier.

The Everything Yahoo! page loads with the Information tab selected by
default. Here, you'll find links for the day's top news stories, stock quotes,
and market news. You can also learn about how to use Yahoofs RSS (Really
Simple Syndication) and Yahoo! Shortcuts by clicking the appropriate links.
To the right of the links, the Yahoo! News search engine lets you select a
category, such as Top Stories, Business, World, Sports, and Technology, so
you can find the latest news in those categories.



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The Communication tab features six links for tools that help
you keep in touch with friends and family, connect to other
Yahoo! members, create a blog, and share photos. To see the
Yahoo! services available for your mobile phone, select your
carrier from the drop-down box on the right and then select
your phone from the Phone Brand drop-down box.



Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail

EVERYTHING TQSiHDOt *




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Stay in touch with these cool tools

■ Make free worldwide PC-to-PC calls

■ Email photos wttou? attachments

■ Check & compose email en your mobile phor

Connect & share with friends

■ Find fellow Yahoo! members

■ Share photos & start your own blog

■ Meet others who share your interests



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The Shopping tab features half a dozen links for comparing
prices, bidding on products, and searching for exactly what
you want. To the right, you can select a search category,
such as Bargains, Clothing, DVD & Video, Toys & Baby, and
Music. Type a search term and then click the Search
Shopping button.



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■ Compare prices from ever 200 000 store;

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Click the Entertainment tab to see links for movie times,
restaurant locations and reviews, music videos, and games.
You can even find someone to share your dinner and movie
with by clicking the Find A Great Date link. To the right, you
can use the Yahoo! Music search engine to find Artists,
Albums, Songs, and Videos.



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■ Find restaurants & get reviews

■ See movie showtimes & buy tickets

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■ Watch the hottest music videos

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18 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



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Inside Yahoo!



Identify Yourself

Get A Yahoo! ID To Make The Most Of Yahooi's Tools



A



nyone with a PC
and Internet ac-
cess can go to Ya-
hoo! and use a number of
tools, including Yahooi's
ever popular Search en- c

gine or its Stock Quotes
tool. Though these are
great (not to mention free)
services, if you want full ac-
cess to all the features Yahoo!
offers, you have to register for
a Yahoo! ID.

To start this process, click the
Sign Up link next to Free Mail
below Yahooi's Search The Web
text box, then click the Sign Up
For Yahoo! Mail button at the
bottom-left side of the page to sign up
for the free version of Yahooi's email.
Also, you can sign up for a Yahoo! ID
anywhere Yahoo! asks users to sign in.
Usually, right below the Sign In link,
there is a Sign Up link that will take
you to the Yahoo! Registration page.

Feel Creative

The registration process is broken
down into five sections. The first of
these, the Create Your Yahoo! ID sec-
tion, requires you to enter your first
and last name into the text box for
each. Next, select your local Yahoo! site
from the Preferred Content drop-down
menu. For instance, if you live in the
United States and speak English, leave
Yahoo! U.S. (the default setting) as
your choice. If your primary language
is French and you live in Canada, select
Yahoo! Canada In French from the
drop-down menu. If you select this, the
registration form will automatically be
translated to French and your email
address will end in "@yahoo.ca"




instead of "@yahoo.com" as it would if
the Preferred Content field was set to
Yahoo! U.S.

After you select your preferred
content site, choose your gender
from the Gender drop-down menu,
and type a suggestion for your
Yahoo! ID. As you type, a Check
Availability Of This ID button will
appear. Click it after you finish



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The Yahoo! ID Helper can generate IDs for you
if your initial thought is already taken.



typing your preferred ID to make
sure someone else hasn't already
taken your Yahoo! tag. If your ID is
available, you'll get a congratulatory
notice from the Yahoo! ID Helper
and you can continue. If, however,
someone has dibs on your Yahoo!
handle, the ID Helper will pop up to
help you find one that isn't taken.
It displays three text boxes where
you can enter key terms that you
want to use in your Yahoo! ID.
For instance, we initially tried the
ID "SmartComputing." This is a
fairly general tag, so we weren't
terribly surprised when it was al-
ready taken. Next we entered the
terms "Smart," "Computing," and
"Yahoo" in the ID Helper text
boxes and clicked the Show Some
IDs button. The generator gave us
a list of available IDs including
smartcomputingbarbarian and
smartcomputingboor.

If you get a list that you aren't
happy with, click the Show More
Available IDs link below the ID
list to get more suggestions. Click
Edit Suggestion Words just below
that to change the three words you
typed in the text boxes. If you want
to keep playing the guessing game,
the Yahoo! ID Helper also has a text
box where you can enter another po-
tential ID. After you type a name
in that text box, click the Check
Availability Of This ID button to see
if your latest idea is available. Once
you find an available user ID that
you like, you can continue regis-
tering by typing a password in the
Password text box and confirming it
by entering it again, this time in the
Re-type Password text box. Mind
your Caps Lock though, Yahooi's
password queries are case-sensitive,
so capitalization matters.

Forget Me Not

The next section, entitled If You
Forget Your Password . . ., lets you
create a security question to answer
in case you forget your Yahoo!



20 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



nside Yahoo!



Verify Your Registration






t^pae^^k



The verification text you enter when
you create an ID helps Yahoo! prevent
automated registrations.



password. Select a question from the
Security Question drop-down menu,
and type an answer longer than three
characters in the Your Answer sec-
tion. Other criteria Yahoo! can use to
confirm your identity, should you
lose your Yahoo! login information,
include your birthday, ZIP code, and
an alternate email address. Be sure to
fill out the alternate email field if you
have another email address. If you
ever forget your Yahoo! ID, Yahoo!
can send your information to you via
this alternate email address. Your
birthday and ZIP code are required
pieces of information, so you'll have
to fill out those text boxes in order to
complete your registration.

Make Yahoo! Yours

After you complete the required
criteria in the If You Forget Your
Password section, you can continue
to the next part, Customizing Yahoo!.
This section isn't required to get a
Yahoo! ID, but you may want to take
a few seconds to complete it anyway.
Yahoo! collects information such as
the industry you work in and your job
title for advertising purposes.

Verify & Accept

In order to prevent automated
registrations, Yahoo! requires that
you enter a verification code. Just
enter the code that appears on your
screen in the Enter The Code Shown
text box, and read through the
Terms Of Service agreement just
below the Verify Your Registration
section. Sometimes this goofy look-
ing registration code, comprised of
random letters and numbers, can be
tricky to decipher. If you accidentally
enter an incorrect code Yahoo! will



give you a different code that
may be easier to read. After you
read the Terms Of Service statement
(or if you just decide to skip over it)
click the I Agree button to create
your Yahoo! account.



Yahoo! Privacy Policy



Though there are a few things you
can do on the Yahoo! Web site while
remaining anonymous to Yahoo!, if
you want to take full advantage of
nearly everything Yahoo! offers, you
need a Yahoo! ID. Getting one is
very easy, and it's well worth the few
minutes you'll spend creating a
name for yourself. Qjs]

by Sam Evans



Ever wonder what
happens with the in-
formation you give to
Yahoo! when you reg-
ister? After all, you
shouldn't give out infor-
mation such as your
name, birthday, email
address, and ZIP code to
just anyone online who
asks for it. You can learn
exactly what Yahoo!
does with your personal
information by reading
Yahoo!'s Privacy Policy.
There is a link to it at
the bottom of the
Yahoo! home page.

Yahoo! collects infor-
mation such as your
name, ZIP code, and
gender when you reg-
ister for its products or
services. The one excep-
tion to this is if you claim
to be a child under the
age of 13. In that case,
Yahoo! suggests that you
have a parent create a
Yahoo! Family Account.

Yahoo! uses the infor-
mation to customize
the advertising you'll
see, both Yahoo! adver-
tising and non-Yahoo!-
related advertising, and
to conduct demo-
graphic research for
this customizable



advertising system,
among other purposes.
Generally, you won't
have to worry about the
information you give
Yahoo! getting into
anyone else's hands, but
Yahoo! will release your
personal information in
a few extreme instances,
such as if Yahoo! is sub-
poenaed and must pre-
sent your information in
court or if Yahoo! ever
merges with another
company. If the latter
happens, Yahoo! will no-
tify you before your in-
formation is transferred.

Check out the Yahoo!
Privacy Policy for a com-
plete list of these excep-
tions, as well as a lot
more information on
Yahoofs security policies
and procedures. Yahoo!
reserves the right to up-
date its privacy policy,
which took effect March
28, 2002, at any time. If
they choose to do so
you will be notified by
an email to your Yahoo!
email account or by a
notice on the Yahoo!
Web site.

If you ever get un-
wanted emails from ad-
vertisers, or if at any



time you want to stop
receiving bulletins from
a Yahoo! service, try ad-
justing the settings in
Marketing Preferences.
The Marketing Prefer-
ences link is located
in the Assistance sec-
tion on the left side
of the Privacy Policy
home page.

After you sign in,
you'll go to the Yahoo!
Account Information
page. The tab on this
Web page, the Market-
ing Preferences tab, lets
you opt-in or out of re-
ceiving notices from a
variety of Yahoo! ser-
vices. Go to the Special
Offers And Marketing
Communications From
Yahoo! section and
uncheck the boxes of
the services you don't
want to receive offers
from. Once you fine-
tune your settings, click
the Save Changes but-
ton at the bottom of the
page to save your new
settings. You can also
sign up to receive offers
from selected third
parties as well as cus-
tomize how Yahoo! can
contact you. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 21



Inside Yahoo!



My Yahoo!

Give Yourself The Ultimate Home Page




First, you check your email.
Next, CNN.com for the news.
Later, you look at three weather
sites (in order to get two forecasts that
agree with each other) and then drift
over to a handful of blogs and hobby
sites you like. It's a ritual by now, and
it's a comfy one.

If your browser supports tabs, you
could set it to open each of the above
sites in a separate tab as soon as you
launch the browser. Better still, you
could make a single home page that
automatically fetches the most cur-
rent information from most of your
favorite sites. Make that page easy to
use and accessible from any online
computer, and you're talking about
My Yahoo! (my.yahoo.com).

My Yahoo pulls content from Web
sites that offer RSS (Really Simple
Syndication) feeds. Typical RSS feeds
offer headlines of current news, blog
entries, and other material. Each
headline is hyperlinked to an article
on the originating site.



We found that My
Yahoo! displayed just
fine on the popular
Firefox and Internet
Explorer browsers, as
well as on Mozilla and
Netscape 8 (using ei-
ther Firefox's or IE's
rendering engine).
Here's how to make a
page of your own.

Get Started

If you haven't al-
ready signed up for a
free Yahoo! ID user-
name and password
or if your browser isn't set to auto-
matically supply them when asked,
my.yahoo.com will take you to a
sign- in page. Click Sign Up to create
a new Yahoo! ID or click Sign In to
enter your existing one. For more de-
tails on the registration process, flip
back to the previous article in this
issue, "Identify Yourself, on page 20.
After you log in, you're ready to
start customizing your personal My
Yahoo! page. Yahoo! offers some
starter packages of interest, such as
News, Sports, Money, Health, a Basics
package, and Entertainment. We
chose a few by clicking their check-
boxes and then Create My Page.

Based on our personal information
and choices, Yahoo! filled in a long
page with local weather, world news,
and odds and ends it thought we
might like. Some content modules
were pretty disposable, such as the
ones with horoscopes and lame jokes.
Other inclusions were inexplicable,
such as the Garfield and Doonesbury



comic strips. (Is there anyone in the
world who enjoys both?)

Our page was laid out with a wide,
horizontal column of modules on the
left and a narrow stack of vertical
modules on the right. Some of the
latter included Weather, Maps, Stock
Portfolios, and News Photos. Near the
top was a handy field for Yahoo!
Search. And when we saw that there
was even a preview panel for our
Yahoo! Mail account, we knew we
were on to something good.

Change Your Page

Fortunately, we could change the
things we didn't like. For example,
you can banish a module from your
My Yahoo! page by clicking its X
button. You can now drag and drop
modules within their types of columns
(wide or narrow) in most browsers, a
recent and welcome change. Some
things to remember are that you need
to click the Finished or Done button
to save most changes you make, and if
My Yahoo! mutely refuses to make a
change, it's probably trying to set a
cookie that your browser or cookie
blocker is refusing.

To tweak a module, click its Edit
button and then select Edit Content
from the menu that appears. For in-
stance, you can choose various cities
you travel to in the Weather box or
up to three comic strips in the
Comics module. Click Finished
when you've made your selections.
We found that we didn't always re-
turn to My Yahoo! after making
changes to some modules, so we
sometimes had to click the My
Yahoo! link at the top of the page.

Certain modules, such as Stock
Portfolios, deserve some study. Click
the Edit link next to Quotes. Here you
can select different stocks, indices,
and mutual funds to watch. If an item
isn't listed in the checklist of Example
Market Indices in Step 2: Ticker
Symbols, click the Look Up or
Alphabetical Listing link on the right.
If you search through Look Up, you'll



22 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



nside Yahoo!



need to specify the Type of item, such
as Mutual Funds. Find the fund,
index, or stock you want to track,
such as INTC, and then click Add.
Note that in the Quotes Edit page,
you can erase or add stock ticker sym-
bols directly in the Symbols box, if
you like.

Edit. If you want to move a module
on the My Yahoo! page so you can see
it without scrolling very far, click its
Edit button and choose Move Up,
Move To Top, Move Down, or Move
To Bottom. There's a quicker way to
do this in the Change Layout section
below. And, no, there's no way to
move the top banner ad to a less



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I 1



Your first step to creating a My Yahoo! page might be to choose a
starter package of content from among several categories such as
News, Sports, and Entertainment.







Add Content is the place to locate RSS feeds from your favorite
sites and blogs and incorporate them into your My Yahoo! page.



prominent spot, but ad support keeps
My Yahoo! free to use.

The last item on the Edit menu is
Email This Module, which works
through an online form and your
Yahoo! Mail account, if you have
one. We generally tend to avoid these
"mail to a friend" forms because we
don't like giving out our friends'
email addresses to potential spam-
mers, but Yahoo! states on the page
that it doesn't collect or use said ad-
dresses for any marketing purposes.
Anyway, the oddly phrased Copy
Yourself box simply means send a
copy of the email to your Yahoo!
Mail account.

Add Content. Click
this button at the top
left of the My Yahoo!
page to add modules
of content from Web
sites that offer RSS
feeds. If one of your
favorite sites doesn't
do RSS yet, email its
Webmaster and re-
quest it.

Type a keyword or
phrase, such as DVD
releases, in the Find
Content field. Yahoo!
will locate related
feeds. Click the Add
button next to any feed
you want to subscribe
to. You can preview
the types of headlines
in a feed by clicking its
name or the Preview
icon next to it. A dia-
gram on the left will
show you where the
new mod-ule will ap-
pear on your My Ya-
hoo! page.

Alternatively, you
can use the Add RSS
By URL link just to
the right of the Find
Content field, which
is a more roundabout
method. Occasionally
you'll find a Web site



<**»-r



you like, and you'll want to add its
RSS feed to your My Yahoo! page. If
it has a button labeled + My Yahoo!,
all you need to do is click it and then
Add To My Yahoo! to add the feed.
Other sites may have RSS buttons la-
beled XML or Atom, depending on
their types of feeds; Yahoo supports
these, too. Whatever its label, click
the RSS button or link. This will
probably take you to a page of XML
Web markup language. Copy the
URL at the top of the page, such as
news, google. com/nwshp?hl=en&gl=u
s&output=rss for Google News, by
right- clicking it and choosing Copy.
Next, from your My Yahoo! page,
click Add Content and Add RSS By
URL. Right-click the URL field,
choose Paste, and press ENTER to
add the feed.

Finally, you can choose a category
in the Browse By Topic section of the
Add Content page to find an RSS feed
you like. For instance, under Yahoo!
Services, there's a Package Tracker for
UPS and a few other shipping ser-
vices, and Voicemail access from
Yahoo! Mobile.

Change Layout. By default, My
Yahoo! has a wide column on the left
and a narrow one on the right. Click
the Change Layout link at the top left
of the page if you want to adjust the
way the page is arranged. Change
Layout also gives you a much easier
way to move content modules up and
down the page than do their indi-
vidual Edit menus. Select a module in
the Wide or Narrow Column lists and
then use the arrow icons to raise or
lower it.

The X icons remove modules, but
at this writing, there's no corre-
sponding Add icon in case you make
a mistake and delete the wrong one. If
you err, click the My Yahoo! link at
the top of the page and then Change
Layout to start over. Change Layout
won't save your alterations until you
click Finished, so consider this an
"undo" workaround.

You can swap the Wide and Narrow
columns' positions with the Move



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 23



Inside Yahoo!



Column buttons and add a third
column using the Layout options
below. You can also change the loca-
tion of the Yahoo! Search field from the
top of the page to the bottom, as well as
tell My Yahoo! how to behave when
you add or delete content modules.

The Reading Filter setting at the
bottom of the page doesn't censor of-
fensive words, as you might guess.
Instead, it's an on/off switch for the
Hide Read Items and Show features
described below.

Change Colors. Actually, this link
(next to Change Layout) might be
better named Change Themes. You can
redecorate your My Yahoo! page here
with colors and patterns in prefabri-
cated themes such as Hello Kitty or '70s
Necktie. If you only want to tweak the
colors of My Yahoo!'s background,
borders, and text, click Customize
Theme in the Current Theme box in
the top left of the Change Colors page.

Show. The Show menu, at the top
right of the My Yahoo! page, lets you
tell My Yahoo! to display recent head-
lines that have appeared within a cer-
tain period of time, whether that
means the last 15 minutes or since the
beginning of the day. The default set-
ting is All Items.

Note that this setting only applies
to the current session of My Yahoo!.
If you want to permanently set a
module to show items from a partic-
ular time frame, right-click its Edit
button, click Edit Content, and adjust
the Display settings.

Hide Read Items. Check this box if
you want headlines to disappear after
you click them. This can really keep
your My Yahoo! page uncluttered, as
you'll only see the items you haven't
read yet.

My Page/Add New Page. There's so
much great stuff you can pack into a
My Yahoo! page, but only so much
room to view it all without having to
scroll downward. But hey — you can
make more than one page with the
Add New Page link next to Hide Read
Items. For instance, you might create
separate My Yahoo! pages for work



f L m@wm



HfVMlMWlUfflHHWi™



and relaxation, with
news and the Package
Tracker on the first
and movie times and
TV listings on the
second. After you
create two or more
pages, the Edit menu
on each module will
have Move To (Your
Other) Page options.

The Refresh Rate
menu lets you tell My
Yahoo! how often to
update itself with
fresh content, as avail-
able. Note that the
default is Never, so
you'll see the same
headlines until you
revisit the page's URL
or bookmark or you
click your browser's
Refresh button. Odd-
ly, you won't see the
Refresh Rate menu
until you've created at
least one additional
page in My Yahoo!.

My Yahoo! Tricks

We've just begun to
scratch the surface of
what My Yahoo! can
offer. For example, the
TV listings let you choose among your
own cable provider's channels and
even figure out when a show will air
again through the Search feature.

Another trick is to import your
browser's Bookmarks or Favorites
into a content module, although this
can take up a lot of space. Follow your
browser's directions to export your
bookmarks to an HTML file. Next,
after logging in to My Yahoo!, surf
to bookmarks.yahoo.com. Click
Import Bookmarks and then the type
of browser closest to the one you
use. (Choose Netscape for Firefox,
Mozilla, and the like.) Browse to the
HTML file you made and click
Import Bookmarks. Next, go to My



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If all your page needs is a few puppies, try on a new My Yahoo!
theme behind the Change Colors link.



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Add New Page not only lets you make different My Yahoo! pages
for work and play but also set the Refresh Rate of each page.



Yahoo! and click Add Content. Type
bookmarks into the Find Content
field and then Add The Bookmarks
From Yahoo! Bookmarks module in
the list that appears. You can collapse
bookmark folders to save space by
clicking their triangle- shaped icons.

The more you explore My Yahoo!,
the more you find . . . and the better
your personal page becomes. And if
you've already been looking for decent
RSS reader software, consider this: You
don't have to install anything to use
My Yahoo!; it's free; and you can ac-
cess it from anywhere. That's some-
thing to holler "Yahoo!" about. S3

by Marty Sems



24 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!




Inside Yahoo!



- # . Safe Surfing

1 J Keeping Kids Safe Is All Relative With Yahoc



Yahoo! Family Accounts



Your kids may think they're all
grown up. However, even if
they're more tech-sawy than
the average adult, they aren't ready
to encounter everything that exists
online. Yahoo! Family Accounts pro-
vide a way for parents to protect
their children and stay involved in
their online adventures.

Family Accounts

Yahoo! prevents anyone under the
age of 13 from completing registra-
tion until an adult logs in, verifies the
child's information, and creates a
Family Account which links the
child's account to the adult's. The
adult must prove her age by providing
a credit card number. Yahoo! doesn't
place a charge on the card or main-
tain the number. It only uses the
number to verify with your financial
institution that you are at least 18
years old. Yahoo! accepts American
Express, Discover, MasterCard, and
Visa credit cards as well as debit cards
with either a MasterCard or Visa logo.

You can add additional children
to your Family Account by creat-
ing additional kids' accounts on
Yahoo! 's registration page. (See the ar-
ticle "Identify Yourself on page 20 for
details.) After you type all of the re-
quested information in the designated
fields, Yahoo! will once again prompt
for an adult to log in, verify the infor-
mation, and enter a credit or debit
card number. Yahoo! will then link the
second child to your Family Account.

Although you can add multiple
children to a Family Account, you
can only have one parent on a
Yahoo! Family Account. You will
simply need to decide which parent



is responsible for overseeing the
child's Internet usage. If you share
custody of your child, he may need
two Yahoo! accounts, one to use at
each parent's home.

Stop Right There

A Yahoo! Family Account won't
give you complete control over your
child's online activities, but it will re-
strict access to some areas of Yahoo!.
For example, a user younger than 13
years old cannot use Yahoo! Wallet,
participate in Yahoo! Auctions, or
create a Yahoo! public profile.

A Yahoo! Family Account also pro-
vides tools for restricting Yahoo!
usage. For example, you can create a
personalized Yahoo! Mail Block List to
prevent messages from certain indi-
viduals or with certain content from
arriving in your child's inbox. You can
also edit a child's Yahoo! Messenger
Friend List and Ignore List.

To edit the Mail Block List, sign
into Yahoo! as your child. Then go to
Yahoo! Mail. In the upper-right
corner of the screen, you should see
an Options link. Click it and then
click Block Addresses in the Spam
column. Type the email address you
want to block in the Enter Email
Address (Or Domain) To Block field
and click the Add Block button.

It is similarly easy to add addresses
to your child's Yahoo! Messenger
Friend List and Ignore List. Go to the
Edit Your Friend List (edit.yahoo.com
/config/set_buddylist?.src=pg) and
log in as your child. Type the Yahoo!
ID of someone you want to add to
your child's Friend List in the Yahoo!
ID field in the Add A Friend box.
Then click the Add Friend button.



For the best protection, you might
want to prevent anyone you haven't
approved from contacting your
child. To do this, after you launch
Messenger, click the Messenger
menu, Preferences, Ignore List, and
Ignore Anyone Who Is Not On My
Messenger List. Then click OK.

You'll find many links to helpful
resources on the main Family Ac-
counts page. For example, Yahoo!
provides information about whom to
contact if your child encounters in-
appropriate online content. You'll
also find privacy tips, consumer-
advocacy links, and lists of child-
safety software. This page also has
tips for choosing a safe Yahoo! ID for
a child and an online safety pledge
for your family members to sign.

In addition to Family Accounts,
your family may enjoy Yahooligans!
(yahooligans.yahoo.com), a directory
of kid-friendly Web sites that also
includes news articles written for
kids, daily jokes, kids' horoscopes,
and polls about topics important to
children. To learn more about
Yahooligans!, see the article "For The
Kids" on page 153.

Parenting Assistance

You can't rely on Yahoo! to police
your children because a child can lie
about his age (proof of age is only re-
quired if you create a Family Account),
and because he can access many things
online without a Yahoo! account. You
really need to be an involved parent,
and Yahoo! 's Family Account is one of
many tools that can help. S3

by Kylee Dickey



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 25



Inside Yahoo!



Yahoo! Broadens
utorlts Horizons

Yahoo! International




As you've no doubt noticed, the
U.S. version of Yahoo! is an
online force to be reckoned
with, but the search engine-turned-
portal- turned- media giant doesn't stop
at the U.S. border. The International
Yahoo! page (world.yahoo.com), ac-
cessible from a link in the lower- right
corner of the Yahoo! home page, pro-
vides a glimpse of Yahoo!'s truly global
scope. At press time, there were 31
Yahoo! sites designed for countries
outside the United States and non-
English speakers. Yahoo!'s interna-
tional focus currently includes North
and South America, the Asia-Pacific
region, and Europe.

Born in the USA. Because the
United States has such a linguistically
and culturally diverse populace,
Yahoo! has created three addition-
al U.S. sites for foreign language
speakers, including Chinese (chinese
.yahoo.com), Russian (ru. yahoo
.com), and Spanish (espanol. yahoo
.com). These sites provide some of the
same content featured on the English-
language version of the site, such as
Yahoo! Mail (for international users),
Finance, My Yahoo!, and links to U.S.
and world news.

However, not everything on Ya-
hoo!'s foreign language pages are
translated copies of the pages found on
the English-language version. For in-
stance, the Russian-language page fea-
tures news from bbcrussian.com. This
site prominently displays links to other
Yahoo! International pages and has
a specialized Search box with radio



buttons for searching the Internet, or
just within Russian Web pages.

Furthermore, some of the foreign-
language U.S. sites are much more
developed than others. The Russian-
language Yahoo! page is fairly sparse,
with little more than Russian-language
versions of Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo!
Messenger, and the Help pages. By
contrast, the Spanish version of
Yahoo! 's U.S. site is loaded with pic-
tures, links, and original content for
Spanish-speakers.

Americas

For our neighbors to the north,
Yahoo! offers two Canadian pages, an
English-language version, and an-
other in French. Like other Yahoo!
International pages, the Canada pages
feature radio buttons for searching
the Internet, or just within the specific
country and language. You'll find the
icons for Yahoo!'s Finance, Shopping,
Mail, and My Yahoo! pages at the top
of the page. The Canadian Yahoo!
pages also feature a Photos and Maps
icon. These pages, like most of the
Yahoo! International pages, put world
news front- and- center.

South-of-the-border users in Mex-
ico, Argentina, and Brazil all have Ya-
hoo! pages to call their own. Most of
the Yahoo! International sites display
region-specific news, but a few of
them also display currency informa-
tion, such as the strength of the local
currency against the U.S. dollar.

With regard to entertainment, the
Central and South American Yahoo!
sites feature more information about



musicians, entertainers, and sports
figures who hail from those regions.

Asia Pacific

Yahoo! is one of the most visited
Internet properties in the world, and
Asia, with its significant population,
accounts for no small chunk of that
traffic. Aside from the main Asia site,
there are four English-language sites
that cater to the Philippines, Thai-
land, Malaysia, and Indonesia. These
sites have localized directory services,
advanced Web search capabilities,
and links to world and regional news.
Other sites in the Asia-Pacific region
include Asia, Australia and New
Zealand, China, Hong Kong, India,
Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore,
and Taiwan.

Europe

Yahoo! 's European presence is key
to its overseas operations. As a result,
Yahoo! has a country- specific page for
each of the major markets, as well as a
few pages for smaller European coun-
tries. Users in the UK and Ireland,
France, Germany, Italy, and Spain all
enjoy a range of familiar Yahoo! ser-
vices and resources such as Yahoo!
Mail, Finance, and Music. The other
European Yahoo! sites for Catalan,
Denmark, Greece, Norway, and
Sweden have access to little more than
advanced Web search options.

Wherever You Yahoo!

Recently, Yahoo! moved to take
greater control of its stakes in Europe
and Asia, citing a desire to expand its
advertising revenues in those fledgling
markets. Currently, Yahoo!'s overseas
portals offer common elements and
roughly the same layout as the U.S.
versions. As the company continues
its focus on the international scene,
we expect to see "Yahoo!" translated
into even more languages. H

by Andrew Leibman



26 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Inform at ion



Browser's Digest

Find Your Way Through The Yahoo! Directory




Directory > Arts > Visual Arts > Painting > Artists > Masters > Va- Gccn, V nccrt ilSbJ-H-:""'' ■> Starry Night, The

LUUUII, UIIILUIILUJII




Jerry Yang and David Filo initially
created Yahoo! as a fast and easy
guide to the most useful and in-
teresting sites on the Web. However,
the best that the Web had to offer
circa 1994 was a pittance compared to
the mammoth information gold-
mine/trash heap that the Internet is
today. As a result, the Yahoo! Search
(www.yahoo.com) and Yahoo! Di-
rectory (dir.yahoo.com) have evolved
as two different methods of cataloging
the Internet.

The Yahoo! Help page describes the
Yahoo! Directory as "a subject-based
guide to Web sites and Web content."
When you use Yahoo! Search, you're
effectively scanning the entire Web,
which consists of billions of pages,
most of which won't pertain to your
immediate needs. For more informa-
tion on Yahoo! Search, see "Using
Yahoo! Search" on page 31. Alter-
nately, the Yahoo! Directory is a man-
made database of Web sites arranged
into much more intuitive categories



and subcategories. You'll find the
Yahoo! Directory useful when you're
unsure how to describe what you're
looking for or when you want more
information on a given subject.

Brick By Brick

The Yahoo! Directory differs from
the Yahoo! Search primarily in that it
is not an automatic index of the
whole Internet, but rather a user-
submitted list of Web sites reviewed
and approved of by a team of human
editors, called Yahoo! Surfers. Be-
sides sifting through numerous user-
submitted sites on a regular basis, the
Yahoo! Surfers frequently update the
Directory to weed out dead links and
outdated material. Although every site
in the Directory has been reviewed by
a real person, Yahoo! also employs a
few automated processes that help
with making sure the sites are fresh
and active. When you perform a
search using the Yahoo! Directory,



you won't get nearly as many hits as
you would if you used Yahoo! Search,
but the hits you do get are more likely
to be reliable and relevant.

Yahoo! 's Directory is the result of
the active participation from both
Yahoo! Surfers and users like you.
This is your chance to give back to
your fellow Internet wanderers. If you
stumble across a particularly useful,
informative, or entertaining Web site,
or if you've created a gem of your
own, then you can submit it to the
Yahoo! Directory to help it get the ex-
posure it deserves. We'll cover the
submission process a bit later, but
first let's go over the basic structure of
the Yahoo! Directory.

Getting Around

Although the Yahoo! Directory only
catalogs a minute fraction of the
whole Internet, giving the Web a
distinctly human touch is no small
task. The Yahoo! Directory home page
features 14 top-level categories and
thousands of subcategories. Other
items on the main page include a New
Additions category in the lower-left
corner and the On The Web, Yahoo!
Picks, New And Notable Sites, and
Ask Yahoo! sections. The top of the
page also features the Yahoo! Search
box with radio buttons for searching
the Web or just the Directory.

Clicking one of the main categories
from the Yahoo! Directory page
launches an alphabetical list of the
Top Categories and Additional Cat-
egories. Each subcategory name also
includes either the number of Web
pages contained within or the "@"
symbol, which means that the cate-
gory appears in more than one place



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 27



Information



on the Yahoo! Directory. In this way,
the Yahoo! Directory avoids dupli-
cating sites, even when a group of sites
may be appropriate for multiple cate-
gories. Other symbols you will en-
counter while browsing the Directory
include the sunglasses, Pick, and New
icons. The New icons denote recent
additions to the Directory. Yahoo!
Surfers attach the Pick icon to particu-
larly different, interesting, informative,
and entertaining sites. Yahoo! Surfers
award the sunglasses icons to noncom-
mercial sites that are particularly good
resources. Each and every noncom-
mercial site submitted is eligible to re-
ceive the sunglasses and Pick icons.

You can navigate through the cate-
gories and subcategories or use the
search feature to display a results
page. The sites listed on this page
appear in order of popularity and
relevance by default. Click the Alpha-
betical link to arrange them from A to
Z. Of the 14 main categories, the
Science and Computers And Internet
categories feature the most subcate-
gories. According to Yahoo!, the
number of subcategories and sites
within each category is typically a re-
flection of that topic's popularity both
within the Directory and on the Web
at large. Yahoo! also makes a con-
certed effort to populate the Directory
with sites that are innovative and even
relatively unknown.

There are two methods of submit-
ting a site for consideration: a fee-
based method for commercial Web
sites and the standard (free) method
for noncommercial sites.

The Legwork

The first step in submitting a site
for consideration is to make sure the
site you want to submit isn't already
included in the Yahoo! Directory. To
check the directory, visit www.yahoo
.com, click Directory from the cate-
gories listed above the search box, type
the URL into the search box, and then
click the Yahoo! Search button. If the
site you want to submit appears on the



Yahoo! Directory Tree



Subcategories



Categories



Subcategories



Arts and Humanities^-



News and Media



z i t:: snd Economy (25)



Recreation and Sports (21)



The 14 main categories in the Yahoo! Directory feature dozens of subcate-
gories, which in turn feature dozens more. In short, the Yahoo! Directory's
categories and subcat-
egories are far too nu-
merous to list here.
Instead, we've mapped
the main categories
(middle column) and
three or four of the
more popular subcate-
gories for each (left
and right columns).
The numbers in paren-
theses refer to the
number of subcate-
gories within the
named category. As
you can see, there are
thousands of cate-
gories, some of which
can contain several
thousands of pages.



: : -


History


(33.:


Literature (35)




B2B


0s)


Finance


(40)


:


(59)


Jobs


(8)




Software


(50;


Web


(40)


Blogs


[42)


Games


[29)




Colleges


(15)


K-12


(33)


I \ -. -:e Learning (14)




Movies


[45)


TV Shows


(46;


Music


[61)


Humor (SB)




Elections


0!


Military


!24;


Law-


(47)


Taxes


(10)




Diseases


(53;


Drugs


(10)


Fitness


(16;


Nutrition !18;



[40)



lis :spa|:si's


[11)


Radio


(24)


Weather


[12)




Sports


(152)


Travel


(50;


Autos


(57!


Outdoors


(65)




Phone Numi:
Dictionaries (9)


Quotes


(21)




Countries


(195)


Regions


(14)


U.S. States


[51)




Animals


(44;


Astronomy


(38)


Earth Scienc


e (21)




Languages


[10)


- .---:::.


(33.:


Psychology


us;




Sexuality


(33)


Religion


(55.:


Food & Drink


(33.:




"Y^HOOtSEARCH p
Yahoo! Directory



O the Web | the Directory



Arts & Humanities
Business & Economy
Computers & Internet
Education
Entertainment

i.':^-; . ^ . ~z- : ■: . \:.,uz . -,-•'-:• ...

Government

Elections . Milita".- . Ls__, Tsx^; ...

Health

Cis&ases . Ctuas . Fitness . Nutrition ...

News & Media



On the Web: Benjamin Franklin's Hoaxes

v : ■ ; ' .-... ; - ■ ■ ::-.•.::••■

lie ■/.asnt trusted to -..Tits the . Isst he sneak in a joke While a printers

apprentice at a newspaper, young F

----- ! Under another Franklin

produced "Poor Richards Almanack ..hicli gained attention by of a rr.al

:rrc-.ved from , ible that Franklii

the story yet another fiction i rnnti- I - -- - - - -

If he were still s * - ? ■ :uld turn 300 today, but peit : his death in 1790 was

another hoax If you see an old bald gentleman ith looking smug today check a .. ' and

see if he looks familiar.




Suggested Sites:

. The Hoaxes of i



■ din - pranks and satires
■ - --- -i ■- :~ ! - - - -



by Franklin.

e to determine whether Franklin really flew the famous



* ■ esse, or t ie : assumed tc e

Categories



Social Science




Society & Culture



New Additions



New Additions via RSS



.'ti-s Gallery

"What's happening here? E.ery illustration on this

! - id - - -----,- --» -|i " nrl ing in a technique

known as photomontage artist Tom Chambers combines
unrelated nna-|-: '• - ------ --- - rh.it is grim or




Yahoo!

■



Music IESM P my v*' ™t 1

Sports Q Mv v,m -.-.or.

TV .-; -1.J Qnv v.m ■""!.!



In honor of this unholy inventit
in todays Ask Yahoo!. We as
only.. .so don't bother complai






i '.■■/eve included a laugh track
ing (laughter).



The Yahoo! Directory lets you search using the categories on the left side of the
page or using the search box at the top.



28 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Information



"SXHOOl SEARCH



Search: ©the Web



Othe Directory | Othis category'



CATEGORIES



Maes (41)

Museums and Memorials i141l
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Oral History (38}
Organizations (68)



Top History Categories

. By Region (1421 9)new;

• By Subject H537) new!

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Additional History Categories

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• Genealogy (2282; new.

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• Historical Tours®.

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SITE LISTINGS By Popularity | Alphs

Sites 1-37 of 37



History Guide. The *w" - Intended; "'•'.■ - it- - - : : " . history. Includes

lectures in European history

HistoryWorld *V pick! ; ; - Interactive hist or,' of the world fie :o the present day.

History Channel, 7he@

TheHistoryNet - Features articles and resources on world and American history including eyewitness

accounts, interviews historic homes and military history.

HyperHistory Online Project -Visual chic ships worldwide. Famous persons historical



Photographic Collections®
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When you browse the Directory using the categories and subcategories, a results
page similar to this one appears.



results screen, then someone else beat
you to the punch.

If no results appear, then your next
task is to determine your site's cate-
gory. The categories you may select
from include Arts And Humanities,
Business And Economy, Computers
And Internet, Education, Entertain-
ment, Government, Health, News
And Media, Recreation And Sports,
Reference, Regional, Science, Social
Science, and Society And Culture.
Categorizing your site may involve a
little research on your part, but
Yahoo! has a list of helpful tips at
docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/appro
priate.html.

In addition to the top-level cate-
gory, Yahoo! requires that you desig-
nate the site's subcategory. For
instance, if you're submitting a site
that provides a step-by-step tutorial
on how to install crown molding, you
might determine that Reference is the
most likely category. From the list of
categories on the left side of the main



Yahoo! Directory page, click Reference
to see the current subcategories. As
you browse you notice that your site
fits in with the other sites in the How-
To Guides subcategory. It's important
that you determine the appropriate
top-level category and subcategory so
that Yahoo! can process your submis-
sion as quickly as possible.

The next step is to find out whether
the site you plan to submit is com-
mercial or noncommercial. Yahoo!
defines a commercial site as one that
"sells something, promotes goods and
services, or promotes a company that
sells goods and services." If it is a
commercial site, then it belongs in the
Business And Economy category.
Yahoo! also distinguishes regionally
specific sites, such as a local history
page, and personal sites, such as your
own Web page.

According to the Yahoo!'s Help
page, the Directory's aim is to reflect
of the kinds of information you'd
find on the Internet. As a result, the



Yahoo! Surfers don't automatically
decline submissions based on offen-
sive or inappropriate content.

How To Submit

The best way to suggest a site for
the Yahoo! Directory is to click the
category from the left side of the main
page and click the appropriate subcat-
egory for the site you'd like to submit.
Here you'll see a list of sites that fit
the category. If the content of your
site resembles that of the sites on the
subcategory page, then you're in the
right place. To initiate the submission
process, click Suggest A Site from the
upper-right corner of this page. The
next page gives you the option of sub-
mitting a site using the Yahoo!
Directory Submit or the Standard
Consideration. The Standard Consid-
eration lets you submit noncommer-
cial sites free of charge, and the
Yahoo! Directory Submit method lets
you submit commercial sites for a re-
curring annual fee of $299. The cost
to submit sites that include adult con-
tent or services is $600 annually.

Whether you're paying or not,
Yahoo! still reviews the site for suit-
ability and categorization before the
site appears in the Directory. Not all
submissions are accepted, and the fees
for commercial sites are nonrefund-
able. If your commercial site is ac-
cepted, however, you'll have access to
the Online Account Management
Center for upgrading your listings, sub-
mitting additional listings, and making
changes to existing listings. Paid sub-
missions are also guaranteed to be ap-
proved or denied within seven business
days. The Standard Consideration has
no time guarantees, and you will get no
notice if the site was declined.

If your site is accepted for inclusion
in the Yahoo! Directory, you'll receive
an email notification. You should be
able to find your site in the Yahoo!
Directory within 48 hours of the email.

Noncommercial site submission.
Click Standard Consideration to
continue with a noncommercial site



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 29



Information



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When you search the
Directory using the search
box, the results page looks
very similar to a
non-Directory search
performed on Yahoo!.



submission. The next page verifies
that your site isn't already in the
Yahoo! Directory. Type the URL into
the text box and then click Yahoo!
Directory Search. If no results come
back, click the Back button on your
browser and verify that you've read
and understand the TOS (Terms of
Service) by clicking Continue.

The following page asks for your
site's Title, URL, Geographic
Location (if needed), and a brief de-
scription of the site's contents. This
page also asks for a Contact Person
name and a Security Email ID, which
Yahoo! uses to communicate with
you. There's also a text box for any
additional comments that might help
Yahoo! categorize your site. Click
Submit to finish.

Commercial site submission. You
can access the Yahoo! Directory Sub-
mit form, designed for commercial
sites, from the upper-right corner of
the main Yahoo! Directory page or, if
you're already browsing through the
Directory's subcategories, by clicking
Yahoo! Directory Submit button from
the left side of the Suggest A Site page.
If you're a current Yahoo! member,
you'll be asked to sign in using your
member ID and password. If you're
not a member, then click the Sign Up
link to create an account.



The first part of the Yahoo! Direct-
ory Submit form is designed to verify
that you understand the key parts of
the TOS and that your site meets the
submission requirements. All sites
must support multiple Web browsers;
feature content in English or offer an
English language version; remain
available 24 hours a day, seven days a
week; contain only working links; and
not be currently under construction.
This page also verifies that you under-
stand that there is no guarantee that
the submission will appear in the
Yahoo! Directory, that Yahoo! re-
serves the right to change your sug-
gested category as well as move or
remove your listing at any time, and
that you agree to be charged the re-
curring annual fee once your site is
approved. Click Continue to move to
the next part of the Yahoo! Directory
Submit form.

The Site And Contact Information
page asks for your site's Title, URL,
Geographic Location, and content de-
scription, and your contact informa-
tion. Click Submit to continue. The
next page asks for your credit card in-
formation and billing address. If you
were attempting to submit a noncom-
mercial site or don't want to get sad-
dled with a fee, then now's your
chance to back out. If you're willing to



pay the fees, then click Submit. Yahoo!
will charge your credit card as soon as
you click the submit button.

Directory Assistance

The Yahoo! Directory is a boon for
both commercial and noncommercial
Web sites looking to make a splash
online. Whether you're frustrated
with your site's lack of traffic or just
fed up with conventional Internet
searching, the Yahoo! Directory is
your logical and reliable guide to the
best that the Web has to offer. S3

by Andrew Leibman

The Yahoo! Directory
Slotting Process

The Yahoo! Directory has grown
over time, but the 14 top-level
categories haven't changed much.
According to Aaron Ferstman, a
Yahoo! spokesperson, the
Directory's main categories closely
resemble those originally established
by Yahoofs founders, Jerry Yang and
David Filo. Yahoo! frequently re-
views the existing subcategories to
make sure they are representative of
the kinds of information found on
the Web. Yahoo! also regularly re-
freshes the Directory's subcategories
in an effort to make them more rele-
vant and useful.

If you want to suggest a new cate-
gory, then type your recommenda-
tion in the provided space when you
fill out the site-submission form. To
suggest a new category without sub-
mitting a site, email your suggestion
to url-support@yahoo-inc.com.

If Yahoo! posts your submission,
but you feel it has been miscatego-
rized, then visit add.yahoo.com/fast
/change, click the Change Your
Existing Category checkbox, and
then click Proceed. This page also
lets you edit the URL, email, site
description, and title of your listing
in the Yahoo! Directory. I



30 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Information



Using Yahoo!
Search

Find Yawho, Yawhat Yawhere



Google may get all the head-
lines, but there's another big
player among search engines
in the United States. With more than
20 billion Web documents, images, and
multimedia files in its index, Yahoo!
Search (search.yahoo.com) can supply
you with tons of relevant results.

Yahoo! 's proprietary search algo-
rithm is top secret, like its rivals'.
However, like Google's PageRank
technology, Yahoo! Search's results
ranking formula takes into account
the number of Web sites that contain
hyperlinks to a particular page.

The similarities to the market
leader are even more apparent on the
surface. If you get the feeling that
Yahoo! Search kind of resembles
Google's home page, we will excuse
you. Both Yahoo! and MSN (search
.msn.com) have made their search in-
terfaces clean and Google-like, right
down to a search field centered on a
mostly white background. The linked
features found right above Yahoo !'s
field are similar to Google's and




MSN's lineups, including image,
news, and price comparison searches.
Of course, all of the search engines
eye each other's offerings, and they all
seem to hurriedly copy anything that
might one day be successful.

Even a glimpse at Yahoo! Search's
top terms in 2005, located at tools
.search.yahoo.com/top2005, is very
similar to Google's Zeitgeist. It will
tell you what people are searching for
on Yahoo!; now we'll tell you how to
do your own searches with this inter-
esting tool.

Search Types

Video clips, blog entries, product
prices, podcasts. Yahoo! can search
for many different things, but you'll
need to click one of the links above its
search field before you type your key-
word^) in order to find content other
than regular Web pages and PDFs.

To illustrate the types of searches at
your command, we will look for
the same term, Smart Computing,
with each one. All of our
searches were at Yahoo!'s
default settings, so Safe-
Search content filtering was
enabled and occasionally
reduced the number of re-
sults we got. Note that after
you perform one type of
search, you can run the
same keywords through an-
other type of search by
clicking the Images, Video,
or other links on one of the
results pages.



Web. This is the main type of
search at search.yahoo.com, and it's
what you get by default when you type
a search word or phrase into the field
and press ENTER or click Search The
Web. A Web query searches Yahoo!'s
index for pages containing words
matching (or very similar to) the ones
you typed. Yahoo! uses automatic
"crawler" software called Yahoo! Slurp
to surf the Web and then index the
text and certain files it finds.

Along with search results, Yahoo!
Search often suggests alternative
search terms that may be spelled a
little differently and may lead to more
information. Sponsored ads geared to
your keywords surround the "real"
results along the top, bottom, and
right side. Webmasters can add a
Yahoo! Search box to their sites
by following the instructions at
search.yahoo.com/info/ysearchbox_in
troduction.html.

By default, Yahoo! Search offers 10
results per page. For more results,
scroll to the bottom of the page. Click
a number for the second, third, or
later pages. (Results are ranked by
what Yahoo! 's proprietary algorithms
considers relevance to most users.)
The Next link and right red arrow
icon take you to the following page of
results, and the Prev link and left red
arrow take you back a page.

Click the Cached link next to a re-
sult, and you'll see the page as it was
captured by Yahoo! Slurp, even if
the page is no longer "live" on the
Web at the moment. More From
This Site may show you additional
pages with your search terms from
the same site, which Yahoo! initially
excluded from the results to save
space. The Save link lets you book-
mark a page using Yahoo! 's My Web
feature, described in the Other Links
section later in this article. Finally,
Block also uses My Web to keep you
from getting a particular result in fu-
ture searches.

If you want to limit the results you
get, such as to solely those from .edu
domains using the Icelandic language,



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 31



Information



Yahoo! Directory vs. Yahoo! Search

As on eBay, you can search for something through Yahooi's Directory
categories or Yahoo! Search. By "Search/' we mean the Web search field at
search.yahoo.com and not a search limited to results from the Directory. I



Directory


Search


Pros


Cons


Pros


Cons


A real person has
decided to include
each site


Can take a long time
to find data stored deep
in forum posts, PDFs, etc.


Unlimited results; you
may find good
information in
unlikely places


Unvetted results; result
quality and relevance
can vary wildly


Other categories may
pique your interest


All those decisions about
which categories to click


Sites added and updated
regularly and automatically


Webmasters can use
devious tricks to boost
their rankings


Relevant results


It may take a while before
new sites are added


Immediate results


Sheer number of results
can be overwhelming



click the Advanced Search link. At
search.yahoo.com/web/advanced, you
can exclude results that haven't been
recently updated, limit results to
PowerPoint PPTs or other file types,
and so on. Note that your Advanced
Search settings will only apply to your
current search. To set more perma-
nent parameters, use search. yahoo,
com/preferences.

Our search for Smart Computing
took just 0.17 seconds and gave us
about 18.6 million results. The top
two links of our search came from
SmartComputing.com, but the rest
included computer resellers from
Malaysia and the Netherlands, and
even some competing publishers'
Web pages. All 13 ads on the page —
which outnumbered the 10 "real" re-
sults, by the way — linked to magazine
subscription clearing houses.

Curious, we enclosed our search
term in quotation marks and tried
again. This has the effect of only re-
porting Web pages that have the word
Smart right before the word Com-
puting, rather than any page that has
both words anywhere in the text, sepa-
rately or together. "Smart Com-
puting" turned up far fewer results,



about 393,000, but Yahooi's top 10
search results changed only slightly.

Images. More fun than a Web search
is an image hunt (images. search.
yahoo.com). For instance, when your
grandkids talk about some celebrity
you've never heard of, a quick Image
Search for Hilary Duff can put a face to
that name for you.

Continuing our tests, we typed
Smart Computing into the field and
clicked Search Images. In 0.21 seconds,
we had 5,144 photos and graphics,
with 20 to a page. There were no ads
on the Images results pages. The
photos were mainly small thumbnails
of magazine covers from past issues.
Oddly, the first result actually found
on SmartComputing.com was 26th in
Yahooi's list.

You can tell Yahoo! to filter the re-
sults with the Show links at the upper
right. For example, to display only
images of a certain size, you can click
Large, Medium, Small, or Wallpaper
(show only large photos with typical
monitor aspect ratios, such as those of
about 640 x 480 pixels or larger).
Likewise, you can click Color or Black
& White to further narrow your list.
We noticed that the Black & White



criterion does let through color
photos of items that are actually grey,
white, black, or beige.

Video. You can bookmark video
.search.yahoo.com if you plan to do a
lot of hunting for clips online. We
didn't really know what to expect
when we looked for video clips with
our search term, Smart Computing.

As expected, none of our 23 results
had anything official to do with our
magazine. After all, we don't produce
a TV show, even a streaming one.
Most of the results looked like univer-
sity student technology demonstra-
tions of videoconferencing, virtual
dog interaction, and other geeky stuff.
Yahoo! found clips for us in MPG,
AVI, RM, ASX, and MOV formats.

Clicking the thumbnail of a video
takes you to a framed page including
the Web page hosting the file. In the
top frame, you can click Play Video or
Mail To Friend. The latter assumes you
have a Yahoo! email account, however.

Audio. Looking for the Smothers
Brothers' "Johnny Appleseed" skit?
A sound effect of rain on a tin roof?
A sample of Nat King Cole's "Un-
forgettable"? Start your quest for audio
clips at audio.search.yahoo.com.



32 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Information



The Preferences link to the right of
the search blank lets you tell Yahoo!
whether there's a particular audio
download service, such as iTunes or
Rhapsody, that you'd prefer to pa-
tronize. Near the bottom of the page
are links that let you give Yahoo!
feedback on the Audio feature or ex-
plore the Audio Search board and
other Yahoo! forums. There's more
information at audio. search. yahoo,
com/audio/learnmore about the types
of clips you might find.

The main results categories include
Music, Podcasts, and Other Audio.
You can filter the listings to report
only songs, artists, or albums. Click
More Options if you only want results
in a particular format, such as MP 3 or
WMA; short or long clips; clips from
audio services only or the entire Web;
and/or tracks from all types of
records, including EPs and imports,
or only major releases.

Smart Computing doesn't produce
podcasts (yet), and our "Sandhills
Publishing Greatest Hits" album has



yet to materialize. Still, our audio
search for Smart Computing netted
13 results in the Music category and
21 results when we clicked the
Podcasts filter link. Each entry listed
the number of sites offering the file
for download, plus a link to a page
listing those download locations.

We clicked one of the Music re-
sults. On the following page, we
found options to save the page using
Yahoo!'s My Web feature and another
Yahoo! Mail-specific Mail To Friend
link. Each Download Location entry
listed its audio clip's format (such as
Real Audio), length (in minutes and
seconds), size (in KB or MB), and
quality (in a bar chart). To the right
of each was a link to the Web page
hosting the audio file. This is also the
same type of page you'll see when you
filter the initial audio search results
with the Other Audio link.

The Podcasts filter gives you search
results with different options. The
links to these results are more imme-
diate and launch dialog windows to



let you open or save the files. To the
right of most results are icons that let
you add related XML or My Yahoo!
feeds to your RSS (Really Simple
Syndication) reader.

Directory. Once upon a time,
Yahoo! was more famous for its
Directory than it was for any other
type of search mechanism. Users can
click categories and subcategories to
home in on Web pages of interest. If
you're familiar with eBay's cornu-
copia of categories, you'll feel com-
fortable with Yahoo !'s Directory.

The "Please Direct Your Attention
To . . ." sidebar in this article explores
the practical differences between the
Directory and Yahoo! Web Search.
For even more information, flip to
the previous article in this issue.

Local. Click the Local link at
search.yahoo.com, and you'll be set to
find businesses and services near
a particular geographic location.
Yahoo! Local is set up to work like the
Yellow Pages, meaning you can search
for phrases such as dog grooming or



Please Direct Your Attention To . . .

Before keyword search became the most prominent way
people search the Internet, Yahoo! built the premiere
category-based search tool: its Directory. (Refer to the pre-
vious article for more details.) You can locate Web pages by
clicking categories along the left side of the screen at
dir.yahoo.com rather than trying to come up with the right
keywords to find what you're looking for. Result links lead to
subcategories, site listings, and sponsored results.

There's also a hybrid approach you can take. You can query
Yahoofs Directory from a search field at search.yahoo.com/dir,
in case you prefer the keyword search method but want to
limit your results to the sites vetted by Yahoo!.

Yahoofs staff has spent years adding sites of interest and
new categories, making the Directory a formidable resource.
To contrast the Directory against the upstart Search field, we
experimented with a couple of search terms.

First, we looked up Smart Computing Reference Series
without quotation marks in Yahoofs search field. The search
immediately located 1.2 million results. Of the first 10 results,
three (the first, third, and sixth) linked to Web pages affiliated
with Smart Computing and its sister publications. Clicking the
Directory link to search for the same term didn't give us any
results. However, we did reach the right site in three clicks




from Yahoofs Directory page. We clicked Computers &
Internet, Magazines, and then the Smart Computing link in
the Site Listings.

Next, we searched for redX, which describes a problem
that plagues a number of our readers when their browser or
email clients are set to not display image files. There was only
one result (the sixth) about the error icon in Yahoo! Search's
top 10, although there were 152 million results overall. We
clicked Directory and found the results dramatically slashed
down to a mere eight, none of which were relevant.

Moving on to dir.yahoo.com, we clicked Computers &
Internet and then Technical Guides and Support. There were
61 results starting on this page, and most of them seemed to
lead to forums and free, computer-related sites. A few of
these offered information about the red X icon. One of the
three Categories at the top of the page, Technical Support
Services, sounded relevant, although it seemed to lead mostly
to paid support sources.

Yahoo! Search will probably be your better bet when you
know exactly what information you're looking for. However,
the Directory can help you find many related sites for more
general topics. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 33



Information



Indian restaurants. Establishments
are encouraged to submit their con-
tact and location details to Yahoo! at
listings.local.yahoo.com, so they can
be included in the index.

Your results will usually be accom-
panied by a map, which you can
enlarge by moving your mouse
pointer over it. Each result will be
represented on the map with a little
numbered flag. Click the Printable
Version link on the right side of the
page for a printer- friendly hard copy
of the enlarged map, plus the names,
addresses, and phone numbers of the
businesses in the results list.

You can sort your results by their
distance from your location, as well as
alphabetically and by user rating.
Some will have user reviews at-
tached to them. Like the reviews on
Amazon.com, a few of these can really
help you decide where to spend your
money. For some of our searches,
Yahoo! added user recommendations
and regular Web search results below
the Yahoo! Local entries.

Only two of the 10 results for
Smart Computing on Yahoo! Local
pointed to our editorial Web sites,
and we didn't get a map. Amusingly,
the top result was the biography page
of a state senator and former Smart
Computing writer. (A search for our
company's formal name, Sandhills
Publishing, gave us a map and decent
contact information.)

News. The current headlines and
the In The News link on the Yahoo!
Search page take you to Yahoo! News
(news.yahoo.com). There are also a
couple of stock index quotes of the
Dow Jones Industrial Average and the
NASDAQ, plus a Markets link that
leads to fmance.yahoo.com.

You can also click the News link
above the search field to look for a
particular topic on most online news
sources and many blogs. The URL in
this case is news.search.yahoo.com.
See "Ripped From Today's Headlines"
on page 47 for more details.

Yahoo! News Search found 327 re-
sults for Smart Computing, although



we didn't see many that were actually
related to our magazine. But really,
when it comes to looking for your
name in international media, no news
is good news.

Shopping. The Shopping link takes
you to search.yahoo.com/products, a
page which lets you search Yahoo!
Shopping (shopping.yahoo.com). Like
Google's Froogle, Yahoo! Shopping
can help you compare product prices
and find reviews, so you can not only
decide what to buy, but also order it at
a fair price.

Depending on a product's probable
category, you'll see various filters on
the left to help you narrow your
results, such as to certain price ranges.
We also found links to Yahoo!
Directory categories.

Most of the 1,158 results for the
phrase Smart Computing involved
magazine clearing houses. We clicked
the checkboxes next to a couple of re-
sults and then selected the self-ex-
planatory Compare Side By Side link.
Here, Yahoo! gave us even more infor-
mation from each magazine retailer,
including their discount subscription
prices and lengths. And
what super deals we
found (hint, hint).

Other links. There
are a few other inter-
esting clickables on
Yahoo! Search's home
page. At search.yahoo
.com, click More. Here
you will find links to
Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo!
Desktop Search, and
many other features
described elsewhere in
this issue. Search-spe-
cific links include
People Search, Mobile
Search, Job Search, and
Travel Search (also
known as FareChase).

The My Web link
offers a signup page
for the My Web 2.0
feature, still in beta at
this writing (myweb2



.search.yahoo.com). My Web lets you
"save" Web pages that interest you, so
you can easily find them again and
even share and discuss them with other
users. Another link at the top of the
page heads to Yahoo! Answers (an
swers.yahoo.com), a neat forum in
which you can ask or answer any
question you like within the Com-
munity guidelines (answers.yahoo.com
/info/community_guidelines.php) .

The Search Is Over

Many of us use a particular search
engine every day, but it doesn't occur
to us to try another one when we
don't get the results we're looking for.
And we may notice our pet search
site's Images, Shopping, and other
special links, but never give them a
try. Either excuse is good enough to
check out Yahoo! Search and its
variety of features. You might be de-
lighted by what you find. S3

by Marty Sems



Search Engine Popularity

£ earchenginewatch.com gathered some snapshots
*J of the state of search engines in July 2005.
Although the research firms differed in their
methods and definitions of popularity, it's clear that
Yahoo! Search is very popular in the field among
English-speaking Web users. (Sources: comScore
Media Metrix, Nielsen//NetRatings, Hitwise,
Searchenginewatch.com.) 1




comScore
Media Metrix*


Nielsen//
NetRatings**


Hitwise**


Google


36.5%


46.2%


43.4%***


Yahoo!


30.5%


22.5%


19.7%***


MSN


15.5%


12.6%


15.4%


AOL


9.9%


5.4%


1%


Others


7.6%


13.3%


20.5%


* Survey of English speakers

** Survey of U.S. users

*** Including image searches





34 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Information




My Web 2.0



It doesn't matter how tidy you
keep your list of bookmarks,
eventually you reach a sort of crit-
ical mass at which point certain Web
sites become lost. And then there's the
issue of sharing. Bookmarks on one
PC aren't available on another. Sure
you can synchronize your bookmarks
between multiple PCs, but getting the
necessary software installed and con-
figured isn't always easy.

These days, savvy Web users store
bookmarks online. My Web 2.0 lets
Yahoo! users save and "tag" their fa-
vorite Web sites. Think of a tag as a
keyword used to describe the site. For
instance, you might apply the tags
computers, technology, and trou-
bleshooting to the Smart Computing
home page (www.smartcomputing
.com). Later, you can use tags or My



The Web Your Way



Web's search features to find your
saved link to Smart Computing.

But My Web 2.0 goes beyond mere
tagging by letting you share your
saved pages and tags with others.
This creates an entirely new way to
search for content. By creating a
community of friends and sharing
your pages with one another, you
can limit your search to pages shared
within your community.

Activating My Web 2.0

If you don't have a Yahoo! ID, visit
www.yahoo.com and click Sign Up.
Provide the requested information
and be sure to note your Yahoo! ID
and password.

To begin using My Web 2.0, sign in
to Yahoo! and visit myweb2. search




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Depending on the site you're saving, My Web may suggest certain tags to associate with
the site. My Web may also suggest tags as you type. Check Store A Copy Of This Page to
save a current copy of the page on My Web's servers.



.yahoo.com. Click Sign Up Now to
begin using My Web 2.0. When you
sign up, you'll have the opportunity to
import Internet Explorer and Yahoo!
Bookmarks. When importing book-
marks, you'll have the option to create
tags based on folder names (on our
test, this resulted in all imported
bookmarks getting the "imported
bookmarks" tag, which wasn't very
helpful), and you can choose to install
the Yahoo! Toolbar. If you already use
the toolbar but don't see a My Web
icon, consider upgrading at this time.

Tag, You're It

Saving and tagging pages is as
simple as saving a bookmark in your
browser. Yahoo! recommends using
its Yahoo! Toolbar, but in our opin-
ion the My Web bookmarklet is every
bit as easy to use. A bookmarklet is
similar to a bookmark, but it usually
appears in your browser's Links or
Bookmarks toolbar.

If you haven't already installed the
toolbar, you can do so by clicking
Tools in the upper-right corner and
clicking the Yahoo! Toolbar link near
the top. Click the Free Download
button and follow the instructions to
install the toolbar. If you prefer to use
the bookmarklet, follow the direc-
tions under Save Pages With The My
Web 2.0 Bookmarklet.

To save a page you're currently vis-
iting, click the Save To My Web
bookmarklet or click the My Web
icon in the Yahoo! Toolbar and select
Save To My Web. Both options open
a Save To My Web pop- up window.
Enter one or more tags in the Tags
field using a comma to separate mul-
tiple tags. Yahoo! may occasionally



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 35



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Once saved, you can access your saved pages from any location. Click the Edit
button to edit the tags, notes, or access options for any particular entry.



suggest tags for a site. Click a tag to
add it to the tag field. Yahoo! may
also make additional suggestions as
you type. Use the arrow keys to high-
light a suggestion (if more than one
suggestion is available) and press
TAB. Include any notes regarding the
site in the Notes field and select who
you want to share this entry with (if
anyone). Check Store A Copy Of This
Page to save an exact copy of the page
as it currently appears (helpful if a
constantly updated Web site contains
information you want to keep track
of). Click Save when finished.

If you use Yahoo! as your search
engine, you'll also notice a Save link
appears under each item. You can use
this link to save results to My Web.

Friends

Sharing your saved Web pages
with friends and family is a key com-
ponent of My Web 2.0. By inviting
friends to join you on My Web, you
can create a like-minded pool of
community resources.

To invite a friend to join you, click
the Invite Contacts link in the upper-
right corner of any My Web 2.0 page.
You can invite contacts from Yahoo!
Messenger, you're online Yahoo!



Address Book, or Microsoft Outlook
address book by clicking the proper
icon. You can also enter an email ad-
dress directly into the To field.

Once your friends accept your invi-
tation, you'll be able to view links
they've shared under your My Con-
tacts' Pages (and, likewise, your
friends will be able to view saved pages
you've opted to share). To share a
saved page, click More under My
Saved Pages or click the Pages tab if
available and select My Pages on the
left side of the page. Click the Edit link
next to the item you want to change
and select either My Community or
Everyone under Access.

You can also view pages other users
have opted to share with all My Web
users. At the bottom of your My Web
2.0 home page, you'll view a list of re-
cently added Web pages. Click More
to see additional links.

Sharing pages with other My Web
users creates an entirely new way to
search the Web. You can search for
pages saved by you and your friends by
entering a string in the Search field and
clicking the My Web (Beta) button.

My Web searches are more focused
than regular Yahoo! searches. A stan-
dard search for "digital cameras" re-
turned about 165 million results



when we tried it. In My Web the
number of results depends entirely on
how many digital camera pages you
and your friends have saved, which is
likely much less than 165 million.
Because any results come from people
you presumably trust, you may find
My Web results more compelling.

Follow The Tag

Tags are another important way to
locate previously saved pages or browse
for new information. You'll see the
number of tags you've used on your
My Web 2.0 home page next to My
Saved Pages. Clicking this link displays
each tag used. The larger and bolder
the typeface, the more times you've
used that tag. To view Web pages that
contain a specific tag, click the tag. On
the left side of the page, you may see re-
lated tags. These are tags that are some-
times used with the selected tag.
Clicking a related tag narrows your
search to sites that include the first tag
and the selected related tag.

For example, if you're searching for
vacation information, you might tag a
page about Tuscany villas with "vaca-
tion, Tuscany, villas." We might use
"vacation, Caribbean, resorts" to tag
another page on luxury Caribbean re-
sorts. If we click the vacation tag,
both pages appear. On the left side of
the page, you'll see Tuscany, villas,
Caribbean, and resorts listed under
related tags. Clicking Tuscany or villas
will display only the first page, while
clicking Caribbean or resorts will list
only the second.

Your Web

After trying out My Web, you may
find yourself using your browser's
bookmark features less and less.
There are simply too many advan-
tages to keeping track of your favorite
sites online and, better yet, saving and
tagging a page is just as easy as book-
marking a page. H

by Chad Denton



36 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Information



The Doctor's In



Resources At Yahoo! Health
Keep You Healthy & Informed




Many of us have at least one
health condition. Regar-
dless of whether that con-
dition is near-sightedness, diabetes,
migraines, or something else entirely,
the Internet is a great source of infor-
mation about your health. Yahoo!
has a collection of health resources
called Yahoo! Health (health. ya
hoo.com) that can help you research
symptoms and treatments, learn
about prescription drugs, and even
meet others who share an interest in
specific health conditions or topics.

Timely Topics

Yahoo! Health has several main
categories of resources, including
Healthy Living, Diseases 8c Con-
ditions, Health News, Groups 8c
Boards, and a Drug Guide. You'll find
tabs for each of these areas at the top
of the Yahoo! Health page. This area



on Yahoo! also provides you with a
Medical Encyclopedia; medical arti-
cles (listed under Our Centers);
Expert Advice 8c Tips; Pregnancy 8c
Baby Advice; a Diet Tracker; daily
recipes; links to health- related Yahoo!
Groups; Today's Health News; a
health poll; and Interactive Tools,
such as a Baby Name Finder and a
Depression Risk Assessment quiz.

We'll start by touring each of the
categories you'll find on the tabs at
the top of the page. In these sections
of Yahoo! Health, you'll be able to
find resources related to specific areas
of interest.

Healthy Living. The Healthy Living
section is an area where you can find
interesting articles and useful re-
sources, even if you are in perfect
health. This is because the Healthy
Living area has tips for helping you
improve your diet, get more fit, im-
prove your love life, and even better



understand your own personality. At
the top of the Healthy Living page,
you'll find the Most Popular Topics.
For example, when we visited the
Healthy Living page, the Most Popular
Topics included Pregnancy And Baby
(with resources such as the Fertility
Calculator and Due Date Checker),
Weight Loss 8c Fitness (with a number
of fitness and diet blogs, tools such as
the Calories Burned calculator, and a
variety of recipes), and Relationships
8c Sexual Health (with blogs and an
encyclopedia of related terms).

The Healthy Living page also has a
variety of Healthy Living Topics. One
of the tools most people can use is the
Recipes area; you can either use the
Search Recipe field to find a recipe or
browse for recipes by clicking the
Browse link. You can browse by
Course, type of Cuisine, included
Ingredient, or Special Diet. The
Course area includes not only recipes
for Breakfast And Brunch, Dinner,
Lunch, and Dessert but also for a
Side Dish, Kid Friendly foods, and
Healthy Timesavers. You browse by
Ingredient to find ways to use food
you have leftover in the fridge.

The Healthy Living page features
four blogs. Under Nutrition 8c Weight
Loss, you'll find a blog by Cheryl
Koch, R.D., who oversees nutrition at
John Hopkins Weight Management
Center. Her blog entries include topics
such as Stress Eating, Navigating Your
Workplace Cafeteria, and Cooking
For A Healthier Heart. Other blogs in-
clude a Sex 8c Relationships blog by
advice columnist Deb Levine, a Sexual
Health blog by Dr. Len DeRogatis of
the John Hopkins Center for Sexual
Health and Medicine, and a Yoga blog
with yoga practitioner Rodney Yee.

The right side of the Healthy
Living page has links to Interactive
Tools. Beneath that, there are links
to subpages called Healthy Living
Centers. As of press time, these
Healthy Living Centers included
Caregiving, Fitness, Men's Health,
Nutrition And Food, Oral Care,
Parenting, Personality, Pregnancy,



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 37



Information



Five Hot Areas In Health

Although you'll find several areas of Yahoo! Health full of
useful information, there are a few areas that are partic-
ularly hot right now.

Pregnancy Center. One of the most complete areas of
Yahoo! Health is the Pregnancy Center. Here, you'll find arti-
cles about pregnancy and babies organized into the fol-
lowing categories: Planning For A Baby, Being Pregnant, Post
Delivery, and a Baby Gear Guide. Yahoo! has also assembled a
collection of Related resources, which includes a Parenting
Center with tips for raising children, information about
Gestational Diabetes, articles about High Blood Pressure, tips
to Baby-Proof Your Finances, a New Baby Financial Checklist,
and the tools to Create A Photo Album with Yahoo! Photos
or Create A Web Site with Yahoo! GeoCities. For more infor-
mation about Yahoo! Photos, see "Yahoo! Groups" on page
100. (Groups is one of the Yahoo! areas that lets members
post photos in albums.) For more information about cre-
ating a GeoCities Web site, see "DIY Web Design" on page 98.

Sleep Disorders Center. This Diseases & Conditions Center
might not draw a lot of attention to itself because of its name.
However, even if you don't have a sleep disorder, you can
benefit from the information available in Yahoofs Sleep
Disorders Center. Today, few of us get as much sleep as we
need during the week. Sleep can start to feel like a luxury in-
stead of a necessity. Yahoo! provides a lot of useful informa-
tion about sleep, including why we sleep, how much sleep we
need, how circadian rhythms work, and how scientific studies
link certain illnesses to sleep deprivation. Under What You
Can Do, Yahoo! Health gives you tips for more restful sleep.



Fitness Center. Yahoofs Fitness Center, located in the
Healthy Living section, is a great place to learn about ways to
stay fit and healthy. Perhaps you've still kept your New Year's
resolution to eat better and exercise more, or maybe you are
trying shape up so you can wear your new swimsuit this
summer. Either way, there are many tips and resources in the
Fitness Center. Yahoo! includes an Activity Database to help
you find healthy activities, such as bicycling, strength
training, and yoga. The Fitness Center also includes ideas for
tracking your progress and staying motivated.

Allergy Center. If you are one of the lucky people who
doesn't suffer from allergies, you can skip this paragraph.
However, many of us can relate to the woes of allergy season.
In Yahoo! Health's Allergy Center, you'll learn how to tell the
difference between allergies and a cold, get tips for reducing
allergy-induced misery, find current pollen maps, and read
about various allergy medications.

Work/Life Health Center. Most of us work, and most of us
know the impact that job stress can have on our mood and on
our health. In the Stress On The Job section of the Work/Life
Health Center, you'll learn how to recognize burnout and
learn ways to avoid it. If you feel that you really need a vaca-
tion, you'll find plenty of validation. Articles in the Work/Life
Health Center explain the mental and physical benefits to
taking a break from the office. You will also find links to
Psychology Today Self Tests to see how much you procrasti-
nate, how well you cope, or how burned out you are. You can
also find articles in the Work/Life Health Center that will help
you communicate better with your boss and coworkers. I



Relationships, Sexual Health, Skin &
Beauty, Smoking Cessation, Stress,
Weight Loss, and Women's Health.
Each of these Health Centers contains
related articles. For example, in the
Stress Health Center, you can read
about the differences between how
men and women handle stress. You
can also read articles about this
Health Center's main subtopics
(Stress & Health, Stress On The Job,
and Stress Relief).

The bottom of each Health
Center page also includes a collec-
tion of the most recent news head-
lines about the topic. You can click
the +My Y! button to add the news
headlines to your My Yahoo! mod-
ules. For more information about
My Yahoo!, see "My Yahoo!" on
page 22 in this issue.



Diseases & Conditions. The Diseases
& Conditions area of Yahoo! Health is
very similar to the Healthy Living area.
You'll also find important topics at the
top of the page, followed by a tool
to search the Encyclopedia, links to
blogs (Asthma & Allergies, Breast
Cancer, Cholesterol & Heart Disease,
Depression & Anxiety, and Diabetes),
and links to Diseases & Conditions
Centers, such as Addiction, Back Pain,
and Chemotherapy.

The Diseases & Conditions page in-
cludes another section, however, which
the Healthy Living page lacks. Under
Check Your Symptoms, you'll find
links to information about a variety of
symptoms you might experience. For
example, if you are experiencing
frequent dizziness, you can click
the Dizziness: Lightheadedness And



Vertigo link to learn more about the
conditions which may cause dizziness.
Follow the instructions on the page to
assess your own condition and find out
if or how soon you should seek a doc-
tor's advice. You may also find some
tips for managing your symptoms on
your own.

Health News. The next tab at the
top of the Yahoo! Health page is
Health News. Here, you'll find links to
many current news articles about
nutrition, fitness, diseases, disorders,
medical research, trends in health
care, and prescription and over-the-
counter drugs. You can browse the
headlines on this page, or you can use
the search field under All Health News
to search for news stories about a spe-
cific topic. You can also click the
names of one of the news providers



38 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Information



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Yahoo! Health is just one of many areas of Yahoo! that provides useful information to
Yahoo! members and visitors. This particular area focuses on medical and wellness issues.



(ACS News Center, Associated Press,
Healthday, KidsHealth.org, and
Reuters) to read the current health-re-
lated headlines from that news source.

You can also add feeds about spe-
cific health topics to an RSS (Really
Simple Syndication) reader (software
that collects and displays news head-
lines from a variety of sources in RSS
format). If you don't have an RSS
reader, you can also add these health
headlines to your My Yahoo! page. A
list of some of the most popular news
feeds appears under Top Health News
RSS. These feeds include topics such as
Children's Health, Depression, and
Heart Health. Click the XML button to
subscribe through an RSS reader. Click
the +My Y! button to add a module
with the selected health headlines to
your My Yahoo! page. There are more
health- related RSS feeds than appear
on the main Health News page. To see
the full list of Health RSS feeds, click
See All Health RSS Feeds at the bottom
of the Top Health News RSS box.

Yahoo! also offers another health
news service that gives you instant ac-
cess to the latest headlines, no matter



where you are. As long as you have ac-
cess to the Internet or a compatible cell
phone, you can receive the latest news.
This service is called Yahoo! Alerts. It is
still a beta product, which means that
Yahoo! has not yet completed testing,
and the product is not yet released to
the general public or supported by the
company. If you are interested in
learning more about Yahoo! Alerts for
health news, see the "Medical Minders"
sidebar in this article.

The Health News page also features
Daily Tips. These tips include a Food
Fact, a Fitness Tip Of The Day, and an
FAQ Of The Day (with questions
such as "What exactly is considered
£ red' meat?"). You can read these tips
on the Health News page, or if you
prefer, you can click the +My Y!
button next to a tip to add that daily
tip to your My Yahoo! page. Read the
description of the tip on the resulting
page and then click the Add To My
Yahoo! button in the upper-right
corner of the page. Click Back To
Previous Page when you are finished.

Groups & Boards. Although you
can go to Yahoo! Groups (groups.



yahoo.com) to locate a Yahoo! Group
or Board about a topic of interest, you
can also click the Groups & Boards tab
at the top of the Yahoo! Health page
to find quick access to health- related
discussions in Yahoo! Groups and on
Yahoo! Boards. You can learn more
about Yahoo! Groups and Boards in
"Yahoo! Groups" on page 100. By
using Groups and Boards, you can
meet others with health concerns sim-
ilar to yours and share information
about treatment and ideas for coping.
You'll find Groups for a variety of
topics, such as Pregnancy & Birth,
Diet & Weight Loss, Cancer, Stress
Management, Alzheimer's Disease,
Anxiety, and Healthy Cooking. There
are also many other Group and Board
categories listed on the Yahoo! Health
Groups & Boards page.

Drug Guide. Finally, the last tab on
the Yahoo! Health page takes you to
the Drug Guide. If you or your family
members take prescription drugs,
you'll likely find the Drug Guide to be
one of Yahoo! Health's most useful
resources. Toward the top of the page,
you'll see a Drug Spotlight news
article. This will be one of the most
current drug-related stories of the
day. You will also find links to Related
Drugs under the Drug Spotlight story.
This area of the page also includes
other current drug-related headlines
and may feature links to information
about a specific health topic, such as
heart disease or diabetes.

Under the news section, you'll find
a search field that you can use to lo-
cate information about a drug. You
can also browse for drug information
by clicking one of the letters or num-
bers listed under the search field next
to Browse.

For your convenience the Drug
Guide page also lists the Top 50
Drugs, so you can quickly access in-
formation about the drugs for which
users most commonly search. To the
right of the Top 50 Drugs list, Yahoo!
lists contact information for the
National Poison Control Hotline
and the U.S. FDA (Food And Drug



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 39



Information



Administration). In this area you'll
also find links to product recalls, in-
formation about drug research, and
tips and warnings for buying pre-
scriptions online.

Yahoo! Health Features

You can also find many of Yahoo!
Health's resources without clicking the
tabs at the top of the page. Many of the
same tools (and many others) are
available from the main Yahoo! Health
page. For example, you can browse the
Medical Encyclopedia and see the
most health- related news headlines at
the top of the page. There are links to
some of the most popular Medical
Encyclopedia entries, such as Asthma
and Depression. You can also see a full
listing of the current news headlines by
clicking More News under the Today's
Health News headlines.

You may remember that the
Healthy Living tab and the Diseases &
Conditions tab had lists of Centers
with information about specific
topics. You can also access those
Centers quickly by using the drop-
down menus under Our Centers on
the main Yahoo! Health page. Choose



^^r— — ^— -



from either the Healthy Living or the
Diseases & Conditions drop-down
menu. The Most Popular Centers are
listed under the drop -down menus for
even quicker access to these Centers.

Under Meet Our New Experts,
you can read blog entries by some of
the new and most popular health
bloggers at Yahoo! Health. Click the
Health Experts link to see a list of all
of the Health Expert Blogs at Yahoo!
Health. As we've mentioned before,
you can easily add one of these blogs
to your My Yahoo! page by simply
clicking the +My Y! button next to
the blog. Then click the Add To My
Yahoo! button in the upper-right
corner of the resulting page. To re-
turn to Yahoo! Health, click Back To
Previous Page.

The Yahoo! Health page also has a
Weight Management tool, which is
located near the bottom of the page.
This tool is called the Diet Tracker,
and it lets you keep track of your
progress as you work toward your de-
sired weight. Type the Start Date for
your diet in the designated field. Also
type your Start Weight, End Date, and
End Weight in the appropriate fields
and then click the Track button.



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In the Healthy Living section of Yahoo! Health, you can search Yahool's collection of recipes.



The next time you visit Yahoo!
Health, you should see a bar graph
that represents your projected weight
loss between your Start Date and End
Date. To track your progress, click the
Weigh In link under the graph. Type
the current date in the open field
under the Date column. Then type
your current weight in open field
under the Weight column and click
the Add Weigh-in button. Click the
Finished button to record your
changes and return to Yahoo! Health.

Under the Diet Tracker graph, you'll
find a link to Yahool's Weight Loss
Groups. To the right of those items,
you'll find a daily recipe, a fitness tip,
and a link to Yahool's Fitness Groups.

At the bottom of the page, you'll see
links to Yahool's various health- related
Groups. These are the same Groups
that you'll find by clicking the Groups
& Boards tab at the top of the page.

Clinical Trials and Ask The Expert.
There are two additional ways you
can actively participate in your own
health at Yahoo! Health. First, you
can use Yahoo! Health's Diseases &
Conditions Centers to find clinical
trials in which you can participate.
Such trials are not for everyone, but
many people are willing to participate
in exchange for free experimental
drugs or treatment or for the oppor-
tunity to aid research.

If there are any clinical trials listed,
you will see them on the right side of
the page for a Diseases & Conditions
Center. For example, we used the
Diseases & Conditions drop-down
menu on the main Yahoo! Health
page to go to the Diabetes Health
Center. We saw a small box on the
right side of the page for The AC-
CORD Trial (www.accordtrial.org),
which is open to people with Type 2
Diabetes who live in Northeastern
Ohio. The ACCORD Trial's Web site
is listed, as well as a toll-free number
to call for more information.

If you don't want to participate in a
clinical trial, you can still use Yahoo!
Health to take an active role in your
health care. On the left side of each



40 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Information



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.



Both the Healthy Living and Diseases & Conditions sections of Yahoo! Health contain Health Centers
for specific topics, such as Diabetes, Personality, and Weight Loss. Here, you can see the some of the
resources available in the Nutrition And Food Health Center.



Diseases & Conditions Center's page,
there is a Features & Tools box. Click
the Ask The Expert link. As of press
time, Yahoo! Health had a children's
health expert, a women's health expert,
and an alternative medicine expert.
You can click the expert's name to read
the expert's biography, link to Daily
Doses (daily tips and facts), or link to
Q&As (answers to questions submitted
to the expert by other Yahoo! mem-
bers). From the expert's page, click the
Ask A Question link on the left side of
the page to ask your own question.

Interactive Tools. Finally, Yahoo!
Health has a handful of interactive
tools. The first is a health poll, which
appears about halfway down the right
side of the page in the Latest Poll box.
You can either click the radio button
for the answer of your choice and
click Submit My Vote, or you can
click View Results Without Voting.

Under the Latest Poll box, you'll
see a list of Interactive Tools. At press
time, these include the Baby Name
Finder, a Weight And Health Risks
Assessment, two Fitness tools (Target



Heart Rate and Calories Burned), two
Pregnancy tools (Due Dates and
Fertility Calculator), and a Depress-
ion Risk Assessment. You can also
click the More Tools link to search for
other interactive health tools, such
as the Are You At Risk For A Heart
Attack questionnaire and the Are You
Ready To Quit Smoking quiz.

Each of the Interactive Tools works
differently. For example, the Baby
Name Finder tool lets you search for
baby names. The results may include
information such as the Meaning,
Ethnic Backgrounds, Cultural &
Historical Figures With This Name,
and Sports & Entertainment Figures
With This Name. You can then add
names you like to your my Baby
Names list, which is divided into a list
of names for Boys and Girls. Click
Save [Name] To Your List to add a
name to the My Baby Names list. You
can use this tool to keep track of po-
tential names for your baby.

Other Interactive Tools, such as the
Depression Risk Assessment question-
naire, require that you answer a series



Medical Minders

Yahoo! Health presents a lot of
health news in an organized
fashion, but you may want to read
articles about a certain topic imme-
diately rather than wait until the
next time you visit Yahoo! Health's
Health News page. You can create
Alerts about the medical conditions,
drugs, or other health-related news
of your choice. First, go to the
Yahoo! Health News page and click
Alerts under the list of RSS (Really
Simple Syndication) feeds. On the
Health News Alert page, type the
subject for which you'd like to re-
ceive news alerts in the Include field.
If there are any words you want to
exclude, type them in the Do Not
Include field. Select how you'd like
to receive the Health News Alerts by
selecting all applicable checkboxes
(Email, Messenger, and Mobile). If
you need to create a Messenger ac-
count or add a mobile device, you'll
see a link to do so under the
checkbox. When you are done, click
the Set Up Alerts button. Then click
Done. From the Health News Alert
page, you can edit or delete Alerts
by clicking the My Alerts tab.



ert



of questions to the best of your ability.
Yahoo! Health will then provide you
with an analysis of your results.

Prescription For Personal Power

Yahoo! Health's many resources
help you take your health into your
own hands by providing you with in-
formation about a variety of medical
conditions. The site also gives you ideas
for healthier living by helping you as-
sess the ways you cope with stress, the
foods you eat, and the amount you ex-
ercise. While visiting Yahoo! Health
may not keep the doctor away, it
should help you feel more in control of
your own health. H

by Kylee Dickey



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 41



Information



Yahoo! Finance

Stocks, Loans & Everything In Between




Think for a moment about
your finances. Are they where
you'd like them to be? Why or
why not? Two large financial worries
many Americans share are finding
ways to pay off debts and save money
for retirement. Regardless of your fi-
nancial concerns, one thing is certain:
You work hard for the money you
earn and want to maximize its value.

Our world is full of resources that
promise to help you make the best use
of your hard-earned money. But with
the countless resources available, fig-
uring out where to turn when you're
ready for some advice can be tough.
Yahool's Finance center (finance
.yahoo.com) is a sort of one-stop
shop for financial information. Here
you'll find a variety of services, in-
cluding portfolio management, online
bill pay, loan education, information
on managing an investment portfolio,
tips regarding retirement planning,
and more.



Because Yahoo! Finance offers per-
sonalized services, you'll need to sign in
with your Yahoo! ID and password in
order to fully utilize everything avail-
able. If you don't have an account with
Yahoo!, you can create one using the
Sign Up link located in the upper-left
corner of the page.

Find Your Way

Links to some of the most popular
Yahoo! Finance features reside near
the top of the Web page. Here you'll
find graphical links to areas called
Mutual Funds, Bill Pay, Banking,
Loans, Insurance, Planning, and
Taxes. The main page also displays a
current Market Summary with quotes
for the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500
indices. In the middle of the screen,
you'll see top news headlines and
other financial headlines.

In addition to the graphical links at
the top of the page, you'll see links
along the left column of the site.
Although many of these textual links
are duplicates from the graphical ones



listed above, one very important area,
called Investing, resides only in the
textual links.

Investing

Even though Yahoo! Finance offers
a variety of resources, it is best known
for its investment tools and informa-
tion. In the Investing area, you'll find
links to sections titled Today's Mar-
kets, Stock Research, Financial News,
Industries, Education, Mutual Funds,
ETFs, Bonds, Options, and Interna-
tional. Each of these sections has links
to help you find the information for
which you are searching.

If you're new to the world of in-
vesting, head over to the Education
section, which consists of four subsec-
tions. The first subsection, called
Tools, lets you test your knowledge of
investments and finance with a va-
riety of quizzes. The second subsec-
tion, called Dictionaries, has five
different dictionaries (Financial,
Bonds, Insurance, Options, and
Taxes) to help you make sense out of
the terms you come across while
learning the investment ropes.

The Education section also has two
class-like subsections, appropriately
called Investing 101 and Personal
Finance 101. In each of these subsec-
tions, you'll find hierarchical links to
a variety of articles ranging from
stocks and bonds to loans and real es-
tate. Perusing through the informa-
tion in these classes is a great way to
learn more about each of the topics.

Portfolio Management

Yahoo! Finance offers the ability to
create customized portfolios to track
every aspect of your investments —
even gains and losses after transaction
fees. Because portfolios are specific to
each user, you must sign in to Yahoo!
before you can create a portfolio.
After signing in, click the Customize
Finance link on the right side of the
Web page. Next, click Portfolios and
select Create New Portfolio. You'll



42 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Information



then need to choose a type of port-
folio to suit your needs. The three
choices are Track A Symbol Watch
List, Track Your Transaction History,
and Track Your Current Holdings.

The Track Your Current Holdings
portfolio provides a good way to track
every aspect of your investments.
After selecting a type of portfolio,
name it, select an appropriate cur-
rency, and enter the symbols of each
of the stocks you want to track. The
Advanced Features box at the bottom
of the screen lets you choose which
items you want to track more closely,
such as trade dates and commissions.

After entering all appropriate data
for your portfolio, click the Continue
button to proceed to the next screen
where you can enter other data you
chose to track. Once you've finished
entering this information, click
Finished to view your customized
portfolio. Now, you'll be able to track
the status of this portfolio with ease
by visiting the Yahoo! Finance page.

Mutual Funds

If you prefer to take a little, but not
a lot, of risk with your financial in-
vestments, the Yahoo! Mutual Funds
area may be just for you. For anyone
who is not very familiar with mutual
funds, the Mutual Funds Education
section can be quite helpful. Here you
can find information on topics such
as Mutual Fund Basics and How To
Choose A Fund. The Education sec-
tion also covers Tax Issues to help you
understand how mutual fund invest-
ments can affect your tax return.

Realizing that many people are in-
terested in mutual funds, Yahoo! also
provides tools for the more advanced
user. If you're looking for information
regarding a specific fund, this area
provides a search tool to lookup
quotes and information for any fund
by symbol or name. On the other
hand, if you're interested in screening
funds with specific criteria, use the
Fund Screener to find a fund based on
rating, past performance, or holdings.



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Yahoo! Finance provides a wealth of information to get you on the road to financial success.



Generally speaking, the point of in-
vesting in a mutual fund or other in-
vestment is to increase the value of
your money. In order to do so, you
must be able to calculate which fund
to buy, when to sell, and analyze fee
structures. Yahoo! offers calculators
to help with each of these items and
other calculations in their Mutual
Fund Calculators section.

Even though you are ultimately re-
sponsible for your own financial re-
sources, sometimes it's helpful to seek
the advice of experts. In the Tools
area, you can find information on top
performers, message boards, and edi-
torials from Morningstar.

Bill Pay

We don't know anyone who enjoys
paying bills. With Yahoo! Bill Pay, you
can manage and pay your bills online.
In doing so, you'll eliminate the need
to write checks, lick stamps, and drive
to the post office. Even though Yahoo!
can't make bill paying fun, it certainly
does simplify the process.

With Yahoo! Bill Pay, you can
schedule one-time and recurring pay-
ments, such as your monthly mort-
gage payment. Bill Pay also keeps
track of when your bills are due to



help you avoid any late fees. To save a
few trees and eliminate some of the
paper mess at home, you can opt to
receive your bills via email.

To use Yahoo! Bill Pay, you'll need
to set up a checking account or mon-
ey market account with Yahoo!. Once
an account is set up and you've cre-
ated payees, you can schedule dis-
bursements for immediate payment
or future payment.

You can make unlimited payments
to over 100 billers free of charge with
the Basic Plan. If, however, you want
the additional flexibility of being able
to pay anyone just like you can with a
regular check, the Premium Plan
comes with a $4.95 monthly fee and
includes 12 payments per month.
Additional payments are 40 cents
apiece. If you're unsure which tier of
service best suits your needs, you can
try the Premium Plan at no cost for
the first three months.

The idea of giving your checking
account information to Yahoo! may
seem a bit scary. To help ease your
concerns, Yahoo! has taken steps to
ensure your security, including imple-
menting SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to
encrypt your information while trav-
eling over the Internet. Yahoo! also
asks all users of their Bill Pay service



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 43



Information



^HOOf, FINANCE



ar > Retirement Calculators

Retirement Calculators



CALCULATORS



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to create a Security Key that will auto-
matically log a person out after an
hour to help control access to sensi-
tive information.

Banking

The Banking section of Yahoo!
Finance displays the national average
interest rates for a few mortgages. For
more information regarding a partic-
ular market or type of loan, click the
Rates link under the Tools menu.
Here you'll find rates for Savings
Deposits, Personal Loans, Auto
Loans, and Mortgages.

One cannot manage his money well
without performing a variety of calcu-
lations. After all, good money manage-
ment doesn't come without knowing
where your money is going. The
Yahoo! Banking Calculators can help
you determine loan payment amounts,
the extent to which credit card rate
changes will affect your balance, and
help you determine the best place to
allocate your money — whether it be
savings or paying off debts.

Most people would love to increase
their present savings, but aren't quite
sure how to do so. To examine your
current financial situation, use the
Yahoo! Savings Finder from the Tools
menu. With this tool, you can com-
pare over 200 credit cards and all



major local and Internet banks to find
ways to eliminate extra expenses and
add to your savings. A new credit card
may help lower your interest rates, or
a different checking account may pro-
vide better services with lower fees.

Whether you're new to money
management or just trying to find
smarter ways to handle your money,
the Banking Education section is sure
to help. The Bank Accounts & Services



subsection provides information in
areas such as Choosing A Checking
Account, Managing Your Checking
Account, Choosing A Savings Pro-
duct, and Managing Your Savings.

Considering the frequency with
which people use their credit cards,
the Managing Credit Cards educa-
tional subsection is just what you
need to make sure you're using your
cards wisely. Online banking is also
very popular. Use this subsection to
brush up on what's available to help
make sure you're taking advantage of
all the services available.

Your credit score is a critical num-
ber in so many ways because it deter-
mines if, and how much, credit you
can acquire. Experts recommend
monitoring your credit report regu-
larly to help ensure your identity is
safe. Should you find errors on your
credit report, Yahoo! has suggestions
for how to correct them in the Credit
Ratings subsection. With the number
of identity theft victims on the rise,
help protect yourself by practicing safe
banking. The Banking Safely subsec-
tion provides information on pro-
tecting your identity and your money.



"X&HOOJ FINANCE



- Yahoo! -



I0.704.G8 ■ .) 2.248.37 +1.17 (+0.05%) 1.265.27 +3.73 (+0.30%)

NYSE Volume 666,183,000 Nasdaq Volume 631,177,000 30-Yr Bond 45.60 +0.29 (+0.64%)

Monday, January 2 i 5 hours.

- [ ]

Portfolios [ manage - create ]

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Portfolio for JJ - SP 500 Portfolio



Enter symbol(s): e.g. YHOO,*DJI







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Symbol


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AAPL


10:45am


76.75


+0.661


9,808,446


1,000


$76,750.00


$661.00


+0.87%


59.755


$16,970.00


+28.39%


86.75


33.11 -86.40


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10:45am


38.10


-0.33


1,562,809


1,000


$38,100.00


-$330.00


-0.86%


33.325


$4,750.00


+14.24%


40.72


25.30 - 40.35


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10:40am


112.64


+0.57


236,400


1,000


$112,640.00


$570.00


+0.51 %


92.63


$19,985.00


+21.57%


100.00


69.01 - 116.25


APC


10:40am


106.03


-0.82


972,700


1,000


$106,030.00


-$820.00




86.85


$19,155.00


+22.05%


113.40


63.79-109.91


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10:40am


74.01


+0.10


865,900


1,000


$74,010.00


$100.00


+0.14%


58.45


$15,535.00


+26.57%


73.80


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10:40am


83.35


-1.46


754,400


1,000


$83,350.00


-$1 ,460.00




61.0125


$22,312.50


+36.56%


81.74


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10:40am


21.93


+0.43


737,700


1,000


$21 ,930.00


$430.00


+2.00%


16.59


$5,315.00


+31.99%


22.39


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56.25


-1.307


1,264,787


1,000


$56,250.00


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45.265


$10,960.00


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61.84


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136.68


+1.89


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1,000


$136,680.00


$1 ,890.00


+1.40%


112.18


$24,474.99


+21.81%


132.26


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47.62


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44 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Information



"XfcHOO^FINANCE



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Loans

Although interest rates are rising,
they are still relatively low in compar-
ison to decades past. The Loans area
of Yahoo! Finance displays national
and local loan rates for mortgage,
home equity, and auto loans. The
Loans area is a bit different from
other areas in that it has three pri-
mary centers called Mortgage, Auto
Loan, and Credit Reports. Each center
houses a multitude of information.

The Mortgage center is further
broken down into three main sec-
tions: Calculators, Mortgage Edu-
cation, and Mortgage Professor. In
the Calculator section, you can calcu-
late how much you can afford,
whether or not to refinance, and
much more. The Mortgage Education
section covers a vast amount of infor-
mation, including tips on buying a
home, ways to shop for a loan, and
determining which type of loan is best
for you. Although we can't all take a
class on home buying before pur-
chasing, we can find a wealth of infor-
mation from the Mortgage Professor.
Here, you'll find common questions



and their answers, along with tips for
avoiding mistakes along the way.

While buying a car may not be as
life changing as purchasing a house,
it's still important to make sure
you're spending your money as wisely
as possible. The Auto Loan Tools
from Yahoo! Finance help you com-
pare loan rates and calculate loan pay-
ments. In addition, these tools can
help you decide whether to take out a
loan on a car or whether to lease it.
These tools also help you decide
whether a new or used car is better for
your financial situation.

Because many of us aren't expert
car buyers, the Auto Education sub-
section in the Auto Loan center can
help you learn some of the tips and
tricks that go along with buying a car.
You'll also find information on new
car purchases and comparisons of
buying versus leasing a car.

In much the same way as you
should be educated before purchasing
a car, everyone should be educated in
credit basics before obtaining a loan.
The Credit Education center provides
the information you need to better
understand your credit score, privacy



and fraud issues, how credit and debit
cards affect your credit history, and
much more. You'll also find a subsec-
tion on debt management that can
help you get on the road to reaching
your financial goals.

In addition to the three primary
centers in the main navigation bar of
the Loan area, you'll find quick links
to the mortgage and auto loan calcu-
lators previously discussed along with
basic loan education information.

Insurance

After you've purchased a home or
car and found a way to pay for it, it's
time to think about insurance. The
Insurance area of Yahoo! Finance of-
fers two primary centers to help you
with your auto and life insurance
needs. This area also provides calcula-
tors and educational information to
help you get the best coverage for
your lifestyle.

The Auto Insurance Center has two
basic subsections: Tools and Auto
Insurance Education. In the tools sub-
section, you'll find an analyzer to help
you determine the type of coverage
you'll need. You'll also find a quiz to
help you determine if you're doing
everything you can to save money on
your car insurance. The Education
subsection covers the basics of auto
insurance, including types of coverage,
and has information about vehicle
safety and fraud prevention.

Like the Auto Insurance Center, the
Life Insurance Center has two primary
subsections: Calculators and Edu-
cation. The Calculators subsection will
help you determine how much life in-
surance you need, whether to pur-
chase term or whole life policies, and
what your return is on a particular
policy. In the Education subsection,
you'll learn about the basics of life in-
surance, types of coverage, and how
your health and lifestyle can affect
your insurance rates.

For quick access to the Auto Cover-
age Analyzer, Auto Insurance Savings
Quiz, and Life Insurance calculators,



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 45



Information




EQUIFAX



f month



INSIDE LOAN EDUCATION



Buy, Don't Rent, When You Can Afford the Down

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■ Retirement & Planning Center



there are links from the main Insur-
ance page. You'll also find links to the
Insurance Education section, which
has more information regarding gen-
eral insurance questions, auto insur-
ance, and life insurance.

Planning

Unless you're born with more
money than you know what to do
with, you'll need to do some planning
in order to reach your financial goals.
The calculators in the Planning area
of Yahoo! Finance can help you deter-
mine if you're saving enough, what it
will take you to become a millionaire
at a specified age, and much more.

In addition, the Planning area has a
variety of resources for retirement ed-
ucation, covering everything from the
basics to 401 (k)s, annuities, pensions,
IRAs, and Social Security. Each of
these topics has numerous articles
from recognized sources, including
USA Today, BusinessWeek, Kiplinger's,
and Morningstar.

Realizing that retirement isn't the
only thing we need to prepare for in
advance, Yahoo! also provides infor-
mation on saving for college and your
first home in the Planning area.

Taxes

While paying taxes isn't exactly what
we'd call pleasant, it's still important to
understand your tax situation and what



Take the confusion out of
obtaining a loan for your
next purchase.



you can do to minimize
the amount of taxes you
owe. In the Taxes area,
you can search articles
to find specific informa-
tion from a particular
source or on a particular
topic. You can also find
Federal and State tax
forms to help you as
April 15 draws near.
The Tax Tools sec-
tion provides Tax Calculators, in-
cluding a Deduction Finder, tax refund
estimator, and a withholding calcu-
lator to help you determine if you're
withholding the right amount from
your paycheck. This section also has a
Tax Prep Checklist from H&R Block
and a Tax Calendar that will help you
with tax time organization. Two other
Tax Tools, the Tax Rates and State Tax
Profiles tools, provide charts to help
you better understand both national
and state- specific tax rates.

One thing that Yahoo! Finance does
well is to make sure you're educated in
any area of Finance that pertains to
you. The Taxes area is no exception.
In the Tax Education section, you'll
find sections titled Tax Basics, Tax
Tips, Tax Guide For Investors, and
Tax Glossary to help you find answers
to your tax questions.

Choose Your Fate

Although it may seem daunting,
taking control of your financial situa-
tion is one of the best things you can
do for yourself — both now and in the
future. The Yahoo! Finance page is a
good place to start looking for infor-
mation, tips, advice, and other re-
sources to help along the way. The
road to financial security may seem
long, but there's never a better time to
start than the present. S

by Jennifer Johnson



Five Hot Areas
In Finance



w;



ormation
z inance, it
i to start.



' ith the wealth of information
available at Yahoo! Finance, i
can be hard to know where t
Here are a few of our favorite areas
to check out.

• Financial calculators. While each
main area of Yahoo! Finance of-
fers a variety of calculators, one of
the computations we find most
intriguing is the What Will It Take
to Become a Millionaire? calcu-
lator located in the Planning area.

• Loan lingo. If you've ever sat
down with a banker to discuss a
home mortgage or auto loan, you
know how quickly the discussion
can become confusing. Battle
that confusion using the Loans
area to determine exactly what
type of loan you need before ap-
proaching the bank.

• Pay my bills. Although the Yahoo!
Bill Pay center won't actually pro-
vide the money for your up-
coming bills, it can take some of
the time consuming legwork out
of the process. With this service,
you'll no longer have to write
checks, find an envelope, buy
stamps, or drive to the post office
to pay a bill.

• Planning for your future. It's
never too early, or too late, to
start planning for your future.
Whether your goal is to buy a
house, pay for your kids' college,
or retire, the Planning area has
some good advice.

• Portfolio management. If you've
ever tried to keep close tabs on
an investment, you know it can
be quite a task. With a personal-
ized portfolio from Yahoo! Fi-
nance, you can easily see what
you've gained or lost on any in-
vestment in a matter of seconds.



46 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Information



Ripped From
Today's Headlines

From Domestic To Global Events,
Yahoo! News Keeps You Informed



The method society uses to
acquire information about
current events has evolved
significantly over the last 100 years.
The days of waiting for the morning
news to arrive with a four-pack of
bottled milk are long gone, but even
television news, which has long been
the source of the most up-to-date
news, has begun to show its age.

Much of today's earth-shattering
news debuts on the Internet before it
reaches the TV or print media. The
emergence of blogs (short for Web
logs) as a source of news has yielded
mixed results. Bloggers have been re-
sponsible for breaking several stories
before traditional news outlets arrived
on the scene, but some also have been
known to flood the Web with erro-
neous or incomplete information.

Yahoo! News (news.yahoo.com)
strikes a balance between the rapid
dissemination of information and the
credibility of reporting. Breaking
news appears on Yahoo! News from




major newswires such as the AP,
Reuters, and AFP, but you can also
obtain local stories from several met-
ropolitan areas, such as Charlotte,
Hartford, and Tucson. Not only does
the site offer a buffet of news (Sci-
ence, Entertainment, Politics, etc.),
but it also presents you with different
means of acquiring news.

Headlines Online

Instead of simply picking a select
number of sources to cull stories on a
variety of subjects, Yahoo! News also
has news from agencies that specialize
in a certain niche. For example,
Financial Times and BusinessWeek
Online are two business news pro-
viders, and E! Online and the New
York Post's Page Six are among the
many entertainment news services
Yahoo! relies on. For a full listing of
Yahoo! News' sources, click the Index
link, which is to the right of the
tabbed links of news categories.

Yahoo! also takes a mul-
timedia approach to pre-
senting its news with photo
slideshows and audio/video
content. Yahoo! News intu-
itively arranges its photos
and slideshows in cate-
gories such as Most View-
ed, Most Emailed, and
Most Recommended, along
with photos from its news
categories (world, politics,
sports, and so on.) Click
the thumbnail (a tinier ver-
sion of a graphic that takes



up less space on your screen, letting
you download more images more
quickly) or title to view a photo or
start a slideshow.

Although Yahoo! News has video
content from several sources, it uses
Yahoo! Video to play videos. To view
the minimum and recommended
system requirements for Yahoo!
Video, open a Web browser with an
active Internet connection and go to
help.yahoo.com/help/us/news/player/
player-07.html. Although you can
view video with a dial-up Internet
connection, we strongly recommend
broadband for a desirable experience.

Yahoo! News relies on NPR (Na-
tional Public Radio; www.npr.org) for
its audio news. To listen to NPR on-
line, you'll need either RealMedia's
(www.real.com) RealPlayer or Micro-
soft's Windows Media Player.

Editor-in-Chief: You

By default, the Yahoo! News home
page is full of stories to satisfy a huge
appetite for news, but if you have a
more selective palate, you can cus-
tomize what stories land on your
plate. Whether you're partial to poli-
tics or have a taste for technology,
customizing your Yahoo! News page
can help you find information faster.

On the Yahoo! News home page,
click Sign In and enter your Yahoo! ID
and password. When you return to the
home page, click the Add/Remove
News Categories link, which is located
immediately above the Top Stories sec-
tion. The first tab — Add/Remove News
Categories — will have checkboxes for
its primary 12 categories checked by
default. Click the checkboxes to
uncheck the categories you don't want
to appear on Yahoo! News' home page.

You can also adjust the home page's
layout. Click the Change Layout tab.
The Change Layout page will let you
shuffle the order of the news sections
on the News home page. For example,
if you want to move the Most Popular
section to the News home page, click
Most Popular from the box in the



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 47



Information



Top Stories Photos



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If you don't have time to
read a lengthy news article,
Yahoo! News' photos and
slideshows can tell the story
with vivid images.



the Weather page, and
the Yahoo! News home
page will reload ac-
cording to your prefer-
ences. If you sign out
of Yahoo! or close your
browser, you'll have to
sign in again to access
your customized Ya-
hoo! News home page.



middle of the page and click the Down
arrow icon to move it lower in the
order. You can also move sections
higher on the list so that they appear
sooner on the home page. (Top
Stories will remain first by default.)

Click the Weather tab to add a
weather forecast on your Yahoo! News
home page. By default, Yahoo! News
lets you choose from major cities such
as Paris or Tokyo, but if you've set up
your My Yahoo! page, (please see "My
Yahoo!" on page 22 for more informa-
tion), you can change these choices.
Click Edit and Add Cities, enter a ZIP
code or city in the empty Local
Weather By City field, and click Find.
Click the Add button when Yahoo!
finds the appropriate city. Click
Finished and the radio button next to
the city you added. Click Finished on



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Aside from simply visiting Yahoo!
News, you can sign up for news ser-
vices that notify you of breaking sto-
ries. The News Service section is
located at the bottom of the home page
in the right-hand column. You can re-
ceive news and weather alerts, and if
you have an RSS (Really Simple Syndi-
cation) reader, Yahoo! News will de-
liver stories to you via RSS.

News alerts. Yahoo! gives you three
options for setting up news alerts, and
you can pick any or all of the fol-
lowing: Breaking News, Keyword
News, and Daily News Digest. You'll
receive Breaking News alerts for top
news stories as they happen. Think of
Keyword News alerts as searchable
news alerts: You can make custom
searches for alerts
on topics that in-
terest you. Final-
ly, the Daily News
Digest contains
summaries of ma-
jor stories in cate-
gories you choose.
You can receive all
three kinds of alerts
via email or an



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Yahoo! Local News
keeps you in the know
on the current events
of specific cities.



SMS-enabled mobile phone; Yahoo!
IM can receive Breaking News and
Keyword News alerts.

To set up alerts, click News Alerts
on the Yahoo! News home page and
click the checkboxes to select the alerts
you want to receive. Click Set Up
Alerts and fill in the options that cor-
respond with the alerts. For example,
if you want to receive Keyword News
alerts about Pacific Ocean tsunamis in
your Yahoo! Mail inbox, type Pacific
Ocean tsunamis in the Include field
and click to check the Email checkbox.
Click the Set Up Alerts button and the
Done button to complete the process.

Weather alerts. You can receive up
to four weather forecasts from the
weather cities listed on your My Yahoo!
page. Click the checkboxes next to the
cities you want, select a delivery time
from the drop-down menus below,
and click Save Settings and Done.

News via RSS. RSS is a format
many Web publishers use to produce
and distribute news feeds with links,
headlines, and summaries. You can
add Yahoo! News RSS feeds to My
Yahoo!, which is the easiest method if
you don't have a separate RSS reader.
On the Yahoo! News front page, click
the News Via RSS link. You should see
a number of different news categories.
Click the My Yahoo! button that cor-
responds with the news category you
want to add. On the next page, click
Add To My Yahoo! and Back To Pre-
vious Page to add more feeds.

A Nose For News

Although you can quickly customize
the Yahoo! News home page to display
news that most interests you, avid My
Yahoo!, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! IM
users will find that Yahoo! News works
quite well with each service to hurry
headlines to you. Just think of using
Yahoo! News to its fullest extent as de-
signing your very own newspaper. You
can read all about whatever you want
and only what you want. H

BY VlNCE COGLEY



48 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Quod



PING




Yahoo!
Shopping

Find Everything You're Looking For
Without Leaving Home



Though many of us still head
out to Wal-Mart when we
need to make small pur-
chases, buying online is becoming a
popular method for purchasing prac-
tically anything you can dream of.
You can now search online stores
that have locations around the world.
A few years ago, your only shopping
options were to go to the local mall
or mom-and-pop shop. Yahoo!
Shopping collects as much shopping
information from as many sites as
possible and makes this information
available on its Web site. We put this
site to the test to see how easy it is to
use and how much we could save
using it. Here's a look at the basic of-
ferings of Yahoo! Shopping.

The Tabs Have It

Yahoo!'s Shopping page was de-
signed to connect users with just
about any product on the Web. It
does a nice job of categorizing these
products to make finding the right
product easier. Below the Yahoo!
Shopping banner at the top of the
page, you'll see a row of tabs that you
can click to jump to a section that in-
terests you.

The most popular shopping sec-
tions, such as Computers, Clothing,
and Electronics, have their own tabs
at the top of the home page, but if
you want to search for a product that
doesn't fit into those categories, click
the More link to the right of the last



tab for a more in-depth list. You'll
notice a few of the more popular sub-
categories under each category. For
instance, the Tickets category doesn't
have its own tab on the Shopping
home page, but it is a category you
can search with Yahoo! Shopping.
Underneath the link to the Tickets
page, you can click a link for the type
of ticket you want to search for, such
as Sports or Concerts. If you click
Sports, you'll go to the Sports Tickets
section of the Yahoo! Tickets Web
site. In this section you can search for
tickets to watch your favorite NFL
team or NBA team or find passes to
other major sporting events.

Learn The Layout

The layout of Yahoo! Shopping is
part of the reason why it's such an
easy place to find what you're shop-
ping for. Let's take a look at how
Yahoo! designed this site.

Let's begin at the top with the
Search section. The Smurf-blue
Search section appears just below a
row of tabs at the top of the page.
Simply enter a search term in the
text box and click Search to find a
particular product. By default,
Yahoo! will search all of the prod-
ucts on Yahoo! Shopping, but you
can use the drop-down menu next
to the Search text box to specify
which category you want to search.
For instance, if you wanted to
narrow your search to Xbox 360



games, you should select Electronics
from the drop-down menu.

The Popular Categories section,
highlighted in light blue along the
left side of the page, is another im-
portant section in Yahoo! Shopping.
This section has many of the same
categories that appear on the tabs at
the top of the page but also features a
list of the four or five most popular
subcategories right below the main
category title.

Also located in this light blue sec-
tion are Yahoo! Shopping's Featured
Categories, where you can click a link
of any category in the section to go
to its home page. Below Featured
Categories, you can explore the
Services section, which offers ways for
you to sign up for credit cards and ex-
plore real estate, among other tasks.
The More Ways To Shop category lets
you shop by brand, store, or by using
SmartSort or Gift Finder tools to lo-
cate the perfect present. You can also
use the links in the Editorial Reviews
and Gift Centers sections for gift ideas
and opinions.

At the heart of the Yahoo! Shop-
ping home page, you'll see a section
titled Most Popular Products. This
section lists some of the most
searched for items in various cate-
gories, which changes frequently.
Click one of tabs at the top of this
section to view products in the cate-
gory. Also located in the center
column of the Yahoo! Shopping
home page are the My Lists and Most



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 49



Shopping



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Use the tabs located at the top of the Yahoo! Shopping home page to easily navigate the Web site.



Helpful Pick Lists sections. When
you sign in to the Yahoo! Shopping
home page, the My Lists section will
tell you how many items you have
saved to lists and what items you've
saved most recently. The Most
Helpful Pick Lists section has a few
lists from Shoposphere that users
voted very helpful. These lists have a
wide range of topics, including the
best sci-fi novels, punk rock albums,
or even museum pieces, but each list
is full of great ideas for its genre.

Create A List

A cool feature of Yahoo! Shopping
is its ability to keep track of some of
your favorite items in My Lists. You
can create numerous lists to keep
track of gift ideas for others or treats
for yourself.

Any product you find should have a
Save To My Lists drop -down menu. If
you view search results in the List view,
this menu will appear below a brief
product description. If you use Grid
view, the Save To My Lists drop-down



menu will appear in the upper-left
corner of the product's cell. You can
choose which view you'd like your re-
sults to be displayed in by clicking ei-
ther List or Grid in the View section of
the Yahoo! shopping page located be-
tween the first set of sponsor results
and the first nonsponsored product re-
sult. When you click Save To My Lists,
a drop-down menu will appear that
gives you a few options. Click Create A
New List, which will cause an Explorer
User Prompt dialog box to pop up.
Enter a name for your list in the box
and click OK. Next choose what kind
of list you want. The Private List option
makes the list available to your Yahoo!
account only. The Shared List option
lets you choose certain people to view
the list (very helpful for giving loved
ones birthday or Christmas hints). The
final type of list is the Pick List. This list
type is available to everyone who uses
Yahoo! Shopping. Many users like to
make "Top 10 . . ." lists such as "Top
10 Sports Movies." If you think a list is
particularly well done, you can even
leave a comment for the author.



A Worthwhile Experience

Armed with the knowledge of a
number of tools Yahoo! Shopping of-
fers, we decided to make a purchase
to see if we could get a better deal
here than what was offered at our
local shops. Now that spring has
sprung, we wanted to invest in a pair
of running shoes, so we could spend a
little more time outdoors enjoying
nature while getting in shape. We
read a few reviews online and decided
to go with the Asics Speedstar shoe,
which was available at our local
sporting goods store for $84.99.

We entered "Asics Speedstar" in the
Search text box on the Yahoo! Shop-
ping home page and then clicked
Search. Most of the 61 search results
offered the shoes for around the same
$84.99 sticker price. Some were a few
dollars more, and some sold for a
couple bucks less, but still eclipsed the
$85 mark with shipping. However, to-
ward the bottom of the first page we
noticed one Web site, Tel-a-Runner
(www.telarun.com), that had the shoes
for $69.99. Now this was the substan-
tial savings we had hoped to see!

To make sure we were looking at
the best deal, we clicked the Price link
in the Sort By field above the first line
of search results. That's when our
search started to get a little interesting.
After we clicked Price to sort our re-
sults from the lowest price to highest,
we noticed that Yahoo! had removed
the site that offered our shoes for
$69.99. When we went re-sorted by
Top Results, the entry reappeared. We
didn't see a preferences section in
Yahoo! Shopping that might' ve given
us an indication as to why this search
result would be mentioned when we
sorted by Top Results but not when
we sorted by Price, so take heed, when
you're searching make sure to check
both options to make sure you're
viewing the best available prices.

We placed our order for the shoes
at www.telarun.com. The shipping
charges cost us $8.99, so our grand
total came to $78.98. We ended up



50 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Shopping



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You can create a list at Yahoo! Shopping that keeps track of any products you have your eye on.



saving $6.01 from what we would've
paid over-the-counter. Though some
people would shell out the extra cash
just to avoid waiting the extra few
days for shipping, we didn't mind the
wait, even if it only meant saving the
equivalent of an extra value meal at
McDonald's. (Because we're starting
to jog this year, maybe next year we'll
work on our eating habits.)

Get The Most Out Of Your Money

Yahoo! offers some great tools to
help you keep track of your money
and make the most of it as well. Check
out these services to make sure you get
the biggest bang for your buck.

Yahoo! Points

If you aren't afraid to pull out the
plastic when you shop online, you can
get Yahoo! Points every time you use
your Yahoo! Visa card. You earn a
Yahoo! Point for every dollar you
spend with your Yahoo! Visa card or
for every dollar you transfer from bal-



ances on your other cards to your
Yahoo! Visa. If you accrue enough of
these points, you can cash them in for
cool prizes such as PDAs (personal
digital assistants), digital camcorders,
or CDs. Or if you're feeling particu-
larly generous, you can donate these
points to charity. For more informa-
tion on Yahoo! Points, check out the
article "Yahoo! Points" on page 66.

Yahoo! Wallet

Featured in the article "Yahoo!
Wallet" on page 67, Yahoo! Wallet is a
free service from Yahoo! that stores
your credit card numbers and shipping
and billing information so that you
don't have to enter these things every
time you buy something through a
Yahoo! service, such as Yahoo! Shop-
ping, Yahoo! Auctions, or Yahoo!
Travel. It also saves you time if you
want to access a premium service of-
fered by Yahoo!, such as Extra Mail
Storage, GeoCities Plus, and Finance
Reports. Yahoo! uses industry- standard
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology



to encrypt data transmission and en-
sure your personal information is safe.

Yahoo! Local

If you prefer not to shop online or
if circumstances prevent you from
waiting for an item to be shipped,
Yahoo! can still help. Click Local in
the blue Y! Services box at the top of
the Yahoo! home page.

Yahoo! Local is a great Web site to
find whatever you need at a location
close to your residence. At the top of
the Yahoo! Local home page, you'll
see a blue box with Search For and
Location text boxes. Just enter what
you're looking for in the Search box
and enter your address in the Location
text box. You can also simply enter
your city and state in the Location
field rather than your entire address.

If you're fairly new to your town
or you just want directions that are
tailored for your residence, enter
your entire address in the location
text box. For example, if we were
looking for a good computer repair
service close to our home base, we'd
enter "computer repair" in the
Search For text box and our street,
city, and state in the Address text box
and click Search. By default, Yahoo!
will display the results by relevance
to your search terms, but in the
Sorted By line just above the first
search result, you can sort the results
by distance from your locale, in al-
phabetical order by business name,
or by user rating, where Yahoo! users
rate the business on a one- to five-
star scale based on their experiences
with local businesses.

Yahoo! helps you get the most for
your money by giving you tools you
can use to pinpoint and keep track of
the best deals in cyberspace. You can
also take advantage of other features
such as Yahoo! Wallet to keep track of
your funds. The next time you want to
make your dollar stretch as far as pos-
sible, check out Yahoo! Shopping. S

by Sam Evans



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 51



Shopping




I Another Man's
Treasure

Bid, Buy & Sell With Yahoo! Auctions



Yahoo! gives the Internet auc-
tion giant eBay a run for its
money with its Yahoo! Auc-
tions (http://auctions.shopping.yahoo
.com) service. As of June 2005,
Yahoo! Auctions tossed its fees out
the window, which means you can
bid, buy, and even sell without
forking over an extra dime. Yahoo!
Auctions is ideal whether you're
looking for a good deal or just trying
to make a buck.

Auctions Home

The left side of the Yahoo! Auc-
tions home page features an extensive
list of auction categories and subcate-
gories. From here you can quickly
browse the various auctions. Tabs
across the top of the page will also
load some of the more popular pages,
such as Jewelry & Watches, Sports
Cards, Clothing, Books & Comics,
Toys, and Coins & Stamps. If you're
looking for something specific, type
your item into the text box at the top
of the page and click Search. The
Search box also lets you narrow your
results by category using a drop -down
box. There are also sections along the
right side of the page that include
links for Getting Started, Recent
Announcements, Resources, Pre-
mium Sellers, More Ways To Shop,
and International Sites.

The middle column of the Yahoo!
Auctions page lets you instantly ac-
cess popular sections of the site,
such as: Shop Popular Picks, which
start at 99 cents and feature no re-
serve; Top Seller Showcase, for items



sold by users with the most favorable
ratings; and the Spotlight section,
which lists popular categories. Links
for the Yahoo! Auctions Privacy
Policy, Terms Of Service, Guide-
lines, and Help pages are at the
bottom of the page.

You'll also notice a My Auctions
link at the top of the page. As we
went to press, the My Auctions fea-
ture was still in beta, meaning that
Yahoo! had yet to release it in its
final form. The purpose of the My
Auctions page is to give you a sum-
mary of the items you added to your
Watchlist, as well as your recent
Bidding, Won, Lost, Selling, Sold,
and Not Sold activity.

Registration

If you're looking to bid or sell
using Yahoo! Auctions, the first thing
you'll need to do is register an ac-
count. You can accomplish this by
following the prompts that appear
the first time you bid or from the
main Yahoo! Auctions page.

To register from the Yahoo! Auc-
tions home page, click the Sign Up!
link in the Getting Started section in
the upper-right corner of the home
page. Next, click the Register And
Sign In button. If you don't have a
Yahoo! ID, click the Sign Up link in
the lower-right corner of this page. If
you already have a Yahoo! ID and
password, enter them now and click
Sign In. Next, click the Continue To
Verify Your User Information button.
On the following page, enter your
name, address, phone number, date



of birth, and driver's license or social
security number. Click Submit to
continue. Carefully read the Yahoo!
Auctions Terms Of Service and then
click I Accept to continue.



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The Yahoo! Auctions page lets you search for
items using the categories to the left or the
Search box at the top of the page.



52 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Shopping



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Sell Stuff


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Required Steps

■ Register and sign ir

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Ready to start using Yahoo! Auctions

We'll walk you throL : steps shown at the left



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Bid & Buy

If you've ever purchased anything
online, then you'll probably find the
Yahoo! Auctions interface familiar.
The first step in bidding is by far the
easiest: Find something you'd like to
bid on. Yahoo! Auctions has every-
thing from sportswear to sports cars,
so start by clicking a category from the
left side of the main page or by typing
keywords into the search box at the
top of the page and pressing Search.

The Category Search Results and
Search Results pages both have a sim-
ilar layout. At the top of the page, you'll
find a handful of Sponsor Results,
which are paid advertisements that will
take you from the Yahoo! Auctions
page if you click them. Scan down the
middle column for the list of Yahoo!
Auction items that match your search.
Each result consists of a hyperlinked
description of the item, a notation
identifying whether or not it has a re-
serve price, a hyperlinked seller's name
and the seller's rating, the current
highest bid, a Buy Price (if available),
and the amount of time left until
the auction ends. Yahoo! displays the
time left in the auction with different
colored text. Auctions ending in less
than 30 minutes appear in red text,
auctions with between 30 minutes and
an hour left appear in orange, and auc-
tions ending in less than 24 hours ap-
pear in yellow. Most items include
photos, which appear to the left of the
item description.



Registering with
Yahoo! Auctions is
quick and easy.



By default, Yahoo!
Auctions lists the re-
sults by the amount
of time remaining in
the auction, with the
auctions closing the
soonest appearing at
the top of the page.
If you want to sort
the items in another
way, click Price to
organize the list from the least expen-
sive item to the most expensive item,
click Bids to show items with the
most bids, and click Seller Rating to
see items for sale from the highest-
rated sellers. You can reverse the
order by clicking any of the sorting
links a second time. The left side of
the page features a Refine Results box,
which lets you narrow your results by
choosing subcategories, entering key-
words, preferred prices, or distances.
The Narrow By section of the Refine
Results area has links you can click to
narrow your results to auctions with
photos or no reserve or that have a
Buy Price. You can also browse auc-
tions listed today and auctions that
have already closed.

When you find that must-have
doodad, click the hyperlinked descrip-
tion to see the item page. Here you'll
find further details about the item
you're interested in, such as the item's
description, condition, location, and
shipping price, which
covers everything
from packaging to
postage. The shipping
price is in addition to
the bid price or Buy
Price, so always make
sure to take it into ac-



count when figuring out how much to
bid. Other useful links on the item
page include Comments About Seller
and Ask Seller A Ques-tion. The latter
link opens a new page that lets you
email questions to the seller regarding
the item you're interested in pur-
chasing.

If everything in the description ap-
pears OK and you're still interested in
placing a bid, click the number in
parentheses that appears after the sell-
er's name in the Seller Info section to
the left. The Auctions Profile page
features tabs that let you review the
seller's Rating, Live Auctions, Closed
Auctions, and About Me pages. The
Ratings tab appears by default. The
upper-left corner of this page displays
the seller's comments. A sun icon rep-
resents favorable comments, and a
rain cloud represents unfavorable
comments. Look for a high number
of favorable comments and very few,
if any, unfavorable comments. Below
the comments ratio, you can read the
most recent comments left by pre-
vious customers.

Take the plunge. Back on the item
page, look to the right side of the page
to bid or use the Buy Price option to
purchase the item now. The Place A
Bid box shows you the Minimum Bid,
which is determined by either the
highest current bidder or the seller.
Enter your bid amount in the text box
marked with a dollar sign and click
the radio buttons to Bid Up To This
Amount On My Behalf or Bid This
Exact Amount. The former option



The Item Page includes in-
formation such as
condition, shipping costs,
and accepted payment
methods.



^AHOO' SHOPPING *



ESS



■■ i



l**!*- I




Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 53



Shopping



monitors the bidding and automati-
cally bids every time someone else
outbids you. The Bid This Exact
Amount option displays your highest
bid right away. Click the Preview Bid
button to see the bid confirmation
screen. Click Place This Bid to con-
tinue or Cancel to back out. Check
back frequently to see the auction's
status or set up your Notification
Options by clicking the link at the
lower-left corner of your My Auctions
page. You can get messages via email
or Yahoo! Messenger.

Peddle Your Wares

You may be surprised by how
simple it is to start selling with
Yahoo! Auctions, whether you've
been bitten by the entrepreneurial
bug or just want to clean out your
garage. Without listing fees, what
have you got to lose?

The quickest way to get started as a
seller on Yahoo! Auctions is to click
the Sell Stuff link in the upper-right
corner of any Yahoo! Auctions page.
The next step is to determine the cate-
gory for the item you want to sell.
Click one of the main categories from
box number one, click any relevant



subcategories, and then click Con-
tinue to start the submission process.
The Submitting An Item page lets you
upload as many as three photos and
enter the item's title, condition, de-
scription, base price, length of auc-
tion, and shipping details. This page
also lets you set other options, such
as a Buy Price, Reserve Price, and the
auction start time and end time.
Select your accepted payment meth-
ods, such as PayPal, personal checks,
cashiers checks, money orders, credit
cards, or escrow services. Read the
disclaimer and click Continue to dis-
play the Item Page.

Review your Item Page for accuracy.
If you need to edit your Item Page,
click the Edit Auction Info button and
make the necessary changes. If your
Item Page looks good, then click the
Submit Auction button. If you notice
mistakes or would like to update the
item description after you've sub-
mitted the auction, you can still do so
by visiting your My Auctions page.
Click the hyperlinked item title from
your Selling Activity list to load the
Item Page. The upper-right corner of
the page features a You Are The Seller
box, which lets you perform several
functions, including Cancel This



Auction, Close This Auction, Cancel A
Bid, Change The Title/Description,
and Edit This Auction.

As a seller, you can take advantage
of a few more options on your My
Auctions page. Links in the lower-left
corner let you customize the email
that goes to bidders who win your
auctions. Sellers can also take advan-
tage of Yahoo!'s Bulk Loader, which
lets you more easily launch multiple
auctions. If you're serious about
selling, then download the Yahoo!
Seller's Manager to create and manage
your auctions online or offline.

Cleaning up. When your auction
ends, contact the winner to discuss
the terms. To find the seller's email
address, click My Auctions from any
Yahoo! Auctions page, click the closed
auction in question, and then scroll to
the bottom of the page. Include the
winning bid price, shipping costs,
your address, and details about your
payment and shipping policies. When
you receive payment, promptly pack
up the item and send it off. Congrat-
ulations, you're officially a Yahoo!
Auctions seller. S

by Andrew Leibman



Buying & Selling Tips

Buying and selling with Yahoo! Auctions is easy enough
that anyone can quickly set up an account and get
started. Due to the lack of one-on-one interaction, how-
ever, problems may arise if you're not cautious. Follow
these simple buying and selling tips to get the most out of
the experience.

Buyers:

Be prompt. Keep track of the auctions you're bidding on
and send payment as soon as you're declared the winner.

Be serious. Don't bid if you're not willing to buy. Yahoo! will
send you a warning the first and second times you win an auc-
tion and renege on your obligation. Yahoo! will suspend your
Yahoo! ID for 30 days if you back out a third time, and a fourth
offense results in an indefinite suspension of your Yahoo! ID.

Be cooperative. If you feel you've been misled or wronged
in some way when participating in an auction, take it up with
the seller in a calm and amiable fashion. Sellers get the last



word with regard to feedback, so give them every opportu-
nity to right the situation before leaving negative feedback.

Sellers:

Be patient. If you're having a hard time selling when you
first start out, give it some time. Bidders may be turned off by
your low (or non-existent) rating, but you'll find that bidders
are more apt to do business with you as you build a reputa-
tion, and your favorable ratings increase.

Sell cheap. Try to avoid setting a reserve price or starting
price too high. If you start low, more buyers will bid, which
raises the probability that you'll make out like a bandit.

Show respect. Every bidder is a potential buyer, and every
buyer gets to leave you feedback. Respond quickly to bid-
ders' questions and send items to auction winners as soon as
possible. If something goes wrong, even if it's the bidder/
buyer's fault, do your best to resolve the issue and avoid the
negative comment. I



54 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Shopping



Yahoo! Autos



A Pit Stop Before You Shop



As automotive information sites
go, Yahoo! Autos (autos.yahoo
.com) is as rich as a decent
wrecking yard, yet as inviting as a well-
run showroom. If you're thinking
about buying a new or used car any-
time soon, park a spell here first.

There's a lot to see at Yahoo! Autos,
so we'll stick to the highlights in this
overview of the site. At the same time,
there's plenty of overlap, meaning that
you'll see some of the same features
over and over as you nose around the
site. Each of the following sections cor-
responds to a tab near the top of each
page, starting with the Home tab.

Home

This tab has a little bit of everything
for anyone researching her next car. If
you're interested in particular makes
and models, start your search in the
New Cars and User Cars boxes. For ex-
ample, in the New Cars section, select
Honda in the Make menu and '06
Element in the Model field. If you'd
rather check out what's available in a
certain type of car, such as those hy-
brids you've been seeing around town,
try the Category menu below.




The Used Cars section lets you find
ads for cars in your area. There's also a
Sell Your Car On Yahoo! Autos link to
a page where you can place an online
ad and a Kelley Blue Book Pricing link
to a calculator that can help you figure
out how much your vehicle is worth.
Follow the link in the Certified Pre-
Owned Cars box if you'd like to see the
terms and conditions of different man-
ufacturers' CPO programs.

The Get Price Quotes section lets
you peruse new car deals in your area.
Farther down the page, you'll see
news and reviews of new models, as
well as listings of the most popular ve-
hicles in a couple of rotating cate-
gories. Some of the articles we found
included "Fuel Conservation Tips"
and "Best Used Cars Under $15,000."

Finally, the Resources section in the
lower third of the page is a grab bag of
links to other parts of the Yahoo! Autos
site. You can jump to reliability ratings
from J. D. Power (www.jdpower.com),
free and pay reviews from Consumer
Reports (www.consumerreports.org),
and a free check of a VIN (vehicle iden-
tification number) through AutoCheck
.com. We couldn't use some features'
drop-down menus in Mozilla-based
browsers such as Firefox and
Seamonkey, although they
worked in Internet Explorer.

New Cars

Much of the content on the
first page of the New Cars tab is
accessible from the Home tab,
but it's a little easier to navigate
here. Car makes, categories,
and prices are laid out in tables
instead of in drop-down menus.
The New Car Model Showroom
and New Model Showcase just



below these let you ogle without
salesmen bothering you.

Halfway down the page are quick
links to a few of the most popular fea-
ture comparisons between models.
(There are a lot more under the
Compare Cars link, described below.)
These popularity contests not only let
you know which cars, SUVs, and
trucks are catching other car buyers'
eyes, but also indicate which vehicle is
probably the better deal.

The Getting Started area can help
you figure out what type of car you're
looking for through the Auto Advisor's
feature menus (www.myproductad
visor.com/mpa/auto/inputSummary
.do) and interior and exterior photos.
There are also 360-degree virtual tours,
but we found that these don't cover
every single configuration. For in-
stance, we chose an SUV with a manual
transmission, but the interior views
showed an automatic shifter. The
Rebates and Incentives link can tell you
whether there are any special deals on a
particular car before you hit the lots.

The subtabs under the New Cars
tab include:

Buy A Car. Along with local dealer
quotes and comparison generators,
this subtab has a Calculate Payments
link that can help you plan financing.

Latest Models. Check out color
photos of new and redesigned autos
in 10 categories.

Most Popular. Instead of a mere
two categories as found on Yahoo!
Autos' home page, the Most Popular
subtab presents 11 lists of the top 10
hottest vehicles of the week. From
luxury sedans to trucks and vans, this
is where you'll find out what's going
to be sharing the road with you.

Compare Cars. Scroll down for an
expanded list of popular compar-
isons, including the Ford Mustang GT
Premium Coupe versus the Dodge
Charger RT.

Build A Car. Like most auto manu-
facturers' sites, Yahoo! Autos lets you
build a virtual car from the options
available. Click the Build A Car
subtab to start the process.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 55



Shopping



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Your road to a new car should begin at Yahoo! Autos.



Future Cars. These sneak peeks in-
clude photos, expected shipping pe-
riods, and estimated prices.

Used Cars

It's tougher to buy a used car than a
new one, even though your wallet
might say the opposite. You'll have to
consider questions that don't come up
with a new vehicle. For one, how well
did the previous owner treat the car?
For another, did he have any fender
benders? How much warranty is left? Is
100,000 miles on the odometer as wor-
risome as it was in cars 20 years ago?
And which parts seem fine now, but
are troublesome in particular models?

Thankfully, Yahoo! is here to help
with the Used Cars tab. Most of the
features on the tab's home page lead to
sub tabs, so we'll jump right into those.

Find A Car. The Quick Search fea-
ture on the Find A Car subtab, pro-
vided by AutoTrader, lets you shop
for specific cars among dealerships
near your ZIP code. If you'd rather
search by state and city, scroll to the
bottom of the page and click Browse
Used Cars By Location.



Toward the middle of the page, we
found articles with plenty of buying
and selling advice from Consumer
Reports and other sources. One of
our perennial favorites here is the
Used Cars: Best & Worst article.

Sell Your Car. Here, you can adver-
tise a car you want to sell. Prices range
from $24.95 to $34.95. You can also
get here by clicking the Post An Ad
link on the Used Cars tab's home page.

Blue Book Pricing. Kelley's Blue
Book is indispensable whether you're
buying or selling. This value calcu-
lator helps you figure out what a car is
worth between private individuals, as
a trade-in, or at retail on a lot. Yeah,
those prices are all different.

Certified Pre-Owned. Thorough
inspections and warranty coverage
make certified pre- owned cars worth
a little more money to many buyers.
Manufacturers vary in the terms of
their CPO programs, but you can
compare them at a glance at used-
cars. autos.yahoo.com/carcenter/cpo
center/index.html. Yahoo! throws in
a handful of relevant articles, al-
though some are from the not-quite-
disinterested-party Lexus.



Reviews. ConsumerGuide Auto
motive (auto.consumerguide.com)
provides moderately detailed reviews
for most car models under the Reviews
subtab. We once again had to resort to
Internet Explorer to get the menus to
work correctly.

A couple of nice touches in the re-
views include replacement costs of
common parts such as brakes and al-
ternators, along with notes about fac-
tory changes and fixes incorporated
into recent model years. On the other
hand, we found that some popular ve-
hicles hadn't been reviewed in as
many as five years.

Vehicle History Records. Yahoo !'s
partner AutoCheck provides limited
VIN lookups. Type in the ID number
from a 1981 or newer car and you'll get
information such as the car's mileage
and titling history and special brand-
ings such as a Salvage designation. A
more detailed report will cost you.

Tips & Advice. These helpful arti-
cles cover buying and selling, war-
ranty issues, maintenance, and other
automotive topics.

Research

The Research tab provides a central
location for features found elsewhere
on the Yahoo! Autos site. You'll find
reviews (from both professional
writers and individual users), com-
parison tools, vehicle photos, and fi-
nancial resources all in one place.

Finance

Speaking of financial resources, click
the Finance tab for payment calculators
and auto loan interest rates. Note that
the Lock In A Low Rate Today section
takes you offsite to loan applications
from a couple of partner companies.

There's also a link to get a free credit
report from Experian (www.experian
.com). However, we should point out
that U. S. citizens are already entitled
by law to one free credit report per
year, and www.annualcreditreport.com
is the only online source authorized by



56 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Shopping



. . . ■. . . .-,....



W -r




The Auto Advisor link under the New Cars tab takes you offsite to help you determine
what kind of vehicle best suits your wants and needs.



the Federal Trade Commission. If
you'd rather accept Experian's offer,
you'll also be signing up for its
CreditCheck Monitoring service for
$9.95 per month after a 30-day free
trial, so read the fine print.

The Finance Calculators subtab
takes you to the same loan and lease
worksheets as the Calculate Payments
button on the Finance tab's home page.
The Credit Center subtab has some
useful articles under Credit Education,
plus a Credit Analyzer link that lets you
estimate your credit.

Car Insurance

There are more commercial pitches
for Yahoo! 's partners under the Car
Insurance tab, though you can get pre-
mium quotes from a couple of sources.
Scroll down for interesting articles on
how much insurance you need and a
glossary of terms you'll encounter.

Maintain

The Maintain tab introduces new
drivers to many of the maintenance is-
sues car owners should know about. It



also gives do-it-yourselfers informa-
tion on the skills and procedures
needed for common repairs. Some as-
sertions here are a little dubious, such
as, "Most vehicle manufacturers rec-
ommend changing the oil once a year
or every 7,500 miles in passenger car
and light truck gasoline engines."

The Maintain tab's subtabs —
Warranty, Inspection Center, and
Repair Tips & Advice — simply go to
the same pages as the links featured
prominently on the tab's home page.
There's also a link to car manufac-
turer contact info at www.consumer
action.gov/pdfs/CarListings.pdf.

My Auto Center

This tab keeps a list of the vehicles
you've "built" using Yahoo! Autos'
Build A Car feature, which can help
you comparison shop. You can also
manage your own cars' service records
in the My Garage section halfway down
the page. Scroll all the way down for
travel directions through Yahoo! Maps.

You'll need a free Yahoo! ID user-
name and password to use most
features in My Auto Center. If you



don't already have one, you'll be al-
lowed to sign up.

The Road Ahead

The amount of information on
Yahoo! Autos is only daunting until
you figure out which material is
unique and which is redundant. You
can save time by clicking the tab and
subtab that sounds most relevant to
your needs without worrying that
you're going to miss something cru-
cial stored elsewhere.

Yahoo! Autos really puts you in the
driver's seat, so to speak. It's a great
place to cool your heels before (and
after) you buy those wheels. S

by Marty Sems



Yahoo! Autos Custom

Flathead street rodders, lead sled
restorers, muscle car maniacs,
Honda tuners . . . every generation of
gearhead can find something of in-
terest at Yahoo! Autos Custom. This
new site, in beta at this writing, parks
at custom.autos.yahoo.com.

Feast your orbs on photos and
profiles of members' modified cars,
with the newest submissions found
under the Gallery tab. You can check
out the latest arrivals in all their va-
riety or look up modified versions of
your favorite makes and models.
Also on the home page are news bits
about aftermarket parts, celebrities'
rides, and the like, plus a top 10 list
of the most popular parts.

Sign up for a Yahoo! ID, and you
can contribute your own photos and
comments to the site. There's a mes-
sage board for most makes, including
high-po names such as Maybach and
Saleen. And because no one can
gauge a modded car's worth like an-
other modder, there are links to auc-
tions and classified ads at the foot of
the page. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 57



Shopping



Yahoo!
Classifieds

Put Your Goods On The 'Net




Online classifieds aren't new
by any means. You don't
need much in the way of
digital trickery to create an ad that in-
vites readers to buy your goods. In
fact, some people simply put their ads
in online forums, hoping that forum
members and visitors will glance over
them. But many other sellers head to
the sites that focus on classifieds.
These sites often have features that
help sellers show off their goods.
Craigslist (www.craigslist.com), for
example, lets users post basic, un-
structured ads that have brief descrip-
tions and small pictures.

Yahoo! has its own classifieds sec-
tion, which lets sellers post pictures
and detailed descriptions of their
merchandise. If you've never posted
an ad or shopped on classifieds
sites before, you'll love Yahoo!



Classifieds (classifieds.yahoo.com).
The Web portal has a large cate-
gory system that helps browsers
quickly find the items they're
looking for. Sellers can easily
post their ads, then kick
back and wait for the offers
to roll in. We'll show you
the ins and outs of selling
and buying items on Ya-
hoo! Classifieds.
If you like Yahoo!'s main
page but plan to visit the
Classifieds section often, add a
Classifieds icon to the top of
your Yahoo! home page. Simply
click the Down arrow next to one of
the three icons to the left of the main
page's Yahoo! title and then click All
Y! Services at the bottom of the list.
When the list expands, scroll up and
click Classifieds. An icon that links to
the Classifieds section will appear.

You won't need a Yahoo! ID to
browse the listings and email sellers,
but you'll have to sign in when you
post your first ad. If you don't al-
ready have a free Yahoo! ID, see the
article "Identify Yourself on page 20
to learn more about the benefits of a
Yahoo! username.

Safety First

You know that the 'Net has its
share of dangers and that malicious
users try to scam buyers and sellers,
but unless you spend a lot of time re-
searching scams, you probably don't
know about some of the rip-off
methods that are circulating on the



Internet today. To that end, Yahoo!
Classifieds includes a Buying &
Selling Safety tab at the top of the
main Yahoo! Classifieds page. We rec-
ommend checking it out before you
dive into the classifieds section — once
you find the perfect bike or kitten,
you won't want to bother reading
scam descriptions.

Chances are, you'll recognize some
of the scams listed here as soon as you
visit the page. Some of the scams are
obvious: If a person offers to give you
a cashier's check that has more money
than the price of the item you're
selling, you're not dealing with a trust-
worthy person. If you see an item that
is normally fairly expensive at a
ridiculously low price, steer clear. And
of course, you'll want to be cautious
when dealing with sellers that ask you
to put money into an escrow account.
But the site also offers some info you
might not have. For example, some
scammers try to send invoices that
look like they come from Yahoo!.
Yahoo! points out that it doesn't issue
invoices. The section also links to
Yahoo! 's Commerce Resource Center,
which contains various Yahoo! guide-
lines and policies, as well as links to
consumer-oriented sites.

Be sure to check out the Privacy
Policy (you'll see a link at the bottom
of the Buying & Selling Safety page),
as Yahoo! keeps some personal infor-
mation about you, such as your name
and address, as well as your comput-
er's IP (Internet Protocol) address.
You'll also find plenty of tips for
sellers in the My Classifieds tab (click
the Smart Selling Tips link on the
right side of this area). The Smart
Selling section includes four topics:
Avoid Fraud, Sell Safely, Manage
Your Ads, and Improve Your Ads.
Check out these tips before you sell
your items, as some of the informa-
tion applies to situations before the
sale. For example, Yahoo! points out
that it does not save copies of item
listings. It suggests that you print a
copy for your records. After all, if
a buyer claims your listing made



58 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Shopping



promises you don't remem-
ber, you'll want to have a
copy of the original listing
on-hand (print copies of the
full listing and the smaller
listing that appears in search
results to be safe).

Shop 'Til You Drop



"Y^HOO* CLASSIFIEDS



Search |



Quick Search send


Place a full page ad and reach a
nationwide audience of millions!

Post an Ad Now




Find I temsFDr Safe


Keywords:


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» Pasta Free Ad


Advanced Search [ Search 1





Browse Categories



When you first visit the
Yahoo! Classifieds section,
you'll find that the default
Quick Search engine is the
For Sale engine. It's ex-
tremely simple: It asks only
for a keyword (a search term
that identifies the type of
item you seek) and the loca-
tion from which you'd like
to buy it. Many of the sellers
who post listings here won't
ship the item to a buyer — if
you want to buy items you
find here, you may have to
go pick them up.

There are several other
Classifieds search engines, in-
cluding Autos, Rentals, and
Personals. If you click any of these
tabs, the topic's search engine will ap-
pear; the rest of the page won't change.
However, once you start a search,
you'll find yourself in the topic's sec-
tion (Yahoo! Autos, for example). If
you want to stay within the friendly
confines of Yahoo! Classifieds while
you search, you're better off sticking to
the For Sale search engine or browsing
the For Sale category below.

If you want a more detailed search,
click the For Sale search engine's
Advanced Search link (you don't need
to enter any information before you
click Advanced Search). The Modify
Your Search page has several fields
that help you weed out irrelevant
search results. The Location field lets
you choose between searching an en-
tire city, state, or ZIP code, or limiting
the search to a certain number of
miles from a specific location. You
can specify the miles and location.
Perhaps the best part of the Advanced



Computers

Electronics and Cameras
Everything Else
Furniture

■ .". ■■ : ■:



Home & Garden
Jewelry & Watches
Movies S DVD



Pet Supplies
Sports & Outdoors



Used Cars
New Cars

Research

■- Pricing

» Sell Your Car



Personals

Search Profiles
7 Day Free Trial
Take the Tour



Hot Jobs



I ' Advice
Search by Job Category



Housing

Homes for Sale



'" Sell Your Home



* Rent You r Apa rtm en t



Pets

Cats






; :



» Create a Free Profile



Post a Free Ad



Wicked



Copyright ©2006 Yi



Yahoo! Classifieds has an uncluttered layout that will help you quickly
find or sell all kinds of items.



Search section is the Category field.
The drop-down menu lets you pick
from more than 20 categories, further
reducing the number of wrong search
results you'll see. The section also has
Keywords and Price Range fields.

Just Browsing

You can also search Yahoo! Classi-
fieds by browsing the categories and
subcategories that appear on the main
page. Only the For Sale category has
standard Yahoo! Classifieds; the other
categories take you to different Yahoo!
sections. You can learn about each
area by clicking the Help link at the
top of that section's main page.

The For Sale category has almost all
of the subcategories you'll find in
the Advanced Search's drop-down
menu (oddly enough, the Advanced
Search has one extra subcategory:
Automotive Parts & Accessories).
When you enter a subcategory, you'll



find a Sponsor Results sec-
tion at the top that has rele-
vant advertising. Below this
section is the Featured List-
ings area. Sellers who pay
for Featured Classifieds can
put a picture next to the
item description. Basic List-
ings, the real meat of Yahoo!
Classifieds, appear below the
Featured Listings.

Each listing has a Title
(generally the name of the
item), a short description, a
price, and the item's loca-
tion. In some cases you'll see
a camera icon next to the
item name: this indicates
that the full listing includes a
picture. If you want to know
more about a particular
item, click the name. The
listing generally includes a
picture as well as contact in-
formation for the seller. In
many cases, the seller won't
offer a phone number, so
you'll need to use the Reply
To This Ad link. Be sure to
include your email address in your
reply so the seller can reach you.
Yahoo! Classifieds matches buyers
and sellers, but it doesn't take any
part in the sale.

Sell Your Stuff

If you have some stuff around the
house that you're not using anymore,
snap some pics and head to Yahoo!
Classifieds' Post An Ad section by
clicking its tab at the top of the page.
The first thing you'll notice is that not
all ads are free. You can post ads to
any of the For Sale categories without
paying a dime, but if you want to sell
a car, a house, or a pet, you'll need to
cough up some cash. You'll also need
to pay to post a job (but you can post
resumes free).

To sell an item in one of the For
Sale subcategories listed on the For
Sale tab, click the subcategory's link.
If you haven't already signed into



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 59



Shopping



Top 10 Weird Listings



^ Bay is well-known for weird auctions, but other classifieds have their fair
C share, too. Here are some unusual items we stumbled across in Yahoo!
Classifieds and other Yahoo! sections that let users hawk goods. I



#


Item


Price


10


Used Wishing Well Bubble Gum Machines


$395 each


9


Wooden Rowboat


$1,500


8


Resume Help


$5


7


Pet Memorials


$0


6


Tanning Bed


$600


5


Freezer


$0


4


Brilliant Writer To Pen Your Personal Ad


$50


3


Professional Karaoke At Your Party


$50


2


Kitten


10 cents


1


15 Easy Southern Recipes


$5.50



Yahoo!, you'll need to do so here.
Next, you'll need to choose a Basic or
Featured Listing. The Basic listing
gives you a free, seven- day listing that
includes a single photo and 200 char-
acters in which to describe your item.
You can expect to fit roughly 35
words into the Item Description box.

When you reach the Your Contact
Information area of the ad setup, you
can enter a contact name. Keep in
mind that your Yahoo! ID will
also be visible when you post the
ad. You can also enter an email
address. This address won't be
visible to potential buyers, but
they can use the Reply To This Ad
feature to send a message to this
email address. Adding a photo is a
snap — simply click the Browse
button, navigate to the picture on
your hard drive, and then click
Open. You can preview your ad
before you post it to Classifieds.

Not surprisingly, the Featured
Listing, which costs $9.95, ex-
pands some of the Basic Listing
offerings and adds some extra
features. The ad runs three weeks
longer, you can display six pic-
tures (one of which will appear in
that subcategory's search results),
and you get no fewer than 1,950



characters (roughly 360 words) to de-
scribe what you're selling. Yahoo!
Classifieds also monitors your listing
and reports on the ad's performance.
Whether you choose the free or paid
listing option, you are responsible for
negotiating with potential buyers and
arranging for payment and delivery.

If you want to sell an item in one of
Yahoo !'s other sections, return to the
Post An Ad tab and choose one of the




Some of the Classifieds links take you to other sections in
Yahoo! If you click Sports Tickets, for example, you'll find
yourself in the Yahoo! Tickets section.



appropriate categories (each category
title lists the price of the section's basic
listing). Some of these sections are par-
ticularly large, so we've included sepa-
rate articles that will help you sell your
products in them. If you want to sell a
car, check out "Yahoo! Autos" on page
55. If you're planning to move and
need to unload your house, don't miss
the article "Real Estate" on page 62.

Unlike eBay, which prohibits live
animal auctions, Yahoo! dedicates an
entire section to pet sales and adop-
tions. If you want to sell an animal,
check out this section. If you want to
sell pet accessories, including pet
food, you can post a free listing in the
For Sale: Pet Supplies subcategory.

As with many other Yahoo! sec-
tions, users who have a Yahoo! ID can
keep track of their ads in the My
Classifieds tab. You can also edit your
current ads from this section.

When Things Go South

Although Yahoo! Classifieds seems
relatively free of obnoxious users,
Yahoo! takes abuse seriously. One of
the section's main tabs is the Report
Abuse tab, which has a short form
you'll need to fill out to lodge a com-
plaint. If you spot a problem user,
write down his Yahoo! ID and the
Ad's ID before you head to this
page, as you'll need to supply both.
Keep in mind that the violation
must affect Yahoo! Classi-fieds —
you are responsible for the transac-
tion after you make contact with
the buyer or seller. The form lists
five violations: Impersonation,
Spam, Harassment/Threats, Ob-
scenity, and Prohibited Items.

If you spot copyright infringe-
ment, visit the Copyright And
Intellectual Property Policy page
(you'll find a link in the Report
Abuse tab). But don't let these
tools scare you — if you're a cau-
tious buyer or seller, you don't
have much to worry about, [rs]

by Joshua Gulick



60 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Shopping



Flowers & Gifts



Shop Big For Small Gifts




Online gift shops aren't new.
You can find Web sites for
major florists and gift re-
tailers with the help of a search engine,
but Yahoo! offers a gift- shopping twist
that individual stores can't provide.
Rather than create yet another online
gift store, the Web portal giant created
a gift section that pulls offers from a
variety of popular and obscure re-
tailers. The Flowers 8c Gifts area
lets you see items and compare
prices. Once you select an item,
you'll buy it from the online re-
tailer that sells it. (Yahoo! sends
you directly to that product's
page.) Click the Shopping icon
and link on Yahoo! 's main page to
find the Flowers 8c Gifts area.

Sign Up & Shop

You can shop in the Flowers 8c
Gifts section without registering a
Yahoo! ID, but the free account
offers some worthwhile shopping
features. To sign up for a new
Yahoo! ID, click the Sign In link
that appears on the Flowers 8c



Gifts page. You can read more about
Yahoo! ID registration in the article
"Identify Yourself on page 20.

Your Yahoo! account includes the
Save Lists tool, which keeps track of
items you're thinking about buying.
When you see a gift you'd like to
revisit, click the item descrip-
tion's Save To My Lists link and
choose the list to which you'd
like to assign the item. The tool
has three lists: All My Stuff, My
Wish List, and Stuff I Own. If
you want a different list, sim-
ply click Create A New List and
enter a name in the Explorer
User Prompt window.

You can view the items in your lists
at any time by clicking the Go To My
Lists link that appears under product
descriptions. The tool also lets you add
notes to the items in your lists, so you
can remind yourself why you selected
them. If you've compiled a list of items
that you'd like to share with others,
visit your list and then click Convert




Why browse one store after another when you can search
tons of stores simultaneously via Yahool's Shopping section?



Now in the Convert This To A Pick
List And Share Your Knowledge With
Others section. The tool lets you de-
scribe the items and explain why you
created the list. Once you complete the
Pick List, you can send email invita-
tions to friends with whom you'd like
to share the list.

Take The Tour

If you want to search for a particular
item, you can enter a keyword in the
Search field at the top of the Flowers 8c
Gifts main page, but we prefer to
browse the categories. If you like to
wander down digital aisles, then set
aside a few hours and head to Flowers
8c Gifts' two most important areas.

Find The Perfect Gift. You can
quickly refine your search by using
Flowers 8c Gifts' search tool, which
helps you describe the recipient. Once
you choose Birthday in Step 1, for ex-
ample, you'll specify an age range,
your relationship with the recipient,
and her lifestyle. The tool then recom-
mends a variety of categories that
might interest your recipient.

Flowers 8c Gifts. The left-hand navi-
gation bar breaks the section's treats
into more than two dozen categories
and subcategories. If you're looking for
two dozen roses, you can skip the
single-dozen rose packages by click-
ing the Two Dozen Roses sub-
category. Don't overlook the Gift
Accessories area the bottom of the
navigation bar, which includes Gift
Bags and Greeting Cards.

Refine, Compare & Buy

When you shop, you'll see a
Refine Results section on the left
side of the page. If you're looking
for items within a price range,
enter it here and click Refine.
Finally, compare items you like
most by clicking the nearby
checkboxes and then clicking
Compare Side By Side, [rs]

by Joshua Gulick



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 61



Shopping



Real Estate

Yahoo! Takes You Home



Until the Internet took the
world by storm, people
planning to move to dis-
tant locations often scanned
newspapers and relied on real
estate agents to find neighbor-
hoods and homes. Real Estate
agents still have an important
role in the home buying
process, but many people
now use the Internet to find
descriptions and pictures of
available homes and apart-
ments, as well as informa-
tion about mortgages and
moving companies. With
Yahoo! Real Estate, Yahoo! brings
much of this information together
under one digital roof.

If you're planning to move in the
near future, visit Yahoo!'s Web site
and then click Real Estate in the Y!
Services area. If you think you'll visit
the Real Estate section often, click the
arrow next to one of the icons at the
top of the main Yahoo! page and then
select Real Estate. The easy-to-spot
Real Estate icon now appears at the
top of the page.

Welcome Home

You won't need to register a Yahoo!
ID to take advantage of Yahoo! Real
Estate's main page and some of its
customizable sections. If you already
know the city or ZIP code to which
you plan to move, you can immedi-
ately find some information about the
area by clicking the Choose Location
link at the top-right corner of the
main page. Once you enter the infor-
mation and click Continue, you'll find
that the main page automatically fills
out the Neighborhood Profile section




near the bottom left of the page. The
section offers some basic population
info and links to more detailed infor-
mation, including cost of living and
temperature averages, as well as air
quality and crime indexes. You can
also find the Neighborhood Profiles
by clicking the Tools tab at the top of
the page.

You'll find a row of tabs just below
the Choose Location link, including
Apartments For Rent, Homes For
Sale, and My Real Estate, among
others. The row of tabs appears on
every page in the Real Estate section,
and each tab leads to the topic's
main page. Another area that appears
on all Real Estate pages is Features.
The Features section lists several im-
portant categories relevant to each
page, including Classifieds, In-
surance, and Resources. These links
take you to features and services lo-
cated on other pages. For example,
the Rent Your Apartment link under



Features on the Real Estate Home
page links to the Rent Your Apart-
ment Or House On Yahoo! Real
Estate service that also appears on
the Apartments For Rent page.

If you click one of these links and
are unsure where you ended up, look
for the Real Estate link under the tabs.
You'll see the site's Web page path
(for example: Real Estate > Resources
& Tools > Neighborhood Profiles),
which offers a bigger picture of your
location within the site.

Real Estate's main page also
offers Find A Home and Find
A Rental search engines that
let you specify some basic
preferences. Fill out the
search fields, click the appro-
priate radio button (such as Ex-
isting Homes, Foreclosures, or
New Homes), and then click
Submit to see the listings.

Don't overlook the Fea-
tured Videos and Real Estate
News at the bottom right of the main
Real Estate page. You'll find videos of
extravagant houses and articles about
such varied topics as solving the mys-
tery of a smelly water heater, tips for
ditching credit card debt, and out-
looks for mortgages.

Homes For Sale

The first thing you'll notice about
the Homes For Sale page (click the
Homes For Sale tab at the top to get
there) is that it has nearly the same
search engine that appears on the
main Real Estate page. Use the radio
buttons to search Existing Homes,
Foreclosures, New Homes, or Yahoo!
Classifieds. (If you're planning to use
Yahoo! Classifieds, be sure to check
out "Yahoo! Classifieds" on page 58.)
In some cases Yahoo! partners may
offer search results for the neighbor-
hood in which you're looking.

The search engine doesn't let you
specify many preferences initially, but
you can create a much more detailed
search by clicking the Advanced
Search link at the bottom of the



62 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Shopping



Classifieds

■ Sell Your Home
Rent Your



Apartment



■ Mortgage Rates

■ Online Rats Quotes

■ Refinance Loans & Rates

■ Home Equity Loans &
Rates

■ Free Credit Reports



■ Find & Compare
REALTORS®

■ Find a Mover

■ Homeowner's Insurance

■ Renter's Insurance

Tools

■ Whafs Mv Home Worth?

■ ___L= L.

:::! Reports
ire Center

■ Home Service Center



■ List Commercial Property



4.48% 6.90%



See Local Mortgage Rates




search engine. Click the
Residential, Foreclosures, or
Commercial tab and then fill
out the extra search fields. If
you're looking for a residen-
tial home, you'll find that
you can narrow your search
from an entire city to within
1 mile of a specific address.
You can also exclude any
listings that don't include
photos or virtual tours.

If you're trying to find
houses that are close to a
particular street address,
such as your place of work,
click Submit and then click
the View Results On Map
button when the search re-
sults appear. A new Yahoo!
Local window will open,
which means you can return
to the search results page
without closing the map.
Yahoo! indicates relevant
homes on the map with
small house icons and lists
the specific home addresses
in the SmartView bar on the
right side of the window.
Run your cursor over the
icons to see street addresses
and run your cursor over the
SmartView links to see a pic-
ture of the home (if avail-
able), its price, and a short
description. You can click
the icons or the links to find addi-
tional information.

Real Estate's Homes For Sale sec-
tion also lets you list your home,
thanks to the Yahoo! Classifieds area.
You'll need to register a Yahoo! ID
(see "Identify Yourself on page 20) to
take advantage of this feature. Click
the Sell Your Home Today! link below
the Sell Your Home section and then
choose the categories and subcate-
gories into which you'd like to place
your ad. The ad, which is available for
$49.95, runs for 21 days. You'll need
to provide some information about
your home, such as the house's
number of bedrooms and bathrooms.



"YS^OOl REAL ESTATE j ££SS 55



H^BBr^^r^B



;'. Home Loans Center - Find. Compare. 5 Graph Rates



| Find a Rental



City & State, or Zip: Lincoln. Nebraska

Price Range: $-0 v t0 No limit v




Beds: Any v Batng: |Any

Search For: ® Existing Homes

O Yahoo! Classifieds
ONew Homes
O Foreclosures







The Average Credit
Score is 678,

How Do You Rate?

I Click Here » I



jTree

Lendin B Tree

■ Intro Rates from 4.74%
■ 5.74% Home Equity
■ Get a $175.000 Loan for
$E7S/mo



■ Online Condo Rate Quotes

■ Other Online Rate Quotes

■ What is Homeowners
Insurance

■ Home I nve




Loan Amount: | ] $ Term {years): |30

Interest Rate: 5.5 % Show table?: f No"



Find a Local REALTOR®

■ Find & Compare

■ Get Home Prices



Sell your home to FastCash4Homes.com. We buy homes
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Refinance Out of ARMs



iates_- Real Estate Ager



ation of REALTORS®



Yahoo! Real Estate stores most of Yahool's home buying, renting, and
selling tools. Although it occasionally links to other tools, such as Yahoo!
Classifieds, you'll find the Real Estate tabs atop almost every page.



The page also asks for some optional
info, such as the home's square
footage and the date in which it was
built. You can make sure that your ad
appears ahead of basic listings by
paying an additional $12.95.

Apartments For Rent

The Apartments section has the
same rental search engine that ap-
pears on the main Real Estate page.
The search engine looks for apart-
ment, house and room rentals, se-
nior living, and condos by default,
but you can specify a particular resi-
dence in the Property Type field. You



can also choose a price
range and the number of
bedrooms and bathrooms
you prefer. If you want a
more detailed search, click
the Advanced Search link at
the bottom of the search en-
gine and then choose your
preferences from the larger
Rentals search engine. As
with the Search Homes For
Sale search engine, you can
click the View Results On
Map button to view a map
that shows the location of
the listed rental properties.
This map's SmartView bar
lets you choose a variety
of entities that the map
can also display, such as
ATM, Grocery Stores, Pub-
lic Transit, Schools, Restau-
rants, and Shopping. You
can also modify your search
without returning to the
listings. However, the map
feature doesn't open in a
separate window as it does
when you search for houses.
If you'd like to rent out
your property and have a
Yahoo! ID, click the Rent
Your Property Today link
below the Rent Your Apart-
ment Or House section.
Property owners can choose
between two listing types.
The Basic Listing, which is available
for $34.95, lasts for 30 days and lets
the owner post a single photo. It also
lets the owner check up on statistics
related to the ad daily. If you want to
show off your rental to potential
buyers, opt for the $54.95 Featured
Listing, which also lasts for 30 days.
It offers better placement in search
results, lets you add a link that con-
nects viewers to your own Web site,
and supports up to six pictures of
your property.

Renters who are looking for a
roommate or want to share a rental
should check out the Roommate
Center. You can create a free profile



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 63



Shopping



and use Roommate Finder to meet
compatible roommates. When you
sign up, you'll have an inbox that
stores roommate matches. The service
matches roommates in the United
States, Canada, and Europe. Yahoo!
partnered with RoommateClick.com,
which provides Roommate Finder, to
offer these rental tools.

Home Loans

The National Mortgage Rates sec-
tion of the Home Loans' main page
offers rates for common loans, such
as 15- and 30-Year Fixed. The chart
also lets you see last week's national
rates. If you want to look beyond a
week, check out the nearby Mort-
gage Rate Trends graph, which
covers the past three months. This
page also includes Lending Tree's
Get A Quote tool and an easy-to-un-
derstand Loan Payment Calculator.

This section's Features bar is
much smaller than other tabs' Fea-
tures areas, but it has some
worthwhile tools, including
the mortgage and rent vs.
own calculators.



Tools

The Tools section has several
small offerings that will help you
find, sell, or rent a home. The Fea-
tures bar on the left side of the page
is particularly lengthy here and of-
fers a Libraries category that in-
cludes a Renter's Library and a
House Facts area. The Tools page
also offers a Find An Agent tool that
lets you receive bids from agents
without disclosing your identity.
You can use the tool free. Don't
overlook the Resource Center, which
includes additional articles, such as a
Moving Checklist and tips about
buying insurance.

My Real Estate

If you have a free Yahoo! ID, you
can take advantage of the My Real
Estate section, which keeps track of
your home, neighborhood, and
rental searches. (You'll need to save



Moving & Insurance

If you're ready to start
planning to move into your
new apartment or house,
check out this tab. The Mov-
ing Services section contains
relevant ads, but the Moving
Tools section offers a Mov-
ing Checklist that beats most
moving checklists we've seen
on the 'Net. Thanks to the
checkboxes, you can actually
check off the list as you near
the moving date. You can
save the checklist, too, al-
though you'll need to log in
to your Yahoo! ID to use the
checklist feature. You'll also
find a Mover's Library that
has tips and tricks for mov-
ing and an Insurance Ser-
vices section.



"iXHOOf LOCAL JE?--..-"^» !



.£? Prudential



* Map for Q Home Search Resul'



these searches — the feature doesn't
save them automatically.) Click the
My Real Estate tab on the main Real
Estate page, enter your ID informa-
tion, and (if you're using a personal
computer) check the Remember My
ID On This Computer box, so you
won't need to log in the next time
you visit the My Real Estate tab.

The main My Real Estate page has
three sections: Saved Neighbor-
hoods, Saved Listings, and Saved
Searches. You won't find any searches
here if you just logged in to your
Yahoo! ID account, but you can now
save searches. Luckily, the area has
links to the search engines, so simply
find the search you'd like to start,
click it, and look for a new place to
live. When you encounter something
you want to save, look for the Save
link or button, which is near the top
of the page. If you want to save your
search results, for example, you'll
find a Save Search link. If you're
looking at a home's profile, you'll
see a Save Ad button. Once
you've saved items, you can
quickly find them again by
returning to your My Real
Estate section.



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Thanks to a mapping feature, you can quickly determine how far
potential homes are from you favorite location. The SmartView bar
links to profiles of each home. You can also use the Driving Directions
feature to map a route before you visit the homes in person.



Help Is A Click Away

If you find yourself lost in
Yahoo! Real Estate's maze of
tabs, look for the Help link in
the upper-right corner of
every page. The link takes you
to Real Estate-specific help
topics, such as How Do I Use
The Agent Finder? You'll
also find a list of the Top 5
Questions. If you discover a
problem with a listing or an-
other part of the Real Es-
tate service, click the Report
Abuse link and let Yahoo!
know what you think. Qjs]

by Joshua Gulick



64 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Shopping



The Online
Bargain Basement

Yahoo! Bargains & Sales Is A Haven For The Thrifty




Getting more for less is one of
the credos of the bargain
shopper. Exhibiting a display
of purchasing savvy as she nimbly
darts from clearance rack to clearance
rack, the bargain shopper has an in-
nate knack for finding amazingly low
prices at any retail store. The sly grin
she exhibits lets you know the items
in her bag are at least 25% off.

Yahoo! knows that a healthy num-
ber of consumers are searching for
low prices on anything from inflat-
able beds to treadmills. A subsection
of its Yahoo! Shopping page, Yahoo!
Bargains & Sales has thousands of
items marked down if you're looking
to save a little cash and walk away
with name-brand goods.

To reach Yahoo! Bargains & Sales,
go to the Yahoo! Shopping home page
(shopping.yahoo.com) and click More.
Click the Bargains & Sales link on the
next page. You can also reach the
Bargains & Sales page by hovering your
mouse pointer over the More link and



clicking Bargains & Sales link on the
fly- out menu.

What You Can Expect

Most of the discounts you'll
find in Yahoo! Bargains & Sales
don't require a PhD in eco-
nomics to understand. Yahoo!
uses the time-honored slashed-
price approach for most of the
Bargains & Sales listings. For
items offered from a single
merchant, you'll see the original
price in a strikethrough format and the
discounted price listed above it. We
found an Audiovox 6.4-inch Under
Cabinet LCD TV for $140 on Bargains
& Sales. With a $399 original price, we
would have saved 64%. When multiple
merchants are selling a particular
product, a Compare Prices button will
replace this format.

Certain retailers who sell through
Yahoo! Bargains & Sales offer addi-
tional deals. When you see a Deals
Available link below an item's Save To
My Lists and Go To My Lists links, a
seller is offering bargain opportunities
in addition to a price reduction. If you
click this link, a fly-out box should ap-
pear that details these opportunities.



Bargain Hunting Grounds

Yahoo! regularly posts new deals to
the Bargains & Sales page. Several mer-
chants that use Yahoo! Bargains & Sales
have free shipping offers. Some offers
include codes you'll need to enter to
take advantage of free shipping. Even
though the free shipping offers are



time-sensitive, Yahoo! usually adds
new offers every day.

Like other areas on Yahoo!, you can
search for a particular product or
browse through the categories and
subcategories to sift through different
deals. The search function can help
you narrow the products you're trying
to find at a discounted price down to a
specific manufacturer or model.

When you click a link for a product
that interests you, Yahoo! redirects you
to the retailer's Web site, where you'll
complete the transaction. If more than
one company offers the product, you'll
go to a separate product page on
Yahoo!. In these cases, the page dis-
plays the product, a description, the
prices offered by several retailers, cus-
tomer reviews, and a tax and shipping
calculator. Think of Yahoo! as the mid-
dleman arranging a meeting between
parties to complete a deal.

If you sign in with a Yahoo! ID, you
can create a list of saved products you
find on the Bargains & Sales page.
When you open the Bargains & Sales
page, click the Sign In link and enter
your Yahoo! ID and password. Adding
an item you find to your Saved
Products list is the same process as an
item you find elsewhere on Yahoo!
Shopping. For more information
about adding merchandise to your
Saved Products list, please see "Yahoo!
Shopping" on page 49.

By default, products appear in a list
view, sorted by top results. You can
also sort items by price and product
rating and arrange them in a grid view.
If you want to be more selective, you
can click the checkboxes next to indi-
vidual items and click the Compare
Side By Side button.

Monty Hall Not Required

By using Yahoo! Bargain & Sales,
you can pocket some of your hard-
earned cash and get more for less.
And you won't even have to navigate
through the clearance racks. H

BY VlNCE COGLEY



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 65



Shopping



Yahoo! Points



Purchases Lead To Prizes



It's always nice to get some-
thing for free, especially
when you get to select the
free item. Yahoo! Points (points.yahoo
.com) lets you earn rewards by using
your Yahoo! Visa card. These rewards
come in the form of Yahoo! Points that
you can redeem for merchandise or gift
certificates or donate to charity. You'll
receive one point for every dollar you
spend on the Visa card.

Get Started

Before you can earn rewards, you
must sign up with Yahoo! Points. If
you already have a Yahoo! user ID, reg-
istering for Yahoo! Points is as simple
as signing in to Yahoo! and accepting
the Terms And Conditions. Look for
the Sign In link next to the Yahoo!
Points logo in the upper-left corner of
the screen. Users without a Yahoo! user
ID will first need to complete the
Yahoo! enrollment process. If you want



"X5sHOO| points I



Yahoo! Points



:</ Points?



Earn Free Stuff—

That's the Point

Use Yahoo! and get rewarded!



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'J'



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I I Agree | | ~i Do Not Agree |




To sign up for Yahoo! Points, accept the Terms And
Conditions and click I Agree.



to create a new Yahoo! user ID, click
Sign Up underneath of the Sign In link.
After enrolling, link your Yahoo!
Points account to your Yahoo! Visa
card to complete the setup process. If
you don't have a Yahoo! Visa card,
there's a link to apply for one through
the main page of Yahoo! Points. In
order to link your Yahoo! Visa card to
your Yahoo! Points account, log in to
Yahoo! Visa CardMember Services
(visa.yahoo.com) and click
Account Summary from the
Your Accounts tab. Next,
choose Get Yahoo! Points
from the pull-down menu
below Account Actions. On
the following page, click the
Yahoo! Points link and use
your Yahoo! ID and pass-
word to sign in. Finally, you
should see a message to con-
firm the linkage is complete.

Earn Points



After you've linked your
Yahoo! Visa card to your
Yahoo! Points account, you
will begin to accumulate
points as you charge things
to your Yahoo! Visa card.



To view your current point balance,
sign in to the Yahoo! Points main
page and look for the Your Points box
in the right column. If you want more
information about recent transactions
and point expiration dates, click
Balance Detail. Points expire four
years from the end of the calendar
quarter in which you earned them.

Use Your Points

You can redeem points for items
such as DVDs, digital cameras, lap-
tops, or gift certificates. Many of the
gift certificates come in the form of a
SuperCertificate. Redeem a Super-
Certificate at www.GiftCertificates.com
for physical or online gift certificates to
popular merchants, such as Staples,
Barnes & Noble, and Macy's.

Instead of spending your Yahoo!
Points, you can donate them to
charity. Yahoo! offers six charitable
areas with two to three charities each
that will benefit from the donations.
Yahoo! teamed up with JustGive.org
to help facilitate these donations. For
every point you donate, Yahoo! will
give JustGive.org a penny. JustGive
.org then distributes the amount of
the donation minus a 3% service fee.

In order to redeem your points, use
the Browse Prizes section of the Yahoo!
Points Web site. Here, you can select
from a variety of categories and prod-
ucts. After finding the object of your
desire, click the link for the product,
then the Order button. To complete
the order, click Check Out and proceed
through the remaining sites. The de-
livery period takes up to eight weeks.

Start Spending

The only thing left for you to do is
sign up and start earning your points.
Whether you intend to spend the
money on a new toy or donate it to
charity, at least you'll be getting a little
something back for all of the money
you've spent on other things. Qjs]

by Jennifer Johnson



66 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Shopping



Yahoo! Wallet

Shopping Online Takes A Turn For The Simple



As the number of merchants
peddling their goods through
the Internet increased, you
gradually warmed up to the idea of
buying online. Now you're an online
shopping maven, excelling at piling
products in your shopping cart and
zipping through the virtual
checkout lane.

Most Web retailers make the
process of ordering online relatively
painless. But wouldn't it be nice to
have all of the information associated
with the credit card you use safely
stored and available at the click of a
mouse? With Yahoo! Wallet (wallet
.yahoo.com), wrapping up your pur-
chases is as effortless as a swipe of
your physical credit card.

Under Lock & Key

Yahoo! takes "reasonable steps to
protect your information." Briefly, that
includes using SSL (Secure Sockets
Layer) technology to encrypt your sen-
sitive information and securely send it
to the retailer. SSL sets up a secure con-
nection between your Web browser
and an online retailer's Web server.
When you order something through an
online store, the data sent to the store's
Web server is unreadable until the Web
server decrypts it.

For additional security, Yahoo!
gives you a Security Key that acts like
an ATM card's PIN. Your Security
Key automatically times out after one
hour. After this period, Yahoo! will
prompt you to re-enter it.

Finally, Yahoo! will never display
your entire credit card number after
you enter it during the initial registra-
tion. If you need to use or edit your
Wallet information, Yahoo! only




displays the last four digits of your
credit card for identification purposes.
For more information on how Yahoo!
keeps your private information safe,
refer to the Yahoo! Privacy Policy.

Simple Sign Up

Yahoo! Wallet is a free service to en-
roll in. At the Wallet home page, click
Sign Up Now and sign in with your
Yahoo! ID and password. On the next
page, enter your payment information.
Use the Card Type drop -down menu
to select your credit card provider and
complete the remaining fields ac-
cording to the information that corre-
sponds with the credit card you want to
use. If you click and fill the checkbox
below Express Checkout, you won't
have to re-enter your card number or
address. Click Continue to proceed.

Using Yahoo! Wallet

You can use Yahoo! Wallet with
Yahoo! Store merchants on Yahoo!
Shopping. Your Wallet also works
with the following Yahoo! premium



services: extra email storage, auctions,
GeoCities Plus, and Web site services.
As an example, we used the Yahoo!
Wallet we created in conjunction with
Yahoo! Mail to upgrade our mail ser-
vice. We signed on to Yahoo! Mail and
clicked Upgrades in the top-right
corner of the page. In the new window
that opened, we clicked Upgrade To
Yahoo! Mail Plus. Next, we clicked
the Order Now and I Agree buttons.
Because we had registered for a Yahoo!
Wallet, we only needed to enter our
card verification number and click
Continue; Yahoo! Wallet took care
of entering our other payment in-
formation. You'll enjoy a sim-
ilar time-saving benefit when
you shop at other Yahoo! stores
that accept the Wallet.

Hit & Miss

Although Yahoo! Wallet certainly
simplifies the checkout procedure for
merchants that accept it, consider
this: Yahoo!'s Shopping home page
boasts a collection of over 100,000
stores, but a Yahoo! Wallet help file
indicates you can purchase items
from "over 10,500 Yahoo! Store mer-
chants on Yahoo! Shopping." You
shouldn't expect your Yahoo! Wallet
to work with every online merchant
associated with Yahoo! Shopping.

If you sign up for your own Yahoo!
Wallet and it outlives its usefulness to
you, it is fairly easy to delete it. At the
Yahoo! Wallet page, click Already
Enrolled?, sign in with your Yahoo!
ID, enter your Security Key or the
credit card you registered, and click
Continue. Click Delete Wallet. Yahoo!
should ask if you're sure you want to
delete your Wallet; click Delete Wallet
and Continue.

Shopping online shouldn't have to
be a chore that you dread. Yahoo!
Wallet cuts out some of the legwork
(and virtual paperwork), letting you
spend less time filling out forms and
more time browsing for bargains. H

BY VlNCE COGLEY



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 67



Shopping



Yahoo!
Yellow Pages

Throw Away The Paper Version




Dinner time rolls around, and
you simply don't have the
energy to whip up a culinary
masterpiece. Your refrigerator is de-
void of leftovers, and you have
hungry mouths to feed (including
your own). After a quick deliberation,
you decide to call upon the local pizza
joint to save supper.

Using your phone book's yellow
pages is typically the easiest way to
track down a business' phone number,
but we don't always have the luxury of
having a phone book handy. And lug-
ging one around isn't the easiest
chore, either. With Yahool's Yellow
pages, you can search for a local busi-
ness' address and phone number and
use Yahoo! Maps to pinpoint its loca-
tion and obtain driving directions.

Location, Location, Location

You reach Yahoo! Yellow Pages
(yp.yahoo.com) by going to Yahool's
home page and clicking the Yellow



Pages link in the Y! Services section
or typing the above URL into a
Web browser's address bar.
Before you start scouring
Yahoo! Yellow Pages in search of
the closest florist to your home,
you need to provide a location.
On the Yellow Pages home page,
click Change Location. The next
page has the following two fields:
Address and City & State Or Zip.
Including a full street address is op-
tional but will help you find busi-
nesses closest to that address. You
must provide either a city and state or
ZIP code. Click Continue when you
provide either of these.

Search For Your Business

When you establish a location for
Yahoo! Yellow Pages, you can search
by category or a business's name in
the Your Search field at the top of the
page. You can also browse through
Yahool's preselected categories and
subcategories, such as Food And
Dining or Retail Shopping.

Your Search. For example, we
wanted to find a local Thai restau-
rant, so we typed Thai restaurant in
the Your Search field and clicked the
Search button. Yahoo! Yellow Pages
retrieved two Thai food restaurants
and provided a street address, phone
number, and Map link for each of
the restaurants.

If you know the name of a specific
business, you can type that business's
name in the Your Search field to find
its address and phone number. In our
example, we looked up the retail store



Target by typing Target in the search
field. Yahoo! Yellow Pages found two
Target stores in the vicinity of the ZIP
code we provided.

Yahool's categories. We browsed
through the Yahoo! Yellow Pages' cat-
egories for a lawn care service. We
clicked Home And Garden, Lawn
And Garden, and Landscaping to find
a plethora of businesses eager to
spruce up our front yard.

Browse By City. In general, sifting
through Yahoo! Yellow Pages' cate-
gories and subcategories is fairly
straightforward, letting you quickly
and logically navigate to goods and
services you're interested in, but the
Browse By City is another method for
tracking down businesses. At the
bottom of the Yellow Pages home
page, click the Browse By City link.
Click the state you want to browse to
focus your search on the state's cities
and do the same for the city you want
to browse. Yahoo! Yellow Pages will
present you with a master list of cate-
gories of business in the city you chose.

Put It On The Map

To illustrate how Yahoo! integrates
its Maps features with its Yellow Pages,
we returned to our Thai restaurant ex-
ample. We clicked the link for one of
the Thai restaurants, and Yahoo! dis-
played a map that centered on streets
surrounding the restaurant, which was
designated as a star on the map.

The Driving Directions link is
helpful when you need to do more
than simply call a business. The
Driving Directions should be a fool-
proof method to get you to your desti-
nation. For more information on
using Yahoo! Maps and its Driving
Directions feature, see "Yahoo! Maps"
on page 124.

Yahoo! Yellow Pages are loaded with
merchants and service industries to
help you relax or enjoy a meal away
from home. Give it a try, and you might
never turn a yellow page again. H

BY VlNCE COGLEY



68 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Enter tainment



Lights, Camera, Action!

Yahoo! Entertainment Gives You The Lowdown On Movies, Music & Television



~m




Whether you want to keep
up on the latest celebrity
gossip from Hollywood or
if you just want to find out what time
that "Beverly Hillbillies" marathon
starts, the Yahoo! Entertainment Web
site (www.entertainment.tv. yahoo
.com) is a great source for you. Let's
take a closer look at this star-studded
Web page and where it can take you.

Movies, TV & Music

Perhaps the main draw to Yahoo!
Entertainment is its coverage of
movies, television, and music. Under
the huge Inside Entertainment ban-
ner at the top of the Yahoo! Enter-
tainment Web site, you'll see three
boxes labeled Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo!
TV, and Yahoo! Music. Inside of the
boxes there is a photo and a headline.
Click either to view that story on its
respective Yahoo! page. If you want
to read more general information in a
specific category, you'll find a link at
the bottom of the box that will take



you to the home page for each sec-
tion's site. For instance, let's say
Yahoo! Movies features a story on
the upcoming release of "Mission:
Impossible III." We could read
that story by clicking its
title or the picture for the
movie in the Yahoo! movies
box. But if we wanted other
movie info, we would click
the More Movies link be-
low the "Mission: Impos-
sible" headline to go to the
homepage for Yahoo! Movies.
If you want more information on
Yahoo!'s Movies, TV, and Music
Web sites, see "Yahoo! Movies,"
"Yahoo! TV," and "The Sound Of
Music," located on pages 73, 82, and
74, respecitvely.

Entertainment News & Gossip

Just below the Yahoo! Movies,
TV, and Music links you'll find the
Entertainment News & Gossip section.
This is a great way to keep up with the
latest Hollywood news and dirt. Below
the Entertainment News & Gossip
banner are three links: Top Stories,
Gossip Columns, and Supermarket
Tabloids. Click the Tops Stories link
to visit a page with links to the latest
Hollywood headlines. This page,
which has stories from the Associated
Press, E! Online, and Reuters, can give
you information ranging from Golden
Globe nominations to which celebrity
is in hot water with the law.

The Gossip Columns, which in-
clude "The Awful Truth" by Ted
Casablanca, "Watch with Kristen,"
and "Inside with Marc Malkin," are
your link to the Hollywood rumor
mill. These columns are updated



weekly and are fun sources for all the
latest celebrity juice.

You'll find Supermarket Tabloids
to the right of the Gossip Columns
link. Yahoo! Entertainment collects
the latest stories from your favorite
tabloids such as the National En-
quirer, Star Magazine, and Weekly
World News. Some articles are in full
text, but others will prompt you to
buy the issue after the first few para-
graphs of a story. This is a fun section
that has rather outlandish articles that
predict everything from the next
Great Depression to the birth date of
J. Lo's secretly- conceived baby.

ET& The Insider

Yahoo! dedicates special sections to
Entertainment Tonight and The
Insider on the left of your screen
below the Yahoo! Movies box. Both
display the latest news in Hollywood.
It's a great place to find stories on up-
coming events such as award shows
or movies releases. Both ET and the
Insider have three main stories on
Yahoo! Entertainment. Click the title
of a story to view it.

Yahoo! Entertainment goes out of
its way to bring you the latest gossip
and Hollywood happenings. If you
aren't into the latest celebrity dish,
Yahoo! Entertainment can still be
useful for you. It provides quick links
to the latest insights on movies and
music, and you can even check out
Yahoo! TV for your local TV schedule.
So if the entertainment section of your
local paper gets tossed, don't fret,
Yahoo! Entertainment will make a
more-than-adequate replacement, [jjs]

by Sam Evans



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 69



Entertainment



Fun & Games

Yahoo! Games Is A Great Place To Play




There have always been
naysayers who think that sit-
ting in front of a computer
monitor playing video games will
turn us into brain dead zombies with
limited social skills. But for those of
us who realize that video games can
actually help build self-confidence
and problem-solving skills while im-
proving dexterity, there is Yahoo!
Games (games.yahoo.com). This is a
great place to foster these skills and
have a little fun playing your favorite
games online.

Old Favorites & New Games

Yahoo! Games is made up of over
240 games. It has the classics such as
8 -ball or Checkers and new favorites
such as Bejeweled and Text Twist.

The first thing you'll notice when
you go to Yahoo! Games is the blue
box at the top of the page. This



features links to new games, popular

downloads, and Yahoo! 's video game

section where you can get tips and
cheats for games, as well as info
on upcoming releases.

A list of popular Yahoo!
games is located beneath the
blue box. These games are sepa-
rated into eight sections: Card
Games, Board Games, Puzzle
Games, Word Games, Arcade
Games, Other Games, Games
From King.com, and Mobile
Games. Most of these cate-
gories are self-explanatory.
The Games From King.com
section features games you
can play on the King.com
gaming Web site. You have
to be 18 or older to get into

this site because you can play for

money at King.com. When you click a

game title in the Games

From King.com section

of the Games page, you

go to a page to confirm

your age, after which

you can enter the King

.com Web site.

If you click any game

in the Mobile Games

section, you'll go to the

Games page on Yahoo!

Mobile. You can use

options on this site to

see if your phone will

support certain games.

Click the Go button

next to View All Games

For My Phone to find

the games your phone

will support.

The rest of the

Yahoo! Games sections

have the same basic



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# Pyramids
S^s Canasta



® Mali Jong Solitaire
a Cubis2
^ Chuzzle
j© Jewel Quest
& TriJinx



sm Pool

! / JT's Blocks®

; .- Bricks of Egypt
& Twi stingo



format. For instance, look at the
Word Games section. It has a list of a
few featured games. To the left of the
games, you'll see icons that indicate
whether a game is single player or
multiplayer. If a game is one player,
it'll have a picture of one face wearing
an orange cap. If the game is meant
for more than one player, it'll have an
image with two faces next to it. Note
that many multiplayer games won't
launch if you're behind a firewall. To
the right of the game title is the
number of people currently playing
the game online. Click the All 25
Word Games link in the bottom left
of the section to view all of the word
games Yahoo! offers.

If you scroll to the bottom of
Yahoo! Games, you can click the All
Games List link. This will take you to
a page that lists all of Yahoo!'s games
in alphabetical order. Use the Filter
Games By drop-down menu in the
upper-left corner to get an alphabet-
ical list of your favorite type of game.

Play It Up

It's easy to access any of Yahoo!'s
games; just click the title of the game



; >; ; Chess
.;>;:. Dominoe
gW Backqar



P> Man Jong Tot



i
' or Ail-Star



®& Literati
€> Text Twist
■ B ookworm
& Flip Words
^ JigWords



i$ Hexalot

■ ic Vines
: .- Trivia Machine
C lici





All 22 Other Games










• Carnival Shootout
^Klick.Klack&Roll
& Goldfish Bowl
® Pyramid


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& JT's Blocks®
z ; Dominoes




,0 Single-player Games ^0 Multiplayer Games


All Games List




The Yahoo! Games home page displays the top five games for each
game type, as well as whether the games are single player or
multiplayer and how many people are currently playing them online.



70 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Entertainment



Tournaments In Yahoo! Games



i



f you're convinced that your skills

in backgammon are unparalleled,
Yahoo! gives you the chance to prove
yourself. You can join tournaments
in your game of choice that will pit
you against other players from
around the world who have a pas-
sion for competition.

To get started, click the
Tournaments link in the Inside Games
section on the right of your screen.
This takes you to a Tournaments List
page that has a chart of all the up-
coming tournaments for all the
games. The chart lists the name of the
tournament, the game that will be
played at the tournament (there are
tournaments for pool, backgammon,
cribbage, and many other games), the
pairing and format of the tournament
(whether it's single elimination or free
form), the start time of the tourna-
ment, and the tournament host.

Once you find a tournament for your
game of choice, click the tournament



name. If you haven't already signed in to
Yahoo!, you will be prompted to do so
now. After you enter your login infor-
mation, you'll be taken to a page for the
tournament. Click Sign Up For This
Tournament located in the middle of
the page in a light blue box. Unfortu-
nately, official Yahoo! tournaments, and
for that matter many other tourna-
ments, require you to be an All-Star
member in order to register. When you
become an All-Star member, you can
access special games, use voice chat
while gaming, and set up your own
tournaments and leagues. The bad part
is that becoming an All-Star member
will set you back $59.95 for a one-year
subscription. If you find a tournament
that you can register for, you can most
likely do so starting as early as an
hour before the tournament begins.
Registration normally ends five minutes
before the tournament starts. I



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Click the All Games List link to get
an alphabetical listing of the more
than 240 games Yahoo! offers.



box. Though this box differs
from game to game, it usu-
ally has a link to an instruc-
tions page and another link
to download the game to
your computer.

Right below the game
screen Yahoo! lists a few
game titles that are similar
to the one you're playing. If
you're enjoying this game,
try a few of the games on
the list to expand your



you want to try. Most games have an
online version, or you can download
the game by clicking the Download
Now link in the Download This Game
section to the left of the game. At the
top of the game there is a Resources



gaming horizon.



More Than Games



Yahoo! Games is a great place to
play some fun games, but this is



"KtfiOO? GAMES f sr££ . 7?&!a




Games on Yahoo! feature a Resources section
that gives you instructions on how to play or a
link to download the game to your computer.



more than just a site on which to
play Pinochle or Checkers. This Web
site also features a Video Games
Web page. Click Video Games in the
box at the top of the Games home
page. The Video Games page fea-
tures news, reviews, and demos for
popular games. Use the tabs at the
top of the page to get information
pertinent to you or the system you
game on. For instance, if you use
your computer to play games, click
the PC tab. Use the blue subcategory
links below the PC tab to go to the
section you want. You can choose to
download files and demos of pop-
ular games, or you can also find
cheat codes for many games.

The next time you're online with
some time to kill, stop by Yahoo!
Games. It has computer versions of
old favorites you might've played as
a kid, as well as many new games
that you can enjoy. While novice
gamers can practice against com-
puter opponents, experienced players
can participate in online tourna-
ments to see how their skills match
up with adversaries around the
world. Whatever your gaming
agenda, Yahoo! Games has some-
thing to fulfill it. H

by Sam Evans



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 71



Entertainment



A Look Into
The Future

Yahoo! Astrology Can Show You
What's Written In The Stars



Some of us are quick to put all
our eggs in the astrology basket,
and others find reading horo-
scopes a nice five- second escape from
the workday. No matter what type of
reader you are, you can find plenty
of fun entertainment on the Yahoo!
Astrology page. To get there, just click
the Horoscopes link on the Yahoo!
homepage, in the All Y! Services box.

Yahoo! Astrology is divided into
three sections: Chinese Astrology,
which tells you your fortune based on
the animal that represents you in the
Chinese calendar; Astrology, which
gives you your horoscope based on
your zodiac symbol; and Home as-
trology, which is basically a combina-
tion of the main features of both.

Because you'll go to the Astrology
Home page first, let's take a look at its
layout. The Daily Cosmic Calendar,
on the left side of your screen, is an
article from Astrology.com that uses
the alignment of the stars to deter-
mine the general mood of the day. It
will also warn you of potential traps
you may fall into in your personal
and professional lives.

Next to the Daily Cosmic Calendar
you'll notice the Sun Signs section.
Click a zodiac symbol to go to the
Astrology page. You're greeted with a
quick horoscope for the day and an
overview that describes your current
situation and how you can best manage
it. The Forecasts column on the left
side of your screen lets you read daily,
weekly, monthly, or yearly predictions
on various aspects of your life,





including love, relationships, career,
and finance. Click the link in the
Celebrities box below Forecasts to see
which famous faces from sports and
entertainment share your zodiac sign.

You'll see a row of three terms to the
upper right of your Daily
Overview: Sun Signs, Com-
patibility Tools, and Guides.
When you hold your mouse
over one of these terms, a
drop-down menu appears
giving you access to some
neat links. One fun compati-
bility tool is the Celebrity
task. Move your cursor over
Compatibility Tools on the
right side of your screen and
select Celebrity from the
drop-down menu. Choose
your sign from the Select A
Sign menu, click a name from
the Celebrity Name drop-
down list, then click Go. For



instance, if we (Gemini) ever tried to
pursue a relationship with actress
Marisa Tomei (an Aquarius) this tool
would warn us that the members of
both of our zodiac families need their
independence. Potential peril is also
possible if the Aquarius, who tends to
live in the fast lane, is stubborn and
can't appreciate the stop-and-smell-
the- roses style of the Gemini.

The Chinese Astrology page is fairly
simple. It gives you the fortune for that
day's sign. If you don't know your
Chinese astrological sign, there's an
Enter Your Birthday Here section that
has drop -down boxes for the month,
day, and year of your birth. Click Go
after you enter your birthday informa-
tion, and you'll find your animal in the
Chinese astrological calendar. In the
Forecasts box to the left of your for-
tune, choose Year In General and Year
In Love links to get advice for events
that may happen in the current year.

Yahoo! Astrology is a great site to
visit if you want to read your horo-
scope or learn more about zodiac
and Chinese astrology. The fortunes
you can read on this page are great,
but the extras such as the compati-
bility tools and cosmic calendar set
this site apart from the horoscopes
page of your newspaper. @

by Sam Evans



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72 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Entertainment



Yahoo! Movies

Everything But The Sticky Floor



More Than Just
A Denominator
In Common




Tom Cruise out-monkeying
King Kong on Oprah's couch.
The Lion and the Witch meet
Harry Potter. The news, the reviews,
the schmooze — it's all here at Yahoo!
Movies (movies.yahoo.com).

Yahoo! Movies might just seem
like another entertainment gossip site
if it weren't for the fact that it's actu-
ally useful. If you want to know
what's playing at your local theaters
and when, this is the place to go. It's
also a place where you can share your
opinions on movies with a commu-
nity of other fans.

Reel Interesting

Most of the Yahoo! Movies site is
self-explanatory, but a few features
deserve closer attention.

Reviews. The Also Inside section
at the bottom left of the home page
is where you'll find Yahoo!'s re-
viewers. Greg Dean Schmitz of Up-
comingmovies.com previews films
that haven't been released yet. If
you'd like to know who's the newest
cast member in the "X-Men" movie
franchise (cough, Frasier, cough),



movies.yahoo.com/mv/upcoming is
where to find out.

Another reviewer, known as Movie
Mom, rates films from a parent's point
of view (movies.yahoo.com/mv/movie
mom). She'll set you straight on
whether "Chicken Little" or "Wallace
& Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-
Rabbit" are appropriate for a child of a
particular age. Movie Mom gets right
down to the details about things par-
ents might find objectionable for some
children. For example, in her review of
"Herbie: Fully Loaded," she indicates
that there's some slapstick violence, but
no one gets seriously hurt. She also
points out some language that may fly
under most viewers' profanity radar,
but might raise some parents' hackles.

Local showings. The Get Show-
times And Tickets area at the top
right of the Yahoo! Movies page lets
you find movie showtimes for your
locale. You can look them up by
movie title, city, or ZIP code.

If any of the showtimes are hyper-
linked, you can click them to buy
tickets online at Fandango.com. Online
ticket sales were available for a third to
a half of the theaters we researched,
such as those owned by Loews.

RSS. If you use RSS (Really Simple
Syndication) reader software to gather
news headlines, check out the feeds
available at movies.yahoo.com/rss.
There were 13 entertainment news
feeds available at this writing, in-
cluding new DVD release and movie
trailer announcements.

DVD/Video. This tab at the top of
the Yahoo! Movies page takes you to
reviews and previews of DVDs. In case
you're wondering whether the addi-
tional features on the "Sin City Recut &
Extended Special Edition" are worth



After nosing around Yahoo!
Movies' many departments, we'd
wager that 80% of Hollywood news
falls into the following categories.
A successful Broadway play
comes to the silver screen
Teenaged backpackers stumble
into danger

A successful classic gets remade
with new CG

Celebrities break up and immedi-
ately start to date other celebrities
A successful DVD gets re-released
with a few more extras
Tommy Lee Jones crosses the
country to catch some criminal
or bury a friend

A successful film gets rehashed in
several sequels



buying the disc all over again, this is the
place to be. Some of the reviews go way
in-depth about the quality of the audio
and image transfer, something con-
noisseurs will like.

My Movies. This tab lets you join a
community of other movie fans. At My
Movies, you can write your own re-
views, make lists of the flicks you love
(and hate) the most, and hear about
other films you might like. You'll need
a Yahoo! ID or Mail username and
password to use My Movies. Click the
Sign Up Now link to create one.

Item!!!

There's more than one way to find
the trailers and reviews you're looking
for, so explore the site in your own
way. Whether you're a cinemaphile or
just someone who doesn't want to
waste two hours of your life on some-
thing like "Ishtar" or "Gigli," Yahoo!
Movies has a lot to offer you. Qjs]

by Marty Sems



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 73



Entertainment



The Sound
Of Music

March To The Beat Of The Yahoo! Music Drum



Y



ou can tell a lot about a per-
son by thumbing through her
CD collection. Though some
people may share an artist or two in
common, a person's music collection
can be nearly as distinct as her fin-
gerprints. At Yahoo! Music (music
.yahoo.com), you can find people
who share your general tastes in
music or find new artists to add
to your collection.

Yahoo! Music Home

The Yahoo! Music home page
is filled with goodies that include
quick links to popular online music
stations, the latest music news, and
the top 10 music videos of the week.
If you want to keep tabs on up-
coming artists or see what's going
on in mainstream music, the best
way to move around this Web site is
to use the four black tabs titled
LAUNCHcast Radio, Music Videos,
Y! Music Unlimited, and Artists.
These are at the top of the page just
below the Sign In link and Search
Music search box. To take full advan-
tage of this Web site, click the Sign In
link at the top of the page and enter
your Yahoo! ID and password.

If you click the LAUNCHcast
Radio tab, you'll go directly to the
LAUNCHcast home page where you
can access and edit your personal
radio station. If you look under the
Hot Stations tab in the middle of the
LAUNCHcast page, you can listen to
stations that play your favorite genre
of music. If you're signed in to
Yahoo! Music and you highlight the



LAUNCHcast tab with your mouse,
a drop-down menu will appear with
links to play or edit your station,
view the radio station guide, up-
grade to LAUNCHcast
plus, or view LAUNCH-
cast's Help section.

The next tab, titled
Music Videos, has links
such as Play My Station.
Just like your online radio
station, Yahoo! Music lets
you customize a station
that plays music videos.
You can rate videos as
they're playing, and Ya-
hoo! will use those rank-
ings to get a better idea of
what you like and tailor
this station to play your
favorite videos.

The My Videos link, lo-
cated beneath the Play My
Station option, takes you
to a page that stores all the
videos that you've rated.




This page also gives you one-click ac-
cess to your video station and the
videos you've viewed recently. In ad-
dition, the Music Videos drop-down
menu gives you links to the top 100
videos on Yahoo! Music, new videos
that have just been added to Yahoo! 's
database, and the Dig It Or Dis It
page, a site that pits five videos
against each other in a battle for your
affection. You can vote for your fa-
vorite and track the results on the
Dig It Or Dis It page.

The Y! Music Unlimited tab isn't
quite as feature-rich as the first
two. If you click the tab, you're
taken to a page where you can sign
up for Yahoo! Music Unlimited
(Yahoo!'s music subscription ser-
vice). For more information on
Yahoo! Music Unlimited, check out
the sidebar that accompanies this
article. There is only one link under
the Yahoo! Music Unlimited tab:
Yahoo! Music Engine. This basically
serves as a media player that lets you
rip and burn CDs, create play lists,
and download songs from the Yahoo!
Music database for 99 cents. The
Yahoo! Music Engine is available as a
free download from Yahoo!. If you're
looking for an alternative to Windows




Use the four tabs at the top of the Yahoo! Music home page
to easily navigate this Web site.



74 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Entertainment



Media Player, then you might find the
engine useful.

The final Y! Music navigation tab
is the Artists tab. Click it to go to the
Artists page where you can view cat-
egories such as the Artist
Of The Day, Top Artist
Searches, and Top Yahoo!
Buzz Artists. You can also
click the Who's Next link
under the Artists tab if
you're looking for up-and-
coming artists.

The Artists drop-down
menu is filled with links
that will take you to infor-
mation or forums about
artists you already love and
artists on the rise. The first
link in the menu takes you
to Smash, a site that has the
latest news on your favorite
artists along with weekly
polls and in-depth inter-
views and performances by
notable musicians. Besides
Smash, this tab offers links
to photo galleries, breaking
news, and a page where you
can download ringtones
from your favorite artists.

LogOnToLAUNCHcast

One of the coolest fea-
tures on Yahoo! Music is
LAUNCHcast. This is basi-
cally a radio station data-
base that streams audio to
you via your Internet con-
nection. But before you can
listen to your personalized
radio, you have to set it up.

To start this process, click
the LAUNCHcast Radio
tab. The first section you'll
see is the Make Your Own
Radio Section. Click the
name of a genre you like
and then choose a few of the
artists listed in the genre
that you enjoy listening to.
You can enter four more
artists in the four text boxes



Yahoo! Music provides just below the
genre section. Finally, check the box
that says you read and understood
Yahoo!'s privacy policy and click
Create My Station.





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The Yahoo! Radio Station Guide lists all the available radio stations on
Yahoo! Music by category.




Use the drop-down menu in the Search section to tailor your search to
receive specific information on artists, songs, or albums.



Yahoo! then launches a station
that plays music based on your mu-
sical preferences. You may get a mes-
sage from Yahoo! saying that your
LAUNCHcast player couldn't open
because a pop-up blocker
blocked it. If you receive
this message, click the link
at the bottom that says Try
Launching The Player
Again to launch your sta-
tion. If this doesn't work,
you may have to clear the
pop-up through the pop-
up blocker. If you use
Internet Explorer, you can
do this by clicking Tools,
then Pop-up Blocker, then
Pop-up Blocker Settings. In
the Address Of Web Site
To Allow dialog box, type
launch.yahoo.com and
click Add. This will al-
low your Web browser to
display Yahoo! Music's
pop-ups, including your
LAUNCHcast player.

Once the music starts
playing, you have the op-
tion to rate the song, artist,
and album on a four-star
scale. If you dislike an artist,
song, or album, you can
choose an option to never
hear it again. Yahoo! uses
these ratings to decide what
music it should play next
on your station. The more
songs you rate, the better
suited your station becomes
to playing the music you
most enjoy.



Radio Station Guide

If you sign up for LAU-
NCHcast Plus, you'll have
access to more than 120 on-
line radio stations, but the
35 you get without up-
grading are nothing to scoff
at. Use the Radio Station
Guide to easily locate a sta-
tion that suits your musical



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 75



Entertainment



Yahoo! Music Unlimited

Though Yahoo! Music offers a lot
of free services, you can get a few
more handy features by subscribing
to Yahoo! Music Unlimited. This is
one situation where it pays if you're
not afraid of commitment. If you're
prepared to join for a full year, it'll
cost you $59.88 up front, about $4.99
per month. If, however, you want to
pay as you go, the service costs $6.99
per month.

Once you ante up for a member-
ship, you can access more than 1
million songs in the Yahoo! Music
database. Yahoo! Music Unlimited also
lets you save songs to play lists. You
can log in to your account and access
your songs from any computer as long
as you have a valid subscription. You
can download a song as a WMA
(Windows Media Audio) file through
Yahoo! Music Unlimited for only 79
cents per song. Once you download a
song, you can burn it to a CD or add it
to a portable music player.

Yahoo! Music Unlimited isn't only
a nice place to find new music, but
you can also use your account to
manage the music you already have.



tastes. To get to the guide, simply
click the LAUNCHcast RADIO tab
and click Radio Station Guide. This
takes you to the Radio Station Guide
page, which displays all of LAUNCH -
cast's radio stations by genre. Just
scroll down the page until you see
something you like and click it.
The free stations are denoted by or-
ange icons with black headphones.
Stations available on LAUNCHcast
Plus have purple icons with black plus
signs in them.

Search & Listen

Yahoo! Music has a cool search
tool that leads you to information,
music, or videos of your favorite
artists. The Search Music text box is



You can import your CDs and make
new playlists using the Yahoo! Music
Unlimited player's interface. If you're a
member, you can also share full songs
with other members via Yahoo!
Messenger. This is an easy way to
trade songs with friends and expand
your tastes. Also, if tuning into
LAUNCHcast turns your dials, a sub-
scription to Unlimited will get you
commercial-free access to more than
100 LAUNCHcast stations.

There are some sites out there that
let you download an unlimited
number of songs for a flat monthly
fee, but as soon as you stop your sub-
scription, they cut off your ability to
access that music. Thankfully, Yahoo!
Music Unlimited doesn't do this for
the songs you download. As a sub-
scriber, when you pay the 79-cent fee
per song, you have access to it when-
ever you want. Unfortunately,
though, when you cancel your sub-
scription you will lose access to the
songs you haven't downloaded to
your computer, but have only saved
in playlists on your Yahoo! Music
Unlimited account. I



located at the top right of every page
you visit on the Yahoo! Music Web
site. Select the type of information
you want to search using the drop-
down menu (choose from All,
Artists, Albums, Songs, or Videos)
and then type the name of the search
term. For instance, if we wanted to
find everything Yahoo! Music had
on Johnny Cash, we'd leave the
Search drop-down menu on All,
type Johnny Cash in the text box,
and click Go.

Yahoo! will display all the artists,
albums, videos, and songs that have
"Johnny Cash" in them. For in-
stance, the artists section of our
search results not only lists the tradi-
tional man in black, but also has a
link to info on the modern country




If you're willing to pony up a little more
dough for LAUNCHcast Plus, you can customize
your own radio stations.



group, Bastard Sons Of Johnny
Cash. Similarly, Yahoo! Music not
only displays songs, videos, and al-
bums written or starring Johnny
Cash, but also includes any songs or
albums with the words "Johnny
Cash" in the title.

As we mentioned earlier, use the
drop-down menu in the Search
Music section to get more specific
results. If we use the same Johnny
Cash search but change the drop-
down menu to Videos, we get a list
of music videos that star Johnny
Cash or have that name in the title.
This saves us time by excluding info
on albums that are for sale or songs
available for download.

No matter what kind of music you
tap your toe to, you can probably
find it on Yahoo! Music. The Web
site has everything from Mozart to
Metallica, and if you can stand a few
commercial breaks, you can listen to
a station custom made for you for
free. If you're looking for a place to
listen to your favorite songs and
learn more about artists or genres
that interest you, look no further
than Yahoo! Music. Qjs]

by Sam Evans



76 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Entertainment



Fantasy
Fulfillment

Coach Your Own Pro Sports Team On Yahoo!



Hardcore sports fans check
the news about their teams
obsessively and devise com-
plicated game- day strategies in their
heads — and they always, always think
they had a better plan for the game,
no matter the outcome. As it turns
out, there a lot of these fans all over
the world, and Yahoo! is doing its best
to help armchair quarterbacks and
wannabe coaches everywhere have
their shot at sports glory,
through the site's Fantasy
Sports page.

You're The Commish

With Yahoo! Fantasy
Sports, you can take control
of an imaginary football,
baseball, basketball, soccer,
or hockey team that you
draft and control online. (To
see all of your options, next
to Play Now, click More.)
You call the shots when it
comes to team management,
and when game day arrives,
it's the real-life performance
of your players that deter-
mines your fantasy league
results, so of course, fantasy
leagues run only during the
season of their respective sports.

To get started, all you need is a free
Yahoo! account, which you can create
by accessing the main Fantasy Sports
page (fantasysports.yahoo.com) on
Yahoo!. Near the top of the page, click
the Sign Up link, and the site prompts
you to enter your name and a login



ID you'd like to use for
your account. After that
you'll set a few user prefer-
ences. Once you set up your
account, you can get started
with your first fantasy team.

Fantasy football. Fantasy football
is the most popular of Yahoo !'s fan-
tasy sports, and there are a number of
options you can use to access virtual
pigskin action. You can start with a




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Draft a fantasy football team, and every week you'll see a roster
this one where you can make critical changes to your lineup.



free fantasy league or a pay-to-play
league called Fantasy Football Plus,
or you can play Salary Cap or Sur-
vival football.

When you sign up for a free fantasy
league, you have four options from
which to choose: Public or Custom
leagues based on head-to-head or



fantasy points configuration. If you
create a custom league, you can invite
specific people to play in your league;
to join another custom league, you
need the league ID and password. If
you don't know enough managers to
create your own custom
league, you can join a public
league instead and play
against people from all over
the world. In a head-to-head
league, you square off each
week against one other team,
and the lineup that scores
the most points wins. In a
points league, the team with
the highest point total at the
end of the season wins.

Once your league is set
up, you'll choose a day to
draft players. Yahoo! will let
you pick a slot for a real-
time draft, or you can opt
for an Autodraft where
Yahoo! picks players de-
pending on your preselected
rankings (or on the site's de-
fault player rankings). Once
the season starts, there are a full range
of player management options, in-
cluding free agency, trading, waivers,
and more.

Options galore. If you'd rather pay
to play, the Plus version will cost you
$24.99 per season. You'll receive a
bundle of extra features for your



like



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 77



Entertainment



money, designed to help you build
and maintain a more successful team.
One of the most notable features is
called StatTracker, a tool that lets you
track your players' statistics and point
totals in real time during game day;
without this tool, you'll have to wait
until after every game (or do some se-
rious manual number crunching) to
see how well your team performed.
You also receive a scouting report,
draft kit, and other extras to help you
on your way. Playing in a paid league
also makes you eligible to win cash
prizes at the end of the season.

You don't have to settle for owning
and running a single team. In the Plus
league, you can create your own
league for $124.99 and invite up to 20
other mangers to join your league.
When you pay the big bucks to be a
Plus league commissioner, you can set
many of your own rules to control
scoring, rosters, and other funda-
mental features that can totally
change the outcome of games.

If you just want to play for free but
like some of the extra features of the
Plus system, you can pay $9.99 for the
StatTracker, $19.99 for expert insights
on player performance, and $9.99 for
draft kit that will (hopefully) help you
get your season off on the right foot.

During the season you can chat
with your opponents, leave them
taunting messages, finagle show- stop-
ping trades, and much more. Yahoo! 's
fantasy football league is an exhaus-
tive system that will let sports junkies
revel in their favorite pastime for
hours on end, and to get a sense of
just how big the fantasy football phe-
nomenon is, you'll have to try it your-
self. One important note — if you opt
for the Plus league, make sure your
friends are willing to ante up the
dough because you can't use your
Plus team to play in a free league.

Salary Cap and Survival. If that's
not enough fantasy football for you,
you can also consider playing in the
Salary Cap or Survival pro football
fantasy leagues. The Salary Cap league
is a weekly game where each team



manager gets $100 million to put to-
gether a team of nine players, each of
which have an assigned dollar value,
while keeping the roster below the
salary cap. Each player's value changes
from week to week depending on their
performance, a fact that keeps this
game challenging as the season pro-
gresses. There are both private and
public groups for Salary Cap football.

In Survival football, you attempt to
pick the winners of a pro football game
in each week of the season. If you guess
correctly, you stay active in your group
and survive to play
again the following
week. Guess wrong,
though, and you're
eliminated from the
competition. To make
this seemingly easy task
more difficult, you can
pick each professional
football team only once
during the season.



with both baseball and football, you
can buy add-on features for live scoring
updates, draft kits, and even a wireless
tool that lets you manipulate your team
with a PDA (personal digital assistant)
when you don't have access to your PC.
Pick 'em apart. In addition to man-
aging a team, you can play Pick 'Em
for golf, auto racing, pro and college
football, and the NCAA basketball
tournament. As its name implies, Pick
'Em leagues challenge you to pick the
winners of each week's tournament,
race, or game. You win your league



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Football might be
the most popular sport
for fantasy players, but
major league baseball,
pro basketball, soccer,
and hockey all have
their share of fantasy devotees, too.
These leagues work much like fantasy
football, in that you must create or
join a league, draft a team, and then
set up your team each week to try and
best your opponents.

As with football, the fantasy base-
ball section has both free and Plus
leagues that will appeal to casual and
more serious users, respectively. The
Plus league gives you access to some
of the same kinds of features as Plus
league football, such as real-time
scoring and expert analysis to guide
your management decisions.

The basketball and hockey leagues
don't offer a Plus version, so if you
want to manage teams in these sports
you won't pay to play. However, as



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If fantasy football isn't your speed, Yahoo! offers a full slate of
other fantasy sports, such as hockey, soccer, and baseball, to
help you seek online glory.



with the best cumulative score, which
you raise by picking which team,
player, or car does best.

Keep It Real

Fantasy sports are big, and they're
only getting bigger, with millions of
people logging on to Yahoo! and
other fantasy sports sites every season.
So whether you're looking for a
minor distraction from work, need
more excuses to follow your favorite
sports team, or you're a sports trivia
addict who craves online competition,
Yahoo !'s lineup of fantasy sports has
your game, [jjs]

by Nathan Chandler



78 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Entertainment



Travel Unraveled

Yahoo! Demystifies Online Trip Planning




The Web is a great equalizing
force in travel planning, letting
you research the best prices on
transportation, lodging, sight-seeing,
and much more. But there's a catch to
this convenience — you have to know
exactly where to look online. Yahoo!
Travel (travel.yahoo.com) attempts to
simplify your itinerary strategizing by
providing oodles of travel information
on a single page.

As you can probably imagine,
there's a lot of information to sort
through on a travel site that tries to be
an all-encompassing launch pad for
your next trip. We'll walk you through
Yahoo! Travel's capabilities and point
out highlights you can use to find the
best information to help you start your
next journey off on the right foot.

Let's Hit The Road

Scroll through the front page of
Yahoo! Travel, and you'll see an



expansive number of travel research
options. The Quick Search section at
the top lets you immediately find
deals on flights, hotels, rental cars,
vacations, and more. The Destin-
ation And Hotel Guides section
helps you locate an area
of interest and then pinpoint
a reputable place to stay.
Interest Guides let you
sort through potential dest-
inations by the kinds of
activities you prefer. What's
more, there are trip plan-
ning tools (see our "Trip
Planner Beta" sidebar) and
search features that will help
you find better deals on every
aspect of your trip. In short, if you
really want to, you can burn as much
time planning your trip with Yahoo!
as you do traveling.

If you'd prefer finding trips much
more quickly, Yahoo! can help. Click
the Flight & Hotel radio
button located at the top
of the Quick Search
box to line up a flight
and room immediately.
Enter a city and your
travel dates, and Yahoo!
will offer you a trip
package customized to
your needs. Then you
can sort by price, rating,
and hotel name to find
exactly what you're
looking for.

Most people will
prefer to do a little bit
of research before they
book a trip, though.
Yahoo! makes it easy to
quickly find informa-
tion that's relevant to



your preferred destination. The
Search Travel box near the top of the
page is your instant gateway to a
world of travel possibilities. As with
all keyword searches, sometimes
you'll have to refine your keywords
before you find exactly what you're
looking for. For example, typing ski
Colorado provides very different re-
sults from typing Colorado skiing.

It often pays to begin with general
keywords and then move towards
keywords that are specific. If you
know you want to base your trip
from Silverthorne, Colo., for in-
stance, typing ski Silverthorne
Colorado immediately returns perti-
nent information.

If you specify a major city in the
Search Travel textbox, Yahoo! will
reward you with a rich slate of fig-
ures and facts. Type Omaha, NE and
the first link you'll see is a Travel
Guide constructed by Yahoo!. Then
you'll see an entire list of links pro-
vided by other Web resources that
will let you explore the area from be-
hind your PC desk.

Quick hits. Just below the Search
Travel box, you'll see the Quick
Search engine. Click the various tabs
to rapidly find information on spe-
cific flights, lodging, and more. For
example, click Hotels, then enter a



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activities. You'll find suggestions for Best Beaches, Top Singles
Destinations, and more.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 79



Entertainment



city name and the dates you'll be vis-
iting, and Yahoo! will list all of the
choices it finds. Each hotel listing
comes complete with a Yahoo! Travel
Star or AAA rating, traveler reviews,
lists of amenities, room prices, con-
tact information, and more. Then you
can sort your list by price, ratings,
hotel name, or city name.

We can't overemphasize the use-
fulness of reading through traveler
reviews before making reservations,
because these reviews often
reveal details that the rating
scale doesn't. Look more
closely at some four-star
hotels, and you may find
consistent complaints about
dirty rooms, rude staff,
broken in-room furnishings,
and other problems that the
rating systems might miss.

With many hotels, you'll see
a Low Rate Guarantee link
next to the Traveler Reviews at
the top of the hotel listing.
Click this link and you'll see
an explanation of the low- rate
guarantee, in which Yahoo!
will refund the difference in
price if you find a less expen-
sive offer on the same room
on the same dates using an-
other service. So if you're serious
about getting the best possible deal,
be sure to take advantage of Yahool's
low-rate guarantee program.

The Quick Search features works
similarly for car rentals, vacation
deals, and other travel necessities.
Click the Cars link, enter a city and
travel dates, and you'll see an orga-
nized list of rental car options,
complete with prices, various car
types, and a sorting tool that will help
you find a deal that best suits your
needs. And the Vacation tab provides
an entire range of planning tools, let-
ting you quickly find package deals —
including any combination of room,
flight, and rental car — that should
save you money.

When finding the lowest price is
your main concern, you may want to



click the FareChase tab. FareChase is
a Yahoo! search engine designed to
scan multiple sites to help users find
the lowest prices on hotel rooms and
airfares. For in-depth information on
FareChase searches, see "FareChase"
on page 144.

Online Explorations

If you want to do more research
before you commit to a location or



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The Quick Search tabs are set up to help you quickly find the best
deals on everything from hotel rooms to rental cars.



flight plan, scroll down to
Explore The Destina-
tion And Hotel Guides
box. This section lists a
few links for popular
travel destinations, a
drop -down box with an
extended list of trendy
cities, and a world map
with links to areas
across the globe.

Click a spot on the
map and Yahoo! lists
some of the most com-
mon travel destinations
in the area; this includes
very popular countries
and cities. Click a city
name and Yahoo! shows
you a city- specific travel
page that lists just about



everything you'd need to know before
journeying to a metropolitan location
you've never visited before.

If you desire to bypass fashionable
destinations for areas that don't make
Yahoo !'s highlights, you can. Click a
country name, and you'll see other
city names that might not be as recog-
nizable. But whether you select Paris
or Pretoria, you'll engage one of
Yahoo! Travel's most powerful fea-
tures — the city travel guide.

City discoveries. When you
click a city's link, you're ac-
cessing one of this site's best
features, because it's these in-
dividualized guides that offer
the most specific information.
To the left of the city name
you'll see links for Hotels,
Things to Do, Restaurants,
and Deals. You will see a city
Introduction that explains the
area's geographical and polit-
ical history (and more), as
well as a Neighborhoods link
that describes the city's layout.
Click the Hotels or Restau-
rants link to see a list of these
businesses in the city you're
visiting. Yahoo! displays
these businesses by popu-
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the them by name. Click a restaurant



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Major cities have their own pages full of hotel and restaurant
reviews, plus background information that makes it much
easier to navigate your way through unfamiliar streets.



80 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Entertainment



name, and you will see a short
description of the cuisine, a star
rating, and user reviews, as well as
contact information. In some cases
you won't see Yahoo! user reviews,
but Yahoo! does occasionally pro-
vide reviews from other sources on
the Web.

In the city Introduction and
Neighborhoods listings, you'll see
links to visitor reviews of the city as a
whole. As with hotel and restaurant
reviews, these first-person accounts
really offer you some of the best
glimpses into what you should expect
from your stay. Read some of the
dozens of accounts from people
who've been to Lagos, for example,
and you'll get the idea that it's a
chaotic city where you should watch
your step. Browse through comments
written about Cairo, and you will
have the impression that the city is
safe and clean.

In other words, these reviews offer
tips for the places you should defi-
nitely go, and those that you should
avoid. Adventurous types will find
all sorts of streetwise tips for dealing
with con men or preventing run-ins
with people in dangerous areas.
More safety-minded travelers will
find information to help them steer
clear of seedy parts of town where
they might fear for their wallets or
even their lives.

Follow Your Heart

Your relatives might rave about
their last trip to Las Vegas, but if you
hate gambling and glitz, those folks
won't be much help in the way of
travel advice. So when you're browsing
for a destination based more on your
personal interests than geographical
location, Yahoo! 's Interest Guides offer
plenty of ideas.

The Interest Guides are divided
up into categories such as Romantic
Getaways, Best Beaches, Top Singles
Destinations, Last-Minute, and
more. Click any of links and Yahoo!
displays locations and a general list



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details. To get started, in


other vital information.


points in mere seconds.


the Planning A Trip? box


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tions to your itinerary


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help you locate bits of


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of possible activities that match your
idea of fun. In the Interest Guides
box, click More, and you'll see more
categories you can peruse.

The Interest Guides are a great idea
for people who have specific vacation
activities in mind, but as of press time
the actual content was pretty skimpy.
You might find information here
lacking, and if you do, be prepared to
do extra research on another site.

Final Destination

Planning a far- ranging trip across
the country or all over the globe



doesn't have to be confusing or
expensive — Yahoo!'s travel tools
provide just about everything you
need to make informed decisions re-
garding lodging, transportation, and
more. So the next time you decide to
hit the road, fire up your PC and go
online first to plot your route, find
the best attractions, and make your
travels completely unforgettable. H

by Nathan Chandler



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 81



Entertainment



Yahoo! TV

Check Your Local Listings & So Much More



Let's face it: Finding out the
Prime Time lineup for any
given night isn't exactly the
most difficult task we face in our pur-
suit of entertainment. We can turn to
TiVo or a DVR with a program guide
or a newspaper, and there are TV
channels whose sole purpose is to
show us what's on other channels.

It's understandable that Yahool's
TV section (tv.yahoo.com) may not
elicit a chorus of hurrahs at first
glance, but it offers more than what
time you can catch old episodes of
"Gunsmoke" on TV Land. Yahoo! TV
gives you personalized listings for the
shows in your area, the ability to pro-
gram your TiVo to record programs
online, and plenty of extra features
and information.

TV Tonight

The TV Listings section of Yahoo!
TV is the core of the Web page, and




you'll find that the bulk of the pro-
grams, when adjusted for your time
zone, are accurate. To display
your local TV listings, click
the TV Listings link on the
toolbar at the top of the
page, enter your ZIP code
in the empty field, and
click the Go! button.

The next page pre-
sents drop -down menus
to let you select from
among the following list-
ings: Cable, Local, Satellite,
and Time Zone. (We'll cover
the Personalized Listings be-
low.) Select the appropriate listing
from one of the drop-down menus
and click the Go! button. Yahoo! TV
will list the channels in the listing you
selected and display a three-hour
block of programming.

If you click the link for one of the
programs, Yahoo! TV will display
any available information about that
program, including a
brief synopsis of the
show and whether it is
a new airing or a re-
peat. For example, we
clicked the link for
"24," and Yahoo! TV
retrieved a synopsis of
the episode, the cast of
characters, and the fol-
lowing links: About
This Series, Photos,
Related Links, and Up-
coming Episodes. These
links provide more in-
formation and content
about shows.

The Add To My Cal-
endar link is particu-
larly helpful if you



frequently use the Yahoo! Calendar to
plan your day. When you open an
episode page, click Add To My
Calendar. Next, sign in with your
Yahoo! ID and password. Your
Yahoo! Calendar will open; click Add
To My Calendar to add the reminder.
If you want to see a listing of up-
coming shows, click the date and/or
time drop -down menus at the top of
the program listing and click Go!.

Personalize It

Maybe catching the latest episode
of VHl's "Best Week Ever" isn't your
cup of tea. With a Yahoo! ID, you can
personalize your TV listing to include
the shows you want to watch. On the
Yahoo! TV home page, click Sign In
and enter your ID and password to
start customizing.

Yahoo! TV will present you with
default listings. (For us, it was Time
Warner Cable.) Next, click the Edit
link next to My Personalized Listings
link at the top of the page. You can
change the lineup you want to use in
Step 1 by clicking Change Service
Provider. Pick the channels you want
to fill your Favorite Channels list in
the Available Channels area of Step 2.
If you want to add NBC, highlight
NBC, and click Add.



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your area in an easy-to-read format.



82 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Entertainment



Step 3 lets you display your fa-
vorite channels in My Yahoo!. Click
the radio button next to one of the
following options: First 15 Channels,
First 30 Channels, First 45 Channels,
or All Favorite Channels. Finally,
choose a time your favorite shows
start from the drop-down menu
and then click Finished to complete
the process.

After you create your personal-
ized listings, Yahoo! TV will re-
turn you to the default listings. It
may seem like you didn't cus-
tomize the listings; click the My
Personalized Listings link in the
upper-right corner of the page,
and Yahoo! TV will load your fa-
vorite channels.

Yahoo For Yahoo! &TiVo

If you find that Yahoo! TV
presents listings in an inviting
and easy-to-use fashion and you
have a TiVo Series2 DVR, you
can use your Yahoo! ID and
TiVo user account in concert to
schedule recordings on your TiVo
without laying a finger on your re-
mote control.

To schedule a recording with Ya-
hoo! TV, we started at Yahoo! TV's
home page and clicked Schedule Now
On TiVo, in the TV Tonight section
of the page. We clicked Register Now
and signed in with our Yahoo! ID and
password. We were redirected to
TiVo's Web site (www.tivo.com),
where we entered our TiVo account
information and clicked Continue.
We accepted the terms and conditions
on the next page and clicked OK. We
clicked Finalize, and our Web brow-
ser returned to Yahoo! TV.

Once we combined our Yahoo! ID
with our TiVo, we opened a Yahoo!
TV episode page and clicked Record
To My TiVo Box. On the next page,
we clicked Record This Episode. We
selected appropriate options from the
drop-down menus on the next page
and clicked Record With These
Options (such as priority, quality, and



start time). To return to Yahoo! TV,
we clicked Finish. According to
Yahoo! TV, your TiVo Series2 DVR
will receive the request you created
the next time it connects. If your
TiVo has a broadband connection,
you should allow an hour for sched-
uling; a dial-up connection requires
up to 36 hours lead time.



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spam filter for your TV listings.



DirecTV subscribers who have
TiVo's service included with their
subscription will not be able to use
Yahoo! TV to schedule recordings.

Bonus Footage

Yahoo! TV is much more than a
glorified online TV Guide. The Daily
TV Picks page (click Today's Picks at
the top of the home page) has a
number of shows Yahoo! recom-
mends and synopses of each pick. You
can click the News & Gossip link on
Yahoo! TV's home page for a quick
peek at the daily happenings in the
entertainment world.

The Yahoo! TV Exclusive on the
home page frequently lets you get a
glimpse of the first 10 minutes of an
upcoming TV program. Click the
drop-down menu in this section for
more Yahoo! TV features.

To see how your favorite show
stacked up against other shows in the
TV universe or if you're curious



about what the rest of the nation is
tuning into, click the Ratings link.
Yahoo! TV lists the top 20 most
highly rating programs according to
the most recently-released Nielsen
Media Research ratings.

You can use the TV listings to
reach your favorite program's page,
but Yahoo!'s TV Show Database
might be a quicker way. Click
the TV Show Database link and
then the link for the first letter
of the show you want to access.
For example, we accessed CBS's
"Without a Trace" by clicking W
and Without A Trace.

Soap Opera addicts can rely on
Yahoo! TV for recaps of their fa-
vorite soaps and a host of other
resources. Click the Soap Operas
link at the top of the page. On the
Soap Operas page, you can in-
dulge yourself with recaps from a
number of soaps. To view news,
gossip, or spoilers about your fa-
vorite soap, click its link from the
list on the left-hand column of
the Soap Operas page.
You can also share your thoughts
about the latest plot developments
or speculate on future events by
posting to your soap's message
board. Click the Soaps Message
Boards link to access each show's re-
spective message board.

The Other Web TV

Yahoo! TV matches its broad se-
lection of TV listings with a platter
of content that should satisfy your
inner channel surfer. Upcoming
episode previews give you a taste of
what to expect from your favorite
shows, while message boards let you
relive moments with fellow fans.
And by letting you customize your
listings, Yahoo! TV lets you take
control of finding your favorite
shows to watch faster. Qjs]

BY VlNCE COGLEY



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 83



Entertainment



The Buzz Index

Yahoo! Keeps Tabs On Today's Water Cooler Subjects




If you're always the last to know
what's going on in the world,
Yahoo! may have just what you
need. The Yahoo! Buzz Index (buzz
.yahoo.com) keeps track of the most
popular search subjects and posts
them in category views for easy navi-
gation. With information on the
latest Hollywood gossip, video
games, and world news headlines,
the Yahoo! Buzz Index will help keep
you in the loop.

The main page of the Yahoo! Buzz
Index has three primary sections. At
the top of the page, there are links
to the main categories that sort
the search results for convenient
viewing. The names of these cate-
gories are Overall, TV, Music,
Sports, Movies, Actors, and Video
Games. The left column of the site
houses the Today's Top Movers
charts to show the most popular
topics in each of these categories. In
the center of the Buzz Index page,
you'll find the Yahoo! Buzz Log,
which provides commentary about
the most popular searches.



In order to get the most out of the
Yahoo! Buzz Index, you must be able
to speak Yahoo!'s language. A sub-
ject's Buzz Score is the percentage
of users searching for a subject
on any given day. This score
determines if a subject is a
Breakout!, Buzz Mover, or
Buzz Leader. If a term moves
from very few searches one
day to a large number of
searches the next, it is referred
to as a Breakout!. Similar to a
Breakout!, a Buzz Mover is a sub-
ject with the greatest percentage in-
crease in Buzz Score from one
day to the next. Terms with
Breakout! status top the list of
Buzz Movers. Finally, the term
Buzz Leader describes subjects
with the high Buzz Score for any
given day.

Stay Safe & Clean

Given that the information for
the Yahoo! Buzz Index comes
from Yahoo! search log files, some
people may be leery of their privacy
when searching Yahoo!. Not to worry:
the Yahoo! Buzz Index site states,
"Individual users and their searches
remain completely anonymous."

Other viewers may be concerned
about stumbling across buzz-worthy
searches that aren't family- friendly.
After all, not all Web users have a
clean mind. To combat faulty or inde-
cent information, editors filter all in-
formation on the Yahoo! Buzz Index.



Timely Information

Because news is really only 'news'
for a short period of time, Yahoo!



updates the Buzz Index each week-
day. The only downside is the Buzz
Index reflects searches made two
days prior. For example, the Buzz
Index displayed on Wednesday is ac-
tually a summary of the searches that
took place on Monday. The delay is
due to data processing times. Yahoo!
publishes the Buzz Index Weekly
Report every Sunday, which recaps
the top 20 searches from the week
and offers commentary regarding re-
cent buzz activity.

Most Popular

With a range of categories, the
Yahoo! Buzz Index can keep you up-
to-date with all of the latest news. Our
favorite section of the Yahoo! Buzz
Index is the Links area near the
bottom of the main Buzz page, which
lets you see the Most-Viewed News
and Most-Emailed News. Here, we



Links

■ Most-viewed news

■ Most-emailed news



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More RSS



View the most popular news headlines with the
Links section of the Yahoo! Buzz Index.



can keep current on what people
around the world find the most in-
triguing and view- worthy.

Keep Current

Considering all of the things we do
each day, it can be hard to stay up-to-
date with all of the latest news. By uti-
lizing data from searches around the
world, the Yahoo! Buzz Index pro-
vides an effective way to track the
subjects that people around the world
find most interesting, [rs]

by Jennifer Johnson



84 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Mail

Send & Receive Email From Nearly Anywhere



Before Web -based email,
you pretty much had to
be at home to check
your email. By allowing you
to access an email account
over the Web, Web-based
email suddenly made it
possible to check your
email at a friend's house,
at a public library, or
even at work. (Don't
worry, we won't tell.)

In October 1997, Yahoo!
Mail began offering users free
Web-based email accounts. Since
those early days, the company has
made minor tweaks and increased
storage limits, but the basics of the
service remain largely intact (al-
though that's about to change; see
"Coming Soon" sidebar for more in-
formation). We'll show you what
Yahoo! Mail has to offer and how to
use its growing list of features.

Sign Up

If you have a Yahoo! ID, you prob-
ably already have a Ya-
hoo! Mail account. If
you're not sure whether
or not you have a Ya-
hoo! Mail account, visit
mail.yahoo.com and
provide your Yahoo! ID
and password. If you
already have a Yahoo!
Mail account, you'll see
a welcome message. If
not, all you need to do
is enter your first and
last name and click
Create Free Account. If
you don't yet have a
Yahoo! ID, click Sign




Up from the Yahoo! Mail login screen
and provide the requested informa-
tion. See "Identify Yourself on page
20 for more information about cre-
ating a Yahoo! ID.

Up Front

Before you start sending and re-
ceiving email, we have to talk about



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The Yahoo! Mail Welcome screen informs you of any new emails. Inbox and other
folders are listed on the left side of the screen.



storage limitations, inactive accounts,
and other service limitations. Each
Yahoo! Mail account has a 1GB
storage capacity. Yahoo! Mail will
warn you when you reach
70% and 90% of your
storage capacity. You'll
receive a final warning
when you reach your limit.
Incoming emails will be
bounced back to the sender
until you clear out old email.
Alternatively, you can upgrade to
Yahoo! Mail Plus for $19.99 a year
and get an extra 1GB of storage.

If you opt to delete old messages,
bear in mind that deleted messages
are moved to the Trash and still
count toward your storage limit.
Messages aren't actually removed
until you log back in to your account
after six hours or more of inactivity.
That means if you delete emails from
your inbox and then don't check
your account again for two or three
days, any messages you receive dur-
ing that time will continue to bounce.
Click Empty next to the Trash folder
on the left side of the
page to permanently
remove any emails in
your Trash folder.

Yahoo! deactivates
any Mail account that
is dormant for four
months, so try to log
in at least once every
four months. You
cannot retrieve any
information from de-
activated accounts.

Finally, there are
some limits on sending
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Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 85



c



or receive an email larger then 10MB.
When sending attachments, you're
also limited to 50 attachments per
message. Both limits are rather gen-
erous and should only pose a problem
in extreme circumstances.

Get The Message

Yahoo! automatically logs you out
after six hours of inactivity, so you'll
probably need to log in each time you
want to check your mail. This might
seem inconvenient, but it'll come in
handy if you forget to log out at your
local library.

Once you sign on, you'll see a
Welcome screen that informs you of
any new messages you've received.
You'll see a set of default folders on
the left side of the page. To read new
messages, click the Inbox folder or
the Check Mail button.

When you click the Inbox, you'll
see the sender, subject, date, and
message size for each email. By de-
fault, messages are sorted by date
with newer messages near the top.
You can click any column headers to
sort messages by sender, subject, or
size. Unread messages appear in
bold. To read a message, click the
subject line.

To delete an open message, click
the Delete button. Likewise, you can
reply to or forward a message by
clicking the appropriate button. Any
email attachments appear at the
bottom of the message. Options differ
depending on the file attached, but
you always have the option to down-
load the attachment to your PC.
Alternatively, you can save images to
Yahoo! Photos and other files to your
Yahoo! Briefcase.

Click the Inbox folder on the left
to return to the inbox (or click your
Web browser's Back button). To
delete multiple messages at once,
place a check in the box next to each
message you want to delete and then
click the Delete button in the upper
left of the email. When you delete a
message, that message gets moved to



your Trash folder where it is eventu-
ally removed automatically.

To send an email, click the
Compose button (available from
most pages within Yahoo! Mail) in
the upper-left corner. Provide an
email address in the To text box and a
subject for the message in the Subject
box. Type your message and click
Send below the email's text box.

Organize Your Email

If you retain a lot of email, it's best
to create folders for archiving the new
messages. To create a
new folder, click the
Add link above the
Inbox and enter a name
for the new folder. The
new folder appears be-
neath the default fold-
ers under the heading
My Folders.

Once you've created
a folder, you can move
a message to a folder
by opening a message,
clicking Move, and se-
lecting the appropriate
folder. Alternatively,
you can move multiple
messages to a folder by
placing a check next to
each message you want
to move, clicking
Move, and selecting
the appropriate folder.

If you receive a lot
of email, manually
moving messages can
become tedious. You
can set up a filter to
sort incoming mail
into the proper folder
automatically. Filters
carry out predetermined actions
when they find designated keywords
in specific parts of the message. To
set up a filter, click the Options link
in the upper-right corner, click
Filters in the Management section,
click the Add button, and provide a
name for the filter. If you want to



create a filter that places messages
from a specific person into a specific
folder, select Contains in the From
Header drop-down box. In the next
field, enter the name or email ad-
dress of the contact whose emails
you want to filter. At the bottom of
the page, select the proper folder
from the Move The Message To
drop-down list.

Spam

If you have an email address, you
probably have a spam problem.



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Creating a filter helps funnel messages into the proper folder.
You can filter incoming messages based on whether or not
certain keywords are present in the From, To/Cc, Subject, or body
of the messages that you receive.



Spam refers to any unsolicited email
that's usually sent to thousands of
users at once. Yahoo! Mail's Spam-
Guard service helps shield your
inbox from spam by automatically
placing bulk messages in a special
Bulk folder where messages are
deleted after 30- days.



86 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



c



Of course, not all bulk email is
spam, and Yahoo! tries to make ex-
ceptions for legitimate bulk email
(such as newsletters users willingly
subscribe to). In some instances,
however, Yahoo! may place legitimate
bulk email in your Bulk folder. If this
happens, you can forward a copy of
the message to Yahoo! by clicking the
Not Spam button. Placing the sender
in your online address book should
increase the odds of Yahoo! delivering
the message correctly.

If Yahoo! keeps sending important
messages to your Bulk folder, you can
create a filter to automatically place
the message in an appropriate folder.
If you decide you don't want to use
SpamGuard, click Options, click
Spam Protection, and click Turn
SpamGuard Off. Remember, how-
ever, that turning off SpamGuard
may result in more spam reaching
your inbox.

Extra Email Address

Yahoo! Mail now offers each user
a second email address. This is per-
fect if you don't like your current
Yahoo! ID and wish you had some-
thing a little snappier. Note that this
isn't a second email account, but a
second address. Email sent to either
address will appear in the same
inbox. Also note that in order to
fight spam, Yahoo! limits each user
to two changes per year.

To configure a second email
address, click Options and click
Mail Addresses at the top of the
Management section. At the bottom of
the screen, click the Get Started link
under Extra Email Address. You can
enter a new address or select a sug-
gested address. You can use either your
original Yahoo! ID or the new email
address you created to log in to Yahoo!
Mail. You can also select which address
to use for the return address when
sending an email. Click the From field
and select the address you want to use.

If you decide you don't like the
new address, open Mail Address in



Coming Soon

Changes are coming to Yahoo!
Mail. In September 2005, the
company began testing a new
version of Yahoo! Mail that will
feature technologies acquired
when Yahoo! purchased Oddpost
in July 2004. The new Yahoo! Mail
relies heavily on Dynamic HTML,
XML, and SOAP to create a fast
and efficient user interface.
Changes include the ability to
scroll through messages (no more
clicking through multiple pages)
and a reading pane to instantly
view messages. Users will also be
able to keep up with the latest
news from their favorite sites using
integrated RSS feeds. If you want to
give the beta version a whirl, you'll
need to put yourself on the waiting
list. Visit whatsnew.mail.yahoo.com
and click the Get On The Waiting
List link. I



the Options page again, select the
extra email address, and click Delete.
You can now create a new email
address if you want (but again, re-
member that you can only change this
address twice in a year).

Maintain Contact

Yahoo! includes an online Address
Book that's tightly integrated into
Yahoo! Mail. For each contact, you
can include a name, email addresses,
street address, multiple phone num-
bers, IM usernames, birthdays, an-
niversaries, and even short notes.

To add a contact, click the Ad-
dresses tab near the top of the Yahoo!
Mail page, click the Add Contact
button at the top of the page, and pro-
vide as much of the information as
you desire. When finished, click Save
or Save And Add Another at the
bottom of the screen. Adding contacts
one at a time, however, can take some
time. You can harvest email addresses



from your Yahoo! Inbox by clicking
the QuickBuilder button. Select the
folders you want to scan for email ad-
dresses and select the proper options,
such as Show Only Emails That
Appear More Than Once.

If you have contact information col-
lected in Microsoft Outlook/ Outlook
Express, Palm Desktop, or Netscape,
you can import this data into Yahoo!
Address Book. You can also import
data from a Yahoo! Address Book
(handy if you're moving to a new
Yahoo! Mail account). To import in-
formation, click the Import/Export link
on the top right of the page. Next,
select the program you want to export
data from in the drop-down list. At this
point, you'll have to open the program
you're exporting data from and create
an export file. Click the link for your
program on the right side of the page
to find out how to export a file from
that program. Next, click the Browse
button, select the export file you cre-
ated in the other program, and click
the Import Now button.

You can also export your Yahoo!
contact information for use in one
of the programs listed above. To ex-
port your contact list, scroll down to
the Export section, click the button
next to the proper application, and
select a location to save the file.
Click the proper link under Help
Exporting To for information on
how to import your contact data
into the proper application.

To use your Address Book when
composing email, click the Compose
button and then click the To link. If
there's no email address included for
a contact, it'll be grayed out. Select
an available contact and check the
checkbox. (You can opt to add the
contact to the To, Cc, or Bcc lines.)

As you can see, Yahoo! Mail isn't
difficult to use. Once you become fa-
miliar with it, you'll enjoy being able
to check your email from nearly any
Internet-connected PC. Qjs]

by Chad Denton



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 87



c



Stay



In Touch With
Yahoo! Messenger

Instant Message, Voice Chat & More




We don't have to tell you
that the Internet is a fan-
tastic communications
medium. It started simply enough
with email and IRC (Internet Relay
Chat) chat rooms. Soon, instant mes-
saging networks combined the imme-
diacy of IRC with the relative privacy
of email. Today, all the big Internet
players have their own instant mes-
saging networks. In this article we'll
explore the Yahoo! instant messaging
network and show you how Yahoo!
Messenger can keep you in touch with
friends and family.

Install The Software

Before we start typing or talking, we
need to download and install Yahoo!
Messenger. You can download Yahoo!
Messenger at messenger.yahoo.com.
Click Get It Now and follow the direc-
tions on the next page. When the
Welcome screen appears, click Next to
continue. If you don't want Messenger
to install Yahoo! Toolbar and Yahoo!



Extras, click Custom Install at
the top of the window and re-
move the checkmarks next
to Yahoo! Toolbar and
Yahoo! Extras. You'll also
need to clear the last two
checkboxes if you don't
want the installer to
make Yahoo! your default
home page and/or browser
search engine. After clicking
the Next button, read and
agree to the license agreement.
Yahoo! does collect and use some in-
formation from Messenger users, but
most of this information is integral to
the software's functionality (such as
tracking your availability status). To
read more about what information
Yahoo! uses, follow the link. Click
Next to begin installing the software.
You will need to download additional
components before you begin in-
stalling the software.

Sign In

The first time you run
Yahoo! Messenger, it will ask
you for a Yahoo! ID and pass-
word. If you don't have a
Yahoo! ID yet, click the Get A
Yahoo! ID button.

Depending on your network
setup, you may have trouble
signing on to Yahoo! Mes-
senger. If you receive an error
message, close the error mes-
sage dialog box, click Mes-
senger, select Preferences, and
click Connection on the left
side of the Yahoo! Messenger



Preferences window. If you're behind
a firewall, select Firewall With No
Proxies. If you use a proxy server, se-
lect Use Proxies and enter the relevant
information. (A proxy server passes
information between your computer
and the Internet; if you're connecting
from home, you're probably not
using one.) If all else fails, try selecting
No Network Detection. Click OK to
save your settings. If Messenger asks if
it's OK to log in again, select OK.

Layout

At the top of the Yahoo! Messenger
window is your current status. Your
status determines whether or not
you're available to receive IMs (in-
stant messages). By default, Mes-
senger sets your status to Available.
To change your status, click your cur-
rent status and select a new status
(such as Busy or Be Right Back) from
the drop -down list.

The Messenger List appears beneath
your status and includes a list of
friends you can communicate with.
Online friends are denoted by an illu-
minated smiley face. Your friend's
status will appear next to her name if
it's set to anything other than Avail-
able. We'll talk about adding new
friends to the list in the next section.

At the bottom of the Messenger
window, you'll see a special section
that lets you interact with other
Yahoo! services such as Yahoo! Music
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Before your friends can add you to their Messenger
List, you need to give them permission. You may also
select to add your friend to your Messenger List when
you grant permission (if you haven't already).



88 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



c



the bottom of the window to explore
the other options.

Add A Friend

Click the smiley face icon in the
Messenger window to add a contact.
It's best to use a Yahoo! ID for your
friend if you know they have one. If
not, provide an email address for
your friend.

You need your friend's permission
before you can add him to your
Messenger List. If you provided a
Yahoo! ID, your friend will receive
your request the next time he logs in
to Messenger. If you sent a request
to your friend's email address, he'll
receive an email request with a link
to approve the request. (He'll have a
chance to sign up for a Yahoo! ID
and download Messenger if he
hasn't already.)

Once you have permission to add
a contact, you'll be able to see
whether or not your friend is online
and whether she's available to re-
ceive IMs. To send an IM, double-
click an available contact. You can
also send messages to friends that
are offline, but they will not receive
your message until the next time
they log in. You can also bring to-
gether multiple friends using the
conference option. To create a con-
ference, double-click one of the
friends you wish to invite and then
click the Conference button. Add
other friends to the Invitation List
and click Invite when finished.
Invited parties have the option of
declining the invitation.

Voice

Like most IM clients, Yahoo!
Messenger lets you talk rather than
type. You can place a call to another
PC or cell/landline phone. You'll
need a microphone, soundcard, and
speakers, as well as Internet Explorer
5 or later, 64MB of RAM, and a
Pentium- class processor. You won't be
able to use Messenger's voice features



if you use a proxy server to connect to
the Internet.

PC-to-PC. Calling another com-
puter is relatively painless. If you're
already in an IM conversation with
someone and you decide you want
to speak directly to them, click the
Call button at the top of the IM
window. Alternatively, you can click
a contact from your Messenger List
and then click the phone icon in the
main Messenger window. The first
time you make a voice connection,
Messenger will ask if you want to
run the Call Setup Assistant to prop-
erly configure your PC's micro-
phone and speakers.

Your friend will receive a pop-up
notice. She can then click Accept,
Decline, or IM Only. If she accepts the
call, Hold and End Call buttons will
appear in the IM window. If the other
person declines or simply fails to an-
swer, you'll have the option to record
a brief (two minute) voice mail.

If you prefer, you can use Messen-
ger to create a voice conference
among multiple contacts. To create a
voice conference, double-click a
contact you want to invite and click
the Conference button. Add other
users you want to invite, select
Enable Voice Chat For This Confer-
ence, and click Invite.

PC-to-phone. Messenger is ca-
pable of connecting to traditional
phones as well through Net2Phone.
In order to place a Net2Phone
call, however, you'll need a Yahoo!
Phone Card (phonecard.yahoo.com).
Cards are available in $10, $25, and
$50 denominations.

To place a call, click Actions in
the Messenger window and click
Place A Net2Phone Call. Enter the
phone number in the Call Center
and click the Call button. Enter your
Yahoo! password, and an alert mes-
sage will tell you how much the call
will cost per minute and how much
you have remaining on your Yahoo!
Phone Card. Click the Place Call
button to place the call and press the
Hang Up button when finished.



Share

Yahoo! Messenger makes it easier
to collaborate with friends or col-
leagues by letting you share files
through Messenger. There are no re-
strictions on what file types you can
share, but if you or your friend is be-
hind a firewall that restricts peer-to-
peer file transfers, you are restricted
to files less than 100MB in size.

To share a file, click the Send File
button in the IM window. (Alterna-
tively, right-click a friend in your
Messenger List, select More Actions,
and click Send A File.) Select a file
and click the Open button.

Your friend always has the option
to refuse a file, but if he accepts you'll
begin the transfer. You can continue
to IM as the file transfers.

Pictures. With digital cameras be-
coming so popular, Messenger added a
new picture sharing feature. To share
pictures from your hard drive, click
the Photos button in the IM window.

If your friend accepts you invitation
to share pictures, a new picture sidebar
will appear on both computers. Either
of you can add pictures by clicking the
Add Pictures button. In the lower-
right corner, you'll see a thumbnail of
the image your friend is viewing. Click
the Friend's View button to display the
same image in your IM picture win-
dow. You can continue your chat as
you share each picture.

You can also share pictures from
Yahoo! Photos. To share all the pic-
tures in an album, sign in to photos
.yahoo.com, select the album, and
click the Share Album button. Click
the Share By Messenger link and click
the Share Photos button. Select a
friend from the list to send an invita-
tion. You can also share a specific
photo by clicking the photo and then
clicking the Share Photo button.

Special Features

Like most IM clients, Yahoo!
Messenger includes a handful of fea-
tures to help spice up your IMs.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 89



c



Emoticons, which are used to denote
emotion in text messages, are a com-
mon enhancement found in nearly all
IM clients. To add an emoticon, click
the smiley icon between the conversa-
tion and input fields and select an ap-
propriate emoticon.

The lips icon brings up a list of
sound clips accompanied by animated
characters called Audibles. If the field
between the conversation and input
fields is blank, click the More Audibles
button, select See All Audibles, and
click a category. For instance, select the
Helios category to send an Audible
greeting. Hover over a character to pre-
view the Audible and click the Send
button that appears over a character to
send the Audible. Click the lips icon
again to hide the Audibles field.

The format icon lets you select a
font, font size, and font color. You can
also opt to bold, underline, or italicize
text. Next to the format icon is the buzz
icon. Buzzing someone is a handy way
to get their attention, as it plays a
sound and shakes the other person's
window. If your friends abuse this op-
tion, you can disable it. Click Messen-
ger in the Yahoo! Messenger window
and select Preferences. Click Alerts &
Sounds on the left of the window and
select A Messenger Contact Buzzes Me.
Set the options accordingly.

Finally, Yahoo! offers several IM-
Vironments that alter the appearance
of the IM window and may add new
interactive content. Most of the IM-
Vironments are commercial in nature,
but a few provide some helpful fea-
tures. The Travelocity IMVironment,
for instance, includes links for finding
flights, hotels, and rental cars. To add
an IMVironment, click the IMViron-
ment button, select See All IMVi-
ronments, and pick an IMVironment
from one of the listed categories. IM-
Vironments appear in all IM windows
associated with a conversation.

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Once you've received permission from your
friends, you'll be able to see who's available
for IM and who's not. Contacts with a smiley
face are available for IM unless they've set
their status to busy.



Yahoo! Messenger, but they aren't the
only ways. You can also send text
messages to a friend's cell phone or
join online chat rooms.

Most cell phones include some sort
of text messaging capabilities. To send
a text message, you must have a mo-
bile phone number for that contact
entered in Messenger. To add a phone



number, click the Address Book tab
in Yahoo! Messenger. Double-click
the contact and click View/Edit
Contact Details. In the Primary tab,
enter the cell phone number in the
Mobile field and click Save & Close.

To send a text message, click the cell
phone icon above your Messenger list.
Contacts that include a mobile phone
number are listed in the My Contacts
tab. If you want to send a text message
to someone who isn't in your Messen-
ger List, click Other Contacts and enter
the proper phone number. You can
enter up to 150 characters, and Yahoo!
recommends sending as long a mes-
sage as possible to reduce the number
of text messages you send. Remember
that the recipient might have to pay for
each incoming message. For that
reason, the recipient may also elect not
to receive text messages.

Chat rooms. If IM is like a telephone
conversation, chat rooms are like a big
public forum. Yahoo! operates several
chat rooms that anyone can enter and
participate in. To enter a chat room,
click Messenger in the Yahoo! Mes-
senger window, select Yahoo! Chat,
and click Join A Room. Select a cate-
gory (Recreation & Sports, for in-
stance) and then select a chat room. In
some instances, there might be mul-
tiple rooms with the same name. Click
the plus sign (+) next to a room to see
similar rooms. (The number behind
each listing indicates the number of
people currently participating.) Click a
room and click the Go To Room
button to begin participating.

Stay In Touch

Thanks to the Internet, there are
more ways to stay in touch with friends
and family. Using Yahoo! Messenger,
you can send IMs and even talk to your
friends and family through your PC.
It's a great way to stay in touch and cut
down on your phone bill, [rs]

by Chad Denton



90 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



c



Yahoo! Chat



Talk It Up



Chat rooms took the
c Net by storm long
before IM (instant
message) applications en-
tered the scene. Unlike IM
programs, which let users send
messages to their friends, you
don't need to know anyone to
enter a chat room. As soon as you
enter the room, you'll see all the
messages that other people send to
that room's message window.

In many cases, chat room conver-
sations are relatively benign. But chat
room screen names mask user identi-
ties, which sometimes attract users
who have sinister motives, especially
in situations where children are pre-
sent. After an investigation by the
New York State Attorney's office into
inappropriate activity in Yahoo! chat
rooms, the Web portal closed its Teen
chat category. It also denies chat
room access to users under 18.
According to Yahoo!, it also records
chat room users' IP addresses. It
doesn't share the information with
other users, but, as Yahoo!'s Chat
Help states: "Users should never as-
sume that they are anonymous and
cannot be identified by Yahoo!."

Thanks to Yahoo!'s no-nonsense
actions in the chat rooms, you can
chat without encountering much
trouble from other chatters. That's
not to say that you should let down
your guard in chat rooms — you
should take messages from other
chatters with a grain of salt in any
chat room, whether in Yahoo! 's con-
fines or elsewhere on the Web. If you
approach the chat rooms with the
proper attitude, you'll find that you
can have rewarding conversations
with like-minded chatters, day or




night. We'll show you the ropes of
meeting people in Yahoo! Chat.

Find A Chat Room

You'll need to register a free Yahoo!
ID before you can make any online
friends in Yahoo!'s chat rooms. To
learn more about signing up for a
Yahoo! ID, see the article "Identify
Yourself on page 20. If you want to
use a name other than your Yahoo!
ID, you can add a nickname (which
appears instead of your ID) in your
Yahoo! profile. In fact, you can create
multiple profiles (and thus, multiple
nicknames) and then choose a profile
in the Join Room menu.

Yahoo! lets users enter its chat
rooms via three chat tools: Yahoo!
Chat 2.0, Yahoo! Java, and Yahoo!
Messenger (see "Stay In Touch With
Yahoo! Messenger" on page 88 for
more information about Messenger).
You'll probably need to install the
latest version of Java (www.java.com)
to access the chat rooms via Chat 2.0
or Java. You'll need to install Yahoo!
Messenger if you want to use that pro-
gram to enter the chat rooms.

To enter the chat rooms via your
browser, click All Y! Services on
Yahoo!'s main page and then click



Chat. Enter your Yahoo! ID and pass-
word, and then choose a category
from the main Yahoo! Chat page. The
page offers Featured Rooms and links
to international chat rooms, but
you'll find many great chat rooms by

browsing the Chat Categories on

the left side of the page.

Before you enter a room, you'll

need to choose the chat tool from the

Chat Software field that appears at

the top of the Yahoo! Chat pages. By

default, the field displays Chat 2.0.

When you click the field's arrow,

you can choose Java or Messenger.

Chat 2.0 and Messenger are similar,
feature-rich tools, while the Java chat
tool has a more streamlined interface.
Unless you don't use Messenger,
you'll probably prefer the program's
easy-to- manage chat windows.

You can also choose a chat room di-
rectly from Yahoo! Messenger, thanks
to an icon on the contact list's Mes-
senger tab. In some cases, you'll need
to click the arrows to the right of the
other icons to find it. You'll find the
same category and subcategory lists
that's on the Yahoo! Chat Web page.

Once you choose the software,
double-click the room you want to
enter. A window will display a large
ad and a small connection bar that in-
dicates whether you have connected
to the room. Once it connects, click
Enter. Now it's time to start chatting.

Chat It Up

Even users who have never tried a
chat program before will quickly learn
their way around Chat 2.0's interface.
All messages from the chatters in
your room appear in the large chat
window. The newest messages appear
at the bottom of the window.

When you're ready to add your two
cents to the conversation, click the
empty text field below the chat
window and type your message. If
your browser is IE (Internet Explorer),
you can send the message to the chat
window by pressing the ENTER key.
Otherwise, you can send the message



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 91



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Report Abuse



Chat 2.0's chat rooms include smilies, colorful fonts, and great features, such as the IM (instant
message) button, which lets you send a private message to any chatter in the room.



by clicking the Send button. When
you send the message, every chatter in
the room will see it. Several icons
above the message field let you bold or
italicize your message or choose font
sizes and colors. Aside from typing in
all capital letters (many chatters use all
caps to represent shouting), feel free
to customize your font. A unique font
or color will let people easily find your
text amid the other messages.

In some case, you may have trouble
finding words that accurately describe
how you feel (for example, you may
want to make sure someone knows
that you're not sending a message out
of anger). If you want to show a par-
ticular emotion, try out Chat 2.0's
smilies, Yahool's animated emo-
ticons. Simply click the smiley
face next to the font field and
then choose one of the smilies
that appear. When you click it, a
text representation of the smiley
will appear in your text field.
Click the Send button to send the
smiley to the chat window. You
can find more emotions by
clicking the Emotions button in
the Chatters menu. When you
click one of these emotions, your
name and a short message will
appear in the chat window. For
example, the Hug emotion dis-
plays "[your name] gives every-
one a big hug."

So who is in the room with
you? You'll find all chatter IDs in



the Chatters box that appears on the
right. If you think you recognize a
friend and want to check out that chat-
ter's profile to be sure, right-click the
chatter's name and then click View
Profiles. You can also send a private
message to your friend by highlighting
her name and then clicking the IM
button. This message appears on your
contact's screen in a small window.

Customize Your Yahoo! Chat Page

Chances are you'll visit a few chat
rooms regularly. If you want to
access those rooms without brows-
ing the category lists, add them to
your Favorites section on the main



Yahoo! Chat Abuse Report

Yahoo! Chat > Abuse Report



Yahoo! -



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Yahoo! Chat page. To add a chat
room favorite, click the Edit link
under My Chat. Next, browse the
categories list that appears (the same
list appears on the main Yahoo!
Chat page). As you choose chat
rooms, they'll appear in a Your
Choices list. Click the Finished
button to add your selections to the
Favorite Rooms category.

However, you'll find that Chat 2.0's
Favorite Rooms list won't include any
of the rooms that you added to the
Yahoo! Chat main page. If you want
to be able to switch directly from one
chat room to another favorite room,
you'll need to visit each of your fa-
vorite chat rooms. In each chat room,
you'll need to click Favorite Rooms
(above the chat window) and then
click Add To Favorites.

Clean Up The Trash

Yahoo! chat rooms aren't particu-
larly raucous, but as with any chat
room service, you'll run into abusive
chatters more than once in your chat-
ting career. Luckily, all of the Chat in-
terfaces have a simple and effective fix:
the Ignore button that sits just below
the interface's chatter list. When you se-
lect a chatter's name and click Ignore,
you won't see any text from that
chatter — including text that al-
ready appeared in the chat win-
dow. Click the button again to
reinstate the chatter's text. Every
chat room also has a Report Abuse
link (just above the Send button)
that takes users to Yahool's Chat
Abuse Report form.

The Last Word

Dive in and make some
friends. Although you won't see
other chatters face-to-face,
you'll quickly find yourself cre-
ating a group of good, if face-
less, online buddies. [bsI



Don't let unruly chatters take over your favorite chat
room. Yahoo's Abuse Report lets chatters police the online
chatting community.



by Joshua Gulick



92 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



c



Fun Comes
Full Circle



Yahoo! 360° Simplifies
Online Socializing



There are a lot of ways to
make new friends and
business contacts on-
line, but in many cases you'll
burn hours or days trying to
find the right kinds of people.
With Yahoo! 360° (360.yahoo
.com), social networking is fast
and easy. Best of all, Yahoo! 360°
is totally free.

Smart Social Networks

With your Yahoo 360° page, you
create a profile of your interests, start a
blog, and share photos of your life with
other members of the Yahoo! commu-
nity. Your 360° account helps you
create photo albums where you can
store your digital image collection,
organize pictures into galleries, and
then share those galleries with your
friends and family. Using a mobile
phone, you can upload text and photos
directly to your blog without the need
for a computer. Another tool lets you
compile lists of recommended movies,
books, music, or any other subject
you'd like spout off about. If you want
to tap your inner critic, you can write
up reviews about local restaurants or
other businesses in your area.

When words and photos just aren't
enough, Yahoo! empowers you to
build your own radio station. With
this feature, you don't just tell your
friends about great music — you can
play songs for them right on the Web.

If any of these features sounds inter-
esting to you, it may be time to start




your own 360° page. We'll highlight
each of the tools that 360° offers and
show you how to engage its capabili-
ties. One caveat before we begin.
Remember that as of press time Yahoo!
360° was still in beta mode, which
means some features might not be in
their final versions and may not work
perfectly every time you use them.

Just For Starters

All you need to get started with 360°
is a Yahoo! ID, which is the same ID
you use to log in to a free Yahoo! email
account. Next, simply access the main
Yahoo! 360° site and click Get Started.

Before you begin using Yahoo!
360°, you'll need to complete a short
registration process. Simply click the
Get Started button on the Yahoo! 360°
home page. You can confirm basic
information associated with your ac-
count, such as your name, nickname,
the email address you want to asso-
ciate with your account, and the time
zone in which you live. Click Finished,
and Yahoo! will take you to your very



own 360° home page, filled with
examples of pages from other users to
help jumpstart your imagination.

Check out some of the sample pages,
and you'll immediately get an idea of
how your own page will eventually
look. On the left side of the screen, you
can post a few pictures of yourself and
your family, along with your age,
home, and workplace or school name.
Just below this area is a space where
users can share music they like with
people browsing their home page.

At the top of the page, there's a one
line Blast, for a favorite passage, Web
link, or other tidbit. The main body of
the page features a Blog box, in which
a few fragments of the person's most
recent post appears. You can click
View Blog to see previous posts. Below
the blog, you'll see Reviews, Lists,
Feeds (for links to other Web re-
sources), and detailed profile informa-
tion about places where the user has
lived, worked, and studied, along with
other facts, such as languages spoken.

The right column of My Page fea-
tures three areas for photos, friends,
and groups. Photos are arranged in
albums that viewers select from a
drop-down menu. The Friends box
shows thumbnail images of people in
your network, and the My Groups
box shows any Yahoo! forums this
user frequents.

Create Your Own Page

To start your own page, simply
click Create My Page. To make things
as easy as possible, Yahoo! lists three
numbered steps at the top of the page,
and you can use these to create your
page in a logical fashion.

If you'd rather jump around and
update your page in a different order,
you can. Yahoo! displays an entire
page of empty boxes with labels. Click
the Start A Blog link, and the site im-
mediately helps you start blogging
your ideas. If you're confused about
the purpose of a particular box, you
can click a help link in each area that
explains exactly what the contents



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 93



c



should be and how you can manipu-
late each box to suit your preferences.

For starters, you may want to click
the Change Theme link near the top
of the page. You might find Yahoo !'s
basic template a bit boring, but you
can choose from dozens of colors and
backgrounds, such as a snowman,
mountains, or rain forest, to jazz up
your page and make it better suited to
your personality.

Click Create Blast and then type a
headline and insert a link that you
want to grace the top of your page. As
with most items on Yahoo! 360°,
there are little things you can do to
change the appearance of this section.
From the Blast Balloon drop-down
menu, you can select from a number
of different formats, such as Quote,
Thought, Question, and others. Each
style slightly changes the layout and
feel of the Blast section on your page.

Beef up your blog. Because the blog
section of your home page is one of
most prominent, it's best to start by
posting at least a little information here
to give people an idea of what you're all
about. Click the Start A Blog link, title
your blog, and then provide a short de-
scription for the kinds of issues and
ideas you intend to discuss.

You'll notice a couple of other im-
portant settings under your blog de-
scription. If you click the Activate My
Simple URL checkbox, you create a
personalized Web address that makes it
easier for people who know your
Yahoo! ID to find your 360° home
page. You can also decide who can view
and leave comments on your blog; you
may want your blog to be wide open to
the public or restricted to just a few
friends. On the bottom-right side of
the page, click Begin Blog, and you can
start typing to your heart's content.

Yahoo!'s blogging tools let you
create a title for each blog entry, and
you can insert photos, too. For
example, click Compose Blog Entry
and type an entry title. If you want to
include a photo, click Browse and use
Windows to find an image. Start typing
your entry and then you can use the



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Yahoo! 360° displays a series of numbered steps at the top of your home page to help guide you
through the different steps to customizing your page.



tools under Entry Content to format
your text with color, highlights, inden-
tations, and more. Once you're done,
you can preview and then post your
first entry with just a few clicks.

On the My Blog page (click the My
Blog link at the top of the page),
you'll find all sorts of options to
tweak your blog to perfection. You
can delete or edit any blog entry, click
My Blog Entries to sift through all of
your postings and change all of your
blog's settings. This page also pro-
vides a link that explains how to start
moblogging (mobile blogging) with
your mobile phone. In order to use
this service, you'll need a camera
phone that you registered with
Yahoo! Mobile. (See "Especially For
Mobile Users" on page 151 for more
about Yahoo! Mobile. )Your phone
also must have email or MMS (multi-
media message service) enabled.

Bite The Hand

Below the blog area, you have the
option to add an RSS (Really Simple
Syndication) feed to your page. This
feature lets you set up feeds featuring
your personal content from all over
the Web, via the power of RSS. For
example, you can create a feed so
that your viewers will see updates for



another one of your blogs hosted on
another site or to share your film
recommendations on the movie
rental site Netflix (www.netflix.com).

In short, feeds make it easier for
you to share other Web content,
from newspaper columns to political
blogs to sites about your favorite
hobbies. Yahoo! provides step-by-
step instructions to help you add
feeds to your page, but it's really a
straightforward process. All you
have to do is access the site you want
to share via RSS, right-click a tiny
orange button that usually reads RSS
or XML, and Click Copy Shortcut.
Next, click the Add A Feed link on
your 360° page and paste that
shortcut into one of the URL text
boxes in the Shared Feeds page.
Click Save at the bottom of the page,
and your page's visitors will see
those feeds, which are updated auto-
matically as content changes.

Reviews, music, and photos. After
you set up your feeds, you might want
to add some reviews. Click Start
Writing Reviews in the middle of your
360° page, and Yahoo! will open the
Yahoo! Network page, where you can
add your page's information to the
Yahoo! Network. Clicking the check-
boxes here will really connect you to
the 360° community, letting other



94 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



c



people see the kind of forums you
visit, the reviews you post, and the
music you listen to on Yahoo! Music.
If you really want to make
as many friends as possible,
you should check each of
these boxes.

Just below the Reviews
checkbox, you'll see links
for Local, Games, Shop-
ping, and Travel. Click one
of these links to find a busi-
ness or product you'd like
to review. You can provide
a star rating along with a
lengthy text review to give
your friends the lowdown
on a jazzy new MP3 player
or to relate your awful ex-
periences at the new pasta
place in town.

In the Yahoo! Network
page, you can also set up
your personalized radio sta-
tion. Click My LAUNCH-
cast Station to load the
Yahoo! Music page. Point
to the LAUNCHcast Radio
tab, click Customize My
Station, and you can begin
customizing the kind of
music you want Yahoo!'s
radio site to play for you.
You can listen all you want
for free (or if you don't like
the commercials, you can
upgrade for a fee and omit
them completely), and when people
visit your 360° home page, they can
hear your station, too. To learn more
about LAUNCHcast Music, check out
"The Sound Of Music" on page 74.

Your visitors can listen to your
music while they're browsing your
photo collection. If you have an ex-
isting Yahoo! Photo album or a
Flickr (www.flickr.com) photo-
stream, your 360° home page makes
it easy to share your images. Click
the Share Photos link on your 360°
page to begin. If you don't already
have photos online, just click Add
Photos, and Yahoo! will direct you
to a tool that lets you upload your



pictures. As with so many other
Yahoo! 360° features, you can apply
privacy settings to your albums and





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With just a few clicks, you can set up your page to display feeds of
information from other sites, such as your favorite news source.




You can customize a Yahoo! music station to play your favorite tunes as
other people are viewing your page.



prevent certain users from viewing
your collections.

Your Networked World

After you set up your Yahoo! 360°
home page and configure all of your
privacy settings, you can invite your
friends to see your page. At the top of
My Page, click Invite, type your friend's
email address, customize your message,
complete the word verification, and
click Send Invitation.

Once you've invited your current
friends to view your page, you can
start clicking to find other users with
similar interests. At the top of your



home page, click Find People You

Know On Yahoo! 360°. Then you

can search for other people by name

or Yahoo! ID, or you can

skip to the Discover New

People section.

If you want to find
new friends who have
the same interests, run a
keyword search in the
Discover New People
section, and you'll see all
profiles containing that
keyword. Keep in mind
Yahoo! uses the infor-
mation on home pages
to help users find each
other, so if you list "pho-
tography" on your page,
chances are that photog-
raphy enthusiasts will
find your page.

After you run this kind
of keywords search, you
can check out each profile
individually, and if you
want, add that person to
your list of friends. The
Advanced search features
let you limit your finds by
age, gender, location, lan-
guage spoken, college,
and other specifics, and
then you can contact new
acquaintances via email or
instant messaging. From
there, your social network
may expand exponentially, depending
on how actively you pursue your new
online relationships.

From there, the possibilities are vir-
tually endless. You can learn more
about your favorite hobbies, meet
more people at your university, and
network with other people in the
same line of work. You can change
your own profile to make it as basic
or detailed as you want, interact with
as many people as you like, and stay
as active as you want as you pursue a
well-rounded online life. H

by Nathan Chandler



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 95



c



Up Close
& Personal



Online Dating With Yahoo!



Typically, the people who
say that "there are plenty
more fish in the sea"
have long since reeled in a
catch and packed up their
tackle for the day. If you're
finding your seas less than
teeming, check out Yahoo!
Personals, and start making
connections. Depending on your
preference, Yahoo! Personals (per
sonals.yahoo.com) offers subscription
services that cater to both casual daters
and those looking for a serious long-
term relationship. There are even a
handful of features for those afraid of
(monetary) commitment.

Jump Right In

When you launch the Yahoo!
Personals Web site, the first thing you'll
notice is the Find My Match box in the
upper-middle part of the home page.
Both subscribers and nonsubscribers
can search Yahoo! Personals. To get
started, click the drop boxes to desig-
nate your sex and choose the sex of
your potential date. Enter an age range
for the person you're seeking, a city or
ZIP Code, and then choose a search
range from 5 to 250 miles. You can also
click a checkbox to show only profiles
with photos. Finally, click the Find My
Match button to see the results page.

The results page loads in the Basic
View, which consists of photos (if
available) of your best matches, the
person's age, general location, a pro-
file excerpt, when the person was last
active on the Yahoo! Personals site,




and the person's compatibility with
regard to your search criteria, repre-
sented as a series of hearts. You can
also browse your results in Photo
Gallery and Slideshow views by
clicking the appropriate tabs at the
top of the page.

Aside from the information you
supplied on the main page, you can
narrow your search criteria using
more than 30 additional categories,
such as Personality Type, Religion,
Ethnicity, Political, and Interests.
Simply click one of the links in the
Refine My Search Criteria box on the
left side of the page to expand a series
of checkboxes. If you're the picky
type, then check out these categories
to refine your search ad infinitum.
For instance, click the TV link to see
Couch Potato, Reality Show Addict,
News Junkie, Sports Nut, Documen-
taries, Channel Hopper, and Tivo Is
My Best Friend, to name a few. You
can check multiple boxes, and then
indicate whether these qualities are
Must Have Criteria, or not.



Going Dutch

If you're not ready to commit to
paying for the service, don't worry; you
can do a fair bit of browsing without
opening your wallet. Once you've cre-
ated your free profile, Yahoo! Personals
lets you access several features free of
charge, including a free Icebreaker
message, which is a short flirty
comment such as "I like your
photo," and "We have lots in
common." Simply click Break
The Ice For FREE from any indi-
vidual profile page. After creating
your profile, you can click a link
from the left side of your My
Profile page to take personality
tests that can help you figure
out what sort of relationship
you're looking for, your per-
sonality type, and your "love
style." Other free services include
Voice and Video Greetings, and the
ability to use the Yahoo! Personals
Search engine, as described above.

Step by step. If you already have a
Yahoo! ID, type your ID and Password
in the boxes at the top- right corner of
the Yahoo! Personals home page and
click Sign In. If you don't have an ID,
you can create an account by clicking
the Become A Yahoo! Member link on
the right side of the page. If you're not
ready to fork over the cash, don't
worry, signing up with a Yahoo! ID
doesn't cost a thing. Once you sign in,
you'll notice a few more options in the
My Searches box , such as access to the
search criteria links, and an Add More
Search Criteria button. Make your
choices and then click Find My Match.
The Search Results page displays up
to 10 of your best matches, with a
Refine My Search Criteria section to
the left side of the page. Click the Set
Up Matches By Mail link in the lower-
left corner of the page to get your best
matches sent directly to your email
inbox. Just fill out Required Criteria,
the Optional Criteria (to get the best
matches), and check the boxes to de-
note your Must Have criteria. Click
Find My Match, and Yahoo! Personals



96 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



c



Yahoo! Personals






will begin to send you po-
tential matches.

Back on the Search
Results page, click a pro-
file for a closer look. Here
you'll find additional
photos, a list of the per-
son's About Me informa-
tion, and a personalized
description called In My
Own Words. Click the
Break The Ice For FREE
link to send your profile
to a potential date. If you
haven't set up a profile,
just click the Create A
Free Profile link at the
top of the page and
follow the prompts.

If you click the Send Me An Email
link, or try to access any of the sub-
scription services, Yahoo! will direct
you to the pricing options page.

Step Up & Pay Up

So you've created your personal ad
and started glancing at a few profiles in
your area. Before long, you'll find that
talking to the people you're interested
in getting to know isn't possible
without subscribing to the service. If
you're a casual dater looking for casual
dates, look into becoming a Yahoo!
Personals subscriber for $24.95 a
month (click the Subscribe link at the
top of the home page, then click Learn
More from the Yahoo! Personals box).
In addition to the free services, sub-
scribers can send and receive Instant
Messages and emails. Yahoo! Personals
also has a six-month rate ($74.95) and
a quarterly rate ($49.95). If you're still
afraid to take the plunge, check out the
free 7-day trial offer on the Yahoo!
Personals home page.

More for your money. Yahoo! pro-
vides a few premium services for those
looking for a serious long-term rela-
tionship. For $39.95 a month, Yahoo!
Personals Premier account holders get
access to everything included with the
Yahoo! Personals subscription, plus the
option to search Premier subscribers,



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7-Day Free Trial

Jump start your dating life
with 7 FREE days of
Yahoo! Personals.



New to online dating services? Learn how Yahoo! Personals works .



You can start browsing for area singles right from the Yahoo! Personals
home page. Sign in to Yahoo! to make the most of this site's features.



the ability to rate your matches for
better search results, and special
Relationship Fit Ratings, which tell you
how compatible you are with other



Premier subscribers. Premier
subscribers also don't have to
worry about less serious
daters, as they're likely to be
turned off by the higher price.
If you're in it for the long
haul and want to save money,
try the six-month ($124.95)
or quarterly ($84.95) pricing
plan. Like the non- Premium
subscription plan, Yahoo!
offers a free 7- day trial

Yahoo! Personals stands
out from other online dating
services because it leverages
the vast number of people
who use Yahoo! for email,
shopping, and other online
services. Check it out if you're
looking to meet new people. You may
just land the love of your life. H



by Andrew Leibman



Safety Tips For Using Yahoo! Personals



Practicing safe
posting is the key to
a fun and rewarding ex-
perience on Yahoo!
Personals. Here are a few
tips that will help you
on your first foray into
online dating.

Play hard to get. Both
Yahoofs New To Online
Dating and Community
Guidelines pages stress
the importance of
anonymity. In your con-
versations with potential
dates, make sure you
don't reveal too much
about yourself. Until
you're confident that
the other person is trust-
worthy, don't hand over
personal information
such as your full name,
email address, street ad-
dress, phone number,
personal Web sites, and
Instant messaging IDs or



numbers. Yahoo! doesn't
do background checks,
so it's up to you to
protect yourself from
unsavory types.

Follow the golden rule.
If you treat other as
you'd like to be treated,
then you're much more
likely to strike a chord
with Mr. or Ms. Right.
This includes being
honest and upfront in
your personal ad and on-
line conversations. If
things progress, make
sure you've made your
intentions clear to avoid
potentially messy situa-
tions and hurt feelings.

Stay alert. Even if you
find yourself falling
head over heels, try to
keep a level head. Aside
from getting to know
the person, try to get a
feel for his or her



moods, attitudes, and
opinions. Make sure
you can easily discon-
tinue communications
at any time if you want
out. If you choose to
meet, try to pick a neu-
tral public place, tell a
friend where and when
you're meeting, and
drive yourself.

Hang back. Take your
time. Restrict yourself
to communicating over
the Internet until you're
comfortable meeting
your match in a public
place. If you're unable
to find things to discuss
after a while, then per-
haps you and this
person aren't matched
well. Also, don't let the
other person dictate
when you give up your
phone number or
other information.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 97



c



DIY Web Design

Let GeoCities Host Your Web Site For Free



The Internet might have been
nebulous, foreign territory
the first few times you logged
on, but over time, you started to get
the hang of the process. Now,
you're generally able to track
down the right Web sites.
You may not have explored
every lane in the informa-
tion superhighway, but you
consider yourself an experi-
enced Internet user.

After visiting and viewing
so many Web sites, you ask
yourself, "Why not me? Why
can't I have my own Web site?" With
Yahoo! GeoCities (geocities. yahoo
.com), creating a personal Web site
doesn't require having a separate
computer with a huge hard drive or
paying for Web design software
and/or a service that will store your
Web page and make it available to
other Internet users. All that you
need is a Yahoo! ID and some free
time to put your URL on the map.

Get What You Pay For

GeoCities offers the following
Web site packages: Free, Plus, and
Pro. When you lay GeoCities Web
page packages side-by-side, you'll
see why GeoCities Plus or Pro might
be the more attractive choice, even
though you have to pay a monthly
fee to use these services. Not only
will you be able to upload more con-
tent to your personal Web page, but
you'll also have more customer sup-
port options from Yahoo! if you se-
lect a premium package.

Two noteworthy differences be-
tween the services are the amount of
available storage for your Web page




and the presence of sponsored ads.
GeoCities Free allots you 15MB for
storing your Web page files, but you
can quickly consume this with large
files such as high-resolution images.
Also, GeoCities subsidizes its costs of
offering free Web pages by placing
sponsored ads on these pages.

Start Construction

To get your home page off its
launch pad and send your creative
ideas into cyberspace, go to Geo-
Cities' home page and click the Sign
Up button under GeoCities Free.
Sign in with your Yahoo! ID and
password. On the next page, Yahoo!
will ask you to answer a couple of
questions about how you intend to
use your Web page and how you dis-
covered GeoCities Free.

After you answer these questions,
GeoCities Free generates a unique
code that you must enter in the cor-
responding field below. Yahoo! uses
this code to essentially defend against



spamming its servers with automated
registrations. Enter the code (which
is case sensitive) you see and click
Submit. The code may appear gar-
bled and undecipherable. You can
refresh the page to receive a dif-
ferent, more readable code if you
can't make out the first one. Yahoo!
will send you a confirmation email
with instructions on designing your
Web site. Click Build Your Web Site
Now! to proceed.

Building your personal Web site

really begins at your GeoCities

Control Panel. The Control Panel

contains the following six

tabbed links: Home, Create &

Update, Manage, Promote,

Help, and Index. You'll start

at the Home tab by default.

The Home tab offers a tour

of GeoCities and an overview

of the Control Panel to give

users an idea of GeoCities' capa-
bilities. You can also go to the Home
tab for a glimpse of your site's status
and how many page views your
site receives on a daily, weekly, or
monthly basis.

Click the Create & Update tab to
access GeoCities' tools for making
your Web site shine. You can use ei-
ther PageBuilder or PageWizards to
assemble your site.

PageWizards. If you'd rather rely
on a template to serve as the founda-
tion of your Web page instead of
shuffling text and images around on a
blank canvas, PageWizards can do a
lot of the design legwork for you. On
the Create & Update tab, click Yahoo!
PageWizards.

PageWizards gives you eight Quick
Start templates and several themed
templates to choose from. Click the
link for the template you want to
use. In the dialog box that opens,
click Begin. You'll have the opportu-
nity to change your template at the
next step by clicking a radio button
next to the different template; click
Next when you're satisfied with your
selection. Give your page a title and
enter any text you want to display



98 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



c



0'



^ Site St.itus

Data Transfer Usage



on your home page and
click Next.

Step two gives you the
opportunity to add a
picture to your Web
page. Click the radio but-
ton next to one of the
following options: Use
Your Own Image, Use
The Template's Default
Image, or Don't Use An
Image. If you select Use
Your Own Image and
this is the first time using
PageWizards, click Up-
load New Image and then
Browse to find the image
on your hard drive that
you want to use. Click
Next when you've se-
lected your image.

If you have favorite Web sites to
share with visitors to your site, step
three lets you provide links to those
sites. You can give this section of your
Web page a name and list up to four
sites below. Be sure you enter the
proper URL in the Web Address fields
and click Next.

You can display your name and an
email address in step four. Complete
the empty field with any information
you want others to see and click
Next. If you have Yahoo! Messenger,
you can add a button to your Web
page that lets users send you an IM
(instant message). Adding this but-
ton also notifies others you're online
and logged in to Yahoo!. Give your
page a name and click Next and
Done. The URL GeoCities creates for
your page will use the following
format: www.geocities.com/j/owrj/a-
hooidl 'yourpagename.html.

PageBuilder. Templates are a fan-
tastic way to kick start your Web
page, but PageBuilder gives you
more design freedom. To open
PageBuilder, click Yahoo! Page-
Builder on the Create & Update tab.
If you don't see the Launch Page-
Builder link on the next page, you
may need to install Java (www. Java
.com). Click the Launch PageBuilder



GeoCities Control Panel



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Tired Df Ads?

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■ No ads on your site

■ Free domain name
• 2.OQ0MB disk space

Get GeoCities Pro- U 48/mo,
(save50%fi>r«mos, )



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More Information
Where Am I?

: ■ •.;--:; . .

• ■ :.■■.. ■'■ : .;' .

:j C •:;': i ...'..' .:.

" . '

with our overview .

Learn from Your Results

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give you some ideas.
more.



Think of the GeoCities Control Panel as your Web site's command central.



link, and PageBuilder should open
in a separate window. (If you are
using a pop-up blocker, you may
need to temporarily disable it or
allow access for PageBuilder.)

Initially, using PageBuilder may be
intimidating, but you can quickly repo-
sition text, add and move pictures, and
make other modifications once you
understand its basic features. Click the
Text button to create a text box in a
fashion similar to a program such as
MS Paint. Enter your text in the box
and click outside the box. Now, you
can click and drag the box anywhere on
the page you want. Double-click the
box to edit its contents.

To add graphical flair to your page,
click the Pictures button. In the Select
Picture dialog box, you can choose
from preexisting clip art, but you'll
probably want to upload your own
graphics. To upload a picture, click
the Upload button. Click the Browse
button and find the picture you want
to upload. (You can upload GIF and
JPEG file formats, and valid file
names must only include letters,
numbers, hyphens, underscores, and
periods.) Click Upload to add the file
to your User Files picture list.

In the Picture List pane, double-
click Clipart or User Files to browse



for the picture you wish to
add to your Web page.
Once you select it, click
OK. You can also click and
drag pictures to move them
to a different location on
the page.

You can use the Link
button to embed hyper-
links to other URLs or
email addresses. Select an
eligible item (such as text
or a graphic) on your page
and click the Link button.
If you want to link to a
URL, type the URL in the
empty field and click OK.
To link to an email ad-
dress, select email from
the drop-down menu, type
an email address in the
empty field, and click OK.

PageBuilder has a handful of other
effects and add-ons to spice up your
Web page. Click the Add-ons but-
ton to choose from PageBuilder's
additional features. Before you send
the page you designed out to the
Internet, you can click the Preview
button for an idea of how it will
look. When you're satisfied with the
page you've created, click the Save
button to save your page and pub-
lish it to the Web.

After Lift Off

We've helped you send your Web
page into orbit, but you can use the
resources on the Create & Update,
Manage, and Promote tabs to make
improvements and showcase your
page to the online community.

Using a PageWizards template is
helpful to understand the basics of
building a Web page, but as you
learn the basics of Web design,
we recommend using PageBuilder.
You'll find that its flexibility will let
you tweak your Web page according
to your unique tastes. Qjs]

BY VlNCE COGLEY



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 99



c



Yahoo! Groups

Where Everybody Knows Your Name



Though most of us can cer-
tainly appreciate a minute or
two alone, people need
communication to
stay sane. Yahoo!
does its part to en-
courage camaraderie
by giving its users
Yahoo! Groups, a
place to meet people
who have the same
interests as you. Using Groups isn't
quite as easy as instant messenger,
but you meet new people, and it can
be a useful place to gain knowledge
about your hobbies or interests.

Find The Right Group




way into Group search results by
adding random words that are com-
monly searched for in order to get
their groups in front of more faces.
It goes without saying that if you



'X&HOOf GROUPS







Yahoo! Groups

The easiest way for groups of people
to communicate on the Internet



y Groups...

Sign in to Yahoo!

Yahoo! ID: |
Password: |



□ Remember my ID on this
computer



Find a Group

i



Search



If you're a new user to Yahoo!
Groups (groups.yahoo.com) you'll
obviously need to find a
group that has the same
interests as you. One way
you can search for groups
is by typing a search term
in the Find A Group
search box and clicking
Search. For instance, if
we wanted to join a
group dedicated to moth-
erboards, we'd search for
the term "motherboard."
At press time, our search
yielded 42 groups with
"motherboard" in their
group description. How-
ever, our search listed a
few groups that weren't
about motherboards at
all. In fact, a few weren't
intended for mother-
board aficionados under
the age of 18. Sometimes
adult groups find their Yahoo! Groups has a helpful list of categories to start your search



Business & Finance
Cultures & Community
Family * Home
Government & Politics
Hobbies & Crafts
Recreation & Sports

8 Beliefs
Schools u



Computers & Internet

Entertainment & Aits

Games

Health & Wellness

Music

Regional

Romance & Relationships

Science



Create Your Own Group

to find others who sr re ou n particular interest.

Stait a <jioii|) now



Don't have a Yahoo! ID?

Signing up is easy.

Sign Up



Features at a glance

Message archive

Read and reply to group messages.
Start a new discussion.

Photos

Share photos with group members in
your own photo album.

Calendar

Coordinate events for your group with
a shared calendar

Polls

Ask members how they feel about
any topic.

Links

Store links to Web sites related to
your group.



have children who use Yahoo!
Groups, monitor their group mem-
berships very carefully.

If you don't have a specific term
you want to search for or if you'd
like to browse the different groups
on Yahoo!, click a category in the
Find A Group box in the middle of
your screen. For instance, if we
wanted to find a group dedicated to
computers, we'd click the Com-
puters & Internet link. From
there we select a cat-
egory in the Browse
For More Special-
ized Groups section
to further filter our
choices. Because we
clicked the Compu-
ter & Internet link
on the Groups home page, the
subcategories of this group include
more specialized choices in the
Computer & Internet field, such as
Hardware, Programming Languages,
and Technical Support. If we click
Hardware, the Browse For More
Specialized Groups box displays a
new set of categories dealing with
computer hardware. It categorizes
groups into sections such
as Components, Peri-
pherals, and PDAs (per-
sonal digital assistants).

Keep whittling your way
down through these cate-
gories and subcategories
until you find a list of
groups that catches your
interest. Once you get to
this point, Yahoo! will
create a Group Listings
section that displays all of
the groups that pertain to
your subject of interest.
For instance, if you click
Computers & Internet
from the Groups home
page, then click Hardware,
then Components, then
Video Cards, you narrow
your search from the
154,278 groups in Com-
puters & Internet to 126



Search |



| Sign In |



100 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



c



Create Your
Own Group

Though you can join a Yahoo!
group dedicated to nearly any
hobby or cause, Yahoo! also lets
you create your own group. To
begin, sign in to your Yahoo! ac-
count and go to the Yahoo!
Groups home page. At the bottom
of the page, you'll see a section
titled Create Your Own Group.
Click the Start A Group Now link
at the bottom of the section. This
takes you to the first of a three-
step process in creating a group-
selecting the category that best
describes your group. You can se-
lect a group category by searching
for it in the Search Group Cate-
gories search box or by using the
Browse Group Categories tool.

We wanted to create a group
where novice computer users
could go to share good and bad
experiences with hardware and
software. After our search
queries for "Computing Stories"
and "Novice Computing" didn't
return any results, we used the
Browse Group Categories tool
to put our group in the User
Groups section.

After we found a category to
call home, we moved on to the
next step, describing our group.
Here we entered our group name
and a brief description. Yahoo!
Groups also set us up with an
email address that we could use to
send messages to our members.

The final step we took in the
process was to join our own
group. We simply selected the
profile we wanted to use to receive
messages from our group (if you
have only one Yahoo! profile, it
will automatically be selected for
you) and then entered the dis-
played text in the Word Verifica-
tion section. We finished by
clicking Continue. I



"Y&Hoor groups 2r u £,



groups, listed from
largest membership
enrollment to smallest,
dealing with Video
Cards specifically.

When you click the
title of a group you
are interested in, it
will take you to the
group's home on
Yahoo! Groups. This
page shows you how
many messages mem-
bers have posted in
the past week. In the
Message History sec-
tion of the page, you
can read how many
posts the group made
in each month for the
past five years. It's a
great indicator for how
active other members of your potential
group will be.

Get Included

Once you decide a group is right
for you, joining it is pretty easy.
When you're on the home page of a
group (the page that gives you a de-
scription of the group and the mes-
sage history), you'll notice two
buttons on the right side of your
screen, one at the top and one at the
bottom, that say Join This Group!.
Click either button. Next, Yahoo!
will prompt you to sign in with your
Yahoo! account. Enter your Yahoo!
ID and Password into their respec-
tive text boxes in the grey Sign In To
Yahoo! box and click Sign In. When
you sign in, you'll be taken to a Join
This Group section. Here, you can
double-check your Yahoo! ID in the
Yahoo! Profile area as well as make
sure the email address where new
messages will be sent is correct.

Below the Email Address section
is the Message Delivery portion of
the application, which lets you select
the type and frequency of the mes-
sages you receive from your Yahoo!
group. You can receive individual






search



Yahoo: Groups




Find a Group


|| Search |


(Example: pottery, Harry Potter, c


ock-pot)


Business 8 Finance


Computers 8 Internet


Cultures 8 Community


Entertainment 8 Aits


Family 8 Home


Games


Government 8 Politics


He.ilth 8 Wellness


Hobbies 8 Crafts


Music


iioii 8 Spoils


Regional


Religion 8 Beliefs


:;


Schools a i


Science


Create Your Own Group




to find other:; lar interest.


Stmt a gi





To view My Groups...

Sign in to Yahoo!


Yahoo, ID: d




Password: |


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computer


this


| Sign In |


^Don't have a Yahoo: ID? ^S^

up is easy.
s Sicm Up>



Features at a glance
archive

Start a r



Calendai

calendar
Polls

any topic.

Store links to Web siiss related to
your group.



You'll need a Yahoo! user ID to sign up for a group.



emails, a daily highlight message,
special notices from the group's
moderator, or no emails at all. Click
the radio button next to the choice
that best suits your needs and click
the radio button next to the format
in which you want to receive your
messages. The final step in joining a
group is to enter a short letter/
number code in the text box in the
Word Verification section and click
Join in the bottom-right section of
your screen.

User Beware

Yahoo! Groups is a nice place for
people to come together to meet
others with similar interests. It's fun
to learn more about our hobbies, but
remember to be careful when search-
ing for groups. As we mentioned ear-
lier, some adult groups may pop up
even if you're searching a seemingly
unrelated term. This shouldn't dis-
courage you from joining a group
that can help you, but keep this in
mind if you have any tiny computer
users running around, [jjs]

by Sam Evans



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 101



c



Signed, Sealed
& Delivered

Send Personalized Cards With Yahoo! Greetings



M



ove over, Hallmark.
It's time to make some
room in the greeting
card space for a relative new-
comer, one that has the po-
tential to change how people
typically send cards to friends
and family members. Yahoo!
teamed up with American
Greetings.com to create the
Yahoo! Greetings site.

Yahoo! Greetings lets you
to create personalized greet-
ings for scores of occasions, in-
cluding holidays, birthdays,
and anniversaries, as well as
other types of cards, such as
thank-you notes, "Thinking of you"
messages, and inspirational wishes. Not
only will you find a slew of messages,
you'll also find a variety of styles. Some
cards are bright and cheerful; others are
more sedate; and still others are, well,
downright corny. Plus, the greeting
cards come with a number of inter-
esting features available only online,
such as animated drawings.

You can get a small taste of what
the site offers by heading to www
.yahoo.americangreetings.com and
browsing through the eCard Cate-
gories on the left. Select a category
that interests you and take a look
through the thumbnail sketches. If
the word Free appears in bright or-
ange letters beneath an item, you can
customize and send that card to
whomever you wish.

If you want to get the most out of
the site, we recommend you sign up for
the free 30-day trial. This gives you




access to all Yahoo! Greetings has to
offer, and you can see for yourself
whether you like the paid version's
extra features, such as the digital assis-
tant that tracks what cards you've sent,
or the Add- a- Photo feature that lets
you attach pictures to your greetings.
After the trial period, it costs $13.99 to
continue your one-year subscription.

A small note of caution about the
site, however. We are fans of most
Yahoo! properties (hence an entire
issue devoted to Yahoo!), but this one
is a bit more cluttered than some of
the other sections. And if you use a
browser other than Internet Explorer,
you may run into some minor func-
tionality problems. But this shouldn't
keep you from appreciating the site,
and there's plenty here to enjoy.



Create A Greeting

Yahoo! Greetings offers more than
8,000 cards in 14 broad categories:
Holidays, Just Because, Love &
Dating, Birthday, Friendship, Special
Collections, Yahoo! Exclusives,
Inspire & Encourage, Events &
Occasions, Care & Concern, Thank
You, Celebrate This Date, Now
Featuring, and Family, Teens, Baby.

Click any of those links, and you'll
see that each category is divided into
subcategories. For example, Special
Collections carries nearly four
dozen subcategories, and
topics range from 9/11 Re-
membrance to Hello Kitty to
Harley Davidson. Drill down
one layer further — we decided
to see what Looney Tunes was
all about — and you can see
all the cards in that sub-
topic. For instance Looney
Tunes carries a get-well card
from a flattened Wile E.
Coyote ("Hope You're Back
On Your Feet Soon!") and
wishes for a "Gwand Birthday"
from Tweety.
You could spend hours scouring
through the various categories, but
once you've found a card you'd like to
send, it takes only minutes to cus-
tomize it. And this is where the ad-
vantages of sending an online greeting
card are clear. For instance, musical
clips accompany most of the cards,
and you have the option of turning
the music on and off. And many of
the cards are animated, which makes
for some fun graphics.

To create the card, you simply click
a Personalize And Send button and fill
in the requested information. This
typically includes the recipient's email
address, a personalized message at the
bottom of the card, other information
to include on the card, and the date to
send the card. Members can request a
card be sent up to a year in advance,
provided they are still members at that
date. If you create a card to be sent in
the future and you later change your



102 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



c



mind, you can cancel the send-
ing if you cancel at least 24
hours in advance.

And finally, if you've browsed
and searched but haven't found
a card to send, be sure to check
out the Celebrate The Date cate-
gory. This group has a card for
every date, whether it's "Be Glad
You Didn't Run Away And Join
The Circus" day (March 6), "No
Housework" day (April 7 — as if
you need an excuse) or, yes,
we're not making this up:
"Tighty Whitey Appreciation
Day" (May 3, and we bet you
can't wait to send that card!).

Additional Features



» american s» greetings.c



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Send an online greeting card with Yahoo! Greetings.



Site subscribers can use sev-
eral practical ecard tools, such as
My Favorites. The site's organi-
zation can be a tad confusing be-
cause some of the cards are
grouped into multiple subcate-
gories, and some of the subcate-
gories fall under more than one
category, too. You can use the
site's search engine, but that
doesn't ensure you'll be able to
easily locate a card that you had
found in the past. That's where
My Favorites comes in handy.

When you discover a card
that you think you'll want to
send (or send again) in the future,
you can click the Add To My
Favorites button. This action
stores the card in the My Favorites
page. Then you can click the My
Favorites link, located at the top of
most of the site's pages, to access this
card and other cards you've added to
the list. The My Favorites page displays
small depictions of each card, and you
can click a thumbnail to enlarge the
card. You can also permanently delete
any card from your favorites list.

OK, so you've saved a card in My
Favorites, and you can't remember to
whom you sent it. No worries. The
Outbox takes care of this. The Outbox
acts as a file that contains all the cards




h| Picks

Featured Picks

Anniversary

Baby

Birthday

Friendship

OetWell

Graduation

Holidays

Love & Dating
Miss You
Sympathy
Thank You

j of You
| Engagement



Yahoo! Greetings has an inventory of more than 8,000
cards, including these featured picks.



you've sent in the past year. You can
see when you created the card, when
you sent it, the email address of the
recipient, and a copy of the card.
There's even a link to Resend the
card, so if a recipient tells you he
laughed out loud at your card but
deleted it and needs another belly
laugh, you can quickly oblige him by
sending it again.

In addition, the Outbox keeps track
of all the ecards you have in your out-
going queue, which can be useful
when sending, say, birthday cards. We
think it's great that Yahoo! Greetings



lets you schedule cards to be sent
up to a year in advance, but let's
face it — it would be extremely
easy to forget whether you cre-
ated the perfect birthday card for
Aunt Edna. Schedule multiple
cards for future delivery and then
periodically check the Outbox to
make sure you aren't forgetting
an important date.

A third tool available only to
subscribers is the Add-a-Photo
feature. We can envision many
useful situations in which you
might want to use this feature,
such as attaching a photo of the
new baby to a birth announce-
ment card or a picture of the
happy graduate when she was a
child to a graduation card. Note,
however, that to use this feature,
you must use Internet Explorer
as your Web browser. If you
aren't using IE, you can copy
and paste the card's URL into
IE. Plus, the site asks you to
download a plug-in to optimize
the photo size.

Lastly, the final subscriber tool
is the Scrapbook. The Scrapbook
is the counterpart to your Out-
box; it's the feature that stores all
the ecards you've received. You
can save the cards in your per-
sonal scrapbook and look at
them whenever you want.
While Yahoo! Greetings' cards
have many advantages over tradi-
tional cards, including a huge in-
ventory, organizational tools, and
multimedia features, maybe the best
benefit they carry is that the card
will never get lost in the mail.
Yahoo! Greetings sends you an email
notification when your recipient
picks up your card. And if the recip-
ient enjoys receiving the card as
much as you did creating it, you may
soon find one of your own in your
email inbox. Qjs]

by Heidi Anderson



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 103



c



Coordinate Your
Schedule Online

Yahoo! Calendar Lets You Get A Handle
On Your Schedule



Managing your busy sche-
dule isn't always easy, but
trying to coordinate your
schedule with others can seem im-
possible. Desktop software such
as Microsoft Outlook and even
Palm and Pocket PC devices offer
some help, but when schedules
change, it's not always easy to update
your calendar.

Online calendars are an alternative
method for managing busy schedules.
The main advantage of an online cal-
endar is that it's easy to share with
others. You can even allow family and
friends to edit your schedule for you.

Get Started

If you have a Yahoo! Mail account,
you have a Yahoo! Calendar. You
can access your calendar by opening
Yahoo! Mail and clicking the Calendar
tab or by visiting calendar.yahoo.com.
My Yahoo! users can also add their cal-
endar to their My Yahoo! page. (See
"My Yahoo!" on page 22 for more in-
formation about My Yahoo!.)

The main screen shows your sched-
ule for the current day. You can
change display views by clicking the
Week, Month, or Year tabs. The
Event Lists tab displays a list of up-
coming events, and the Tasks tab lets
you enter to-do items that don't fit in
your regular calendar.

On the left side of the page, you'll
see a small monthly calendar. Days
with scheduled events appear in bold.
Click a day to view your schedule for
that day. Click the Left or Right arrow




buttons at the top of the calendar to
display a different month.

Add An Event

The fastest way to add an event is the
Quick Event Add at the bottom of your
Yahoo! Calendar page. Provide a name,
date, and time for the event and click
the Add button. You can access addi-
tional options by clicking the Add
Event button in the top-left corner of
the page. The Add Even screen is
helpful if you need to schedule a time
with other Yahoo! Calendar users.
Click Invite / Find Free Times link in
the Date section and enter a Yahoo! ID
to display shared calendars for friends.

When entering a new event, you can
mark it as Public, Shows As Busy, or
Private. Normally, a Private event
doesn't appear when others view your
calendar. Events marked Shows As
Busy do appear but without any event
details. Public events are listed for all to
see with complete details. You cannot,
however, hide events from anyone you
allow to modify your calendar. Such
users can see all details associated with



any event marked Shows As Busy.
These users can also see entries for
Private events, although they can't see
additional details, and they're not al-
lowed to modify Private events.

To set a repeating event, click the
Show link next to the Repeating header
and provide the proper information. If
you want to invite others to the event,
you can add their email addresses in
the Invitations section. (As before,
click the Show link first.) Finally, in
the Reminders section, you can set
various alerts. By default, you'll re-
ceive an email alert in your Yahoo!
Mail inbox 15 minutes before an
event. But you can opt to receive re-
minders via Yahoo! Messenger or on
your mobile phone.

Share With Others

Part of the flexibility of Web-based
calendars is the ability to share your
schedule with others and let others
modify you calendar. Click the Sharing
link in the upper- right corner of your
calendar's home page to set your
sharing options. By default, your cal-
endar isn't shared with anyone. If you
want, you can share you calendar with
other Yahoo! users you designate as
friends or with anyone who has a
Yahoo! ID. If you opt to share only
with friends, click Edit List under My
Friends and enter your friend's Yahoo!
ID. In the Calendar Preferences drop-
down list, you can decide whether or
not your friend should be able to
modify your calendar (referred to as
Special Friends). If you opt to share
you calendar with everyone, you can
decide whether or not Special Friends
are able to modify your calendar.

Yahoo! Calendar has its limitations
(alerts, for instance, are only minimally
useful unless you provide a cell phone
number), but it is an easy way to coordi-
nate your schedule with your colleagues,
whether they're business associates or
friends. Just remember to check your
calendar on a regular basis. H

by Chad Denton



104 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



c



Yahool's
Member Directory

How To Search & Find Yahoo! Member Information



Yahool's Member Directory
(members.yahoo.com) helps
you locate Yahoo! users. The
directory provides several search
options based on information
such as username, geograph-
ical location, and interests.
However, not all Yahoo! users
are displayed in the Member-
ship Directory. Users who
want to remain private can
do so. And those who do want
a listing in the directory must
create a Yahoo! Public Profile.

Create Your Public Profile

The Yahoo! Member Directory lists
users with Yahoo! Public Profiles. A
Public Profile is a Web page full of in-
formation that users can choose to
provide about themselves. When
users create a Public Profile, they can
opt to add it to Yahool's Member
Directory. Although you choose
whether to add your profile to the di-
rectory, your profile automatically
will be available in other areas of
Yahoo! such as chat rooms and mes-
sage boards. To create a profile, users
must be at least 13 years of age.

If you have a Yahoo! ID, you have a
Profile on Yahoo!. Click the View My
Profiles link at the top of the Yahoo!
Member Directory home page. You
can click the Create New Public
Profile button to create a new profile
or click the Edit link just below that
button to edit your default profile. If
you click Edit, you can change your
personal information, such as your
age, your job, and your latest news,




and also change Display Options,
such as Add This Profile To The
Yahoo! Member Directory. You can
also edit your profile by going to your
profile page and clicking the Edit
Profile Information link.

If you create a new profile, the
process is pretty much the same as
editing an existing profile. You'll start
by creating a new profile name in Step
1. Next you can fill out some personal
information (as you would when
editing an existing profile). In Step 3
you'll choose Display Options. Click
Create Profile at the bottom of the
page when you're done. Your new
profile is ready to go.

Search For Members

The basic search page at members
.yahoo.com lets you select options to
search profiles by Real Name, Yahoo!
ID, and Interest. You can enter this



information in the Find People On
Yahoo! section at the top of the search
page. You can also select an option to
display only those users that provide
photos. This basic Yahoo! Member
Directory search displays 500 results
for each query.

If you want to locate members
based on their interests, you can use
the links on the left to browse Yahoo!
Interests categories such as Family &
Home or Games. As you select links,
the results divide into smaller subcat-
egories that you can use to pinpoint
members with specific interests.

To expand the number of
search options for the Yahoo!
Member Directory, click the
Advanced Search link below
Find People on Yahoo! at the
top of the Member Directory
home page. The Advanced
Search screen provides nine
search fields. It also has a
few options for find-
ing profiles with pic-
tures or profiles that
belong to members who are
currently online. Complete
one or more of the fields and
then click the Submit Search but-
ton at the bottom of the page to dis-
play the search results.

The search results page lists the
Yahoo! Public Profiles that meet your
search criteria. The results show the
information the members chose to
make public. The information always
includes an online name that links to
the user's profile. It may or may not
include a link for email, a link for
Yahoo! Messenger, an emoticon that
indicates whether the user is online,
or demographic information such as
gender, age, city, and state.

Yahool's Member Directory gives
Yahoo! users the opportunity to be
contacted, if they so choose. By
making this an optional feature,
Yahoo! keeps control in the hands of
the user. Qjs]

by Carmen Carmack



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 105



Business Services



Yahoo! Small Business Center

Increase Your Productivity With Tools From Yahoo!



Using the Internet to further
your small business can be a
daunting task if you don't un-
derstand the technical issues. Fortu-
nately, the folks at Yahoo! have taken
the guesswork out of using the Internet
for your business with their Small
Business Center (smallbusiness. yahoo
.com). Here's a quick rundown of its
notable features.

Get Your Own Domain

In order to take your business on-
line, you'll need a domain name. Your
domain name is the address of your
Web site on the Internet where poten-
tial clients or customers can find infor-
mation about your business. Yahoo!
offers specialized domain name regis-
tration along with a customizable
starter page to post at your new Web
address. See "Domain Names" on page
1 10 for more information.

Set Up A Company Web Site

After you've gotten your personal
domain name set up, you'll need to put
your Web site online. Your own per-
sonalized Web site will get information
about your company to the entire
world, not just your town or state. See
"Yahoo! Web Hosting & Merchant
Solutions" on page 107 for information
on designing a professional Web site,
complete with ecommerce tools,
without any previous experience.

Email Services

In order for you to appear profes-
sional to colleagues and potential
clients, your email address should
match your business domain name. In



addition to providing you with
that domain name, Yahoo! Bus-
iness Email will provide you
with a personalized email ad-
dress to match. See "Business
Email Accounts" on page 111
for details.

Marketing Tools

You've got a product or service
and a Web site you can use to show it
off. Now all you need is a way to bring
people to your page. Yahoo! Marketing
Tools service provides a search engine
and online yellow page listing, email
marketing tools, and online advertising
to help make sure people have every
opportunity to find out about your
Web site. To find out more, see "Small
Business Savvy" on page 112.

Web Access

The most high-tech, up-to-date Web
site in the world won't do you any
good if you don't have the bandwidth
to handle the traffic. In a world of in-
stant gratification, a slow Internet con-
nection can be a virtual killer. DSL
Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! will
give you faster access to online services,
as well as an always -on Internet con-
nection that still allows you to talk on
the phone. See "Internet Access" on
page 116 to read about their personal-
ized content, customized features, and
state-of-the-art security features.

Recruiting Services

Once your small business starts to
make the transition to a not- so -small
one, you'll need to expand your infra-
structure. Recruiting help over the




Internet reaches a broader audience
than TV, radio, or local newspaper ads
ever could. It will also allow you to use
digital media for a flashier presenta-
tion, let potential employees find you
using an online search engine, and pro-
vide shorter lead times and faster ser-
vice by posting the same day you
submit your ad. See "Yahoo! Hot Jobs"
on page 118 for more information
about posting a recruiting ad online.

Helpful Resources

You'll undoubtedly want to seek
out good advice for running your
business throughout every step of its
development. Yahoo! has provided an
entire knowledgebase of support ma-
terial covering a wide range of topics,
from starting your business to finan-
cial and legal concerns. To learn
more, see "Articles & Other Resour-
ces" on page 119.

You've already done the hard part:
getting your small business off the
ground. Let Yahoo! Small Business
Center help you take the next step. H

by David Miller



106 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Business Services



Web Hosting &
Merchant Solutions



Get Your Small Business Off The Starting Block



Have you built the better
mousetrap? Maybe you've
always been imbued with
an uncanny knack for selling the
most unmarketable items to the
toughest customers. Perhaps
you've devised an original ser-
vice you think will have throngs
of people lined up with their
wallets open, ready to spend with
wild abandon.

Yahoo! is ready to help you take
your business plan and put it motion,
as well as take your existing Web site,
polish it up, and present the shiny new
version to the rest of the online world.
Whether you plan on starting from
scratch or making improvements to an
existing site, Yahoo! offers two services
to give you the boost you've been
looking for: Yahoo! Web Hosting
(sbs.smallbusiness.yahoo.com
/webhosting)and Yahoo! Merchant
Solutions (sbs.smallbusiness. yahoo
.com/merchant).

Merchant Solutions

Using Yahoo! Merchant Solutions
provides tools to help your customers
easily pay for their orders and help
you move those orders from the
warehouse floor to the back of a UPS
delivery truck. You'll be able to spend
more time focusing on using profits
to grow your business instead of fig-
uring out how to configure your site
to accept credit card payments online.

Sell it. If you've ever used eBay
(www.ebay.com), you're probably fa-
miliar with PayPal (www.paypal.com),
a service that accepts credit card




payments for transactions completed
over the Internet. Users with existing
PayPal accounts can use Yahoo!
Merchant Solutions to configure their
site to accept credit card payments.
(Yahoo! does not supply a PayPal ac-
count with its service.)

You can also use a merchant ac-
count to setup up your Web site to re-
ceive payment via credit card. A
merchant account is an agreement be-
tween a merchant and a bank (or
third party on behalf of a bank) to ac-
cept credit card transactions and
settle funds through bank associations
such as Master Card or Visa.

To thwart fraudulent credit card
purchases, Yahoo!'s Risk Tools can
verify a purchaser's address and con-
firm that it corresponds with the three-
or four-digit security code associated
with the card used for the transaction.

Tools you might normally take for
granted (such as a shopping cart func-
tion, tax tables, and a central order
management system that lets shoppers



view, approve, and print their orders)
are standard with Merchant Solutions.
The service also configures your store-
front to send automatic order confir-
mations and status update emails.

Ship it. The most advanced order
system in the world won't do you any
good if you can't properly send your
merchandise out the door. All three
packages let you establish rules for
shipping methods and rate calcula-
tion. Yahoo! Merchant Solutions also
provides automated UPS shipment
processing, and the Standard and
Professional packages can export cus-
tomers' orders to UPS Worldship.
Manage it. Keeping track of those
improved mousetraps is crucial to
avoid delays when they start flying
out of your warehouse. The last
thing you want to tell your cus-
tomers is that a product shortage
will keep them from receiving their
better mousetrap.

You can receive inventory alerts if
your in stock products fall below a pre-
set level. These inventory alerts will
help you know when to reorder and
avoid depletion of your products.

Yahoo! Merchant Solutions also
gives you the ability to maintain your
catalog with the Catalog Manager.
This tool lets you view, edit, and sort
your product information. Also,
you'll be able to make changes offline
because you can upload and down-
load product information to the
Catalog Manager.

Discount it. The Standard and
Professional packages give merchants
additional capabilities found on most
Internet storefronts. With these pack-
ages, you can set your site to create
and accept gift certificates. Similarly,
the Coupon Manager produces cou-
pons redeemable at your store for
purchase discounts or free shipping.
Customers with coupons simply
enter their coupon code during the
checkout process, and the Coupon
Manager automatically calculates and
displays their savings. You can also
set the tool to track a particular
coupon's performance.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 107



Business Services



Merchant Solutions Differences



Yahoo! Merchant Services includes many more features than those listed, but
we highlighted differences in each package, so you can pick what's best for
your business.

Starter Standard Professional



Pricing


Monthly Hosting Fee


$39.95*


$99.95


$299.95


Setup Fee


$50**


$50


$50


Transaction Fee


1.50%


1%


0.75%


Order Processing


Receive orders via fax


No


Yes


Yes


Post order data in real time
to external databases or
applications


No


Yes


Yes


Shipping Tools


Export orders to UPS
Worldship


No


Yes


Yes


Merchandising


Gift certificates


No


Yes


Yes


Cross-sell engine


No


Yes


Yes


Coupon manager


No


Yes


Yes


Trackable links


No


Yes


Yes


Statistics



Click trails (shows you how No
customers navigate through
your site when they make
a purchase)

Frequent search topics No

for your site



Estimated Sales Volume



Recommend for expected $0 - $1 1,999

monthly sales between



Yes



Yes



Yes



Yes



$12,000 -$79,999 $80,000
and up



*Monthly Hostings Fee reduced to $29.96 for three months at press time
**Setup fee waived at press time



The Cross-Sell Engine is a fancy way
of saying Yahoo! Merchant Solutions'
Standard and Professional packages
enable your Web site to automatically
and suggestively promote products to a
customer based on her current pur-
chases. For example, you can set the
Cross-Sell Engine to push a spare
memory card, case, and photo printer
to anyone who buys a digital camera
from your site.

Finally, if you and another business
owner decide to form a partnership
that refers traffic to each other's site,



Yahoo! supports trackable links to
show the monthly sales generated from
site referrals. For example, if you decide
to give 5% of a sale to the business that
refers traffic to your business' site, the
trackable links will let you determine
that total.

Promote it. Forming partnerships
with other businesses for referrals is
one way to drum up traffic to your
site, but Yahoo! Merchant Solutions
provides its members with discounts
for several popular advertising ser-
vices, such as listings on shopping



domains such as Yahoo! Shopping
(shopping.yahoo.com), BizRate (www
.bizrate.com), and Shopping.com.
Other discounted services are search
engine keyword ads, such as Yahoo!
Sponsored Search and Google Ad-
Words, which display your ad if it
matches a relevant search. Other mar-
keting options include email and di-
rect marketing campaigns.

Site design and email. Yahoo! won't
actually build your business's Web
site, but it does give you the necessary
tools to construct a fantastic online
storefront. Hundreds of templates are
available for you to use, and Yahoo!
provides a Merchant Solution Exten-
sion for Macromedia Dreamweaver
(www.macromedia.com) to customers
familiar with this Web design soft-
ware. (Dreamweaver itself is sold sep-
arately.) Yahoo! Merchant Solutions
also supports Microsoft FrontPage
(purchased separately).

You'll receive 1,000 email accounts
with a 2GB storage limit per account
regardless of the Merchant Solutions
package you choose. SpamGuard Plus
and Norton Antivirus are included to
protect your accounts from a deluge of
unsolicited junk email and catch
viruses before they can affect your
system, respectively.

Pay the piper. You may notice that
the Standard and Professional packages
are identical, save one important differ-
ence: the transaction fee. The Starter,
Standard, and Professional packages
carry transaction fees of 1.5%, 1%, and
0.75%, respectively. This is the per-
centage of a sale Yahoo! receives for
hosting your business's site.

Even though you might think you're
saving money by signing up for the
Standard package, you could pay more
in the long run if your transaction fees
exceed the price difference between the
Standard and Professional packages.

Web Hosting

Although Yahoo! Merchant Solu-
tions provides a treasure chest of instru-
ments to build a professional-looking



108 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Business Services



store, Yahoo! Web Hosting isn't infe-
rior because it has fewer tools. Given
the right business, a Web Hosting plan
could save you money and bring you
the same profit.

There are similarities between
Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and Web
Hosting. Both services give you mar-
keting discounts to promote your site
and support Dreamweaver and Front-
Page. And if you have neither one of
these products, Yahoo! 's SiteBuilder is
included with both services as a free
means to construct your Web site.

When you consider the three Yahoo!
Web Hosting plans, use the expected
number of monthly visitors and how
many pages you plan on using on your
Web site as a barometer. If your Web
site is still in its infant stages, beginning
with the Starter plan will support up to
500,000 monthly visitors.

The available disk space Yahoo!
makes available to store your Web
pages may seem quite generous at
first glance (Yahoo! estimates that a
starter plan's available storage will



support about 25,000 Web pages), but
any site you develop that can also
store input from visitors (for ex-
ample, an online forum where lengthy
discussions among users can add
many pages) will start to consume
that space. As your Web site expands
to include more pages, upgrading to
the Standard or Professional plan will
prevent it from experiencing any
growing pains.

Key Differences: A Case Study

We used a featured site from each
of the services to provide an example
of how choosing either Yahoo!
Merchant Solutions or Yahoo! Web
Hosting yields different results. We'll
highlight variations in the sites to
give you an idea of what you want for
your business.

Geoffrey Roderick Photography
(www.roderickphotography.com)
served as our example of a business
using Yahoo! Web Hosting. This East
Coast photographer used Yahoo!



Web Hosting Differences



Unlike Yahoo! Merchant Services, Yahoo! Web Hosting plans don't differ
much. Aside from obvious differences in monthly fees, you'll have the same
tools available to construct your Web page regardless of the plan you pick.



Starter


Standard


Professional


Pricing


Monthly Hosting Fee $11.95*


$19.95


$39.95


Setup Fee $25**


$25


$25


Web Site Data Management


Disk space (available 5GB (about
to store files) 25,000 pages)


10GB (about
50,000 pages)


(about 100,000
pages)



Available monthly
bandwidth (amount
of data that can
be transferred from
your site)



Communications



Business email
addresses



200GB (about
500,000
monthly
visitors)



200



400GB (about 1 500GB (about 1.2
million monthly million monthly
visitors) visitors)



500



1,000



*Monthly Hosting Fee reduced to $8.96 for three months at press time
**Setup Fee waived at press time



SiteBuilder to construct the business'
Web site. It features plenty of pic-
tures, pricing options, and a Web
form for individuals interested in
contacting Roderick Photography.
Although the site will give visitors a
good idea of what the business is and
what services it offers, there aren't
any products you can actually pur-
chase via the site itself.

Because our publication is rooted
in providing a positive computing ex-
perience, we decided to use Xoxide
(www.xoxide.com) as an example of
what you can do with Yahoo! Mer-
chant Solutions' Professional Package.
Xoxide is a haven for custom compu-
ter builders, selling everything from il-
luminated keyboards to high-end
power supplies. You can easily buy
products on the site, and Xoxide sug-
gests optional items for certain prod-
ucts you buy.

Goods Or Services

An observation of Yahoo! featured
sites for each of its services reveals
that Yahoo! Merchant Solutions is
the preferred service for businesses
using their Web site to sell their
products. In fact, selling products
through your Web site virtually
locks you into purchasing a Mer-
chant Solutions plan because Yahoo!
will want the extra revenue it can
earn through transaction fees. Ya-
hoo! Web Hosting customers, on the
other hand, tend to be companies
that feature services or offer catalogs
through the mail.

Because you can upgrade or
downgrade your plans at anytime,
Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and
Web Hosting packages will adapt to
your needs. And if you need more of
a particular feature, such as addi-
tional email addresses, Yahoo! lets
you take an a la carte approach to
adding extras.

And that means good business for
your business. H

BY VlNCE COGLEY



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 109



Business Services



Domain
Names

Yahoo! Domains Is A
Convenient Option



Before you jump into creating a
Web site for your small busi-
ness, you need to first register a
domain name. The domain name
forms the address that people use to
access your site. You may also register a
domain name if you want to reserve it
for future use, or if it's similar to a
name you already reserved. Domain
name registration is one of the services
that Yahoo! Small Business (smallbusi
ness.yahoo.com) offers.

What You Get

With Yahoo! Domains you can reg-
ister your domain name using the TLD
(top-level domain) designations of
.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .us.

When you register a domain name
with Yahoo! Domains you can sign
up for one, two, three, or five years
at $9.95 per year (Yahoo! was offer-
ing discounts on names recently, so the
cost may be lower); use a Web-based
domain name management tool; and
create a customizable starter Web page.
You can also use a Yahoo! mailbox to
receive email sent to your domain
name, forward the domain name to an
existing site, and access 24-hour email
and toll-free telephone support. You
also have the option to subscribe to
Yahoo! email and Web hosting plans
and use the domain locking feature.

If you want to register a domain
name for personal use rather than busi-
ness use, you can do so with Yahoo!
Domains. However, if your goal is to




create a per-
sonal Web site,
check out Yahoo!'s Geo-
Cities service (geocities.yahoo.com).
GeoCities is designed specifically for
low- traffic, personal Web sites. It offers
free and low-cost service options.

Register & Manage A New Domain

The Yahoo! Domains service is lo-
cated at smallbusiness.yahoo.com
/domains. To register, click the Sign Up
button. The service displays a tool that
searches for the domain name you
want to register. Type the name and
the TLD extension and click Search. If
the name is already in use, Yahoo! sug-
gests alternatives.

After you successfully define a do-
main name to register, Yahoo! Small
Business gives you four options for ser-
vice packages and pricing. For our pur-
poses we'll assume you want to proceed
with the domain name registration
only. After you select your service level
and duration, you will log in with your
Yahoo! ID so you can provide your
payment and contact information.

The next page discusses the private
registration option Yahoo! Domains
offers. All domain name registrations
are listed in the WHOIS (www.whois
.net) public database. For $9 per year,
Yahoo! will keep your contact informa-
tion private; if you opt not to privatize,
anyone can view this information.

To complete the registration process
Yahoo! Domains displays a summary



page for you to review. After

you click the button to place

your order, a confirmation

page displays. At the

bottom of the page, you

can click the Manage

My Services button to

view the Web-based

Domain Control Panel

where you perform

management tasks.



Register An Existing
Domain Name



If you already own a domain
name and want to use a Yahoo! ser-
vice, such as email or Web hosting, you
need to register with Yahoo!. This
process, known as redelegation, assigns
Yahoo! as the provider of services for
your existing domain name. However,
it does not change the domain name
registrar, which is the company re-
sponsible for holding records and man-
aging renewals for a domain name. A
registrar transfer changes the domain
name registrar. Yahoo! does not offer
registrar transfers at this time, but you
can request redelegation without a reg-
istrar transfer.

To use your existing domain name
with Yahoo! email or Web-hosting
services, go to the Yahoo! Domains
page. Below the Already Have A
Domain Name? area, click the Use It
With A Yahoo! Plan link and follow the
prompts to select the desired service.

Low-Cost Domain Names

Yahoo! Domains is a convenient,
low-cost solution for domain name
registration. With tie-ins to Yahoo!'s
email, Web -hosting, and other small-
business- related services, it is definitely
worth consideration. But, it isn't the
only game in town. GoDaddy.com is
another service that has cashed in on
the low-cost domain name registration
model. It also offers a range of domain
name and related services. H

by Carmen Carmack



110 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Business Services



Business Email
Accounts



Give Your Company Email
A Professional Edge



You've probably been familiar
with Yahool's popular free
personal email service for
a long time. But what if you need
business-oriented email services so
that your email addresses reflect your
professional domain name instead of
@yahoo.com? Well, you can get that,
too, with Yahoo! Business Email
(smallbusiness.yahoo.com/email).

Know Your Options

The service offers two different
packages: Custom Mailbox and
Business Mail. Custom Mailbox of-
fers only one email address, which is
more appropriate for self-employed
business owners who don't need
more email addresses. Business
Mail comes with 10 addresses using
the same domain name (such as
@yourbiz.com) with options to add
more later, as needed. This works
well for a growing small business.
If you have an existing domain
name, you can continue using it;
otherwise, you can create a new one
at no extra cost.

Custom Mailbox costs $34.95 per
year, while Business Mail costs $9.95
per month plus a one time $25 set up
fee. Both accounts have 2GB email
storage per email address, an email
message size limit of 20MB, a one-
page starter Web site, email antivirus
and spam protection, email address
blocking of up to 200 addresses, up to
50 filters, and 24-hour toll-free cus-
tomer support.




Business Mail also comes with
email forwarding. This useful feature
will redirect emails sent to a specific
address to the primary email account
to your chosen primary accounts,
meaning that your team will only
need to check their email in one
place. For an extra charge, you can
add up to 2,000 addresses. The charge
depends on the number of added
email addresses. For 20 more ad-
dresses, for example, the cost is an
extra $10 per month on top of the
monthly fee. For an extra $50 per
month, you can add 100 addresses to
the original 10 that are included with
Business Mail.

You have the flexibility to upgrade
and change plans at any time. How-
ever, as of press time, there were not
currently any options to upgrade be-
yond the 2GB storage capacity for
email accounts.

Set Up Your Account

Before starting, determine what do-
main name you want, if you don't al-
ready have one. If you're having
trouble coming up with a name,



Yahoo! offers tips for selecting one
(smallbusiness.yahoo.com/email/faq
.php#5). Enter the desired domain
name into the Search For A Domain
Name field and click Search to see if
it's available. If not, keep tweaking
and checking its availability until
you hit the jackpot. If you have a
domain name, it's easy to
move it to Yahoo!. Go to
smallbusiness.yahoo.com
/domains/redelegation
.php for information re-
garding this process.

The one page starter
Web page, which you'll
build using the Starter
Web Page Wizard, isn't
fancy, but using it will help
your company to quickly
build an online presence. The
page allows limited text and
comes with eight predesigned tem-
plates. Yahoo! offers a more feature-
rich option for building a Web site,
but it isn't part of the business mail
package and has additional costs
depending on the selected plan.
For more information, see "Web
Hosting & Merchant Solutions" on
page 107.

Look for the Manage My Services
button in the upper-right corner of
any page of the Yahoo! Small Business
Web site. Click it to access your ac-
count information and the Business
Control Panel anytime. The step-by-
step process in the control panel will
help you set up your email addresses
or you can reference the Getting
Started guide there.

Yahoo! Custom Mailbox and Bus-
iness Mail support POP3 to access
your email accounts, so you can use
your favorite computer email pro-
grams, such as Outlook, Eudora, and
Thunderbird. Yahoo! has step-by-step
instructions to set up your email pro-
gram to work with Yahool's email ac-
counts at help.yahoo.com/help/us
/bizmail/config/config-44.html. Qjs]

by Meryl Evans



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 111



Business Services



Small Business
Savvy



Yahool's Tools Help Create
Web Commerce Powerhouses



After your small business is
up and running, you can
maximize success by tak-
ing your goods and services
online. But with billions of
other Web sites crowding the
Internet, you need a way to
make yours stand out, and
that's where Yahool's Small
Business Marketing Tools
can become an important
weapon in your online mar-
keting arsenal.

Before you think it, you
should know that the Small
Business site isn't just for adver
tising your Web site. It's designed to
help you build, maintain, and market
your business' Web presence, all with
resources you find right on Yahoo!.

Big Features For Small Biz

Yahoo! Small Business is a mul-
tifaceted site with dozens of tools
designed to empower your business.
For starters you can go to the Yahoo!
Domains page and register a mem-
orable domain name for your busi-
ness. Of course you'll need access to
the Internet, too, and Yahoo! Inter-
net access will help you connect to
the rest of the Web. Then you can
use the Web Hosting tools to create a
professional-looking Web site and
employ Yahoo! Merchant Solutions
to build an online store and start
selling your products and services
right from your site.




With the Yahoo! Marketing Tools
page, you'll find plenty of tools for
spreading the word about your com-
pany's products. And you can use
Yahoo! to access Hotjobs recruiting
services and find the kinds of em-
ployees you need to pursue your
business dreams.

Log on now. It's not impossible
to create and maintain a Web site
using dial-up Internet access. But
having high-speed access makes it
much easier to conduct business in a
quick and responsive manner, and
that's why Yahoo! touts its Internet
access services.

You can choose Yahoo! Dial,
which is the company's dial-up ser-
vice, for $15.95 per month, but you'll



get much faster data transfer speeds
with SBC Yahoo! DSL (Digital Sub-
scriber Line) access. As of press time,
Express DSL service was priced at
$29.99 per month and provided
download speeds of as much as
1.5Mbps (megabits per second). The
Pro DSL service was priced at $34.99
per month, with speeds of 1.5 to
3Mbps. These services are available
only in certain areas.

The big leap. You need a domain
name before you can establish any
sort of business online. With Yahoo!
Domains you can create a new domain
name or make your existing domain
name compatible with Yahool's other
small-business tools.

A domain name, of course, is
simply the alphanumeric combi-
nation (www.your-company-
name.com, for example) that
clients use to access your
company's Web site. Yahoo!
Domains will help you find
and register a domain name
that's not already in use and
then offers tips for building
your site. In the event that you
already have a domain name,
Yahoo! Domains will help you
reconfigure (or "redelegate") your
domain name to make it work with
Yahool's other small-business ser-
vices such as email. When you choose
a domain name, Yahoo! will prompt
you to choose an extension (such as
.com, .net, .biz, among others).

The prices for using Yahoo! to reg-
ister a domain name vary depending
on which services you opt for. If you
want only the domain name, you
will pay $9.95 per year. If you sign up
for other Small Business options,
however, you can knock that price
down to as low as $2.99 per year.
Your payment gives you access to
Yahool's customer support; domain
forwarding, which lets you create
new domain names that point to
your existing Web site; email for-
warding; and a control panel that lets
you manage all of the different com-
ponents of your domain name.



112 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Business Services



Getting Started with Yahoo! Business Solutions



Domain Maine



Business Email



The Helpful Host

Registering your domain name is
just one step toward making your busi-
ness Web site a reality. Yahoo! Small
Business can help you take another step
by providing site hosting services.

Yahoo! has three levels of
Web hosting service avail-
able: Starter ($11.95 per
month), Standard ($19.95
per month), and Profes-
sional ($39.95 per month).
As of press time, new users
who signed up for at least
three months of service re-
ceived 25% discounts on
these monthly prices; so for
example, the price for Pro-
fessional hosting dropped
to $29.96.

Each hosting option of-
fers the same basic features.
As you move up the price
scale, you'll see more extras
thrown into the mix as
Yahoo! lures you to up-
grade. With the Starter ser-
vice, you receive a domain name; 200
email addresses for your domain
name; tools that help you design your
Web site; 5GB of hard drive space;
and 200GB per month of bandwidth,
which refers to the data transfer be-
tween your Web site and your cus-
tomers. You also receive 24-hour
toll-free technical support, a control
panel that details your Web site's
traffic, security tools that help you
protect customer information and
back up your Web site, and a feature
that lets you insert PayPal buttons
that give your visitors the power to
buy products or offer donations.

The Standard option includes all of
the Starter kits tools and expands
upon them. You get 10GB of storage,
500 email addresses (with 2GB of
storage for each email account),
400GB of bandwidth, a full suite of
Web site templates, Yahool's Site-
Builder software, and support for
third-party Web design software such
as Microsoft FrontPage.



This option supports Perl scripting,
which helps you construct interactive
components such as customer sur-
veys. PHP (PHP Hypertext Processor)
and MySQL support mean you can
create customer databases and then
personalize your site depending on




-



ariety of web-based services



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If you aren't sure how to start an online business, Yahoo! provides
step-by-step instructions written expressly for beginners.



their preferences. With the Standard
hosting, you can construct communi-
cations tools, such as guest books, dis-
cussion boards, and other features
that help visitors interact with you
and with other customers, too.

Pick the Professional package, and
you'll receive even more extras. You
get 20GB of drive space, 500GB of
bandwidth to support very heavy site
traffic, and 1,000 email addresses.

With each package Yahoo! offers
discounts on its marketing services.
You'll get cash credits toward keyword
search advertisements, a free trial pe-
riod for the Got Campaigner email
marketing tool, and more.

What's In Store For You

Setting up a professional-looking
site complete with product shots, dis-
cussion forms, and interactive tools is
a major accomplishment, but until
customers can safely buy your wares,
you still have a lot of work to do.



Using Yahoo! Merchant Solutions,
you'll have the means to set up your
site to sell.

Yahoo !'s Merchant products build

onto many of the features found in

this company's Web site hosting

packages. That means if you really

want to set up a site for

selling, you can bypass the

hosting section of the Small

Business site and skip

straight to the Merchant

Solutions area.

As with Yahoo! Web
hosting, there are three
levels of Merchant Solu-
tions services available,
from Starter ($39.95 per
month) to Standard ($99.95
per month) to Professional
($299.95 per month). By
signing up for three months
of service you receive a 25%
discount on these prices for
three months. Each package
includes transaction fees to
help Yahoo! maintain your
site. Those per-transaction
fees are 1.5%, 1%, and 0.75%, for the
Starter, Standard, and Professional
services, respectively.

Invest in the Merchant Starter ser-
vice, and you'll receive a domain name
complete with 1,000 business email ac-
counts. You also get every one of the
features found in Yahoo! 's Professional
Web hosting package, including busi-
ness-worthy bandwidth and extra
drive space for your site data.

You can use the Catalog Man-
ager to track product inventory and
update pricing and details for each
item you sell. This feature also lets
you create as many as 50 categories
for your products. With those cate-
gories in place, you'll be able to sort
by different product traits; for ex-
ample, you could immediately deter-
mine how many yellow softballs you
have remaining in inventory. Catalog
Manager lets you set up inventory
alerts that will let you know when
quantity for a certain item drops
below a preset threshold.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 113



Business Services



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Using Yahool's tools you can find and register a domain name
that will give your business a unique brand identity.



Order processing is another major
component included with Merchant
Solutions services. Using Yahool's
features you'll be able to accept
credit card payments and configure
Risk Tools designed to automatically
verify credit card information. Other
components help you create shop-
ping cart and checkout procedures,
set up tax tables for customers from
around the country, and customize
order confirmation and status up-
date emails that help your visitors
feel more secure about buying from
your site.

More shipping and selling. Yahool's
shipping tools let you control shipping
methods and rate calculations, and
they even help you set up automated
UPS shipment processing complete
with shipping label printing. You'll
also see statistics that measure every
aspect of your site's productivity,
helping you to spot inefficiencies and
capitalize on your successes.

Upgrade to the Merchant Stan-
dard package and you'll have even
more power to market and sell your
goods. Whereas the Merchant Starter
service lets you receive orders via
email only, the Merchant Standard
feature lets you take orders by fax,
too, and you can post order data
in real time to other databases and



programs. Merchant
Standard also makes
shipping easier because
you can export orders
to UPS Worldship,
which enables you to
batch process ship-
ments from your PC.

With the Merchant
Standard, you can of-
fer gift certificates to
site visitors and set up
a Coupon Manager
that will help increase
site traffic by offering
discounts on specific
products. The Cross-
Sell engine detects
which products your
customers place in
their shopping carts and automati-
cally suggests related items and acces-
sories they may want to purchase.
Another feature helps you track
referral links that you set up with
partner Web sites to spread the word
about your business.

Opt for the Merchant Professional
service, and you get the benefits of
the Merchant Standard package —
the most significant difference is
the lower per-transaction fee that
Yahoo! charges for the purchases
your customers make. Yahoo! sug-
gests that only businesses expecting
more than $80,000 per
month in sales use the
Professional package
and that Merchant
Standard is best suited
to businesses with ex-
pected sales of be-
tween $12,000 and
$79,999 per month.



Yahoo! provides marketing tools to
help you spread the word.

You might want to start with one of
Yahool's local sponsored searches. If
you do, when a customer uses Yahoo!
to search for a product or service you
offer, he will see a Sponsor Results
link in his search results. If the cus-
tomer clicks your link, Yahoo! will di-
rect him to your store's information,
and to your Web site, as well. If your
business is a local one, you can re-
strict the radius of your sponsored
search to a certain geographical area;
for example, a customer in Kansas
won't see an ad for your Idaho-based
pest control services.

You can also pay for enhanced list-
ings on Yahoo! Local, which works a
lot like a digital version of your hard
copy phone book's yellow pages.
When customers search for specific
services on Yahoo! Local, they'll see
your enhanced listing, which includes
detailed information, company tag-
line, and even photos of your busi-
ness, if you like.

If you want to have a broader im-
pact with your search engine-based
advertising, you can try Yahool's
Search Submit tools. In doing so,
you submit your business listings for
consideration to appear in search re-
sults powered by Yahool's engine,
including sites such as AltaVista,




Advertise Your Wares

No matter how well-
conceived your Web
site or how great your
products might be, you
won't meet your sales
quotas if buyers don't
find your home page.



Marketing Tools
Merchant Solutions

» Business Email

Custom Mailbox
Business Mail
Compare Packages
FAQs
Getting Started
Intel net Access
Requiting Seivices



Customize your communications w

O Yahoo! Business Email

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name. With Yahool's upper-tier services, you can have thousands
of these accounts for you and your employees.



114 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Business Services



AllTheWeb, and others. When a cus-
tomer performs a keyword search
that's relevant to your business, he'll
see a link that directs him to more
information about your products
and services.

You pay a submission fee and a per-
click fee to keep your listing
active with Search Submit.
Rather than just pay and
forget, Yahoo! provides daily
reports that let you track the
effectiveness of your listing.

Directory directions. If you
want your Web site listed in
Yahoo! 's directory (dir.yahoo
.com), which is a massive list of
Web sites that cover just about
every imaginable topic, you can
complete a Directory Submit
request. Your $299 submission
fee means that Yahoo !'s staff
will review your submission
within a week and consider in-
cluding your site in the direc-
tory; there is, however, no
guarantee that Yahoo! will opt
to include your site.

Should Yahoo! decide that
it wants to add your site to its
directory, you can take yet another
step to increase your business' visi-
bility by using Yahoo!'s Sponsor
Listings service. In short, if you pay a
submission fee, Yahoo! will enhance
your site's listing in certain commer-
cial categories in its directory. This
service costs between $50 and $300
per month depending on your busi-
ness' category.

To further expand your marketing
options, Yahoo! also offers a Product
Submit service. When you submit a
product for Yahoo !'s Product Search,
customers who search for a product
like yours on Yahoo! or Yahoo! Shop-
ping will see your product listing
complete with pricing and contact in-
formation. Yahoo! may also include
your product in a comparison chart
designed to help shoppers research
goods and find the right price for a
specific product. You'll pay a small fee
every time a user clicks your product's



link, and as with other Yahoo! prod-
ucts you can view reports that track
the effectiveness of your listing, but
there's no submission fee to use the
Product Submit service.

If you want to be more aggressive,
Yahoo! Small Business can help you




Pioducts * S



Starter

Compare Packages

► FAQs
Getting Started

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If you have questions about Web hosting or any number of other
services on the Small Business site, Yahoo! provides plenty of
answers to frequently asked questions.



use the power of email to be proac-
tive with your marketing efforts. The
Campaigner tool helps you build
a permission-based list of potential
customers who won't mind receiv-
ing email messages regarding your
goods and services. Then you can
send out newsletters, timely promo-
tions, announcements, online cata-
logs, and more.

To get started you have to select a
volume plan. For example, if you pay
$10 per month, you can send 500
emails; you'll pay 5 cents for each
additional email. You can also pay
more to increase your reach. With the
monthly fee of $250, you'll send up to
50,000 emails; additional emails will
cost only around a penny each.

Info Galore

Yahoo! provides all the services that
you need to create a Web site, start



marketing, and then sell products and
services. But these services won't do
you much good if you still have ques-
tions about developing and expanding
your business. That's why Yahoo!
Small Business features an Articles &
Resources section that's full of extra in-
formation about selling online.
Here, you'll find many arti-
cles that delve more deeply into
the issues and challenges facing
small-business owners who
want to succeed on the Web.
You'll find articles covering a
variety of topics, such as Sales
& Marketing, Online Business,
Legal, Finance, and Office
& Technology.

Click Online Business, for
example, and there are subcat-
egories that divide information
into small chunks that are easy
to read. Categories in Online
Business cover Connectivity
And Access and Ecommerce,
There is also an eBay center
that covers all of the rewards
and pitfalls of using the pop-
ular auction sites to expand
your business.
Even if you're not looking for spe-
cific information in the resources
section, it's worth a few minutes of
browsing. There's a new featured
article every day, as well as an editor's
choice (such as a featured article about
paid search engine optimization) that
will increase your understanding of
online selling.

Sell Yourself Silly

Yahoo! 's Small Business page has
a plethora of services with varying
options to fit the needs of just about
anyone who wants to sell his prod-
ucts online. Whether you envision
just a few monthly transactions or
want to push your sales as high as
you possibly can, Yahoo! is designed
to help you execute your ideas with
minimal fuss. H

by Nathan Chandler



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 115



Business Services



Internet Access

Yahoo! Partners With AT&T & Verizon To Offer
Several Service Packages





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DSL



If you are a residential telephone
customer of SBC (now AT&T) or
Verizon, you can obtain Internet
access through Yahoo!. Both compa-
nies partner with Yahoo! to offer their
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) broad-
band Internet service. Because DSL
uses your existing phone line to com-
bine voice and data transmission, DSL
service is controlled in part by your
telephone company.

To find out whether your telephone
service area is eligible for AT&T or
Verizon DSL service, go to the Yahoo!
broadband Web site (promo.yahoo
.com/broadband). Yahoo! provides
links to both companies' service infor-
mation. Before you get too far, it's wise
to get an overview of what each service
offers and at what cost.

AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet

Formerly known as SBC Yahoo!
DSL, the name of this Yahoo! service
recently changed after SBC acquired
AT&T. The service is available only in
the original 13 -state SBC local service
region, and you must be an SBC/ AT&T
customer to obtain it. SBC started its
partnership with Yahoo! in 2001.

Fees. AT&T Yahoo! High Speed
Internet offers three packages for res-
idential customers. The Express Pack-
age is $14.99 per month for the first
six months and $29.99 per month



thereafter. This package offers down-
load speeds as fast as 1.5Mbps (mega-
bits per second). For advanced or
high-demand home users, AT&T/SBC
also offers a Pro Package that starts at
$21.99 per month and increases to
$34.99 per month after six months.
Or you can pay $39.99 for a month-
to-month plan. The Pro Package and
the month-to-month plan offer a
maximum download speed of 3Mbps.

The Express and Pro Packages re-
quire a six-month commitment and
carry a $99 early termination fee. There
is also a $12.95 shipping fee. With the
six-month commitment, you receive a
rebate equal to the $49.99 price of the
DSL modem. If you order the month-
to-month service, you do not receive a
rebate for the cost of the modem.

Features. With AT&T Yahoo! High
Speed Internet, you receive enhanced
Yahoo! mail that includes one main
account and as many as 10 secondary
email accounts, each with 2GB of
storage. To make transferring an ex-
isting mail account easy, you can
download TrueSwitch software and
automatically transfer your email,
address book, calendar, and favorites.
Other email-related features include
mail forwarding and support for at-
tachments as large as 20MB.

For security, AT&T Yahoo! High
Speed Internet includes spam pro-
tection, antivirus software, pop-up



blocker software, firewall protection,
antispyware/adware software, and
parental controls. To help manage pro-
tection, you also get Dashboard, which
is a tool that brings all security settings
together into one interface.

Entertainment and information fea-
tures provide unlimited free photo
storage, LAUNCH music videos, com-
mercial-free radio, and free online
games. You also get Yahoo! Messenger
(with the Super Webcam feature) and
a large Briefcase feature with 110MB
of additional online storage. The online
Briefcase lets you lock access to stored
files and share them with others.

Other services. In addition to the
Express and Pro Packages for residen-
tial customers, AT&T Yahoo! High
Speed Internet makes similar DSL
packages available to businesses. And if
you need dial-up service, prices for this
service start at $15.95 per month.

System requirements. The mini-
mum PC requirements for AT&T
Yahoo! High Speed Internet are a sys-
tem with a 266MHz processor, 64MB
of memory (128MB recommended),
125MB of free hard drive space, a CD-
ROM or DVD drive, Windows 98/Me/
2000/XP, and an Ethernet network
connection interface.

Mac requirements include a Power
PC/G3/G4 or iMac computer, 64MB
of memory (128MB recommended),
100MB of free hard drive space, a CD-
ROM or DVD drive, Mac OS 8.6 to OS
X (excluding 10.00 to 10.04), and an
Ethernet network connection interface.

Installation and support. Within
one to two weeks of placing your order
online, you'll receive a welcome pack-
age and installation kit in the mail. The
package contains instructions, a DSL
modem, phone-line filter, cables, and
installation software on CD. You are
expected to install the hardware and
software yourself. However, you can
request a technician to conduct the in-
stallation for an additional charge.

If you need assistance at anytime,
AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet
offers toll-free customer service 24/7.
You can also get help via email.



116 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Business Services



Verizon Yahoo! DSL

As we noted previously, Verizon
Yahoo! DSL is available only to Ver-
izon residential telephone customers.
The features are similar to the AT&T
Yahoo! High Speed Internet service,
but there are some differences in price
and service offerings.

Fees. Verizon offers three DSL
service levels through Yahoo!. The
least expensive service is $14.95 per
month for a one-year subscription.
The DSL speed for this plan tops out at
768Kbps (kilobits per second). If you
want a faster connection, you can pay
$21.95 per month for three months
and $29.95 per month for the re-
maining nine months of the first year's
subscription. This plan and a $37.95
month-to-month plan offer DSL
download speeds at a rate of as much
as 3Mbps.

When you place your order, you
pay $19.95 for shipping and acti-
vation. Plans with a yearly subscrip-
tion come with a modem at no
charge. In addition, with a one-year
plan you can opt for a modem and a
wireless router at a cost of $14.95.
And if you cancel the year-long plan
before it expires, you'll pay a $79 ter-
mination fee. If you opt for the
month-to-month plan, you can pur-
chase a modem from Verizon for
$39.95. At this time, Verizon Yahoo!
DSL does not offer plans for business
users or for dial-up service.

Features. With Verizon Yahoo!
DSL, you receive enhanced Yahoo!
mail with a main email account and
10 sub accounts, each with 2GB of
storage. You can download True-
Switch software and automatically
transfer your email, address book, cal-
endar, and favorites. And, similar to
AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet,
you get email- related features such as
mail forwarding and support for
20MB attachments.

In the area of security, Verizon
Yahoo! DSL offers nearly everything
that AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Inter-
net offers, including spam protection,



antivirus software, pop-up blocker
software, parental controls, and Dash-
board. However, you don't get firewall
or antispyware/adware software.

Entertainment and information fea-
tures also provide unlimited free photo
storage, LAUNCH music videos, com-
mercial-free radio, and free online
games. You also get Yahoo! Messenger
(with the Super Webcam capability)
and the briefcase feature with 100MB
of additional online storage.

Other services. Depending on your
location, you may be eligible for Ver-
izon's FiOS Internet service. This ser-
vice uses fiber-optic technology to
deliver broadband Internet capability at
downstream connection speeds ranging
from 5 to 30Mbps.

The FiOS service has a different or-
dering and installation process than the
DSL plans. If your home telephone is
capable of using FiOS Internet, Verizon
will inform you after you enter your
telephone number online to check for
service, as we described at the begin-
ning of this article. Prices range from
$34.95 per month to $199.95 per
month. You can learn more at the
Verizon Web site (www.verizon.com).

System requirements. To use Ver-
izon Yahoo! DSL, your PC needs to
meet the minimum requirements of
Win98/Me/2000/XP; an Intel Pentium
processor or equivalent with 233MHz
for Win98/Me/2000 or 300MHz for
WinXP; 64MB of memory for Win98/
Me and 128MB of memory for Win
2000/XP; 125MB of free hard drive
space; a CD-ROM or DVD drive; and a
USB port or Ethernet network connec-
tion interface.

If you use a Mac, minimum require-
ments include OS 8.6 to OS X (ex-
cluding 10.00 to 10.04) a 120MHz
PowerPC processor, 64MB of memory
(128MB recommended), 100MB of
free hard drive space, a CD-ROM or
DVD drive, and an Ethernet network
connection interface.

Installation and support. After you
place your order, which you can do on-
line, you will receive a DSL self- installa-
tion kit in three to five business days.







mm



You can add AT&T Wi-Fi service to your
AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet plan
for access to Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide,
for an added cost.



The kit includes a CD with instruc-
tions, a modem, cables, phone-line fil-
ters, and documentation. Verizon
Yahoo! DSL offers a 30-day money-
back guarantee and 24/7 support by
email and toll-free telephone.

High Speed Internet & More

In addition to broadband Internet
access and goodies from Yahoo!, these
services provide many tools to help you
navigate and personalize the Web. You
can get a customized Web browser and
multiple personalized home pages, and
you'll also have easy access to music
and videos. But these features are
rather common among today's Inter-
net service providers. The true test of
Yahoo! 's service is its speed and relia-
bility. To get performance feedback
from folks using the service, check out
Broadbandreports.com/DSLreports
.com at www.dslreports.com. H

by Carmen Carmack



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 117



Business Services



Yahoo! HoUobs



Find That Ideal Employee



In 2001 Yahoo! purchased the on-
line recruiting juggernaut Hot-
Jobs, giving Yahool's massive
global network of users access to Hot-
Jobs' recruitment tools and services.
If you're looking for a new job or new
employees, check out Yahoo! Hotjobs.




Apply Here

To access Yahoo! Hotjobs, simply
click the Hotjobs link from the list of
services near the top of Yahool's home
page or direct your browser to hotjobs
.yahoo.com. When you reach the
Yahoo! Hotjobs page, returning users
can sign in; browse listings by entering
keywords, a location, and a job cate-
gory; and access links to a number of
resources designed for job-seekers. If
you want access to employer resources,
click the Employer Solutions link in the
upper right of the home page.

The Business End

From the Employer Solutions page,
you can access the Post Jobs Now or
Contact Us buttons. With the excep-
tion of a few services, you need to use
the Contact Us form to get in touch
with a representative to discuss pricing
plans and set up a username and pass-
word. The form asks for your contact
information, a few details about your
company, and the products or services
you're interested in. Click the Contact



Us button on this page to send off the
form. We received a call from a Yahoo!
Hotjobs representative the day after we
submitted our form. If you're not too
keen on waiting, you can contact a rep-
resentative using the toll-free phone
number (877) 468-5627.



DSJij



Yahoo! Hotjobs offers its employer
services in three tiers: Post Jobs, Search,
and Exposure. For a detailed look, click
the Find The Product That's Right For
You link at the top left of the Employer
Solutions page. The Hiring Products
page appears with a breakdown of ser-
vices available to employers.

Post Jobs

The Post Jobs category features
three service tiers, each with different
benefits The Job Pack is designed for
employers looking to hire quickly. The
service offers job posting capabilities
for 30 or 60 days at a time, and it is the
only recruiting service an employer
can order online. Should you subscribe
for the Job Pack service, you will re-
ceive resumes directly via email. Job
Pack prices vary by location, so you
want to click the Order Online link for
a quote.

The Job Subscription service is ideal
for long-term recruitment needs.
When you sign up for this service and
pay the appropriate fee, you can post



jobs as often as necessary. The Hotjobs
representative we spoke with said rates
for this service product vary due to the
highly customized nature of the service.
The Ad Agency Service lets you post
and edit jobs whenever you want, keep
the post active as long as you want, and
view tracking statistics for each posting.

Search

When you post jobs on Yahoo!
Hotjobs, you can use the Resume
Search Access service to reach as many
as 146 million "passive users," or
users that visit Yahoo! on a regular or
irregular basis. This aspect of Yahoo!
Hotjobs lets employers view posted re-
sumes and search for exactly the right
person for the job.

Exposure

Yahoo! Hotjobs also offers various
services that help your company attract
new employees.

The Targeted Emails service, also
known as Yahoo! Hotjobs Direct, gives
an employer access to more than 80
million job seekers. If you find poten-
tially qualified candidates while brows-
ing Yahool's job seekers, you can send
them email invitations and wait for
them to apply.

The Recruitment Media service lets
companies buy advertising on the var-
ious Yahoo! sites. Employers can also
opt for Yahool's Premium Placement
advertising, which gives your compa-
ny's job postings top billing when pro-
spective employees search for a job
using Yahool's search engine.

Do The Math

If you need another reason to jump
on the Yahoo! bandwagon, Hotjobs
is a compelling one. Whether you
are an employer looking for employ-
ees or unemployed and looking for
work, Hotjobs can help you find the
perfect match. H

by Andrew Leibman



118 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Business Services



Articles
& Resources

Hidden Gems From Yahoo! Small Business



L



aunching and running a sue
cessful business depends on ;
number of factors, most o
which can be summed up in a single
word: information. Dreaming up a
unique gadget isn't enough; if you
don't know all the ins and outs of
running a business, including
legal, management, and mar-
keting issues, your product may
never see the light of day.

You can spend a lot of time
reading books or searching the Web
for information, or you can go
straight to the Articles & Resources
section of the Yahoo! Small Business
Web site (smallbusiness.yahoo.com/re
sources). Yahoo! and its partners pro-
vide a broad collection of information
that can help guide you through every
stage of starting or nurturing a business,
from dealing with local zoning laws to
shipping goods around the world.

The articles and resources can also
help you understand many of the finer
points of business requirements and
strategies, from choosing the best legal
structure for your new venture to mar-
keting your product or service.

Site Navigation

The articles and resources are neatly
organized by category. The main cate-
gories are: Getting Started, Sales &
Marketing, Online Business, Manage-
ment & HR, Legal, Finance, Office &
Technology, and Business Tools. A
category list, located near the top left of
most pages, makes it easy to find your
way around. The category list lets you
go straight to the main page for each




category or drill down through subcat-
egories using cascading menus. For
example, if you want to find out how to
trademark a name, you will find the in-
formation under the Trademark &
Copyright link in the Legal category
cascading menu. The category list also
includes links to Newest Articles and
Resources Home.

The category list menus are a handy
way to quickly get around, if you know
which category should hold your
target topic. If you're not sure where to
look, or you simply want to cut to the
chase, you will find a Search Our
Resources box near the top right of
most pages. Enter a word or phrase,
such as unemployment taxes, and click
the Search button. The search engine
will quickly pull up anything that
matches your criteria. Our search on
unemployment taxes got 10 hits, in-
cluding Small Business Tax Basics and
Employer-Paid Taxes.



Occasionally, information on the
Small Business site will lead you to
one of Yahoo!'s many partner sites.
The link will usually include text
telling you that a partner is providing
the service or information.

Resources Home

Resources Home is the default
starting point. It includes the category
list and search box, as well as a list of
the latest articles added to the site, a
Today's Featured Article, and an
Editor's Choice article or service.
Feature articles tend to be of broad
interest, similar to the front-page
article in Barron's Weekly or a local
paper's business section.

The page also highlights some
Yahoo! business services, such as
ecommerce for selling goods and
services online and domain name
registration. Most of the high-
lighted services can be found in the
Products & Solutions area (small
business.yahoo.com/business_ser
vices). All of the Articles & Resources
categories contain useful information,
but we will focus on the categories and
services that we think will be most
useful to small business owners.

Getting Started

This section can help you tackle
some of the most important decisions
you will face when starting a busi-
ness. There are eight subcategories:
Franchises, Franchise Finder, Legal,
Home Business, Business Opportu-
nities, Finance, Business Plans, and
Business Incorporation.

Business Plans. Every business
needs a blueprint. Many new busi-
ness owners fail to make an adequate
plan, and some skip this difficult task
entirely. The lack of a business plan
is behind the failure of many fledg-
ling businesses.

If you need a kick in the pants to get
you to start (and finish) your business
plan, this is the place to find it. The ar-
ticles cover all aspects of creating a



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 119



Business Services



Massachusetts



business plan, including
why you need one.

We like the article
"Crafting A Business Plan
For Your e-Business" by
Corey Rudl of Entrepre
neur.com because it goes
into enough detail to help
you get started without
being overwhelming. It also
provides links to other
resources, including ser-
vices that can help you
research marketing strate-
gies you might want to
include in your plan; ser-
vices that perform competi-
tive analysis, to help you
determine the strengths and
weaknesses of your plan;
business plan software de-
velopers; and other business
plan resources.

Business Incorporation.
This subcategory includes
information for all 50
states, plus the District
of Columbia. The Incor-
poration FAQ answers
common questions, such as
"What is an S corporation?" and "What
are the advantages of incorporation?."

When (and if) you're ready to incor-
porate, Yahool's partner, BizFilings,
is ready to help you do it online.
BizFilings can process incorporation
filings in all 50 states and the District of
Columbia, whether you want to file as
a Non- Profit Incorporation, a standard
Incorporation (including S Corpor-
ations), or an LLC (Limited Liability
Corporation). Simply select your state
from the State drop -down menu and
the corporation structure from the
Entity drop-down menu. You can
select the basic, standard, or complete
package, as well as add options, such as
rush services, tax ID, or certified copies
of the filing, to any package for addi-
tional fees. Once you make your selec-
tion, BizFilings will walk you through
the process of providing the necessary
information. This will vary by state and
type of business entity, but in general,



BizFilings" "YXHoor $ M allbusiness



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BizFilings, one of many Yahoo! Small Business Resources partners, can
help you file incorporation paperwork online. Select a state, entity,
package, and options (if any), and BizFilings will walk you through the
remaining steps of the filing process.



you will need a business name, busi-
ness purpose, Capital Stock informa-
tion (number of shares, value, etc.),
registered agent, and tax ID. BizFilings
will then process the necessary forms
and send you the relevant certificates
and other paperwork.

Franchises/Franchise Finder. Pur-
chasing a franchise is one of many ways
to get a head start on running your
own business, but sifting through the
many available franchise offerings has
always been a headache. The Franchise
Search feature can help you make sense
of the possibilities by narrowing your
search to match specific criteria.

The Franchise Search link is lo-
cated near the top of the Franchises
home page. You can also access it
directly by selecting Franchise
Finder from the Getting Started
cascading menu.

Select a category, such as Travel
/Lodging or Business Services, from



the Category drop-down
menu. Select an invest-
ment level from the
Investment drop-down
menu. Click the Find
Franchises button.

The search results page
will display any relevant
matches, organized into
subcategories when appro-
priate. For example, a
search on Home Services
might include Building
/Construction, Real Estate,
and Interior Decorating
subcategories. Click a sub-
category to see the items it
contains; click any item for
a description of the fran-
chise opportunity. Each
description includes an on-
line form that you can fill
out to request additional
information.

The Franchise Search
page includes a Franchise
Center, which spotlights
and profiles some cur-
rently available franchises,
and a Franchise Directory,
which provides a list of businesses
and franchises that are currently
available for sale. You can request
additional information about any
franchise directly from the owner.

The Franchises area also includes
articles and resources that provide in-
depth information about purchasing
and managing a franchise, including
how to decide whether purchasing a
franchise is right for you, how to fi-
nance a franchise, how to research a
franchise opportunity, and what
questions to ask a franchise owner.

Business Tools

At first glance, the Business Tools
category seems a bit lightweight. It pro-
vides a ZIP code lookup feature for the
United States and Canada. It also pro-
vides package tracking services for four
major shippers (DHL, FedEx, UPS, and
the U.S. Postal Service) in one place,



120 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Business Services



which is certainly handy. Of equal use-
fulness would be a shipping calculator
that would allow you to compare the
cost of sending a specific package
through each of the services.

To access the UPS shipping tools,
select UPS Tracking from the Business
Tools cascading menu, click the UPS
link near the top of the Business Tools
home page or click the
Full Tools link to the right
of the UPS Tracking field
on the Business Tools
home page. The UPS
Tracking Page lets you
track up to five packages.
It also provides access to
three shipping tools. The
first lets you calculate the
time to ship a package; the
second calculates time and
cost; and the third locates
a drop-off point near you.



about merchant (credit card) ac-
counts. If you're going to sell a
product, you will probably need to
accept credit cards.

This category also includes infor-
mation about selecting an ISP
(Internet service provider), selecting a
host for your Web site, and selecting
an ecommerce provider, if you do



trademark, copyright, patent, and
trade law, plus a legal dictionary. Many
of the legal subcategories are also refer-
enced by other areas of the Web site,
but this category brings them all
together under one roof.



Finance



Resources Home > Getting Started -



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Business Incorporation

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Incorporate Online

Provided by our partner BizFilincjs.

Incorporation FAQ

Get the basic on incorporating

LLC FAQ

Learn about this popular small biz entity.

Non-profit FAQ

Find out if a non-profit is right for you.

Detailed State Incorporation Into

A state by state guide to incorporating.



ADVERTISEMENT




Do you need some help
getting your business off the
ground? The Finance cate-
gory is a great place to learn
about the possibilities,
including borrowing, equi-
ty financing, and venture
capital. This category also
includes information about
accounting, finance manage-
ment, and basic tax issues.

Office & Technology



Sales & Marketing



The Business Incorporation category includes articles, frequently
questions, and a handy online filing service.



asked



For many individuals,
marketing themselves and their prod-
ucts or services is even more painful
than writing a business plan. Unlike
writing a business plan, marketing is
a recurring task, which only adds to
the pain.

The Sales & Marketing category in-
cludes 1 1 subcategories that cover a
broad range of online and offline sales
and marketing strategies for services
and products. You'll find information
on how to hire a Web designer or how
to design a Web site, if you prefer to do
it yourself; tips on how to get your site
listed in the major search engines; the
pros and cons of paid search services;
email marketing dos and don'ts; and
pointers to help you advert disaster by
researching the target market for a
product or service before you sink too
much time or money into it.

Online Business

Even if you don't plan to take your
business online, this category is worth
a look because it includes information



plan to sell products or services on-
line. It also includes information spe-
cific to selling products through eBay.

Management &HR

Management and human resources
issues are another area that many busi-
ness owners would rather not think
about, but unless you're a sole propri-
etor, there are a number of issues that
you can't avoid. If you will have one or
more employees, you will need to learn
the requirements for hiring, firing,
workers compensation insurance,
liabilities, and many other areas of
employment law.

Legal

Not surprisingly, this category is
quite large. It includes information
about naming a business, choosing a
legal structure for a business, employ-
ment law, and working as an indepen-
dent contractor for another business.
It also includes information about



Whether your business is
large or small, you will need
at least some basic equip-
ment, including a telephone
and a computer. You will find tips
and information about basic and
advanced equipment in this category.



Newest Articles

This may be the category you will
check most often, once you get your
business up and running. It's an
easy way to keep up to date with
current business information, is-
sues, and technology.

Get To Work

The Yahoo! Small Business Web
site doesn't cover every last thing you
need to know about starting and run-
ning a business; no single resource
could. But it does provide a well-or-
ganized and relatively in-depth guide
in one easy-to-access place. The rest is
up to you. H

by Tom Nelson and Mary O'Connor



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 121



Yahoo! Next



Yahoo! Next

A Preview Of Coming Attractions



Yahoo! Next (next.yahoo.com)
is the place to see Yahoo! 's col-
lection of newly hatched fea-
tures, products, and technologies.
Yahoo! releases projects in beta (test)
form at Yahoo! Next so anyone can try
them. And you can help Yahool's de-
velopment process by providing feed-
back for improvements and changes
to the products and services you try.

For each of the features on Yahoo!
Next, you can view an online discus-
sion forum with user ratings in a mes-
sage board format. To do this, click the
Discuss With Others link that corre-
sponds to the feature you're interested
in. If you have a Yahoo! ID, you can log
in to contribute your own comments
and ratings. This is a way to provide
feedback to Yahool's developers.

Some items on Yahoo! Next also
have a corresponding Read More link.
Clicking this link takes you to more
information, usually in the form of a
Yahoo! blog such as the Yahoo! Search
Blog (www.ysearchblog.com). Yahoo!
employees often introduce new beta
features or enhancements to existing
features in a related Yahoo! blog.

To try a product or service listed on
Yahoo! Next, click the name of the beta
feature to go to its home page. There
you can look for an FAQ, view online
help, and try the feature yourself.

What's Available Next

The items currently offered on
Yahoo! Next cover a wide assortment
of services that vary greatly in scope.
For example, a beta project can be as




Yahoo! Site Explorer uses the infor-
mation from the Yahoo! Search index
to list information about Web sites.

Instant Search augments Yahoo!
Search by displaying the top search re-
sult as you enter your search criteria.

Yahoo! Mobile Shopping Search
lets you use a Web-enabled mobile
device to search or receive alerts from
Yahoo! Shopping.

Yahoo! Audio Search helps you
search most types of audio files lo-
cated on the Web.



simple as an add-on to
Yahoo! Search or as
complex as an entirely
new product or service.
Accordingly, we'll categorize
each of the Yahoo! Next services
available at press time as either an
add-on to an existing feature or a new
product or service.

Add-On Features

To enhance or extend standard
Yahoo! features such as Yahoo!
Search or Yahoo! Toolbar, Yahoo!
Next offers the following:

Open Shortcuts is a Yahoo! Search
add-on that lets you define custom
keywords to find information or per-
form a task.

Yahoo! Answers Beta



Yahoo! Answers Beta (answers.yahoo.com) is a recent addition to the Yahoo!
Next collection. The service resembles an online forum, where people can ask
and answer questions. However, Yahoo! Answers differs from standard forums in
a number of ways. For example, Yahoo! Answers has predetermined categories for
questions, which makes it easy to find questions and answers that members have
already worked through.
Another difference is that
users vote on the best answer
for each question, and mem-
bers earn points for taking
action on the site, such as
providing an answer to a
question. To become a
member, you need to obtain
a Yahoo! ID (if you don't al-
ready have one) and register
with the service. I



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122 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



My Web 2.0 integrates with the
Yahoo! Toolbar (toolbar.yahoo.com)
to provide a method for saving and
categorizing your favorite Web sites.
You can also investigate the Web sites
that others find useful.

Yahoo! Search Subscriptions lets
you search subscription content, such
as Consumer Reports (www.consumer
reports.org). This content is normally
restricted from search engine queries,
and you must have valid subscriptions
to the providers you want to search.

Yahoo! Mindset lets you control
how to list Yahoo! Search results. You
can choose to list the results by
whether they are more research re-
lated or more commercial.

Yahoo! Q analyzes the contents of
the Web page you're viewing and pro-
vides a list of related search results. It
is integrated on Yahoo! News pages
(news.yahoo.com), and is also part of
the Yahoo! Toolbar (toolbar.yahoo
.com) and Yahoo! Messenger (mes
senger.yahoo.com) .

My Yahoo! Ticker makes it easy
to track information (for example,
stocks, weather, and news) that you
subscribe to at My Yahoo! and view
directly on your computer in a
scrolling ticker format.

Independent Tools

These Yahoo! Next features can op-
erate outside of other Yahoo! services
as a new product or service:

Yahoo! Answers is an online forum
for Yahoo! Answers members to ask
questions and provide answers.

Yahoo! Maps provides interactive
mapping of specific addresses and lets
you select and view the location of
many services, such as doctors, gas
stations, and post offices.

Yahoo! Podcasts lets you search for
podcasts (audio recordings similar to
radio programs) and listen to them on-
line. You can also download podcasts
to your computer or sign up to receive
podcasts through your music software.

Yahoo! Feed/Blog Alerts notifies
you when new content appears on



Web sites through an RSS (Really
Simple Syndication) or XML (Exten-
sible Markup Language) feed. You can
receive the information via email,
Yahoo! Messenger, or a mobile device.
Yahoo! FareChase provides a
search capability for airfare and
hotel reservations.

Other Beta Offerings

Yahoo! Next does not list all of
Yahoo !'s beta programs. For example,
the Trip Planner beta tool, which lets
you create custom travel guides for
trips that you have in the works, is
part of Yahool's Travel service at
travel.yahoo.com. Similarly, Yahoo!
360° beta is not featured on Yahoo!



Next. But you can access it at 360
.yahoo.com to share photos, create a
blog, and share lists with family and
friends. Yet another example of a beta
service not listed on Yahoo! Next is
Autos Custom beta (custom. autos
.yahoo.com), a destination for custom
car enthusiasts.

Learn More

The remaining articles in this section
provide more information about beta
tools featured on Yahoo! Next and in
other areas of Yahoo!. Try some of
them out and give feedback to partici-
pate in the development process. Qjs]

by Carmen Carmack



Acquisitions Create New Services



Acquisitions of other companies are
a common source for new Yahoo!
beta programs and services. Below are
some recent examples of acquisitions
and their relationships to current
Yahoo! offerings.

Flickr

Flickr is an online digital photo man-
agement and sharing application.
Yahoo! purchased Flickr in March 2005
and has incorporated its technology in
beta versions of Yahoo! 360°
(360.yahoo.com) and Yahoo! Trip
Planner (travel.yahoo.com).

DialPad

Yahoo! purchased DialPad in June
2005. DialPad offers software for VoIP
(Voice over Internet Protocol, aka
Internet telephone) calling. Yahoo!
plans to incorporate the software in
new versions of Yahoo! Messenger.

Pixoria

Yahoo! acquired Pixoria to take ad-
vantage of a software tool called
Konfabulator, which was developed by
the small software company. Yahoo!
has since incorporated Konfabulator
into a new service dubbed Yahoo!



Widgets (widgets.yahoo.com). Widgets
are small applications, such a as map or
weather widget, that run in the back-
ground on your computer.

del.icio.us

Online Web favorites service
del.icio.us was acquired by Yahoo! in
December 2005. The service lets users
create and share collections of their fa-
vorite Web pages. An entry in the
Yahoo! Search Blog (www.ysearchblog
.com) indicates that Yahoo! plans to
combine the bookmark capabilities of
del.icio.us with Flickr photo-sharing
technology, which is another recent
Yahoo! acquisition. In addition,
Yahoofs My Web 2.0 (myweb2.search
.yahoo.com) offers capabilities some-
what similar to del.icio.us.

Webjay

In January 2006, Yahoo! announced
acquisition of Webjay, a company that
develops music and video playlist
creation and sharing technology.
According to the Yahoo! Music Blog
(www.ymusicblog.com), Webjay's ca-
pabilities will beef up the playlist fea-
tures of the new Yahoo! Music Engine
(music.yahoo.com). I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 123



Yahoo! Next



Yahoo! Maps



Your Online Atlas



T



here are some
things about
'the good oP
days" we'd rather
forget. We remember
piling into Dad's sta-
tion wagon to em-
bark on a voyage to
Uncle Ned's new house
for Thanksgiving din-
ner. Although Dad had
equipped himself with
not one, but two road
maps and flawless di-
rections from Uncle
Ned that "couldn't pos-
sibly lead you down the wrong path,"
we'd find ourselves on a country road
surrounded by farmland when we
were looking for a brown split-level in
the middle of suburbia. And of course,
asking for directions at a local gas sta-
tion would have been an affront to his
status as head of the household.

Thanks to Yahoo! Maps (maps
.yahoo.com), the days of aimlessly
driving around off the beaten path
should be over. You can pinpoint lo-
cations in the United States and
Canada, get driving directions from
Kalamazoo, Mich, to Kalamazoo, Fla.,
and email maps to your friends.

In addition to showing you how to
find your destinations of choice, we'll
also guide you through Yahoo! Maps
Beta, the future of Yahoo! Maps.

From Here To There

Finding a location with Yahoo!
Maps is much like running a basic
Yahoo! search. When you load the



and can't wait to devour a plate of
Tex-Mex cuisine. SmartView is a fea-
ture that's integrated with Yahoo!
Maps to find restaurants, shopping,
and entertainment points of interest
around an address you look up. In the
right-hand column, you can expand
the following links under SmartView
for more options: Food & Dining,
Recreation & Entertainment, Com-
munity Services; Shopping & Services,
Travel & Transportation, and Finan-
cial & ATMs. Next, click the radio




Yahoo! Maps home page, you'll see
fields for street address, city and state
or ZIP code, and country. For a pre-
cise location, enter a street address
and ZIP and click Get Map.

Yahoo! Maps will load a map of the
area surrounding the location you en-
tered and designate the exact address
with a star. You can zoom in and zoom
out by clicking the plus and minus but-
tons to the left of the map or zoom to a
specific distance by clicking one of the
numbers between the plus and minus
buttons (for an idea of the level of
zoom, Yahoo! substituted street ("st"),
city ("city"), and state ("state") zoom
levels for certain numbers on the scale.
Yahoo! Maps will reload the page to the
desired zoom level.

If you click any of the eight com-
pass rose buttons surrounding the
map, Yahoo! Maps will reload the
page in the direction you clicked
without changing the zoom level.

SmartView. You just checked into
the Austin, Texas. Four Seasons hotel



button next to a

category you want to display.

SmartView will display the results of
your query, marking each location on
the map with a bull's-eye. If you hover
your mouse pointer over one of the
bull's-eyes, a fly-out box will appear
prompting you to Click Icon For More
Info. Click the bull's-eye, and a fly-out
menu will appear with an address,
phone number, and More Info, Web
Search, and Driving Directions links.

Driving Directions. With a reliable
printer (or a pen, paper, and steady
hand), you can print driving direc-
tions and deposit your uncle's "can't
miss" directions in the wastebasket.
At the Yahoo! Maps home page, click
the Driving Directions link. Enter
your starting and destination ad-
dresses in the appropriate fields like
you would search for a single location
and click Get Directions. Yahoo!
Maps will illustrate your route using
an appropriate- size map and display
text driving directions below.

You'll find additional options above
the mapped route — Send To Phone (as
a text message; your cell phone must be
able to receive SMS [Short Message
Service] text messages, and additional
charges may apply); Text Only, Printable
Version, and Email Directions.



124 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



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When you look up an
address, Yahoo! Maps
places a star at its
location and shows
you some of the
surrounding area.



A Better (Beta) Mousetrap

The landscape of Yahoo! Maps will
be changing. Yahoo! Maps Beta will
eventually become the new Yahoo!
Maps once Yahoo! works out the kinks
and is sure users don't experience
problems with the upgrades. It wasn't
official at the time of this writing, but
as long as Yahoo! Maps Beta is avail-
able for public use, you can take ad-
vantage of its exciting new features.

Yahoo! Maps reloads the Web page
each time you zoom or click a direc-
tional arrow to move to an adjacent
area of the map, but Yahoo! Maps Beta
lets you instantly move around the
map in a fashion similar to Google's
Google Maps service.

On the Yahoo! Maps home
page, click the Try It Now link
below New Yahoo! Maps Beta.
You'll see that finding a map of
a specific address and driving
directions are condensed into
the "Get Map And Directions"
pane. Type an address in one
of the fields and click Go;
Yahoo! Maps Beta will shift the
map to that position and des-
ignate the address with an "A"
icon. You simply have to click
a spot on the map and drag it
as though you were pulling a
paper map across a table.

Once you enter the first
address in the Get Map And
Directions pane, you can



obtain driving di-
rections to a desti-
nation by typing a
second address in
the field below
and clicking Go.
Driving directions
to your new point
B will load in the pane, and a third
field will appear if you want driving di-
rections to a point C (this process can
repeat itself until you assemble an al-
phabet soup of destinations). If you
have more than two locations, you can
click Roundtrip, and Yahoo! Maps
Beta will plot the most ideal route to
your point of origin.

Text-only directions are absent
from Yahoo! Maps Beta, but you can
still create printable directions and
send directions to an email address or
SMS-capable cell phone. Some geo-
graphic regions can take advantage
of Live Traffic, a new feature that
displays traffic accidents at fairly cur-
rent intervals. Click the Live Traffic
checkbox at the top of a map, and a



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SmartView adds a bull's-eye to the map for each match it finds,
can be particularly helpful if you're unfamiliar with the locale.



translucent box will appear in the
bottom right-hand corner of the map
if a live traffic report is available.

A minimap will appear in the upper
right-hand corner with a slider. Click
and move the slider bar toward the plus
icon to zoom in and toward the minus
icon to zoom out. With the minimap,
not only can you adjust the zoom, but
you can also shift the main map's posi-
tion. Click the shaded box in the center
of the minimap and drag it in the direc-
tion you want to shift the map.

A smarter SmartView. If you used
SmartView's features with Yahoo!
Maps, you know that your Web
browser refreshed itself as you se-
lected categories and subcategories.
Like repositioning the map and ad-
justing the zoom, the Browse By
Category feature lets you expand cate-
gories instantly.

Click one of the links (ATMs &
Services, Entertainment & Shopping,
Restaurants & Bars, and Travel) below
Browse By Category to expand the cat-
egory and view its subcategories. When
you click a link for one of the subcate-
gories, Yahoo! Maps Beta will tag any
relevant locations with numbered flag
icons. Hover your mouse pointer over
one of the icons and it will expand to
show the name of the location. You
can click this link to reveal (if applic-
able) a phone number, address, and the
following links: Rate It,
Directions To, Directions
From, More Info.



Destination Known

There are a gaggle of online
mapping sites, but you will
find that Yahoo! Maps incor-
porates some of the same at-
tributes that make the main
site so inviting. Whether you
decide to stick with the original
Yahoo! Maps or take the Beta
for a spin, you should find that
both will help you find where
you're looking for. H

BY VlNCE COGLEY



which



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 125



Yahoo! Next



Yahoo!
Podcast



Radio To Go



r



The word "Podcast" was
everywhere in 2005. The
New Oxford American
Dictionary named it the Word of
the Year for 2005, and the Oxford
English Dictionary itself officially
added the word last August.
Nonetheless, you might be
wondering what, exactly,
the word means.

A podcast is essen-
tially a radio show that's
distributed over the Web. Internet
audio, of course, has been around for a
long time. The availability of broad-
band, the development of RSS (Really
Simple Syndication), and the upswing
in portable digital audio devices, how-
ever, are taking Internet audio to a
new level. Broadband connections
allow listeners to download more
audio content faster than ever before.
With RSS listeners can automatically
download new episodes of their
favorite shows. Meanwhile, portable
digital audio players, such as Apple's
popular iPod (from which podcasting
derives its name), let listeners enjoy
their favorite podcasts in the car, at the
gym, or even while cleaning the house.

Yahoo! Podcast

There are thousands of podcasts on
the Web. Variety means there's bound
to be something out there you're inter-
ested in, but it also makes finding that
content more difficult. Yahoo! Podcast




strives
to help
you find
new podcasts
and manage your fa-
vorite ones.
Yahoo! isn't alone.
There are plenty of sites that try to help
listeners find new shows. Most Web
sites include a hierarchical category
structure. In other words, if you want
to find baseball podcasts, you might
start in the Sports category and then
select the Baseball subcategory. Yahoo!
Podcast eschews categories and relies
on tags, or short descriptions, instead.
Listeners apply tags to specific series or
episodes. If you search for "baseball"
on Yahoo! Podcast, you'll see a list of
podcasts that contain that tag.

Front Page

The main Yahoo! Podcast page con-
sists of three columns. In the left
column are exclusive and recom-
mended podcasts. The center column
consists of the 10 Most Popular shows.
Clicking the Highly Rated link at the
top will display a list of the top 10
highest rated shows in this column.
Finally, on the right, you'll see a
category list at the top. These aren't



exactly the same as the category lists
on other sites because there are no
subcategories. Clicking the
Comedy category, for instance,
pulls up series and episodes that
other listeners have tagged
"comedy." Near the bottom you'll
find a list of popular tags. The
larger the font used for the tag, the
more popular the tag is.
For more information about
a show, click the show title (or
logo/photo if it's an exclusive or rec-
ommended show). You can also listen
to the latest episode or subscribe to a
series directly from the front page by
clicking the appropriate button.

Multiple Ways To Listen

Yahoo! lets you enjoy your favorite
podcasts in a variety of ways. As you'll
notice, each podcast listed on the front
page has a Listen and a Subscribe
button. Clicking the Listen button
streams the latest version of the show
to your desktop. If you decide you like
a show after sampling it, click the
Subscribe button to automatically
download new episodes.

You can always find out more
information about a show by clicking
its title. This brings up a brief synopsis
of the show and displays relevant tags.
(Again, tags that appear larger are en-
tered more often by listeners.) If
you're familiar with a show, you can
provide your own tags in the Add
Tag field. (Separate each tag with a
comma.) You'll also see a rating, and
you may even see a link to listener re-
views. At the bottom, you'll see a list
of the most recent episodes and a brief
summary for each episode. Click an
episode title to learn about the
episode. You can stream a past
episode by clicking the Listen button
or download an old episode by
clicking the Download button.

Subscribe

By subscribing to a series, your
computer will automatically download



126 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



new episodes as they become available.
In order to subscribe to a podcast,
you'll need a podcast aggregator. A few
developers are integrating podcast ag-
gregators into their software. Yahoo!
Music Engine (music.yahoo.com/mu
sicengine), for instance, now includes a
podcast plug-in that lets you subscribe
to podcasts and even browse for new
shows directly from Yahoo! Music
Engine. Recent versions of Apple's
iTunes (www.apple.com/itunes) also
include a podcast aggregator. If you
believe smaller is better, there are
numerous standalone aggregators.
Juice (juicereceiver.sourceforge.net),
formerly iPodder, is one of the more
popular podcast aggregators.

Yahoo! Podcast works with any
podcast aggregator that can handle
.pcast files. This includes iTunes and
recent versions of Juice, as well as
Yahoo! Music Engine. When you
click the Subscribe button, you'll
download a podcast file (one with a
.pcast extension) that contains the
subscription information. Your
browser will ask which application
you want to use to open the file.
Select the podcast aggregator you
want to use and click OK. Your aggre-
gator will automatically import the
subscription information from
Yahoo! Podcast.

You can set an aggregator to check
for new shows at specific times. This
way you can download new shows
during the night and have fresh con-
tent to listen to in the morning.

Find A Show

Finding a show that interests you is
fairly straight forward. Start with a
topic that interests you. Wine,
for instance. Enter wine into the
Podcast Search field, select Series in
the drop-down list to the right, and
click the Search button. Yahoo!
returns a list of shows that include a
"wine" tag. Some results may be
more relevant than others. When we
tried the search, the first result was a
show called Wine Making Radio. If



program you want to use to open
the .pcast file. Select your podcast
aggregator and click OK to add the
show. You can listen to new shows
on your PC or move them to a
portable audio player.

If you're into Italian wines, you
might notice a listing for Winecast 49
- Nebbiolo in the Most Recent
Episodes at the bottom of the page.
Clicking the title provides more infor-
mation about that episode. From the
episode page, you can click the Listen
button to stream that episode to your
PC or click the Download button to
save a copy of the show to your PC.

With so many shows to choose
from, podcasts are a great alternative
to satellite radio or even commercial
radio. Just make sure you keep your
iPod charged. H

by Chad Denton



you're more a consumer than a pro-
ducer of wine, this probably isn't a
good choice.

The next result is Winecast by Tim
Elliott. Clicking Winecast provides us
with more information about the
show. The description "Your podcast
for straight talk on wine" isn't partic-
ularly helpful, but you can see the tags
most often applied to the show are
food, wine, and winecast. When we
ran our search, the show was only
rated three times and only had one
user review (which you can read by
clicking the User Review link above
the Recent Episodes listing).

If you decide you want to give
Winecast a try, click the Listen
button to stream the latest episode
to your PC. After listening to the
show, you can click the Subscribe
button to download new episodes.
Your browser will ask you which

Recommendations



Looking for a few shows to get you going? Below is a list of some of our favorite
podcasts. Searching for the podcast name in Yahoo! Podcast should bring up
more information about the show.

Digital Photography Tips From The Top Floor

"Tips From The Top Floor" is a great podcast for digital photography enthusi-
asts. Chris Marquardt provides tips and tricks for digital photographers and gets
successful photographers to reveal their tips.

ESPN Radio Podcast

It's like "SportsCenter" for ESPN Radio. Catch just the daily highlights from ESPN
Radio shows including "Mike & Mike In The Morning" and "The Dan Patrick Show."

Hometown Tales

"Hometown Tales" started out as a local cable television show exploring the
bizarre local tales found in the New Jersey area. The podcast, however, goes be-
yond New Jersey to explore bizarre tales, customs, and urban legends from
around the world.

Science @ NASA

Features stories direct from NASA. Sure, you could read them online, but isn't
more efficient to listen in the car instead?

Winecast

"Winecast" is usually short but highly informative and a great source for infor-
mation about specific wine varietals. Tasting notes involving reasonably priced
wines give you ideas for your next dinner party. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 127



Yahoo! Next



Yahoo! Site
Explorer



Be A Web Site Sleuth



L



aunched in September 2005,
Yahoo! Search Site Explorer
Beta (siteexplorer.search.yahoo
.com) helps you identify the ranking of
pages from a Web site in the Yahoo!
Search index. Rather than
searching for a word or
phrase, Yahoo! Site
Explorer lets you
identify the URL
(Uniform Resource
Locator, or Web ad-
dress) of a Web site or
a Web page. It then displays a list of
the Web pages that are part of the URL
you identified, in order of popularity.

For example, if you define www.pc
today.com as the URL you want to
explore, Yahoo! Site Explorer lists
all of the Web pages within the
PCToday.com Web site. This helps
Web site owners verify the pages that
Yahoo !'s search mechanism is finding
and each page's relative popularity. Site
owners can also determine whether im-
portant Web pages are missing and, if
so, submit them to Yahoo! Search.

In addition, Yahoo! Site Explorer
lets you examine the pages that link to
the URL you specify. This feature is
especially handy for Webmasters and
search engine marketers who want to
examine and analyze links to Web
sites and Web pages.

Know Your URLs

To better understand how Yahoo!
Site Explorer works to deliver all of




the information
you're looking for, it's
important to know the
parts of a URL. In the URL
www.yahoo.com, for example,
"yahoo" is the domain, "com" is the
top-level domain, and "www" is the
subdomain. There are many other sub-
domains for the yahoo.com domain,
such as "dir"; dir.yahoo.com is the
URL for the Yahoo! Search Directory.
The results you get from using Yahoo!
Site Explorer can differ based on the
URL you enter for a given site.

Begin Searching

To explore all of
the pages within a
Web site, simply de-
fine the site's home
page. For example,
when you type the
URL www.yahoo.com
("http://" is already
present in the search
box and must always
reside at the begin-
ning of the URL),
Yahoo! Site Explorer
lists all the pages
within www. yahoo
.com. The results do



not include pages from other subdo-
mains, such as dir.yahoo.com.

To explore the pages within a do-
main, specify just the domain name;
for example, "yahoo.com" (without the
"www"). The results include all subdo-
mains; in our example, results will in-
clude both www.yahoo.com
and dir.yahoo.com, as
well as other Yahoo! sites
such as mail.yahoo.com,
maps.yahoo.com, and
my.yahoo.com.

You can also ex-
plore a Web page that
isn't a home page or
main subdomain page.
To explore a Web page,
simply enter its URL. For
example, to search the Arts page
that's part of the Yahoo! Directory,
you would enter dir.yahoo.com/arts.

Explore The Results

After performing a search, you'll see a
Results page listing all the subpages that
the entered URL includes in order of
their popularity. When we entered
"dir.yahoo.com/arts," for instance, the
Humanities Literature In The Yahoo!
Directory page (dir.yahoo.com/arts
/humanities/literature) and the History
In The Yahoo! Directory page (dir
.yahoo.com/arts/humanities/history)
were the No. 2 and No. 3 results, respec-
tively. (The main Arts page was No. 1.)

















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You can export any results page
from Yahoo! Site Explorer to a TSV
(tab-separated values) file for
viewing in a spreadsheet program
such as Microsoft Excel. The results
can include a list of Web pages that
link to the URL you specify.



For each result you can click the
main link to view the current page,
the Cached link to view the most re-
cent version of the page which Yahoo!
copied for the purpose (if it's avail-
able), or the Explore URL link to per-
form a Yahoo! Site Explorer search of
that page.

You can also export results for your
records to a TSV (tab-separated
values) file, which you can view in
a spreadsheet program such as
Microsoft Excel. To do this, click the
TSV link in the upper-right portion of
the results page. Follow the prompts
to save the file to your computer.
Note that only the items displayed
currently are exported to the TSV file.
If you want a list from multiple re-
sults pages, you need to create a TSV
file for each.

When viewing the results of a
Yahoo! Site Explorer search, you can
also click Inlinks at the top of the
Results page to view a list of Web
pages that link to the URL you are ex-
ploring. The results include pages that
link from the same domain or Web
site as the specified URL. To limit the
results so that they're more manage-
able, select Except From This Domain
or Except From This Subdomain from
the Show Inlinks drop -down menu.

For Experts Only

Yahoo! Site Explorer is handy for
Web site owners and others who want
to learn more about a site's structure



and for learning who is link-
ing to whom via the Web.
But if you're a Webmaster
looking for more detailed in-
formation about a site's traffic
and usage, Yahoo! offers APIs
(application program interfaces) for
the purpose. For more information
about APIs for finding subpages and
tracking inbound links, visit the Yahoo!
Developer Network page devoted to



Yahoo! Site Explorer at developer
.yahoo.net/search/siteexplorer.

And If Site Explorer
Does Not Succeed . . .

If a Web page or URL does not dis-
play in the Yahoo! Site Explorer re-
sults, it could be missing from the
Yahoo! Search index. To be sure,
enter the specific path of the missing
URL in Yahoo! Site Explorer. If it
does not display in the results, you
can submit it to Yahoo!. Click the
Submit Site Feed Or URLs link.
Follow the onscreen information for
the submission process, which re-
quires a Yahoo! ID. [Ijs]

by Carmen Carmack



Yahoo! Site Explorer Highlights

What it does: Yahoo! Site Explorer lets you investigate the structure and popu-
larity of a Web site or Web page. It also provides details about other Web sites or
pages that link to the site or page you are exploring.

How it works: Yahoo! Site Explorer uses information in the Yahoo! Search data-
base to report the status of a Web site or Web page as viewed by the Yahoo!
Search engine. It can help Web site owners identify the success of their search en-
gine strategy and the popularity of specific pages on the site.

Sample use: In this example, we'll use Yahoo! Site Explorer to examine the char-
acteristics of the PC Today Web site.

To begin, go to siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com to access the Yahoo! Site
Explorer page.

In the search box under Yahoo! Search Site Explorer Beta, add the URL
(Uniform Resource Locator) of the Web site or Web page you want to explore;
the "http://" is already present. For our example, type www.pctoday.com. Click
the Explore URL button.

The Results page displays links to the first 50 Web pages found in the www.pc
today.com Web site.

A list of the total number of pages identified displays at the top. Because there
are more than 50 Web pages, you can click the Next link on the bottom of the
page to view additional results.

To submit a page in the results list to a Yahoo! Site Explorer search, click the
corresponding Explore URL link.

To see what Web pages link to www.pctoday.com, click the Inlinks link at the
top of the results page.

To limit the type of inlinks displayed for the URL www.pctoday.com, select
Except From This Domain or Except From This Subdomain from the Show Inlinks
drop-down menu.

To save a TSV (tab-separated values) of the results to your PC, click the TSV
link in the upper-right portion of the results page. Follow the prompts to save the
file, which you can then open using a spreadsheet application. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 129



Yahoo! Next



Instant Search

This Tool Could Change The Way You Search



We are creatures
of habit, even
as new tech-
nology attempts to change
our routines.

You may not think
about your online habits,
but the Web sites you visit sure do.
That includes search sites, those por-
tals you pass through to get to where
you want to go.

Search engines are enormously pop-
ular places on the Web. Last summer
comScore Media Metrix conducted a
search engine ratings survey, reported
on Search Engine Watch (search
enginewatch.com). Tracking the habits
of a million Web users in the United
States, comScore Media Metrix found
that users conducted searches most
at the Google (36.5%) and Yahoo!
(30.5%) families of search sites.

Given this tight race for domina-
tion among search engines, it's no
surprise that Google and Yahoo! con-
tinually offer new and, hopefully, im-
proved features. At Yahoo! Next
(next.yahoo.com), we found a fea-
ture, Yahoo! Instant Search Beta, that
has the potential to change your
searching habits.

One Letter At A Time

If Instant Search lives up to its
name when some kinks are worked
out (and thus the "Beta" is dropped),
you might get hooked on a new way
of searching.

To try the test version, go to the
Yahoo! Next page and click on the
Instant Search Beta link. Or just



Instant Search Beta offers a list of ex-
amples on its home page with which
you can test this new tool, suggesting
that you can be right instead of lucky —
a jab at rival Google's "I'm Feeling
Lucky" search tool (www.google.com).
That tool displays the Web page linked
to the first result in the list of returns
Google generates when you conduct a
search. If you're lucky, it will be the
page you're looking for. (NOTE: Google




type instant.search.yahoo.com in
your browser.

There are two distinguishing fea-
tures about Instant Search. First, search
results can change after each letter is
typed. This is somewhat similar to
Internet Explorer's AutoComplete fea-
ture, though that tool finds matches
from a much smaller database, limited
to data you've already entered.

The search results won't change
each time you type another letter in
every search you conduct. As you'll
see, we had mixed results when
testing this feature.

A second distinguishing character-
istic of Instant Search is that search
results appear automatically. Unlike
when you conduct a Web search on
Yahoo!, you don't need to click a
button or press ENTER to see a list of
results. As you type letters in the
search field, one or more results will
appear below the field as soon as
Instant Search has enough informa-
tion to yield a return from Yahoo!
Shortcuts and databases from other
common searches.

Or, you can click the Search the
Web button to the right of the search
field for more results that will appear
on new pages.



also has an in-
stant search tool in the
beta stage: Google Suggest, available at
labs.google.com.)

One of the search examples Instant
Search lists is "nfl." If you enter these
letters, a link to the Official Site of the
National Football League (www.nfl
.com) appears under the search field.
Compare that with a Web search of
"nfl." That uncovered a whopping 147
million results, including top returns
from the official NFL site, Yahoo!
pages, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and
Pro Football Weekly.

Instant Search, in theory, quickly
and automatically displays the most
logical result based on your query, even
if your query is only a couple of letters
long. What it lacks in potential results,
Instant Search hopes to compensate for
in convenience and accuracy.

That said, the beta version of
Instant Search isn't perfect.

A Work In Progress?

It would be easy to get caught up
in the hype of a tool that promises
even faster results with less effort on



130 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



your part. True, Instant Search has
the potential for that, but after
playing around with the beta version,
you may wonder if the benefits are
that noticeable.

First, let's address the speed issue.
It's not as if search engines have to
grind out their returns. For that Web-
wide "nfl" search we conducted on
Yahoo! Search, it took less than two



■^j



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Instant Search



- .. .

; ?:■■»:■-■;•?: " ■-■






Instant Search can display links to Chicago pizzerias without
the need to search the Web.



seconds to type the letters and see the
first page of links — not enough time
to get bored, frustrated, or order any-
thing from Amazon.com as we waited.

Second, realize that the "one letter
at a time" feature of this search engine
won't always work correctly or work
the way you might expect. We found
this out when trying to use Instant
Search to hunt for restaurants in
Kansas City and Chicago.

We typed in "kc." Nothing hap-
pened. We added "barbecue." Still
nothing. So we clicked the Search The
Web button, and Yahoo! returned
more than 300,000 results. The first
nonsponsored link was to Kansas
City Bar-B-Q Connection (www.rbjb
.com/rbjb/bbq.htm), a site that in-
cluded a page filled with informa-
tion about dozens of KC's barbecue
eateries. Another top link was for the
Kansas City restaurant guide (www
.kcrestaurantguide.com) .

As we started to type "chicago,"
Instant Search displayed a link to three
other sites, one at a time, including the



Chi-Chi's Salsa site (chichissalsa.com).
Not until we typed in all of "chicago"
did we see a link referencing the city.
In this case, it was the official City of
Chicago site (www.ci.chi.il.us). Still
seeking info on the Windy City's
famed pizza joints, we typed in
"pizza." After we entered both words,
we received a few links to pizza restau-
rants from Yahoo! Local, but a Web
search provided many more.

Third, Instant Search
can't read your mind. Like
other search tools, it can re-
turn what it rates as the best
match for your query, but
it's still up to users to word
their searches in the best
possible way. Your may need
to revise your search terms
for better results.

We found it frustrating
that Instant Search relies
so much on content from
Yahoo! Shortcuts (tools
.search.yahoo.com/short
cuts), a collection of search-
ing categories that can cut down on
your search time. That may appeal to
some users, but others prefer to skip
over Yahoo! content when searching
and go straight to the content gleaned
from the Web.

Here's an example of why Yahoo!
content isn't always the best result. As
mentioned, typing in "nfl" in the
Instant Search immediately displays
the link to the official site of that
league. That's the most logical site a
user would be looking for with that
term. But if you type in "packers" in
Instant Search, meaning the NFL
team from Green Bay, you get a link
to a Yahoo! Shortcut page, not to the
official Packers site.



What We Like

Though Instant Search Beta clearly
has much room for improvement, we
like the aim of this new tool. If Instant
Search can give you immediate, accu-
rate results without the need to con-
duct a full Web search and possibly



scroll through pages of returns, what
user won't like it?

We also like the automated aspect
of Instant Search. Again, it's not per-
fect at this point; the tool may display
links that having nothing to do with
what you're looking for as you type
your search terms. The return of the
Chi-Chi's link for our Chicago pizza
search is proof of that.

Form A New Habit

Any registered Yahoo! user can in-
corporate Instant Search results by
clicking the Preferences link on a
Web search results page. Obviously,
Yahoo! is hoping enough users will
want to make Instant Search a perma-
nent part of their Yahoo! experience.
More users may develop that habit
when Yahoo! tweaks Instant Search to
rely a little less on Shortcuts and re-
turn the best the Web has to offer. Qjs]

by Rachel Derowitsch

Instant Search
Highlights

What it does: Searches for the
most relevant link in response to
each letter you type.

How it works: Uses Ajax, a group
of Web technologies that let Web
clients download new information
without reconnecting to the server
at each request.

Sample use: Let's say you want to
check on traffic conditions in Los
Angeles. When you type la, you'll re-
ceive a link to the official Web site of
Los Angeles. After you add "traffic/'
Instant Search returns a link to a
map on Yahoo! Local. That's OK, but
a Web search gave us better results.

One trick to using Instant Search is
to type each letter slow enough to see
the links that may pop up with each
keystroke. On the other hand, don't
type too slowly, or you'll negate the
"Instant" aspect of Instant Search. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 131



Yahoo! Next



Mobile

Shopping

Search

Bargain Hunters Will Love This Tool-For A Price



Knowledge is power,
especially for shop-
pers. Savvy shoppers
want to know that they are
getting the best deal on any-
thing they buy, from a new
car to a new sweater.

That's why we research
products and take store circu-
lars, newspaper ads, and
coupons with us when we shop.
We expect merchants to match
competitors' prices or explain
how one model or brand is su-
perior to another.

Even then, the feeling may
linger in our minds that some-
where out there is a store,
whether brick-and-mortar or
virtual, that may offer us a better deal
yet. That's why Yahoo! is developing
Mobile Shopping Search: to give you
the power of instant comparison
shopping on the go.

How It Works

There's nothing particularly compli-
cated about using Mobile Shopping
Search Beta, which you can find by
clicking the link of that name at the
Yahoo! Next Web page (next.yahoo
.com). It's simply a mechanism for re-
questing and receiving information.




There are two ways
to get information from Mo-
bile Shopping Search: with your cell
phone and with your computer.

Use your cell phone's Web browser
to open the Yahoo! Shopping site
(shopping.yahoo.com). In the search
field, enter a product name, brand
name, or any other specific keyword,
such as a model number, and Yahoo!
will display a list of related products,
their prices, and the merchants selling
them. It's that simple.



Alternately, you can find similar in-
formation from the Yahoo! Shopping
page on your desktop or notebook PC
and then send a text message with
product information to your cell
phone. On the product information
page, click the Send To Phone link,
enter your email address (your
Yahoo! account address may be there
by default), and type in the number of
the cell phone to which you want to
send the information.

This helpful feature is not entirely
new at Yahoo!. For instance, it re-
cently added a similar feature to the
Driving Directions tool at Yahoo!
Maps (maps.yahoo.com/dd).

Next to the Send To Phone link on
the product information page is a Send
To Friend link. Click it, and Yahoo!
will display an email message
explaining to your recipient
that you found this informa-
tion on Yahoo! Shopping, and
you want to share it. All you
need to do is supply the email
address of the recipient and
click send. (NOTE: You can
delete the default message and
write your own instead.)

We like the possibilities of
the send-to-phone feature.
Obviously, you can use it
yourself ahead of time so that
your phone is loaded with re-
search you've already con-
ducted, thereby saving you
time. On the other hand, if
you're out and about, you could
call a friend, colleague, or family
member to look up information on
Yahoo! shopping for you and then
forward that link to you. This not
only saves you search time but, de-
pending on how your cell phone ser-
vice provider plan is set up, it could
spare you extra charges, as well.

Special Considerations

That leads us to some important
considerations about using Mobile
Shopping Search. Not everyone with a
cell phone can make use of this tool,



132 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



and those who do use it may be sub-
ject to extra charges.

To use Mobile Shopping Search
from your cell phone, the phone must
be WAP (Wireless Application Pro-
tocol) 2.0-enabled. WAP is a standard
used worldwide to allow wireless de-
vices to access services such as the
Internet. Your cell phone's users
manual should tell you if your phone
is WAP -enabled, but a general guide
is that newer cell phones with color
screens come with this protocol.

In addition, your cell phone calling
plan must include Web access. Just
because the phone is WAP-enabled
doesn't mean you can go online with
your phone. That feature must be part
of your calling plan, and that usually
means higher monthly charges.

Not all cellular service providers
support this shopping search tool yet.
According to Yahoo!, Mobile Shopping
Search currently works on Web- and
WAP 2.0-enabled phones on Cingular
MEdiaNet and mMode, Sprint Nextel,
T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless.

Finally, you may incur additional
charges from your cell phone service
provider for using Mobile Shopping
Search with your cell phone. Yahoo!
will not charge you anything for using
this tool, whether you use your
phone, PC, or notebook. But check
the fine print of your service plan to
see if opening a Web page or receiving
a text message on your phone will re-
sult in extra charges.

For instance, Cingular users who
have text messaging-enabled phones
can send and receive messages for 10
cents a piece. This pay-as-you-go plan
does not require customers to pay an
extra monthly fee. Or, Cingular users
can choose various text messaging
plans, such as 2,500 messages a
month for $19.99 — less than a penny
per message.

Or course, the most economical
way to use Mobile Shopping Search,
especially if you use it frequently, is to
sign up for or switch to a service that
bundles Web access and text mes-
saging. Providers may offer various



pay-as-you-go monthly plans for this
type of service, too. Cingular, for ex-
ample, offers several packages under
its MEdia Bundles, but before se-
lecting one from this or any other
provider, you'd have to make sure it's
available in your area.

Search Tips

It's safe to assume that many users
won't approach online shopping with
their cell phone the same way they
shop online from a PC or notebook.
The size of your cell phone display
alone may test your patience. But
given that you may incur extra fees
for using Mobile Shopping Search,
you'll want to be as precise as possible
when looking for price comparison.

To streamline your search, enter
the product number whenever pos-
sible. Doing so will not only drasti-
cally reduce the number of search
returns, but it also will narrow the re-
sults to more closely match what
you're looking for.

For instance, we entered "Roomba
Scheduler," referring to one of
iRobot's automatic vacuums, into the
search field. That search yielded 58 re-
sults, most of which were for the ac-
tual vacuum. But some results were
for the product's optional Scheduler
remote control package. Prices for the
products returned ranged greatly,
from $289.99 to $446.57.

When we added a model number,
4230, the search results were limited
to just 18 — which allowed us to save



considerable effort comparing mer-
chants and prices.

Another tip to remember is that the
price listed for a vendor may be the
MSRP, not the sale price currently
available at that online store. We found
this out when we clicked the link to the
vendor (www.unbeatablesale.com)
selling the Scheduler at the top price of
$446.57, curious as to why it was so ex-
pensive there. When we opened the
vendor's site, we discovered the
vacuum had actually been selling for
$327.74 but was presently out of stock.

If you shop online often, seeing the
"out-of-stock" notice won't surprise
you. Given that you may encounter
that news more often than you'd like,
it's even more important to enter as
much information as you can in the
Yahoo! search field. That will limit the
number of sites you'll have to visit,
thereby saving you time and money
on your mobile search.

The Shopper's Edge

Unless you are a diehard shopper,
you may not use Mobile Shopping
Search that often. But when you are
mulling over a purchase in a store, it's
comforting to know you have the op-
tion to get competitors' prices just by
pulling your cell phone out of your
pocket or purse.

For a small fee from your cell phone
provider, Mobile Shopping Search may
end up saving you a lot of money. H

by Rachel Derowitsch



Mobile Shopping Search Highlights

What it does: Searches the Web through Yahoo! Shopping for prices on
product names and descriptions that you enter.

How it works: Requires that your phone is WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
2.0-enabled and that you have Web access through your cell phone provider.

Sample use: Let's say you want to buy the iriver T30 1GB AAP3 player. You've
checked the iriver site (www.iriveramerica.com), so you know the MSRP on this
device is $149.99. As you shop at a mall or electronics store, you can compare the
local retailer's price against the price at iriver's Web site and use Mobile Shopping
Search on your cell phone to find other competitors' prices. Yahoo! Shopping re-
turned 21 results for this search. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 133



Yahoo! Next



Yahoo!
Audio Search

Scour The Web For Music & Sound



Searching for music on the
Internet is like wandering
through a giant CD store, only
there's no friendly clerk to help you.
Yahoo !'s new Audio Search wants to
change that. Yahoo! Audio Search is a
free service that helps you find online
music, podcasts, interviews, radio
shows, speeches, comedy routines,
sound effects, and more.

Audio Search can locate commercial
music and other audio for sale, as well
as free content. The service has already
indexed 50 million audio files — a lot to
hunt through on your own but easy to
find with Yahoo! 's help.

Ethan Fassett, Yahoo!'s Product
Manager for Audio Search, notes in
his blog: "Audio publishing is
taking on new life, and we feel we
need to get some tools out there
to help connect those who are
listening to those who are
talking, and singing, and
sounding off."

Start Audio Searching

To use Yahoo! Audio
Search, browse to the Audio
Search Web page: www.audio
.search.yahoo.com. You'll find a
simple interface with a text box in
which you can enter your search
term. By default, Yahoo! searches for
audio among three different cate-
gories: Music, where you'll find
songs from commercial, indepen-
dent, and amateur artists;
Podcasts, which uncovers



news, interviews, opinions, radio
shows, and other online broadcasts;
and Other Audio, where you'll un-
earth free music, sound effects, and
themes from TV shows and movies.

Enter your search term, such as an
artist's name or song title, and Yahoo!
delivers a page of links to the audio
file. From the results page, you can
narrow your search by type: You can
choose only Music, Podcasts, or Other
Audio, if you like. Click Music, and
the page refreshes with links to songs
by just the selected artist or title.




Get The Music

Alongside each song title is the
artist's name, the album that origi-
nally included the tune, and the year
it was released. Many songs also pro-
vide a Sample button that lets you
listen to a 30-second clip. Click the
song's album to see a list of all tracks
on the CD. Select the artist's name,
and up pops a list of all of his or her
albums. From the album page, you'll
also find links to biographies of the
artist, upcoming concert dates, and
reviews of the song or album.

Go back and click the link to any
song title and up pops a page listing the
online providers where you can down-
load and buy the tune. Yahoo! has its
own music stores, Yahoo! Music
Unlimited and Musicmatch (which it
bought in 2004). But Yahoo! has also
arranged for other major music stores,
such as iTunes, Napster, and MSN
Music, and more obscure ones such as
AudioLunchBox, GarageBand, and
MP34U, to include them in the search
results. Ethan Fassett notes in his blog,
". . .we give everyone a voice: from the
major music services with access to the
newest and largest mainstream cata-
logs, to the smallest, independent pub-
lisher." If you have a favorite service,
such as iTunes, you can limit your
results to just that one provider.
Each audio service tells you
the format of the song (WMA
[Windows Media Audio], MP3,
RealAudio, etc.), whether or
not you can burn the track to a
CD or copy it, and its price.
A Download button then
whisks you to the provider of
your choice where you can
preview the song and pay for
the download.



Find Podcasts & Other Audio

Yahoo! Audio Search can also

scour the Web for podcasts, digging

up online newscasts, interviews,

speeches, and radio shows.

Searching for podcasts



134 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



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Enter your search term,
and the results page
brings up links to your
song or audio file.



works the same as searching for
music. Clicking the link to a podcast
brings up a list of Web sites where
you'll find the file and see the for-
mat, length, size, and quality of the



audio. Click one of
the Web site links to
listen to or down-
load the podcast.

The third option
at Audio Search lets
you search Other
Audio, a catch-all
category that hunts
for sound effects, di-
alogue, and themes from movies and
TV shows, and also free music.
Clicking the link to one of these files
displays the Web sites from which
you can download it.



Submit Your Own Sounds

If you record your own music or
Podcasts, you can send Yahoo! links
to that content to include in the
Audio Search results. To learn more
about this feature, check out the Web
pagesearch.yahoo.com/mrss/submit.

Got An Opinion Or A Question?

Share your feedback about Audio
Search with Yahoo! at add. yahoo
.com/fast/help/us/ysearch/cgi_audio
search. You can also trade questions,
advice, and help with other users by
joining the Audio Search discussion
forum at add.yahoo. com/fast/help/us
/ysearch/cgi_audiosearch. Qjs]

by Lance Whitney



Yahoo! Audio Search Highlights



What it does: Yahoo!

Audio Search scours the
Internet for audio files. You'll
find music, podcasts, sound
bytes, TV and movie dia-
logue, and sound effects;
most of it is for sale, but
much of which you can
download for free.

How it works: Enter your
search term at the Audio
Search Web page. You can
refine your search to look for
Music, Podcasts, Other
Audio, or all three. After
Yahoo! finds your results, just
click the audio title to find
the site or service from which
you can download and, if re-
quired, purchase it.

Sample use: Browse to the
Yahoo! Audio Search Page
(audio.search.yahoo.com)
and enter your search term.
Let's say you're looking for
music by John Lennon. Enter
John Lennon in the search
field, and Yahoo! delivers not
just links to his songs but



also podcasts and other con-
tent: radio interviews with
Lennon, newscasts from the
night he was killed, and re-
membrances from last year's
25th anniversary of his death.

From the results page, you
can narrow your search by
type, choosing just music by
clicking the Music link. The
search refreshes to display
only songs by the late Beatle.
You find a song you like,
John's recording of "Beauti-
ful Boy." You click the
Sample button to listen to a
30-second clip of it and de-
cide to buy it. Click the song
title, and you see that
Rhapsody, BuyMusic.com,
PassAlong, and Yahoo! Music
Unlimited all offer it, with
most of them selling it for 99
cents. Click the Download
link for Music Unlimited, and
up pops the site from which
you buy the song.

Suppose you want to listen
to news and advice about



one of your favorite topics:
computers. Go back to the
Audio Search page by clicking
Yahoo! Audio Search Home
and enter computers as your
search term. Select Podcasts
to refine your search. You'll
then see links to online radio
shows discussing computers,
audio tutorials on popular
software, lectures from
Harvard on PC technology,
and interviews with tech
company execs. Yahoofs
Podcast results page typically
provides two links to play the
files: an RSS (Real Simple
Syndication) link, which re-
quires that you have an RSS
reader, and a My Yahoo! link,
which plays the audio
through Yahoo!. Click the My
Yahoo! link for one of the
Harvard lectures and sit back
to listen to your free audio
education.

Now let's say that you
want to replace your generic
Windows sound effects with



more interesting sounds, per-
haps quotes from a famous
TV star. You search for
"Homer Simpson" at the
main search page and specify
Other Audio. You find links
to WAV files of Homer's
most memorable lines, in-
cluding "D'oh" and
"Hmmm...beer." You click
the links to download these
free files and set them up as
your new Windows greeting
and exit lines.

With Other Audio you can
also find free songs. In a clas-
sical mood, you search for
the "William Tell Overture"
(better known to you chil-
dren of the '50s as the
"Theme to the Lone Ranger")
and limit the search to Other
Audio. You click several
of the MP3 and RealAudio
links to this classical tune
and find a free version by
the Symphony Orchestra
Of Canada, which you listen
to online. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 135



Yahoo! Next



Yahoo! Search
Subscriptions

Find Web Pages From Subscription Services




When you go to a search en-
gine such as Google or
Yahoo! and you enter a
search term or set of terms, it seems
like the results provide access to all of
the accumulated knowledge and
wisdom available in the world.
Searching for miniature cars returns
3,460,000 entries. Searching for
single malt scotch returns 1,400,000
results. That's a lot of information
about single malt scotch. (Not that
both subjects aren't well worth
studying, of course.)

Many people don't realize that the
amount of information available to a
typical search engine only amounts to
about 10% of the available Web pages
on the Internet. Most of the informa-
tion out there lies buried in the 90%
we might call "The Invisible Web."



Much of that "invis-
ible Web" consists of pages
with content so dynamic that the page
may only exist for a few seconds. The
Web page is too transient and the data
it contains too customized to a spe-
cific individual or transaction to be of
any real use. These pages often involve
unique database queries such as trying
to search for homes for sale in a cer-
tain area, checking travel information
from Chicago to Los Angeles, or
viewing the weather report for
Toronto. As soon as the reader is fin-
ished viewing the information, the
page ceases to exist.

Drilling For Oil

Buried deep within the Web, even
less accessible than dynamic database



query pages, lie private Web sites
where the information is only avail-
able to paying customers. Sites such as
Consumer Reports, The Wall Street
Journal, and The New England Journal
of Medicine contain a vast wealth of
data, particularly for certain profes-
sions that require accurate, detailed,
and timely information. Paying cus-
tomers who log in to the sites can
search these sites, but the information
is not available to the general public or
to a standard Internet search engine.

Paul Gil, a technical writer for
About.com's Internet For Beginner's
Web site, explains that subscription-
based or paid sites make up another
portion of the "invisible Web." "Paid
subscription services effectively give
you Web-enabled access to special-
ized databases. These specialized data-
bases are dedicated to deep content
on a particular topic. For example, if
you like to download music, you can
join various legal music services that
charge you fees to give you access to
massive databases of MP3 songs."

That is where Yahoo! Search
Subscriptions comes in. Yahoo! has
partnered with certain fee-based sites
to index their content and make it
available via their special Search
Subscriptions search engine.

Marc Strohlein, vice president and
lead analyst for Outsell, an Internet
market analysis company, says that
Yahoo! Search Subscriptions is ". . .a
very direct way for publishers to in-
sert their content into the 'search en-
vironment' without compromising
their security or revenue models. In
essence, users can search their content
and, if they find things of interest, buy
or sign up for subscriptions."

Using Search Subscriptions

On Yahoo! 's Search Subscriptions
page, you can choose which of the
currently available subscription con-
tent services you want to include in
your search. While Yahoo! is working
to add more subscription content
providers, the current list includes



136 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



Consumer Reports, Forrester Research,
The New England Journal of Medicine,
FT.com, IEEE Publications, Factiva,
LexisNexis, TheStreet.com, and The
Wall Street Journal.

If you're conducting a search for
information about a company, such
as analyst reports or financial infor-
mation, you would most likely not in-
clude The New England Journal of
Medicine or Consumer Reports.

Performing a search on Yahoo!
Search Subscriptions for Toyota hy-
brid may yield very different results
depending on the subscription services
selected. Choosing Consumer Reports,
Forrester Research, LexisNexis, and
The Wall Street Journal results mostly
in links to information on LexisNexis.
If you go through the results far
enough, though, there are also links to
information from Forrester Research
about the market for high-tech cars
and a Consumer Reports article com-
paring hybrid SUVs.

Yahoo! Search Subscriptions can
provide a way for users to see what
content or information is available, but
viewing subscription-based content
still requires a subscription. LexisNexis
does offer an 'AlaCarte' service, which
allows users to purchase single articles
on an as-needed basis, but deriving any
value from the other subscription ser-
vices will require signing up and paying
the dues to gain access.

Broadening The Search

Rather than performing a separate
search of subscription-based content,
Yahoo! Search Subscriptions also of-
fers the ability to include your selected
subscription content services within a
broader search of the Web. The results
display the search of the general Web,
but at the top of the results, beneath
the sponsored ad links and the links
for News Results related to the search
topic, is a link that tells you how many
results were found from the subscrip-
tion content services, as well.

This information is also available
from the Yahoo! Search Subscriptions



results page. At the top of the results
display, a statement suggests, "For
more matches, try searching all
sources instead," with a link that per-
forms the broader search.

The Future Of Yahoo! Search
Subscriptions

Yahoo! Search Subscriptions has
value for some. Gil says, "If the nature
of the readers' work involved research
of current events and specialized
newsy content, then there is definite
value in Yahoo! Subscriptions. Yahoo!
effectively does Visible' and 'invisible
Web' digging for you. People who
could benefit from this paid service
include speech writers and people
who engage in formal debate over
controversial topics or nurses who
make school presentations on
modern nutrition."



The Yahoo! Search Subscriptions
service gives users a glimpse of some
of the vast information available in
the hidden Internet. That can be
useful, particularly when searches of
the general Web prove fruitless. The
service will no doubt improve as
Yahoo! partners with more subscrip-
tion content providers.

Strohlein notes, "I think the biggest
challenge associated with these and
other Yahoo!/Google/MSN search-
based services is that as additional
buckets of information get added to
the mix, searching becomes more and
more disaggregated. ... I would hope
that, at some point in the future, the
need to go to many different places to
search for different types of content
becomes more transparent." [rs]

by Tony Bradley



Yahoo! Search Subscriptions Highlights

What it is: Yahoo! Search Subscriptions is a new Web search engine product
from Yahoo! that's currently in beta testing. It allows users to conduct searches of
paid subscription-based content that is typically hidden from standard Web
searches and provides researchers and professionals a way to leverage Web search
capabilities to find very specific information.

What it does: There are billions of Web pages available for general access, but in
some areas you get what you pay for. Some sites with highly relevant and deeply
detailed information about particular subjects require users to pay for subscrip-
tions to access the content. For some professions, such as the medical and finan-
cial industries, it's well worth the price of admission to get exhaustively
researched, reliable, timely information.

How to use: Performing a search on the term flu vaccine can produce drasti-
cally different results, depending on the perspective you are seeking. A search on
the general Web returns many general interest articles about the availability of
the flu vaccine and whether or not people should get vaccinated. However, de-
pending on which subscription sites are selected, a Yahoo! Search Subscriptions
search provides more relevant, targeted information.

As a consumer looking for reliable information about the flu vaccine, you
might only check Consumer Reports. If you are in the medical profession, however,
a search of The New England Journal of Medicine will provide comprehensive infor-
mation and research about the flu vaccine. Users from financial and business
arenas will find extensive information about the economic impact of the flu or
the market potential for pharmaceutical companies that manufacture flu vaccine
by searching sites such as The Wall Street Journal or Forrester Research.

The caveat, however, is that you must have a paid subscription to view the full
content. Yahoo! Search Subscriptions searches the subscription sites and displays
the relevant results, but accessing the information requires a subscription. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 137



Yahoo! Next



Yahoo!
Mindset

Putting Your Web Searches In The Right Context




If you use "plasma TV" as your
search term on Yahoo!, the first
page of results will be focused ex-
clusively on information. There are
instructional links to educate you
about plasma TVs in general, user re-
view links to let you get feedback
from other plasma TV owners, and
links to different plasma TV manufac-
turer sites so that you can learn more
about specific models and products.
But what if you already had all of that
information and you were just trying
to search for a vendor from which
you could purchase your plasma TV?

You may be in luck. Yahoo !'s new
Mindset search technology may help
you filter and narrow your search re-
sults so that a search will display links
that are primarily commercial in na-
ture, sites that are primarily informa-
tional, in nature or somewhere in
between, depending on the reason
you're searching. Yahoo! describes
Mindset as "intent- driven search" that



will help users sort the results based on
the purpose of the search.

Jeremy Langhans, principal consul-
tant with Irvine, CA-based Jeremy
Langhans and Associates, has been
participating in the beta testing of the
Yahoo! Mindset service. He appreci-
ates what Mindset has to offer.
Langhans says, "Many search engines
(including Yahoo!'s main one) are
cluttered with 'commercial' results.
Being a researcher, you find those to
be not only a nuisance, but a time
waster as well. Yahoo! Mindset lets you
slide over to research- related results, in
real-time, helping to refine your results
into something more useful."

How It Works

Yahoo! Mindset is currently a beta
product. Yahoo! has developed the
concept and is currently testing the
technique and fine-tuning the results.
To prioritize the Web sites, Yahoo!



Mindset assigns each page a score
ranging from -2, primarily commer-
cial, to +2, primarily informational.

Mindset uses machine-learning
technology to automatically classify
Web pages based on the text they
contain. To provide a baseline from
which the machine learning can work,
Yahoo! research scientists manually
scored Web pages to develop a "seed
set." That seed set is used by the ma-
chine learning technology to help it
classify Web pages automatically.

Manual scoring of sites done by
humans is slow, and it is also subject
to individual interpretation. The Web
is too large, and there
are too many sites for
any team of humans
to hope to manually
assess and classify
each page. Machine
learning allows Yahoo! to apply
human-like behavior to score and
classify the vast number of Web pages
it encounters.

Initially, Yahoo! research scientists
used manual input to create a baseline
that the machine learning could use
as a foundation from which to build.
Applying machine learning to auto-
matically classify the sites can make
searching more accurate and efficient
and help users key in on what they are
really looking for.

More Mindset Features

The Mindset search results are
numbered, but there is also a gray
number in parentheses next to each
result. The gray number represents
the default rank of that site for a
normal search — in other words, the
ranking the site will hold when the
Mindset search slider is left in the
middle. As you move the slider left or
right, the results are filtered and re-
ordered, but the gray number next to
each result will identify where the site
ranked on the original default search,
as well.

In an effort to retrieve the requested
information as quickly as possible,



138 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



Yahoo! Mindset returns its initial re-
sults immediately, but continues to
scan for results in the background. As
Jeremy Langhans explains: "Initially
[Mindset] will give the user a quick
and numbered results list while also
analyzing [the] search in the back-
ground. I like to look at the first few
results and if I feel they could' ve done
better, I simply click the Resubmit
Search link and voila! I have a more
aggregate batch of links to surf. One
neat thing is the fact they keep the ini-
tial [ranking number] for you to com-
pare against the refined results."

Mindset Improvements

Since Mindset is still a beta product,
Yahoo! continues to work on and im-
prove it based on its findings and on
user feedback. One of the primary ways
Yahoo! intends to improve the product
is by providing the machine learning
engine with a much more comprehen-
sive and accurate "seed set." The ma-
chine learning is only as intelligent as
the seed set on which it's basing its de-
cisions, so providing a better seed set
will yield better results.

Langhans feels that Yahoo! should
consider eliminating some of the ad-
vertisements. Using Mindset, even if
you move the slider to the Researching
end of the slidebar, there will still be a
box above the search results and a
pane down the right side that contains



"XXHOO' MINDSET [w



Search |



Search Results: 1 - 10
shopping '



Ordering Results 1 - 100 cf about 11103761 for hard dri
researching



, ( ^bcut this page.„ 1



Some of the Web pages matching your criteria are currently being analyzed, and will be available in a few moments
Please click .■■ to resubmit your search

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A search on Yahoo! Mindset for the term "hard drive/ but with the Mindset slider edged toward
Researching rather than Shopping to target more informational Web sites.



several ad links. Langhans notes, "I re-
alize search engines make a living off
the auction/lease of space on fre-
quently-visited Web sites, but could
they incorporate their Shopping slider
into their Sponsored Search and . . .
use that extra Web real estate for a user
value-add along the lines of cus-
tomized saved results and/or sharing
with others in the user's Yahoo! net-
work? This would create stickiness, in-
crease registered guests, & potentially
triple their traffic."

In This Competition, You Win

Yahoo! Research sees Mindset not
only as a viable service, but also as a test



of the concept of using machine
learning in general.

The battle for Web market share
began with the Web browser and then
moved to Web portal or content
provider sites, but the current battle-
ground is the search engine. Yahoo!,
Google, and Microsoft are competing
fiercely to establish their products and
services as the default for Internet
searches. This competition ultimately
leads to the development of services
such as Mindset, which benefit users
and help people use the Web more in-
telligently and efficiently. ®

by Tony Bradley



Highlights

Yahoo! Mindset scores
Web pages based on
whether they provide com-
mercial or informational con-
tent and allows users to filter
their search results based on
the intent of their search.

Intent-Driven Search

Let's assume that you wish
to find information about
cell phones, including how
they work, health concerns



related to using them, and
other such details. If you
enter cell phone as your
search terms in Yahoo!
Mindset, your initial results
will doubtless include a va-
riety of Web sites aimed at
users who are actually
looking to purchase a cell
phone or cell phone service.

At the top of the search
results screen, however,
Mindset provides a slider



that you can move to the far
left if you are primarily trying
to shop, all the way to the
right if you just want to do
research and gather informa-
tion, or anywhere in be-
tween. As you move the
slider, the search results
screen adjusts instantly, dis-
playing the sites that best fit
the intent of your search.

Moving the slider all the
way to the right changes the



sites displayed so that the
search results focus on infor-
mation rather than sales.
User reviews and cell phone
vendor sites are replaced
with Web sites explaining
what a cell phone is and
how it works, sites about
using cell phones while dri-
ving, and sites related to po-
tential health issues from
using cell phones. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 139



Yahoo! Next



Yahoo! Y!Q

Providing Context-Sensitive Search
For More Relevant Results



Yahoo! is expending a
significant amount of
resources on the re-
search and development of
tools and services de-
signed to help refine
your Web searches.
One of the tools cur-
rently being tested is
Yahoo! Y!Q, which
allows users to con-
duct intelligent, context
sensitive searches based on
information found within an ex-
isting Web page.

Aaron Ferstman, a Yahoo! spokes-
person, describes Y!Q as ". . . the first
product of its kind that analyzes the
content of a Web page and provides
consumers with contextually relevant
search results at the moment of search
inspiration. Y!Q helps users rapidly
complete tasks and expand their
knowledge by presenting related
search results directly relevant to the
contents of the Web page they are
reading. It delivers these results di-
rectly on the Web page they are
reading, saving users time and deliv-
ering results in context. Y!Q also
helps users get more relevant search
results by using the context of the
Web page they are reading to influ-
ence their search results."

Digging Deeper

Readers often wish to learn more
about a particular subject or term
within an article or Web page they are
reading. They may wish to dive more
deeply into the subject to expand




their understanding of it, or perhaps
they just want to clarify certain as-
pects of the information. Either way,
readers often conduct further Web
searches to find the information they
are looking for.

By installing the Y!Q Toolbar for
Internet Explorer or the search plug-
in for Firefox, users can simply high-
light words or phrases on any Web site
and enter a query in the Y!Q search
bar to initiate a Y!Q search that will
provide relevant, context-sensitive re-
sults based on the chosen terms. Users
can also initiate a Y!Q search without
entering an actual search query by
choosing or highlighting words or
phrases and clicking the Y!Q Search
button to find results based on those
terms. In either case, a small pop-up
window will display the Y!Q results.

Developing YIQ-Enabled Sites

Web developers typically do not
want their readers to open external



windows or leave the site to do pe-
ripheral research. By embedding the
Y!Q code in a Web page, the devel-
oper can provide deeper, richer con-
tent and the ability for the reader to
dig for more detail without leaving the
site to initiate an external search. A
small icon appears next to highlighted
terms that have been encoded with
Y!Q data. If a user clicks the icon, a
small pop-up window will appear
containing the search results.

The search results displayed
in the pop-up window are
not based solely on the
highlighted word or
phrase, but also on the
overall context of the
article or Web page
from which the search
is being conducted.
That means that an
article about Apple
Computer will return
results relevant to the
Apple Computer company
rather than links to infor-
mation about apples in general,
recipes that use apples, or other such
unrelated information. For embedded
Y!Q searches, however, the context of
the search is dependent on the coding
the developer put into it.

Paul Bausch, author of "Yahoo!
Hacks," explains that "The key thing
is that Y!Q distributes search beyond
the confines of the search page.
Instead of isolating the act of search-
ing the Web to a single domain, Y!Q
lets site authors integrate search more
closely with their content."

Building Momentum For Y!Q Support

Currently, Y!Q is used extensively
within Yahoo!, primarily on Yahoo!
News articles. Marc Strohlein, vice
president and lead analyst for Outsell,
an Internet market analysis company,
believes that getting Web developers
to design Web pages or rebuild ex-
isting pages to include the Y!Q coding
may be difficult. He says that the Y!Q
initiative may be slow in picking up



140 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



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with links to information based on that context.




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This Yahoo! News article contains embedded Y!Q links next
to the highlighted terms "Samuel Alito" and "Roe v. Wade."



steam: "It requires more effort on the
part of publishers to figure out how to
use it, and more importantly, mone-
tize it."

Strohlein continues, "I would think
that the most desirable [scenario]
would be to use contextual search in
one document to drive users to other
documents that they would purchase



or pay to view, but that clearly
requires some thinking on the
part of publishers."

Many compare Yahoo!
Y!Q and Google's AdSense
and wonder what the motive
is for developers. And devel-
opers writing on the Yahoo!
Y!Q discussion forums fre-
quently discuss what the in-
centive would be for them to
invest time and effort into
designing Web sites that di-
rect users to Yahoo! when
there is nothing in it for
them monetarily.

Although Yahoo! Y!Q may
have the potential to offer
Yahoo! an effective weapon
to compete with Google Ad-
Sense, that is not currently
the company's focus. Yahoo!
wants developers to embrace
Y!Q not for the money it will
make them directly, but for
the chance to offer visitors
more detailed content and
relevant, context-sensitive
search results without forcing
them to leave the Web site.
Providing richer content can
attract more readers, and
keeping them on the site in
the first place offers more op-
portunities for the site to
make money through more
traditional means.

Improving Yahoo! Y!Q



Y!Q provides some value
for users today and may pro-
vide much more in the fu-
ture. There is still room for
improvement, though.
Paul Bausch suggests that "Instead of
simply offering Yahoo! Web or News
search results in Y!Q, I think they
should include an option to limit con-
tent to independent Web logs. They al-
ready have a blog search engine
incorporated within their Yahoo! News
search; I think they could turn Y!Q
into a service that lets others see what



Highlights



What it does: The Yahoo! Y!Q ser-
vice is designed to help users search
intelligently. Y!Q allows users to con-
duct context-relevant searches
based on the content of the Web
page they are currently viewing and
without leaving that page to per-
form a separate search.

How it works: Web sites that
embed the necessary Y!Q code
within their Web pages can provide
readers with a means of performing
a search for relevant results based on
the context of the Web page and
without forcing the reader to exit
the Web page or perform an ex-
ternal action to conduct the search.

How to use: There are examples
throughout Yahoo! News stories
themselves. Items that are tagged
with Y!Q information have a small
purple icon next to them. Click the
purple icon to open a smaller Results
window, which displays search results
based on the highlighted Y!Q term
and on the context of the Web page.

Readers can provide even more
context for the Y!Q search by high-
lighting terms or phrases from the
Web page that are relevant to the
specific details they want to re-
search. The resulting Y!Q search will
contain links to targeted, context-
sensitive information to help the
reader dig more deeply and learn
more about the subject at hand. I



Web logs are saying about a particular
topic. I think they'd find more blog-
gers integrating Y!Q into their sites. In
other words, I think Y!Q should be
less formal and more social."

OutselTs Strohlein is concerned that
too many new services and tools are
being thrown into the search mix. It
would be better, he says, if these prod-
ucts and services could be integrated
into a single interface or plug-in. gs]

by Tony Bradley



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 141



Yahoo! Next



My Yahoo!
Ticker

News & Info That Comes To You




Why go to the Internet when
the Internet can come to
you? That's the idea be-
hind My Yahoo! Ticker, a program
that delivers Web content to your
Windows Desktop.

My Yahoo! Ticker is a small toolbar
with scrolling headlines that appears
on your screen. You can view news,
stock quotes, weather reports, and
more. All of this content comes to
you through an RSS (Real Simple
Syndication) feed, but
unlike many RSS feeds,
you don't need a dedi-
cated RSS reader: My
Yahoo! Ticker handles
the work for you.

My Yahoo! Ticker is also a one- stop
shop where you can conduct your
normal Web business. You can access
Yahoo !'s search engine by entering a
search term in the Ticker window.
You can view your Yahoo! email, pull
up your address book, and look up a
word in Yahoo !'s dictionary. Many of



Yahoo !'s specialized search engines are
available from the Ticker Menu, let-
ting you search for images, businesses,
travel directions, and consumer prod-
ucts, all without leaving your Desktop.

Install & Configure My Yahoo! Ticker

To download My Yahoo! Ticker,
go to ticker.yahoo.com and click the
Download Beta button. Follow the
instructions to install the software



E



Top Stories from Reuters: DeLay relinquishes House majority leader |



My Yahoo! Ticker displays as a small toolbar with scrolling headlines on your screen



and launch the My Yahoo! Ticker
toolbar. To configure My Yahoo!
Ticker, right- click the Ticker window
anywhere. From the popup menu,
choose My Yahoo! Ticker Beta
Preferences. You can either access My
Yahoo! Ticker as a guest or with a
(free) My Yahoo! account, if you
have one.



To use Ticker as a Guest, make sure
Use As Guest is selected and then
click Edit News. In the News & Colors
window, select the content you'd like
to see: Select from Top Stories, World
News, Business, Politics, Stock
Quotes, Weather, Entertainment,
Technology, and Sports. If you chose
Weather, enter your ZIP code in the
Zip Codes field. From this window
you can also select the number of
headlines you'd like to see per cate-
gory. You can even choose different
font colors for each category of head-
line. Click OK to close the News &
Colors window.

If you selected Stock Quotes, click
the Edit Stocks button. In the Stocks
window, enter the ticker symbols of
the stocks you wish to track. If you
don't know a symbol, click Find and
the Yahoo! Finance page pops up to
help you locate the symbol by com-
pany name. Close the Stocks window
when you're finished.

From the Preferences window, you
can make other adjustments: Change
the Ticker speed, determine how often
to refresh news stories, and tweak the
color scheme for the Ticker bar.

Click OK to close the Preferences
window. Headlines for your chosen
categories will begin scrolling by in the
Ticker. Initially, the Ticker window is
barely long enough to display a few
words, but you can expand it in one of
two ways: right- click the Ticker icon
to the left of the scrolling display or
drag the two dotted lines at the left
border of the Ticker to the left.

You can quickly jump
from one category to an-
other; just click the Ticker
icon to the left of the
scrolling display. When
you spot an intriguing headline, click
it. The full story appears in the lower-
right corner of your screen in a
QuickView mini-browser window.
From there you can resize or maximize
the QuickView window and close it
when you're finished viewing the item.

The Ticker window can also serve
as a search box pointing to Yahoo !'s



a



142 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



search engine. Click the Yahoo! icon
at the right side of the Ticker bar. The
headlines disappear and you can enter
your search term directly in the box.
The results page then opens in a
QuickView window. To reactivate the
scrolling headlines, just click the
Ticker icon at the left of the toolbar.

Use Your My Yahoo! Account

My Yahoo! users can pull the con-
tent from their My Yahoo! pages
directly into the Ticker. Right-click
the Ticker toolbar and choose My
Yahoo! Ticker Beta Preferences. Select
the option for My Yahoo! ID. Enter
your My Yahoo! username and pass-
word and click OK. This should
display the content directly from your
My Yahoo! page: News, Weather,
Stock Quotes, and RSS feeds. Note



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You can customize and access My Yahoo! Ticker
as a guest or through a free My Yahoo! account.



that this feature didn't work when we
tested it. Using existing My Yahoo!
accounts, we were able to see stock
quotes and email alerts in the Ticker,



but nothing else. When we created
new My Yahoo! accounts, the Ticker
was never able to contact the server
and couldn't display any information.
This glitch may have been corrected
by the time you read this. (Remember
that the feature is still in beta; further
testing and programming will no
doubt continue up until — and no
doubt beyond — its official release.)

You can share your questions and
opinions about My Yahoo! Ticker by
joining the discussion forum at
ticker.yahoo.com. You can also send
feedback to the My Yahoo! Ticker
team at add.yahoo.com/fast/help
/us/next/cgi_myticker. Help is also
available at help.yahoo.com/help/us
/next/myticker. H

by Lance Whitney



My Yahoo! Ticker Highlights

What it does: My Yahoo! Ticker is a toolbar that resides
on your Windows Desktop and delivers news, sports,
weather, and other content. You can log in as a Guest and
choose to see generic news feeds with stock quotes and
weather. Or, if you have a free My Yahoo! account, you may
be able to grab content from your My Yahoo! page.

How it works: My Yahoo! Ticker uses RSS (Real Simple
Syndication) to deliver Web content to your Desktop. No
dedicated RSS reader is required; My Yahoo! Ticker works as
a standalone program. As the news headlines scroll by, click
any subject that interests you and the full story opens in a
mini-browser window. You can also search for items using
Yahoo!'s various search engines and access your Yahoo!
email and address book.

Sample use: To install My Yahoo! Ticker, download it
from the My Yahoo! Ticker Web site at ticker.yahoo.com.
Once it's installed, right-click the My Yahoo! Ticker window.
From the popup menu, choose My Yahoo! Ticker Beta
Preferences, click the Edit News button and choose to dis-
play Top Stories, Business, Weather, Stock Quotes, Tech-
nology, and Sports. Enter your ZIP code for access to the
local weather (and you might as well also enter 96815, the
zip for Waikiki Beach, just in case you can get away for the
week) and click OK.

Click the Edit Stocks button and enter the stock ticker
symbols you want to track— MSFT for Microsoft, INTC for
Intel, YHOO for Yahoo!, and BOH for the Bank of Hawaii
(after all, you may want to invest while you're visiting



Waikiki Beach). Click OK to close the Edit Stocks window
and OK again to close the Preferences window.

The headlines will begin to scroll by in the Ticker window.
Right-click the Ticker button to the left of the window to
enlarge it. Let's say you see a headline about Microsoft's up-
coming release of Vista, the next version of Windows. Click
the headline and the full story appears in a QuickView mini-
browser window.

If you're curious about Windows Vista and want to find
more stories about it, click the Yahoo! icon at the right of the
toolbar. The headlines will disappear so you can enter a
search term in the Ticker box. Enter Windows Vista as your
search phrase, and the QuickView window reappears with a
list of links to stories on Vista.

Assume that now you have to take care of personal busi-
ness. You quickly check your Yahoo! email: Click the drop-
down arrow next to the Yahoo! icon on the Ticker and select
Yahoo! Mail from the menu. Your smart-aleck friend uses a
word you don't understand in his email. To look it up, click in
the Ticker window, press CTRL+T, and enter the word in the
Yahoo! Dictionary search box. Next you need to shop for a
birthday present for your niece. Type ipod in the Ticker field
and press CTRL+P. The Yahoo! Products page pops up with
links to online stores selling iPods.

After all of this hard work, you may feel like seeing a movie.
Enter your ZIP code in the Ticker window, press CTRL+S, and
see Yahoofs list of local movies and showtimes, popcorn
prices not included. I



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 143



Yahoo! Next



Yahoo!
FareChase

New Service Helps Track Down Travel Deals



So, you just can't wait to get on
the road again, and you're
looking for cheap flights
and maybe lodging. In case
you missed it, Yahoo! now
hosts a branded travel
site called Farechase, a
Web-based search en-
gine that the company
promises will deliver a
more comprehensive
search than its rivals to
find users the lowest
prices on both airfares
and lodging.

FareChase is
separate from the
Yahoo! home page
travel link and has
operated in beta since September
2004. Now, with ample consumer
feedback and tweaking, FareChase is
expected to drop the beta status by
March to bring the service to
everyone, says Yahoo! travel manager
Diana Vincent.

No Salesman Will Call

FareChase is not a travel agency,
but a search engine dedicated to
finding the lowest-priced flights and
lodging for shoppers. You select your
itinerary, including flights and pos-
sibly lodging, and the service con-
nects you directly to the provider's
Web site, so you can lock in your
travel plans. FareChase displays real-
time rates (which are subject to




change) and charges no user fees for
the service, instead looking to adver-
tising fees to fund the venture, says
Vincent.

The quickest way to find FareChase
is to bring up the Yahoo! home page
and click the generic Travel link. Click
the FareChase tab on the upper- right
corner of the next window.

FareChase's format will be familiar
to anyone who has used other pop-
ular online travel services. A data
entry box appears on-screen along
with simple, intuitive drop-downs
where you can record your travel des-
tination and dates.

Tabs at the top offer choices of
Flights and Hotels. FareChase listed
more than 30 airlines, including some



foreign air carriers, though foreign
travel is not currently supported. "We
are always looking to expand our of-
fering to our users. Our focus has been
to [first] create a leading domestic
product," said Vincent.

Working down from the top, a My
Recent Searches drop-down saves your
scans for future viewing from as many
as five earlier sessions. If you allow
cookies, prior searches are saved even
if you're not logged in. This can be a
time- saver, especially if you require
several sessions to complete your
plans.

There & Back Again

Choose Round-Trip or
One-Way by clicking the
appropriate radio but-
ton, then enter the
departure and des-
tination cities, and
select your travel
dates. FareChase
promises to seek
low-price air fares,
and the default depar-
ture date is 21 days out,
presumably to take advan-
tage of most airlines' low-
price time horizon. If you want to
travel sooner, you can override the de-
fault by entering your intended travel
dates in the boxes. If price is more im-
portant than arrival and departure
times, choose Anytime to capture a
broad array of flight options and
prices available on your selected dates.
If you want to specify an airport in-
stead of a city, click the Airport Locator
links to look up airport symbols and
enter those initials in the From and To
fields. If you have no airport prefer-
ence, click the Check Nearby Airports
checkbox for a larger number of avail-
able options. Next, record the number
of travelers in your party in the Adult,
Child, Senior, and Infant categories.

Click the More Search Options link
at the bottom left of the search box to
reveal additional options: Connections,
Time Range, and Cabin. Connections



144 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Yahoo! Next



records how many layovers you'll ac-
cept. The Time Range option records
your tolerance for layover duration.
Cabin gives you the choice of seating
class, from economy through first class.
Refine your search by checking and
modifying entries in these categories.

Once you have entered the required
information for your flight preferences,
click Search. A box with a progress bar
appears at the top of the screen during
the search. This box disappears once
the scan is completed; the column on
the left side of the screen shows a sum-
mary of providers and alternatives.



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Yahoo's FareChase beta travel search screen will be familiar to
those who have used other online travel searches. FareChase is
not a travel agency, but a search engine designed to find the
lowest-priced air fares and lodging.



The Results list presents individual
flights, prices, and airlines in as-
cending price order. We checked for
flights from Chicago to Los Angeles
for a seven-day stay, 21 days in ad-
vance. One search yielded over 230 al-
ternative flights with prices ranging
from $211 to more than $1,000.

All I Want Is A Room Somewhere

Now add lodging to the package.
The search engine scans over 50
lodging sources, according to the site.
A progress bar appears while the
search is in progress, with paid
sponsor links appearing on top and to
the right. Scroll down the Results list-
ings to find the lodging button and



click it to scan for hotel options. (In
our L.A. test search, the button read
Los Angeles Hotel Deals.) Notice that
FareChase does not initially sort results
based on price, but instead uses some-
thing called Popularity. (Click the icon
for an explanation.) After Yahoo!
completes the initial sort, you can
click the Price link to reorder the re-
sults, beginning with the least expen-
sive. If a hotel chain is important,
select Name as the sort criterion.

The Distance sort tells how far a
hotel is located from a specific geo-
graphic point. Select a different geo-
graphic location for your
stay from the options in
left column of the Results
page. For instance, we
could have changed our
lodging base from Los
Angeles to Hollywood,
and hotel listings would
show the distance from
Hollywood instead of
from Los Angeles.

A Los Angeles search
yielded over 350 hotels,
with quoted nightly rates
ranging from $37 for a
two-star motel to $505
for a user-rated four-star
hotel on the beach in
Santa Monica. The sum-
maries include photos
and a rating.

In The Chase For Fair Fares,
FareChase Fares Well

We found easy navigation to be a
FareChase strength. Expedia.com,
Travelocity, and even Yahool's regular
travel link are sometimes difficult and
prone to mysterious errors that may re-
quire entering your data several times.
Also, FareChase automatically displays
useful search summary information on
the results page that the others did not.
And in comparative pricing trials that
included both Expedia and Travelocity,
FareChase actually did produce the
lowest-priced flights, which Vincent
said should usually occur. We're quite



Yahoo! Farechase
Highlights

What it does: Farechase is Yahool's
branded beta version search engine
for air travel and lodging. It promises
cheap airfares and hotel rooms.

How it works: Farechase scans
flights listed by more than 30 air
transport sources and over 50 lodging
providers. (See Farechase Frequently
Asked Questions for current listings.)
A Farechase screen invites additional
providers to sign on, so the list may
change. Remember to switch the sort
criterion to Price from Popularity if
price is more important to you.

Sample use: Enter Farechase as the
search term at Yahool's home page,
follow the link and bookmark the
site. Select Round-Trip or One-Way
by clicking the appropriate radio
button. Enter the name of your de-
parture point and then enter the
name of your destination city in the
From and To fields. For a wider array
of choices, click the Check Nearby
Airports checkbox; for fewer choices,
leave the box unchecked.

Choose your Depart and Return
dates and times and select the
number of adults, children, infants,
and seniors in your travel party and
then click Search. If price is more im-
portant than convenience, leave the
Depart and Return times set to
Anytime to give the search engine
fewer restrictions and potentially re-
turn more travel options and prices.

We entered information for a
round trip for one adult from
Chicago to LA. using the default, 21
days out. Our search returned over
120 flight options. We clicked the
Hotel Deals button located in the
middle of the flight list and got back
over 340 lodging options. I



comfortable recommending FareChase
for your bookmark short list. ®

by Michael Border



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 145



Extras



Use Yahoo!

For Everything Under The Sun



Your Comprehensive Activity Center



What started from hum-
ble beginnings as the
brainchild of two Stan-
ford students has be-
come one of the Internet's key players.
It now employs thousands of people



and offers a plethora of services to its
users. In fact, Yahoo! can be your point
of origin for almost any destination on
the Web that you want to reach and
the first step you take toward accom-
plishing your online tasks.



We harnessed Yahool's power for a
variety of activities — some to take care
of important business and some for
pure entertainment. The 10 we cover
here represent only a sliver of surfing
available via Yahoo!.



If You Want To...

. . . Fight Crime In Metropolis

Who doesn't dream of being a superhero once in his or her life?
Although we don't have any special powers, we clicked the Hotjobs
icon on Yahool's home page. On the Hotjobs site, we typed Police
Officer in the Keywords(s) field and used New York City as our desti-
nation. We clicked Search, and Hotjobs returned results from the Big
Apple and smaller surrounding burgs.

. . . Buy A Satellite Radio Receiver For Your Next Road Trip



We started at Yahoo! Shopping (shopping.yahoo.com) and
typed XM Radio (one of the two major satellite radio providers)
in the Search field. We found a veritable buffet of XM receivers,
priced to fit within any budget. We clicked Compare Prices for the
top result (Delphi MyFi) and compared prices among 28 vendors.



. . . Buy A Winnebago For Your Next Vacation

Yahoo! Autos (autos.yahoo.com) seemed like the best place to start,
but our search bore no fruit. We returned to Yahool's home page and
searched the Web by typing Winnebago dealer in the field and pressing
ENTER. Much to our surprise, we found that one of the sponsored re-
sults (read: paid advertisers) did the trick. We clicked its link and had a
fleet of used RVs from which to choose.



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Employer



Hotjobs Celebrity Dream Team Makeov



Now Hiring



[ *>V Post Your Resume Now
* Let employers find you



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Base Price




$224.95






###o^


$199.99

save up to $50






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$125.99






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$95.00

after $50.00 rebate



. . . Check Your Favorite Stock

As a publishing company that continually tests and uses computers,
we obtained a stock quote for Dell, one of the biggest PC makers on the
planet. We typed DELL in the Stock Quotes field found on the right
side of Yahool's home page and clicked Go.



DELL INC (Na

After Hours (f
Last Trade:
Trade Time:
Change:
Prev Close:



T-ECN): 29.30 40.01 (0.03%)



29.32 x 5
29.39 x 5
36.73



Day's Range:


23.94-29.75


52wk Range:


23.62-41.99


Volume:


23,673,007


AvgVol(3m):


22,740,800


Market Cap:


6S.98B


P/E (ttm):


22.67


EPS (ttm):


1.29


Div & Yield:


USA (USA)



146 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Extras



. . . Catch Up On The Latest Happenings At "General Hospital' 1

We clicked Soap Operas at the Yahoo! TV page (tv.yahoo.com),
which led us to the daily recaps of the major soaps. We clicked General
Hospital for the scoop on this week's story lines.



. . . Find Carmen Sandiego

In the good ol' days, Apple Ilgs computers were the cream of the
crop, and "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" was an educa-
tional game that was actually fun. We used Yahoo! People Search
(people.yahoo.com) to find her, but, sadly, it didn't find anyone living
in the United States with that moniker. Even so, Yahoo! People Search
is a useful tool to help you connect with old friends or relatives.

... Play Mah Jong

This classic game of solitaire is one of the many games available at
Yahoo! Games (games.yahoo.com). We clicked Mah Jong Towers
Eternity under the Board Games section to get started. (You may
need to download the appropriate plug-in before the game will dis-
play on-screen.) We clicked Start and Play and were playing Mah
Jong in no time.





Soap Operas


All Mv Children

As The World Turns

The Bold and the

Beautiful

Days of Our Lives

General Hospital

Guidiiid Li<|ht

One Life to Live

Passions

The Yoiiim and the

Restless

Related Links

* Soaps Groups

* Soaps Message Boards


Daily Recaps

All My Children Ryan visited serial killer Jonathan in jail and

promised he'd help his brother gei out. "No," Jonathan surprisingly
■■■■■

se to find
an empty vodka bottle . them and

::

The Bold and the Beautiful Ridge explains to Nick that he

, ...... ,... ... .... .... .. .

also wants

Days Of Our Lives At the hospital, John tells Kate about

....■■ ■■■■

General Hospital At the courthouse, John fights for a

..." ■. ■. .. ■■ ... ... .. .■ .. ..




. . . Watch A Rolling Stones Music Video

It seems like these rockers have been around for a while, so we
wanted to see what Yahoo! Music (music.yahoo.com) had to offer from
their collection of hits. We selected Videos from the Search Music
drop -down menu, typed rolling stones in the next field, and clicked
Go. We clicked the Watch icon for "Rough Justice (LIVE)" and let
Mick Jagger wail away.

. . . Learn How To Play Guitar

Feeling inspired from the Stones video, we relied on Yahoo! Local
(local.yahoo.com) to track down someone who could shape us into a
Keith Richards-like virtuoso. We typed guitar lessons in the Search For
field, typed our city and state information in the next field, and clicked
Search. We clicked the link for Dr. Brown's Studio, which offered the
lessons we were looking for.






Yahoo! Toolbar-




m


"SxhooF ^


«


SelsrfCatego


ry: Web Images Video Audio Directory News Shopping




Search L






oil: guitar lessonsi in Lincoln, NE J Yahoo! Search |


- , , , . , Today's Deals



...Build A Blog

Having a blog today is a lot like owning a hula hoop in the 1950s;
everyone seems to have one, and you probably feel left out if you
don't have one of your own. We started at Yahoo! 360° Beta
(360.yahoo.com) and clicked Get Started. (Because we already logged
in to our Yahoo! account previously, we didn't need to do so here.)
After we signed in and registered, we clicked Start Blog, and Yahoo!
360° Beta helped guide us through the process. See "Fun Comes Full
Circle" on page 93 for more information. H

BY VlNCE COGLEY







VinceC




Mailbox 1

§ Start a Blog
ED Start Sharing Photos
ft Create My Page
^? Invite a Friend


Visitor Stats

Since January 2006

Page Views
Visitors


~| Total || Month || Week |





Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 147



Extras



Yahoo! Toolbar

The Better To Surf With, My Dear




You visit Yahoo !'s chat rooms,
post messages in Yahoo !'s fo-
rums, check your Yahoo!
Mail, and chat with your friends via
Yahoo! Messenger. If you ever wish
that Yahoo! offered a program that
could bring all of these features to-
gether, you're in luck. The Yahoo!
Toolbar browser plug- in lets you ac-
cess tons of Yahoo! features from one
location. And it provides much more
than links: The new Toolbar protects
your PC from some of the nastier
stuff on the 'Net as you surf. We'll
show you how to install a copy and
get the most out of its features.

Toolbar Time

Yahoo! Toolbar is a plug-in (soft-
ware that plugs into and comple-
ments other software) that supports
two Web browsers: Microsoft Inter-
net Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
Downloading the toolbar is easy
enough. Visit toolbar.yahoo.com and
then choose a Toolbar version. If you
want to download the complete ver-
sion for IE (including Yahoo! Anti-
Spy), click Free Download. You can
also select a version that doesn't



include Anti-Spy and the Firefox ver-
sion from this page.

After you click Download, click the
Get Yahoo! Toolbar button. If a File
Download - Security Warning win-
dow appears, click Save. When the
Save As window appears, navigate to
the folder in which you want to place
the setup file. You can also rename
the file. Click Save. When the down-
load completes, click Open Folder
and then double-click the setup file.

If you have Windows XP SP2,
an Open File - Security Warning
window will appear. Click Run.
Yahoo!'s setup wizard will guide
you through the rest of the process.
Be sure to read the instructions on
each page before clicking the Next
button — the wizard will ask to change
some of your Web browser's settings.
When the installation completes,
open your browser. The Yahoo!
Toolbar will appear near the top
of the window, under your other
toolbars. A small Yahoo! Toolbar Is
Ready To Go! box will drop down in
front of the Web page. Click Close to
remove it. The toolbar will drop sim-
ilar boxes when new toolbar features
are available.



You can also download the toolbar
by installing Yahoo! Messenger. Visit
Yahoo!'s main page and then click
Messenger at the top of the page.
During the installation, you can
choose Typical Install or Custom
Install. Choose Typical Install to add
the toolbar to the installation. You'll
need to register a Yahoo! ID to take
advantage of Messenger and several
other Yahoo! features. To read more
about the Yahoo! ID, see "Identify
Yourself on page 20.

Choose Your Weapon

Toolbar supports three toolbar
modes: Finance, Search, and My
Toolbar. The Y! and Toolbar Settings
icons remain on the left side of all of
the toolbar modes, but most of the
other icons switch to reflect tools for
that mode's topic. The Search field re-
mains next to the Toolbar Settings
icon, but its search mode (such
as Search Web or Search Ticker)
changes. You can easily flip among
modes by clicking the Toolbar Settings
icon and then choosing a mode.

Finance Toolbar. Whether you
keep track of investments or day-to-
day banking online, you'll find some
great links and tools in this bar. The
My Portfolios icon offers links to
Yahoo! Finance, which encompasses
the My First Portfolio investment
tracking tool. Investing links to finan-
cial news and Yahoo! investing tools.
The Personal Finance icon links to
Yahoo! 's Banking Center, Bill Pay ser-
vice, and retirement planning and tax
information, among others. The
Search button lets you choose to
search several financial areas, in-
cluding Company News, Message
Boards, and Ticker.

My Toolbar. The My Toolbar
mode appears when you first install
Yahoo! Toolbar. If you use other
Yahoo! features, such as its Mail and
Messenger services, you'll like this
mode. You'll find most of the features
we discuss in this article on the My
Toolbar mode.



148 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Extras




Yahoo! Toolbar

eats up a small

portion of your

Web browser

window, but

it adds plenty

of worthwhile

features.







'




















Searc


h the Web:


L


yahoo! S


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Search Toolbar. If you hate clutter,
check out this streamlined mode. As
with the My Toolbar mode, the
Search button next to the search field
has a drop -down arrow that lets you
quickly choose the location you want
to search, such as Image, Dictionary,
or Address Book. By default, the
toolbar displays the Search Web
button. Thanks to the lack of extra
icons, you can easily move the toolbar
next to another toolbar (such as the
Address bar), which will free up a
little room for Web pages. To move
the toolbar, click the left edge of the
bar and then drag it. If the bar doesn't
move, right-click any toolbar and
then deselect Lock Toolbars.

Take The Tour

Your toolbar has some great fea-
tures. Before you dive into the pile of
customization options, check out
the tools already at your disposal.
Don't overlook the Welcome Tour
button, which starts a quick, anima-
ted overview of the toolbar's most im-
portant features.

Anti-Spy. Unlike Popup Blocker,
which runs while you surf the Web and
automatically blocks pop-ups, Anti-Spy
won't start until you click its icon and
then click Run Anti-Spy. When you
first start the program, it may download
the latest version from Yahoo! and will
also need to download updates. But
don't give up on it: Anti-Spy is a useful
tool. Once it's ready to go, the program
will scan your computer for a variety of



malicious items, such as tracking
cookies, Trojans, worms, and adware.
After completing the scan, the software
lists any suspect items and lets you
choose to remove or allow individual
items. It also puts the item in a cate-
gory, such as Tracking Cookie, and dis-
plays the item's name. If you want to
know more about a category, simply
double-click one of the category's items
to see a brief description.

If you have questions about spy-
ware, click the Anti-Spy icon and then
select Anti-Spy Community. These
specialized Yahoo! forums let fellow
Web surfers trade tips and tricks
about avoiding and removing particu-
larly insidious spyware. Users can rate
messages, so if you're only interested
in messages that have some of the
highest ratings, click the Ratings Filter
drop -down arrow and then select the
four- or five-star rating.

Bookmarks. This toolbar feature
acts as an extra Favorites folder.
Whenever you find a Web page you
plan to revisit, click Bookmarks and
Add To Yahoo! Bookmarks. To visit
the page again, click Bookmarks and
then find it on the list that appears.
You can add folders and organize
your Bookmarks.

Popup Blocker. We shudder to
think about the amount of time we've
wasted over the years by chasing
down stray pop-up ads. Yahoo!'s
Popup Blocker gives you control over
the number of windows on your
screen. By default, it blocks pop-ups,
but if you press the CTRL key before



you click a link, the link's pop-up
window (if there is one) will open
without trouble.

By default, Popup Blocker emits a
brief sound and opens an information
bar when it blocks a pop-up. The in-
formation bar is a short, yellow bar
that appears just under your lowest
toolbar. Click the Popup bar to change
the blocker's settings for the site. (You
can choose to have Popup Blocker
only allow pop-ups from the current
site during this session or to always
allow the site to display pop-ups.)

Click the Popup Blocker icon to
change its settings or completely dis-
able it. The drop-down menu keeps
track of the number of blocked pop-
ups and lets you view recently blocked
pop-ups to make sure you didn't miss
anything worthwhile.

Search. One of the most important
features on your toolbar is the Search
Box and the Search button. It's also
very easy to use: If you want to find
information about your search term
on the Web, simply enter it into the
search field and then press the
ENTER key or click the Search Web
button. If you want to search a dif-
ferent Yahoo! section, such as Yahoo!
Images or Video, click the Search but-
ton's drop-down arrow and select a
section. You can even search your
Yahoo! Address Book.

Mail. The icon's drop-down menu
lets you quickly access Yahoo! Mail
features, such as Compose A Message.
You can also reach the Address Book,
Calendar, and Notepad from here. A
number on the Mail icon indicates
new messages.

Messenger. Refresh your contact
list or open the Messenger Sidebar (a
feature that places Messenger on the
left side of your browser window).
You can change your Messenger
status to a standard status message
or put the URL for the site you're
viewing into your Messenger status
area. This lets other users visit the
page you're viewing.

My Web. This feature lets you save
Web pages to a personal Web of saved



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 149



Extras



pages. You can share your Web with
other users and store comments
about Web sites.

Y!. If your toolbar included only
the Y! icon, you could still reach
many of Yahool's most important
tools. Click the Y! to visit Yahool's
homepage or click the icon's drop-
down arrow to find links to many
other Yahoo! pages and features.

Customize, Customize, Customize

The toolbar is very customizable.
Although you'll need to click the
Anti-Spy or Popup Blocker icons to
adjust most of those programs' set-
tings, you can reach most properties
in the Toolbar Settings area. By de-
fault, the Toolbar Settings icon sits
next to the Y! Yahoo! homepage icon.

Yahoo! Toolbar Options has some
of the most important settings, in-
cluding rules for the toolbar's buttons.
In the Buttons section, you can deacti-
vate the Anti-Spy, Highlight, Popup
Blocker, and Music Engine icons. You



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If you have Yahoo!
Messenger, you can
access its features
from the toolbar,
including the
Sidebarfeature.lt
places Messenger
inside your Web
browser.



can also activate the Search This Site
feature, which isn't activated by de-
fault. To use the feature, visit the site
you wish to search, enter a search term
in the Search field, click the Search
Web drop -down arrow, and then se-
lect Search Only The Current Site.

The Options menu also lets you
choose the length of the search field. A
smaller field won't limit the number
of characters you can enter when you
type in a search term, but if you want
to be able to see more of your search



Where The Spotlight Fails To Shine

You can't browse Yahool's massive site very long without seeing links to
Yahoo! Messenger or Toolbar. But Yahoo! has several other downloads that
it doesn't promote as heavily. If you
want to spice up your PC click
Downloads on the All Y! Services
page and try these obscure (but
useful) Yahoo! programs.

Desktop Search. Let Yahool's pow-
erful search engine loose on your
hard drive.

Music Engine. Download and play
songs. The Music Engine icon
sits in your browser.

My Yahoo! Ticker. If you have My
Yahoo!, run the feature's custom
tickers on your Desktop.

Yahoo! Search For Internet Explorer.

Get the search engine without the rest of Yahoo! Toolbar's baggage.

Widget Engine. Tiny applications that let you see photos on your Desktop; get
weather alerts and more.




Widgets add extra features to your
Desktop. Download hundreds of free
Widgets or build your own.



term at once, choose a large size in the
Search Box area. You can also disable
Smart Tools, but we suspect you'll
want to keep this feature handy. When
you select text on any Web page, a Y!
icon will appear next to the selection.
It has an array of options, including
Translate To English and Lookup [se-
lected text] In Dictionary. If you're
trying to save toolbar space, check the
Show Icons Only Without Names box.
If you want to customize the tool-
bar's buttons, click Toolbar Settings
and Personal Options and then choose
Add/Edit Buttons or Change Toolbar
Layout. The buttons that appear by de-
fault make only a fraction of the but-
tons that you can add to your toolbar.

Toolbar Trouble

If you run into problems
with your toolbar, click the
Toolbar Settings icon and
check out the options at the
bottom of the menu. We rec-
ommend that you first try the
Help link, which takes you di-
rectly to Yahoo! Toolbar Help.
Scan the Top 5 Questions sec-
tion and then enter your prob-
lem in the Ask Yahoo! Help
field. If Help . . . doesn't, revisit the
Toolbar Settings and click Forums &
Feedback. Users post questions and
answers here daily. Of course, if the
toolbar is the problem, click Uninstall
at the bottom of the menu. Qjs]

by Joshua Gulick



150 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Extras



Especially For
Mobile Users

Use Yahoo! Services When You're On The Go



Our world is becoming
increasingly mobile.
We use our cell phone
to chat with friends while on
our way to a business meeting,
text message our children,
email a shopping list to our
spouse, and send a picture of
the kids to grandma.

Yahoo! Mobile (mobile
.yahoo.com) provides many
services to users on the go.
From email to IM (instant
messaging) to news, Yahoo!
Mobile has you covered. Let's explore
these services in more detail. Keep in
mind that each service has different
compatibility requirements with cell
phones and service providers.

Communicate Via Messages
& Messaging

Pair your cell phone with the fol-
lowing Yahoo! Mobile services to
stay in touch while going about the
day's activities.

Yahoo! Messenger. Just because
you're away from a PC doesn't mean
you have to go through IM with-
drawal. The mobile version of Ya-
hoo! Messenger keeps you connected
wherever you are.

Yahoo! Mail. Considering the fact
that email has become a staple in
our daily lives, it's good to know
that you don't have to go without
your Yahoo! email. Receive alerts
when you have new mail, check and
compose email, and access your ad-
dress book with the mobile version
of Yahoo! Mail.




Texting. Sending text messages
from one phone to another, other-
wise known as texting, is especially
common among the younger genera-
tion. Yahoo! lets you send text mes-
sages from your PC without a fee;
however, the person receiving your
text message may incur a fee for re-
ceiving the message, depending on
her wireless plan.

Yahoo! 360° mobile blogging.
Blogs have become a popular way to
stay connected with friends and
family members. Use your phone to
post photos and messages about the
day's events to make sure everyone
knows what's going on in your life.

Info On The Go

Sometimes it's hard to keep up
with the latest news when we're run-
ning from one place to the next. Let's
explore a few of the ways Yahoo!
strives to keep us informed.



Search for info. With two different
ways to search the Web from your
phone, Yahoo! makes sure you're
never without information when you
need it. You can browse the Web or
send a text message to Yahoo! for
quick details, such as stock quotes or
locations of local businesses.

Back up contacts. If you've been
searching for an effective way to con-
solidate address books from your
email and cell phone, look to Yahoo!.
In addition to combining your
Yahoo! address book with the
one from your phone, you
can synchronize your calendar
and tasks.

Receive alerts. If you really
want to be up-to-date with all
of the latest news, weather, and
sports, Yahoo! Alerts can send
an update to your email soft-
ware, Yahoo! Messenger client,
or mobile device. You choose
the types of alerts to receive and
where to send them: Yahoo!
Messenger; a particular email program;
via text messaging to your PC, phone,
or PDA (personal digital assistant); or a
combination of these locations.

Find a Wi-Fi hotspot. If you've
ever traveled with a laptop or other
Wi-Fi-enabled device, you know it's
not always easy to find a hotspot
when you need one. Now, with the
Yahoo! hotspot locator, you can find
a list of hotspot locations before
taking off for your next trip.

Fun & Games

Sometimes we find a few spare
minutes in our day. Although this
doesn't happen as often as we'd like,
when we do find extra time, it's nice
to relax with some fun activities via
our mobile device.

Upload and review photos. Photo
gurus will like the ability to upload
pictures from their camera phone
to Yahoo! Photos. You can store as
many pictures as you want, and all
uploaded pictures go directly to the
Mobile Upload album for easy access.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 151



Extras



In addition, you can browse the photos
you've stored in your Yahoo! Photos
albums and personalize your phone
using a favorite photo as a screen saver.
You also can create mobile slideshows
and browse friends' albums.

Play mobile games. Even if you
aren't a serious gamer, chances are
even you can enjoy playing a game
of Solitaire or Yahtzee when you're
waiting for a flight at the airport.
With categories such as Action &
Adventure, Card & Casino, and
Sports, everyone can find a game to
suit his or her interests. And with
prices starting at $1.49 for unlimited
play time, it's easy to be entertained.

Listen to Yahoo! Ringtones. Al-
though the Yahoo! Ringtones service
was only available for Cingular cus-
tomers at press time, it's still note-
worthy. For $1.99 apiece, you can
download ringtones from top artists
to your phone. There are over 1,200
selections to choose from, so pick a
tone to match your mood.

Local Access

Finding software for your mobile
phone or PDA isn't always as easy as
finding a program for your PC. The
next time you're searching for some-
thing specific or just want to look
around, head over to the Yahoo!
Mobile Downloads site (mobile
.yahoo.com/wireless/downloads).
Although the majority of content is
targeted at the PDA user, a hand-
ful of mobile phone downloads are
also available.

For PDA users looking for a spe-
cific title, Yahoo! provides a search
tool to help you find what you need.
Otherwise, if you just want to browse
titles by platform category, Yahoo!
summarizes the top downloads for
the Palm, Pocket PC, Symbian/EPOC,
and Windows CE operating systems.

All The Right Resources

If you're looking for ways to maxi-
mize your mobility, check out the



Yahoo! Mobile Resource Center (in
the lower-left area of Yahoo! Mo-
bile's home page). Here, you'll find
information at Tech News, such as
mobile phone number portability.
Alternatively, you can shop for a new
mobile device via special links to the
Yahoo! Shopping service.

New mobile users can also access
tutorials that explain how to use
Yahoo! Mobile services in greater de-
tail. Or if you're looking for a specific
mobile Web site, check out Yahoo !'s
searchable Mobile Web Directory.
And if the array of wireless acronyms



teHOOf 6 GO



Now, your life goes where
you go




Yahoo! Go is a new service that lets you access
content from many devices.



confuses you, check out the Glossary
of Mobile Terms.

Regardless of the type of infor-
mation you're searching for, if it's
related to mobile technology, you
can most likely find it at the Yahoo!
Resource Center.

iHabla Espafiol?

Yahoo!'s mobile services aren't
limited solely to English-speaking
Web users. With the Yahoo! Mobile
International section of Yahoo! Mo-
bile (at the bottom of the home page),
users from countries such as Spain,
Japan, Brazil, and India can access a
multitude of options tailored specifi-
cally to their country.



Yahoo! Go

Count all of the mobile devices you
use every day to communicate with
friends, capture memories, entertain
yourself, and conduct business. If
you run out of fingers before you
get through the list, check out Ya-
hoo! Go (go. connect.yahoo.com/go),
which was just announced at CES
(Consumer Electronics Show) in
January. Although all components of
the Yahoo! Go service weren't avail-
able for download at press time,
Yahoo!'s Web site does provide de-
tails about this new service.

The goal of Yahoo! Go is to help
users realize interconnectivity
among devices. Yahoo! representa-
tives claim that with Yahoo! Go,
your TV will be able to sync with the
Internet to display your photos,
music, movie listings, and more.
Additionally, your camera phone
will automatically upload photos to
the Internet. Furthermore, the Ya-
hoo! Go PC component will keep
all of your Yahoo! information at
your fingertips.

It's All About Connectivity

Whether you're keeping in touch
with friends, checking on the latest
news, or capturing memories on
your camera phone, Yahoo! strives
to keep you connected while you
are away from a PC. Although we
can't cover all its mobile-related ser-
vices in detail in this article, check
out our article on podcasting,
"Yahoo! Podcast," on page 126 for
more information regarding port-
able audio and video files. Also,
Yahoo! offers special mobile services
especially for business users; see
"Articles & Resources" to find out
more about these services on page
119. With all Yahoo!'s mobile offer-
ings, you're sure to find a solution
that fits your needs. H

by Jennifer Johnson



152 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Extras



For The Kids

Yahooligans! Presents Fads & Laughs Just For Juniors

***** VtfbiA.




Forty years ago, we loved The
Beatles and Elvis. Now kids
clamor for Fall Out Boy and
Hilary Duff. We watched Roger Maris
and Mickey Mantle battle each other
in the summer of '61 to beat Babe
Ruth's 60 home runs of 1927 for
Major League Baseball's single season
home run record. Today, young, as-
piring baseball players dream of
striking out Albert Pujols or hitting a
home run off of Pedro Martinez to
win the World Series. And nowadays,
digital music players are a fraction of
the size of your old phonograph and
can store hundreds of albums within
their tiny frames. Our kids live in a
different world, yet the core of our
traditional pastimes has changed little
over the generations.

If Yahoo! is for Mom and Dad,
Yahooligans! (yahooligans.yahoo.com)
is definitely a Yahoo! for younger gen-
erations. According to Yahoo!, Yahoo-
ligans! is a "browsable, searchable
directory of Internet sites for kids."
Essentially, Yahooligans! bears several
similarities to its parent site. You can
perform a basic search, hunt for music
videos from your favorite artist, and
send ecards to family and friends.

And Yahoo! understands that the
Web is chock-full of seedy sites that



are inappropriate for younger eyes.
Although it doesn't filter Web sites,
Yahooligans! editors handpick each
site and its links to determine if the
content is safe and suitable for kids
aged 7 to 12. Yahooligans! also pro-
vides links that let you report objec-
tionable content, and if the editors
agree with your submission, they'll
promptly pull the site(s) from the
Yahooligans! directory. You can also
request that Yahooligans! add a par-
ticular site to its directory.

Yahooligans! has diverse offerings
for kids with a host of different inter-
ests. We'll help you navigate around
Yahooligans! to find enough content
to keep your youngsters amused and
informed without worrying about ex-
posing them to offensive material.

Safety First

Let's face it: There are many things
your family can do via the Internet
that are impossible — or, at the very
least, impractical — to physically do.
For example, you can take an elec-
tronic field trip to virtually visit
the Smithsonian Institution's Na-
tional Air and Space Museum if you
can't make the drive to Washington,
D.C., to visit the museum personally.



The Internet also lets you relish
in listening to a Mozart concerto
sonata instead of purchasing a
CD or attending a symphony or-
chestra performance.

Of course, parents must remain
vigilant when their children use a
resource such as the Web. There
are plenty of stray paths that will
lead your kids down the Internet's
darker alleys.

Before turning your kids loose at
Yahooligans!, everyone should make
sure they pass their online safety
pretests, so to speak. For parents,
click the Parents' Guide link on
Yahooligans! home page. The Yahoo-
ligans! Parents' Guide contains useful
articles about online safety you can
discuss with your kids. Also, there
are links to Web browsers specifically
designed to give children a safe
surfing experience.

Yahooligans! pulls much of its
safety information from NetSmartz
(www.netsmartz.org). A joint ven-
ture between the National Center for
Missing 8c Exploited Children and
Boys 8c Girls Clubs of America,
NetSmartz has a wealth of material
to minimize the risks associated with
letting minors use the Internet. Your
child should understand that like
the real world, there are plenty
of strangers lurking in places that
appear harmless.

Thirst For Knowledge

Kids who use Yahooligans! can get
help on homework or simply satisfy
their curiosities. On the Yahooligans!
home page, type a subject in the
empty field and click Search. You'll
notice that the number of matches
is considerably fewer than if you
were searching Yahoo!. For example,
a Yahooligans! search for "George
Washington" returned only 41
matches, while a Yahoo! search for
"our first president" yielded almost
20,000,000 matches.

Get the latest buzz. The Yahoo-
ligans! Buzz Index is a great example



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 153



Extras



of positive peer pressure. The Buzz
Index tracks and measures the most
popular Yahooligans! search terms,
which is similar to lists such as the
Lycos 50 (www.lycos.com) or MSN's
Top 5 Searches (www.msn.com). On
the Yahooligans! main page, click
Buzz Index to see a list of the 20
most-searched subjects.

Help on homework. Although
Yahooligans! won't take your daugh-
ter's test on fractions, it has a direc-
tory of sites geared toward traditional
school subjects, such as social stud-
ies and math. Click the School Bell
link that's located in the Yahoo-
ligans! Directory.

The School Bell section
breaks down into the fol-
lowing four primary cate-
gories: Language Arts, Math,
Science And Nature, and
Social Studies. If you click
one of these links, Yahoo-
ligans! breaks that category
down into subcategories. For
instance, the Social Studies
category contains subcate-
gories such as Cultures, Geo-
graphy, and History.

You can continue sifting
through subcategories to find
information about a specific
subject. For example, we clicked
Social Studies, History, By Subject,
and Cold War to find a site about
Alger Hiss and another site where we
could listen to Winston Churchill's
Iron Curtain speech.

Young academics who want to use
information taken from Yahooligans!
are free to do so, provided they prop-
erly identify Yahooligans! as the
source of the information.

Ask Earl. You're probably familiar
with Jeeves, Ask Jeeves' (www. ask
.com) friendly butler who hunts for
info on the Web in response to your
queries. Earl is the Yahooligans! ficti-
tious answer expert, but he deals with
the questions you submit a little dif-
ferently than Jeeves. Jeeves is essen-
tially a search engine like Yahoo!;
instead, Earl responds to a single



question per day from his Yahoo-
ligans! audience. Also, Earl answers
every published question with in-
formation gleaned from Yahooli-
gans! Web sites; so, if Earl can find
the answer via Yahooligans!, your kids
can, too.

To send your tricky questions or
potential stumpers to Earl, click the
Ask Earl link. On the next page, click
Ask Earl!. Type a question in the Your
Question box, provide your first
name and age, and click the Send To
Earl & Stray Kat! button. Yahoo-
ligans! archives previous Earl answers
and groups them into the following



Ask Earl




Categories:

* Around the World
. Aits and

Enteitainment
. Computers ami
Internet

* School Bell

* Science and Nature

* Spoils ami Re<



Today's Question:

* How old was Pocahontas when she died?

Recent Questions:

* What are the symptoms of meningitis?

■ What we i e some ancient Mesopotamia!! names?

* How does The mourn!

* Is theie any way I can make a cut plant last I

* What is the Mason-Dixon Line?



Earl and his feline friend Stray Kat use Yahooligans! to answer
perplexing questions from readers.



categories: Around The World, Arts
And Entertainment, Computers And
Internet, School Bell, Science And
Nature, and Sports And Recreation.

Nose for news. To stay abreast of
the latest news, click the News link
on the Yahooligans! home page to
view photo slideshows and find
news sites geared toward younger
audiences, such as Kidsnewsroom-
.org and CBBC Newsround (news
.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews) .

Rely on those reference tools.
Sometimes you can't beat a trus-
ty encyclopedia, and Yahooligans!
has several of those, as well as on-
line dictionaries, thesauri, maps,
and more. On the Yahooligans!
home page, click Reference. Click
a specific reference tool (such
as Bartlett's Familiar Quotations



or The Oxford Shakespeare) or se-
lect one of the Yahooligans! refer-
ence categories.

Strictly science. Young Einsteins
or developing Darwins will want
to spend some time digging through
the Yahooligans! science section.
Yahooligans! Science has Web pages
devoted to astronomy (click Visit
Space Now!), dinosaurs and the
era in which they lived (click See
Dinosaurs Now!), and other animals
(click Visit Yahooligans! Animals).
You can also watch a number of
BrainPOP (www.brainpop.com) vi-
deos and quizzes about topics such

as tsunamis, volcanoes, and

the human heart.

Avoid "All Work & No Play"

Adults will probably appre-
ciate that Yahooligans! uses
Web sites deemed safe for
young surfers, but kids will
find that Yahooligans! gives
them plenty of opportunities
for a little online R 8c R when
they close their textbooks for
the night.

Savor silver screen sneak
peeks (and more). What bet-
ter way to let your kids re-
cuperate from a taxing week of
school than taking them to a Sat-
urday matinee? The Yahooligans!
Movies page has trailers and sneak
peeks of recently released and up-
coming movies appearing in theaters
and on DVD. (You'll need Win-
dows Media Player or RealPlayer to
watch video content from Yahoo-
ligans! Movies.)

On the Yahooligans! Movies page,
click Coming Soon Theaters or
Coming Soon DVD/Video for a list
of soon-to-be-released, family-
friendly movie titles. Click most of
the titles for a brief synopsis, cast
and crew information, and links to
photos and trailers.

Yahooligans! Movies also maintains
a fairly impressive collection of older
movies. You also can browse for



154 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Extras



movies alphabetically. Although you'll
find PG-13-rated movies among
Yahooligans! Movies' list, any trailers
and photos should be safe for all- ages
viewing, and many newer movies
include information regarding their
ratings. (For example, "Daredevil" re-
ceived a PG-13 rating for "action/
violence and some sensuality.")

At press time, Yahooligans! TV
only featured shows from the Na-
tional Geographic Channel. Although
it has a narrow focus, Yahooligans!
TV was brimming with programs
about wildlife, nature, and culture.
And its featurettes are all less than 10
minutes in running length.

Headphones not included. If your
child invariably takes control of the
radio in search of Top 40 pop hits
during the morning drive to
school, he or she will probably
enjoy the selection of music
videos that Yahooligans! Mu-
sic offers. It's a blend of clas-
sic musicians you're familiar
with, such as Aerosmith, as
well as groups you've probably
only heard of if you tune into
Radio Disney, such as The
Cheetah Girls.

In addition to music videos
(some of which are Yahoo! ex-
clusives), many of the artists
listed on Yahooligans! Music
have photos and song clips.
Song clips are handy if you
want to institute a "try before
you buy" policy when your
kids clamor for the latest chart-
topping album.

Click the Music link on the
Yahooligans! home page. Next, click
Browse All Artists or Browse All Vid-
eos to view the master list of artists
and music videos, respectively.

Games galore. Whether they only
have five minutes or a couple of
hours, kids should find at least one
or two games at Yahooligans! that
can be both challenging and engag-
ing. Click the Games link on the
home page to browse through the
site's games list. You can choose from



classic games such as Backgammon
and Chess, play a game related to a
current Hollywood blockbuster such
as "Chicken Little," or sharpen your
knowledge with a game such as US
State Detectives.

You'll need a Java-enabled Web
browser, such as Internet Explorer
(version 4 or newer) or Mozilla
Firefox, but Yahooligans! Games
are otherwise compatible on older
machines (Windows 3.1 and WebTV
are exceptions).

The Best Of The Rest

Yahooligans! has other fun features
for your kids to explore. For example,
if you think Grandma would appre-
ciate an ecard from her grandson,



^xHooLfc?AN^ r8 Scfence Hf



Yahooligans! Science

Home > Science > Space





The Solar System

Nine planets, i ' i, travel around

the Sun. Thesi ?ther with the

Sun, form the solar system.

Learn About the Solar System



:: . V .■■■■■■■■ ' .■..■.■•■.■■■

w;j:'.-;s? V;r: tn;- :;.i;--:-;;,&^ry ft: a vs-ysny- of ««r-?
terms, definitions, and people.

See the Galactic Glossary



Space Movies From BrainPOP

• System . Intern atio

• Mars



• Moon



The Space category of Yahooligans! Science is almost like
having your own personal Galileo.



have him send her one of the many
free ecards on Yahooligans!. Click
the Ecards link and click the link for
the category of ecard you want to
send (such as Birthday or Congratu-
lations). When you find the right
card, click its thumbnail (a tinier
version of a graphic that occupies
less space on-screen, letting you view
more images simultaneously).

After you choose the card, fill
out the To, Email, and From fields



accordingly and click the Choose A
Message button at the bottom of the
page. At the Choose A Message step,
click the radio button next to the
message you want and click Preview
Card. Take another look at the card
and click Send Card to send it on
its way.

There's also Yahooligans! Jokes,
which features a new joke each day
and groups existing jokes into sub-
ject categories. Click Jokes and the
link under Today's Joke to read the
joke of the day. Click Next Joke to
read another joke and Click Here For
The Answer to read the punchline.
To express your inner-comedian,
click the Tell Us A Joke! link on the
bottom of the Jokes page. Type your
joke's question and answer in the ap-
propriate fields, include your
name, select your age from the
drop-down menu, and click
the Send Joke! button.

To turn to the stars for
weekly guidance, click Horo-
scopes on the Yahooligans!
home page. Read your weekly
horoscope by clicking its re-
spective link. In addition, the
Yahooligans! Swami will an-
swer your pressing questions
(as long as the only possible
answers are "yes" or "no").
Click Visit The Swami, type
your question, and click the
Tell Me! button. (We don't,
however, recommend refinan-
cing your home based on the
Swami's answer.)



A Site You Can Trust

We frequently read news stories
about the dangers the Internet can
pose to children who aren't careful,
but sites such as Yahooligans! serve as
a beacon of safety for your family. It's
a good blend of useful information
and youthful entertainment that's
attractive to kids. H

BY VlNCE COGLEY



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 155



Extras



Lose
Yourself Online

25 Fun Things To Do On Yahoo!



As one of the world's leading
online portals, Yahoo! has
considerable depth and
breadth. While much of Yahool's
content is practical in nature, the
portal also has a lighter side, offering
hundreds of fun things to do.
Here, we'll detail 25 activities from
Yahool's ever-expanding rainy-day
fun pool. Many of these offerings
originate from third-party compa-
nies. Some are totally free; others are
limited-time offers after which you
must shell out some cash to con-
tinue. You'll need to log in with
a Yahoo! username to enjoy most
of these.



IPlay Solitaire 'Til Dawn
(games.yahoo.com)

As suggested in the old song,
"Counting Flowers On The Wall," on
Yahoo!, you can play Solitaire 'til
dawn (or as long as you wish) free.
On the main Yahoo! Games site, look
under Card Games and click All 33
Card Games. You can choose from an
array of solitaire games both tradi-
tional and innovative. One of our fa-
vorites is Solitaire 13, where the goal
is to find card pairs that equal 13.
You can also download GameHouse
Super Solitaire, a collection of 10
solitaire games.

2 Form A Special Interest Group
(groups.yahoo.com/start)

Long one of Yahool's more popular
offerings, Yahoo! Groups is a collec-
tion of online communities where
people of like minds come together to
discuss issues, share photos and news,



and more. You can create your own
private or public group, assigning it to
one of an array of categories. If you'd
rather check out an existing group
first to see how the system works, visit
groups.yahoo.com and search
for a group that suits your taste.

3 Make Free International
Calls (messenger.yahoo
.com)

Using Yahoo! Messenger
with Voice, Yahool's instant
messaging utility, you can make
free, PC-to-PC voice calls any-
where in the world. You and the
person you are calling must both
have Messenger installed and have
a headset or a microphone and
speakers. Messenger is chock full of
additional features, such as voice mail,
integration with Yahoo! 360°, and the
ability to share photos and other files.
It's easy to set up, too.



4 Play Games On Your Mobile
Device (mobile.yahoo.com/wire
less/downloads)

Yahoo! features a wide array of
options for information delivery to
mobile devices at (check out mobile
.yahoo.com). These include games
you can install on your smartphone
or PDA (personal digital assistant).
Click the Mobile Games link to check
out the assortment — most are less
than $5.



5 Listen To Comedy Shows (pod
casts.yahoo.com)

Ride the latest wave of tech-
nology — podcasting — with Yahoo!.



Podcasts are recorded audio
shows (think radio shows) to which
you can listen on your PC. With
the Yahoo! Music Engine (a
free download at music
.yahoo.com/musicengine) ,
you can subscribe to an en-
tire podcast series and
listen to the individual episodes
whenever you want. To find
comedy shows on the Yahoo!
podcast site, click Comedy
under Main Categories or
search by favorite names.
Nearly all podcasts are free.

6 Pick The Perfect
Pet (pets.yahoo
.com/pets/dogs
/breed)

Yahoo! has an
informative and
enjoyable pet site
that you can add as
a custom module
(pets.yahoo.com
/pets/myyahoo) to
your Yahoo! home
page. One of the
module's offerings is
a free Breed Recom-
mender, where you an-
swer a variety of questions
to determine which breed is best
for you.



7 Care Enough To Send The Very
Best (www.yahoo.americangreet
ings.com)

As a member of Yahoo! Greetings
(free 30-day trial), you can select from
among 8,000 ecard designs, adding a
greeting of unlimited length and/or a
photograph to personalize your efforts.
The service, which also lets you save
ecards to resend or reuse in the future,
is $13.99 per year after the trial.



8



Tune In To Your Favorite Music
(music.yahoo.com)

With Yahoo! Music's LAUNCHcast
service, you can create your own per-
sonal radio station for free. Start by se-
lecting favorite artists from a variety of



156 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!



Extras



musical genres. Then, help LAUNCH-
cast fine-tune your selections by rating
various genres and artists (both likes
and dislikes). LAUNCHcast learns
from your ratings, playing both the
artists you like and ones that it thinks
you will enjoy based on your stated
preferences. Ratings won't guarantee
you'll always — or never — hear an
artist, but they will help you hear
favorite artists more frequently. To
start rating genres and artists, go to
music.yahoo.com/launch
cast/genres.asp.

9 Find That Special
Someone (personals
.yahoo.com/us)

Yahoo!, like many online
companies, has jumped on
the personal ads band-
wagon. Here, you can enter
criteria for your ideal mate
and then search for matches
in your area. Optionally,
you can create a profile, but
this step is not required be-
fore you perform searches.
Before you get started, you
will be asked to agree to a
code of conduct, which in-
cludes helping identify
others who abuse the code.



Yahoo! Movies (click the Trailers &
Clips link). You can also find show-
times and purchase tickets.

1 ^ Build Your Dream Car
I Zm (autos.yahoo.com/make)

Yahoo! has partnered with leading
automakers to let you custom tailor
one of their cars online, adding and
deleting options to see what it would
cost for your dream machine. How-
ever, the site does not interactively




M Design Your Cartoon Self
(avatars.yahoo.com)

Our favorite Yahoo! fun features is
its avatar-maker tool. Avatars are
graphics you choose to represent
yourself in chat rooms, while instant
messaging, and in other online situa-
tions. At Yahoo! Avatars, you can
custom- design your avatar, changing
your facial style, hair, eyes, clothes,
and background. Play with your
avatar's look until you find one that
resembles you — or the
person you always wanted
to be. Yahoo !'s avatars are
animated and can even
show expressions.



15



Play nearly a dozen solitaire games at Yahoo! Games.



1 r\ Explore Your Past Life
I \J (astrology.yahoo.com)

Whether you believe in past lives or
just think it's fun to contemplate
them theoretically, you can sneak a
peek at your Past Life Reading. From
the Yahoo! Astrology site, click the
link Who Were You In A Past Life?
under the Partner Offers area to re-
quest your free sample reading. You'll
only see a few paragraphs unless you
pay for the full reading ($19.95), but
it's fun to be told you were important
in a previous existence, anyway.



n



Preview The Latest Movies
(movies.yahoo.com)



Not sure which movie you want to
see? Check out the latest trailers and
get the behind-the-scenes scoop at



update the image of the car as you
progress, but we're hopeful Yahoo!
will add that capability later.

* -j Expand Your Horizons
I <D With Widgets (widgets
.yahoo.com/gallery)

The folks at Yahoo! developed an
engine that can run little utilities
called widgets. Widgets expand the
functionality of your PC. A lot of
them are productivity or performance
enhancers, but there is an entire cate-
gory of widgets that are purely
fun, from a tool that does tarot read-
ings to one that dispenses the dubious
wisdom of Homer Simpson. Down-
load the Yahoo! Widget Engine and a
starter set of Widgets at widgets
.yahoo.com and then head here and
click Fun & Games to get started.



Plan Your Dream
Vacation
(travel.yahoo.com)

Yahoo's Trip Planner (in
beta at press time) is an-
other really nifty feature
of the Yahoo! site. With it,
you can plan a multicity
trip, including sites you
want to visit, restaurants
where you want to eat,
and hotels in which you
would like to stay. You can
schedule and map out the
entire trip, as well, without
making a single reservation. You can
then save or print the trip or connect
to one of Yahoo !'s travel partners to
make reservations.

* r* Get The Latest Buzz
I D (buzz.yahoo.com).

Yahoo! Buzz is a long-standing and
popular feature of Yahoo!. The com-
pany tracks the people and events
(from Hillary Clinton to Lucky
Charms) for which other people are
searching and ranks them by their
buzz factor (how often their names
appear in keyword searches). People,
events, or concepts that suddenly
become wildly popular are buzz
movers. Check out the buzz log for a
daily overview, or find a topic that in-
terests you and click it for a list of rel-
evant links.



Reference Series / All About Yahoo! 157



Extras



1 ^ Sneak A Peek & Cheat
I / (videogames.yahoo.com/cheats?
platform— 1)

Are you endlessly frustrated by
your inability to get beyond a certain
level of your favorite video game?
Yahoo! may be able to give you the
pleasure of cheating by giving you the
hint you need to move on. From
Super Mario Strikers to The Chron-
icles Of Narnia, Yahoo! 's video game
cheat site has you covered.

1 O Visit Betty's Beer Bar
I O (games.yahoo.com)

Betty's Beer Bar is another of the
fun games available on
Yahoo!. The goal of this game
is for Betty (you) to earn
enough money to buy an is-
land in the Caribbean. Betty
achieves this goal by serving
drinks (mostly beer), col-
lecting payments and tips, and
keeping her customers happy.
To locate Betty's Beer Bar,
look under Arcade Games and
click All 68 Arcade Games.
Scroll down until you find the
Betty's Beer Bar link. The free
download gives you an hour
of free play; the game is
$19.99 if you keep it.



and friends can also order prints (your
first 10 4 x 6 prints are free). The site
also offers basic editing capabilities
(rotate, crop, flip, red-eye), plus a
handful of special treatments (in-
cluding warping) and borders.



21



Create A Photo Calendar
(photos.yahoo.eom/ph//my_
photos)

After you upload some favorite
photos to Yahoo!, you can create a
12 -page photo calendar or a calendar
poster in a matter of minutes. You
can also personalize the calendar with
your choice of holidays, special dates,




Yahool's fantasy sports site lets you create your own leagues
teams and compete with other fantasy sports enthusiasts.



^ Y Create A Personal Portal
Z.D (360.yahoo.com)

Yahoo! has always let you create a
personalized Yahoo! page (My
Yahoo!), but now you can create
your own personal portal, as well.
Head to Yahoo! 360° (in beta at press
time) and you can set up a portal
that others can access directly from
the Internet. (The address will read
360.yahoo.com/yournickname) . You
can include your Yahoo! Groups on
the page and link to your Yahoo!
Photos albums, and you can also add
newsfeeds, create lists of favorites to
share, and more. (Make your per-
sonal portal your own home
page in Internet Explorer by
selecting Internet Options
from the Tools menu and
changing the Address line
under Home Page.)



^ n Start Your Own Blog
ZH" (360.yahoo.com)

Once you create a personal
portal, you can start a blog on
it, as well. A blog, short for
Web log, is an online journal.
Yahoo! blogs include words,
photos, or both, and Yahoo!
will archive your blog postings
for easy access over time.



and



19



Find A Bargain (shop
ping.yahoo.com)



For committed bargain hunters, few
things are more fun than searching for
deals. Yahoo! 's shopping site offers a
Bargains & Sales tab that links to bar-
gains at a variety of online merchants.
Depending on the time of year, the
bargains can be pretty amazing: How
about a $1,600 Henckels Professional
Series knife set for $1,000?

^ ^\ Create An Online Album
Z\j (photos.yahoo.com)

Yahoo! gives its users a generous
photo-management feature, letting
them store unlimited digital images on
its servers for free and then share their
scrapbooks with others. Yahoo! part-
ners with Target, so you or your family



and photo captions. A 12-month cal-
endar is $18.99; a poster calendar is
$2.99 to $7.99, depending on the size.
To get started, look for the Months
And Months Of Memories link on
your my Photos page.

*\ *\ Make Your Own
ZmZm Postage Stamps (photos
.yahoo.eom/ph//my_photos)

Yahoo! Photos also links your
photo collection to Zazzle, one of
the USPS's custom stamp partners,
where you can make stamps with the
image of your choice. A sheet of 20
ZassleStamps is just $16.99 — more
than twice what you'll pay for stan-
dard postage, but imagine what your
family and friends will say.



25



Indulge In Fantasy
(Sports) (fantasy
sports.yahoo.com)

Fantasy sports, where players get
to create and track their own perfect
fantasy team from the existing pool
of real-world players in the sport, is
one of the country's hottest tickets.
Yahoo! has a great fantasy sports site
where you can play fantasy sports
ranging from baseball to NASCAR
or horse racing. (Some are free;
others require a small fee for full
access.) Yahoo! or the company ad-
ministering the game keeps track of
real-world performance and stand-
ings of players on your team so you
don't have to. __

by Jennifer Farwell



158 www.smartcomputing.com / All About Yahoo!





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Extras



YahOO! By The Numbers



Compiled by Tracy Baker



Company History

Yahoo! was created in January 1994, was incorporated by March 1995,
and went public in April 1996. (Source: Yahoo!)

Top Searches In 2005

In 2005, a year that brought the world news about horrifying disasters such as
the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, what do you think was the No. 1
overall search queried at Yahoo!? Britney Spears. Actually, if you just look at
the news-related searches, "tsunami" was No. 1, but Hurricane Katrina
was still beat out by Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, Natalee Hollo way, Iraq,
Afghanistan, and the Michael Jackson trial. (Source: Yahoo!)

Breaking Down Language Barriers

Yahoo! is currently available in more than 13 languages.
(Source: Yahoo!)

Pages Served Per Day

On average, Yahoo! serves 2.4 billion pages per day to its visitors—

that's about 876 billion pages per year, which is equivalent to 135

pages per year for every person on earth (or nearly 2,940 pages per year for every

person in the United States). (Sources: Yahoo! and U.S. Census Bureau)

Value Of Initial Stock Share Today

Relative to today's dollars, after adjusting for all the stock splits and dividends
since Yahoo! stock went public, Yahoo! stock closed at $1.38 per share at the end
of the first day of trading in April 1996. That same share today (at the time of
this writing) is worth around $35; but at the stock's all-time peak closing price,
that initial $1.38 share was worth about $118.75. (Source: Yahoo!)

Highest Stock Share Price

The highest price a share of Yahoo! stock has ever traded for is $500.13 on
Jan. 4, 2000. The highest price the stock has ever closed at is $475 per share
that same day. (Source: Yahoo!)

2005 Net Income

Yahoo! generates $5.2 billion per year in revenue, of which $1.9 billion is net
income. That net income is on par with Google's figures, although it's nothing
compared to the world-record $36.1 billion in net income that Exxon Mobil
reported in 2005. (Sources: Yahoo! and Exxon Mobil)

Company Growth

Yahoo! had 49 employees when it went public in 1996. The company now employs
5,444 people in the United States and 3,382 people throughout the rest of the world
(at the time of this writing). (Source: Fortune)

Services Offered

Yahoo! offers 119 services, ranging from Yahoo! Maps to the latest
Yahoo! 360° Beta service. There are 17 new services currently
under development, including Yahoo! FareChase for finding travel
bargains and Yahoo! Answers for users to ask and answer all types
of questions. (Source: Yahoo!)



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