Yahoo Launches Web Analytics
October 9, 2008
I have been watching for the re-emerging update, and it came in today. Of Course I will compare it to the only 2 Analytics services that I use on a daily bases, Google Analytics and StatCounter.
The only problem is that I am still waiting to get access to Yahoo’s Web Analytics, since it’s still in beta.
But I know this for now: The 2 features that I really like about the new service is this:
1. The real time insights that’s updated within minutes from any activity on your site and showing the visitors behavior, which will make me switch from Google Analytics into this service. (This is the only problem I face with Google Analytics because of the one hour delay in stats!)
2. The drag and drop filtering option (I wonder if it’s AJAX?!) that will add a rich user experience to the service.
Here is a video that I found on YouTube for a quick review of the service:
Speaking of sales: A house sold for only $1.75
October 2, 2008
Speaking of teaching every one about sales as part of the new Online school that I announced last night, I would like to share a great sales story with you.
A house sold on eBay for just $1.75!
On Yahoo’s homepage this morning (Photos here) I read that a house in Saginaw Mich. was sold on eBay for this redicoulously cheap price. They said it was abandoned, I say I don’t care, the land only should be worth a lot more.
Joanne Smith was the top bidder and she was bidding on 8 others, when she won this one.
She said she is going to try to sell it. Try! I think she should put it on the market immediately, especially with this huge marketing stunt by Yahoo and the Associated Press.
Yes you can sell houses on eBay as a matter of fact there is a huge Real Estate section on eBay, and a couple of years ago, eBay acquired www.Rent.com for a complete Real Estate portal including rentals.
eBay buying and selling will have a big portion on the Online school that I announced last night,and yes it will still be free for you (the students) so you all know the ins and outs of buying and selling houses, say for $1.75 each 
Another huge Real Estate market online is (You knew it) Craig’s List. That’s also included in the completely free but still huge package
My take on the Yahoo homepage featured story is that it might be a marketing stunt by eBay taking advantage of the low economy that we have right now, My opinion: It’s a great marketing stunt and perfect timing for it.
I say congratulations to Joanne and hope she makes good profit from this deal 
Now, I am in a sharing mood, so I will include this out of subject video that I watched this morning as soon as I got up. Vanessa Mae is one of my favorite on my last.fm channel as well.
Enjoy!
Vanessa Mae - Storm (View in browser to see full video)
Yahoo! Live goes “Live”: A video service
February 8, 2008
Yahoo uncovers an experimental live video product last night.
A live streaming video service and was testing it with Yahoo! employees. The service (Yahoo! Live) enables anyone with a Web camera to create their own live video stream (similar to the competing sites: BlogTV, Mogulus, UStream.tv and Justin.tv) and broadcast, lifecast or webcast till their hearts are content.
The new service will allow anyone to text message in a chat box anybody who is streaming live, and of course you can embed videos from around the web.
It gets even better, Yahoo has also created an API for developers and has made a preview of the API and its embeddable components, and made a sample app and tutorial available as well.
Visit: http://live.yahoo.com or get the updates from: Yliveblog
Only problem so far is there is no way to see your past recordings, which would make the service useless for creating an online show, like so many have done on uStream.
I am sure that Yahoo will develop such thing in the near future. I also got some errors when using the site however, over all it looks great and it’s optimized for fast loading.
Big Shocking news: Microsoft Bids $44.6B for Yahoo!
February 1, 2008
And one of my personal favorite dreams for both companies to join forces and become one, … well, we’re close to that.
Although this is not a financial blog nor a stock market watch blog, but I think the effect this will do to the online advertising industry will be huge.
As we speak, the online advertising industry is a $40B and it’s expected to be $80B in less than 3 years, that’s a breaking neck rate as they call it.
I think that Steve Ballmer is in a desperate grab for the online advertising market, so, Microsoft came through and bid $44.6 billion, or $31 per share, for Yahoo.
The bid represents a 62 percent premium to yesterday’s closing price for Yahoo shares, although, as one analyst pointed out, it’s only a roughly 15 percent premium over the 52-week average trading price.
While this is Microsoft’s boldest strategic move in a while, the company has made several aggressive attempts to gain footing in the online ad market over the last 12 months. In May 2007, Microsoft announced its $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive (now called: Microsoft ad Marketplace) and in October 2007, they spent a huge $280 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook. ($10 more millions and they reach only half of what New Corp paid for myspace)
The bid comes just a couple days after Yahoo posted weak fourth quarter results and announced plans to cut 1,000 positions.
Among the many benefits to the proposed deal, according to Microsoft, is that many Yahoo employees can keep their jobs:
“Microsoft intends to offer significant retention packages to Yahoo! engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines,” the statement said.
Although Yahoo said it would consider the offer, I believe that Microsoft is probably taking the bid public because they failed in private talks, and now they’re trying to appeal to shareholders.
A bigger dream is for all the major sites to join forces and work in harmony. Mark this day in history as it may be the beginning of a brand new better world.
