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Avatars: Engineer the perfect digital you

In the cyberworld, Web customization is king--just as the millions of user-centric YouTube videos and MySpace Web pages attest. It's little wonder, then, that avatars, digital representations of you, are growing in function and form.

This collection of downloadable and Web-based avatar generators ranges from the more cartoon-like engines to three-dimensional architectures where users give life to their pint-size replicates. Be sure to tune into the video and photo gallery on my adventures with avatars, with CNET News.com's Neha Tiwari, for a personal take on the highlights and lowlights of some popular avatar builders.… Read more

Yahoo is on the move again: Inks acquisition deal with Rivals.com

Only days after getting a new CEO, Yahoo has already made a great acquisition. Yahoo announced yesterday that they are acquiring college sports website, Rivals. The subscription based website has become the standard for college sports news over the past few years.

Rivals will be a great supplement to the already popular Yahoo Sports. There is no doubt that Rivals is excited about the deal. In their statement they said, "For all of our current readers and community members, we believe this agreement means that you can expect an even better experience in the future. We will have the … Read more

Flickrites: Why your camera isn't so popular anymore

While I was perusing the Flickr camera finder during the last couple days, I was perplexed to note that a number of previously popular models had taken a hit.

The site tracks which cameras are most widely used to upload photos in the last 30 days, but the leading contenders nearly universally got whacked. For example, take a look at the digital SLRs that are leaders with Flickrs' high-upload enthusiasts--the Canon Rebel XT, Pentax K100D, Olympus E-Volt E-500, Nikon D50. They all plunged in terms of the number of photos taken during the last month.

I thought it might be … Read more

Yahoo turnaround in five easy steps

Yahoo's got a new leader now -- co-founder Jerry Yang took the reins from Chief Executive Terry Semel on Monday -- but is that enough to hasten a turnaround at the company whose revenue growth and stock price have slipped over the past 18 months?

Not at all, say experts. Yang has to have a plan, one that people can get excited about, articulate it well to restore employee confidence, and then executive. No more dropping the ball (Google and search and search advertising) and missing the boat (social media), they say. And what should that plan be? Well, … Read more

Report: News Corp. to trade MySpace for a stake in Yahoo?

Here's a rumor we didn't see coming. The U.K.'s The Times is reporting that News Corp., the Rupert Murdoch-helmed company that purchased MySpace in 2005 for $580 million, may be willing to trade it. According to Times writer Dan Sabbagh's article, News Corp. is mulling a swap of MySpace to Yahoo in exchange for a 25 percent stake in the dot-com.

Interestingly enough, The Times is itself owned by News Corp. The parent company is allegedly "interested in a deal even if it means losing some control of MySpace because it would give the … Read more

Yahoo improves Go for Mobile

Yahoo on Tuesday launched the latest version of its Yahoo Go for Mobile with general available in the U.S. The enhanced service features reduced loading time for Web pages and the ability to read more types of attachments and view both satellite and hybrid maps and traffic conditions. Users also will have the ability to search Yahoo Address Book contacts, call or get driving directions with one-click, and view Yahoo Calendar.

Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 will launch in fully localized beta versions on Friday in Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, … Read more

Say what? Yang's right as Yahoo's CTO, Semel says

When word came Monday that Jerry Yang was replacing the embattled Terry Semel as CEO of Yahoo, we couldn't help flashing back all the way to last week to the company's annual shareholders meeting.

It couldn't have been a happy occasion for Semel, who was on the spot to defend Yahoo's performance, its executive pay packages (that is, his own very generous compensation), the unexpected departure of Chief Technology Officer Farzad Nazem, and on and on.

On that date, Yang was serving as the interim CTO, so one shareholder asked whether the Yahoo co-founder--long known as … Read more

How to translate RSS feeds

I heard about a German Web 2.0 blog today: Zweinull. Reading it in translation (thank you, BabelFish), it occurred to me that I should add this site's RSS feed to my blog reader (Netvibes). But how to get the site's feed in English?

BabelFish wouldn't do it. (It gave me an entertaining error message, though: "Insane value.") I was initially encouraged when I used Google Translate, which did in fact give me a version of the blog's XML page in English. But I couldn't subscribe to it. Then I found David Rothman's advice: Use Yahoo Pipes.

It worked. It's not as easy as using a one-step translation service, but it's worth the effort for reading blogs you think you might like that are not in your language. I'll walk through a demo of translating Webware into French. Here's what you do:

Step 1: Launch Yahoo Pipes Fire up Yahoo Pipes. You might have to log in to your Yahoo account first. Select "Create a pipe" from the top navigation.

Step 2: Get the Feed item In the left-hand nav on Pipes, under the Sources menu, the first item is Fetch Feed. Drag that onto your Pipes workspace. In the Fetch Feed box, paste in the URL of the blog's RSS feed.

Step 3: Get the Translate item In the left nav again, click the right arrow for the Operators section, then find the the BabelFish item and drag it into your workspace. Select your translation from the dropdown list.

… Read more

Search, Flickr, and Frustrated Investors: Terry Semel's time at Yahoo and a look towards the future

It is clear that Terry Semel was forced from his role as CEO of Yahoo today due to increasing concern from Yahoo's investors. Along with not being able to fend off Google's rise to power, investors were also angry over Semel's pay package, which was revealed to be $71.7 million dollars in April of this year. Over the last year, Yahoo's stock dropped 18 percent. That seems to be the final straw, as we see Semel stepping down today.

From 2001 to 2004, Terry Semel seemed to be the cure to Yahoo's woes after … Read more