Yahoo Mobile Blog Launches

Yahoo may be doing a lot more in terms of mobile before long.  Or at least telling us more about its current cell phone-related efforts.  Either way, it launched the Yahoo Mobile Blog this week for the sake of keeping everyone up to date.

Irv Henderson, who's Yahoo's Vice President of Global Mobile Products, wrote the introductory blog post, and explained, "You can expect to learn about new product launches and enhancements, quick tips and tricks, our take on market trends, and predictions for where we see the market is heading."

Henderson also hinted, "So what's to come in 2010?  Three developments will play a key role in shaping the mobile industry: Powerful browsers, the OS as a launching pad, and local content."

It should be interesting to see where Yahoo comes into that list.  "Local content" seems like the best bet, but at the same time, Henderson's reference to browsers and operating systems makes it more likely that the company has irons in those fires.  Execs tend not to admit that they're ignoring two-thirds of a major growth opportunity, after all.

We'll see what happens.  Hopefully Yahoo won't wait too long between blog posts.

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LinkedIn Allows Users To Edit Profile Layouts

It's no secret that most people like having a measure of control, and today, LinkedIn gave it to them.  Members of the professional network can now rearrange their profiles' sections in order to highlight whatever parts of their resumes make them proudest.

Aaron Bronzan, an associate product manager, explained the change on the LinkedIn Blog.  He wrote, "You will notice that the headers of each of the sections on your 'Edit Profile' page now have handles that can be dragged.  To reorder a section, all you need to do is click and drag one of these section headers up or down the body of your profile."

This move should allow all sorts of people to get more out of LinkedIn.  Students who have only worked in fast food could, for example, show off the name of a prestigious university.  Or people who've been laid off could highlight recommendations proving that they left on good terms.

The change is definitely a welcome one.  It's apparently not going to represent an isolated upgrade, either.

Bronzan promised, "The ability to reorder the sections on your profile is just the first of a huge number of enhancements that are coming to your LinkedIn profile in the upcoming months.  And, as always, we'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions about how LinkedIn can help you to represent, manage, and share your professional identity."

Have You Read This?

> LinkedIn To Roll Out Changes To Address Book

> LinkedIn For iPhone 3.0 Launches

> LinkedIn Launches Faceted Search Feature

LinkedIn to Roll Out Changes to Address Book

LinkedIn has announced some upcoming features related to the way users browse their connections. The company says users will start seeing the changes over the next few weeks.

There is a new browse panel, which allows users to browse their connections by their current companies, locations, and industries. They can also search connections by entering their first name, last name, or current company in the search box. Users can browse new connections and connections that may have also recently added connections by using the "Recent Activity" filter.

Connections will have mini-profiles that can be viewed, where users can see if they have changed current positions, added new connections, or sent them a message. "You can look up contact information like phone numbers, email addresses and physical mailing addresses," says LinkedIn's Jatin Shah. "You can also add this information yourself by editing the contact information of connections in your address book."

Under the new design, connections are automatically tagged with keywords (like "colleagues", "friends", "partners" and "group members") based on info users provide when inviting them to connect with them. Users can also organize connections into different groups with tags, and send a message to multiple connections at once based on how they've organized them.

LinkedIn reminds users that the enhancements are in beta, and they can opt-out from using them as long as that's the case. They are however encouraging feedback.
 

Have You Read This?

> LinkedIn Launches Faceted Search Feature

> LinkedIn Launches New Design

> LinkedIn Celebrates 3 Million Members In The UK

Google Obtains Access To TiVo Data

Google TV Ads is about to become a significantly more powerful marketing system.  A new pact with TiVo will allow Google to gather (and then pass on) very precise data about which commercials are being viewed, and even (to a lesser degree) who is doing the watching.

Mike Steib, Google's director of emerging platforms, explained the arrangement in a formal statement.  "This deal with TiVo will give advertisers access to even more anonymized viewership data, making Google's dataset one of the best in the industry," Steib said.  "Advertisers can use this data to understand which audiences and ads are most effective, which we think will ultimately lead to more relevant ads for viewers."

This development is likely to result in heavier use of Google TV Ads, too.  After all, the more data Google can provide, the less risky its program will seem, perhaps causing marketers to embrace it over alternatives or give TV ads a shot for the very first time.

What's a little harder to discern is how TiVo benefits from the arrangement.  Presumably Google paid more than a couple of dollars for access to TiVo users' data; all Todd Juenger, TiVo's vice president and general manager of audience research and measurement, would say is that this acts "to help the media industry better understand the effectiveness of ad campaigns in an evolving TV landscape."

Anyway, Google TV Ads is supposed to be able to reach 96 million households as things stand, and has served over 100 billion ad impressions to date.

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> Google Gets A New Real-Time Infrastructure For Display Ads

> Google To Get More Interactive With Mobile Video Ads

> Google Ad Planner Gets Several New Enhancements

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