Yahoo’s Q4 Financial Results Draw Smiles

Yahoo's fourth quarter earnings report has been released, and it seems that people who were preparing for some sort of drastic response - whether it would've involved either pitchforks or confetti - will have to wait for another day.  Although the confetti folks might win out, as Yahoo did all right, more or less in line with estimates.

Yahoo reported $1.26 billion in net revenue and earnings of 11 cents per share, versus predictions of $1.23 billion and 11 cents per share.  That's a pretty solid performance, all in all.

What's more, the outlook for the next quarter is bright, too, with Carol Bartz stating, "Our business has positive momentum and we feel good as we head into 2010.  We're pleased that the midpoint of our Q1 revenue outlook marks the first quarter of year-over-year growth in six quarters."

And in case you were wondering, Yahoo still plans on sealing its deal with Microsoft sometime early this year.

Then here's one final sign that Yahoo satisfied everyone on the financial front today: its stock is up.  Yahoo shares have risen 1.88 percent so far in after-hours trading.

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Google Finance Delves Into Streaming News

It's possible to make hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars in a few minutes.  It's also possible to lose tons of money in a short time span, however, and this is even more likely to happen when someone's dealing with outdated information.  So from now on, news stories will be streamed on Google Finance as they're published.

A couple of quick notes: okay, so professional stockbrokers and serious day traders tend to use specialized services, not Google Finance or any other free offering.  Also, a slightly odd catch to this update is the fact that news will only be streamed from 8 AM to 5:30 PM ET, meaning Google will be slower to report anything that occurs outside normal trading hours.

Still, up-to-the-minute financial news is a welcome addition, and it sounds like Google Finance continues to be a work in progress.  A post on the Official Google Blog stated, "News can stimulate trades, and trades of one stock can have broad market effects.  Figuring how to organize all of that information and make it useful is crucial - and that's what we're working on."

The post then added, "There is still a long way to go, so stay tuned for more updates."

Yahoo Finance continues to be the far-and-away leader in this field, by the way.

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Yahoo Suggests Searchers Use Other Yahoo Properties

Yahoo has started rolling out some new Search Assist features for its web search boxes. They are present in the search boxes of most Yahoo properties. For example, you can find them on Yahoo Sports, Yahoo News, or Yahoo Finance.

"These new features can take you directly to the information you need, whether it is real-time stock quotes or movie trailers," explains Yahoo Search Senior Product Manager Linda Wang. "You can also get enhanced search suggestions and easily navigate to the Yahoo! property that fits your needs the most."

The features allow you to quickly get more info about movies, sports, travel destinations, stock prices, etc. For instance, you can type a stock symbol and the Search Assist layer will display real-time stock quotes, links to stock charts, and news about the company. Or you can type an athlete's name and quickly get news, game log info, scores, schedules, etc.

In addition to these features, Yahoo has also launched the ability for Search Assist to help you navigate to different Yahoo properties, depending on your query. Let's say you type "mail" in the search box. You will get a link to Yahoo Mail - specifically, your inbox, right in the Search Assist layer. Or you can type "news" or "U.S. News" and get a link to Yahoo News or specifically the U.S. section of Yahoo News.
 

Finally, Yahoo has added a "smart detection system" to Search Assist, which will take you to Yahoo Image Search or Yahoo News Search for different queries. So if you searched for "obama," you would get quick links to an "obama" image query and an "obama" news query.

It's hard to say how long these features will be around if Yahoo's deal with Microsoft goes through. Bing should be replacing Yahoo search on the back-end. This might be considered a front-end frill that Yahoo keeps around though.

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Yahoo Signs Mobile Search Deal With O2 Germany

More than 15 million Germans should now have a little additional Yahoo in their lives.  Yahoo's signed a mobile search deal with O2 Germany, and the American company's search engine and a number of other services are getting promoted as a result.

A press release made into semi-English by Google Translate stated, "Besides mobile search by O2 customers get through links from the O2 portals direct access to other popular Yahoo! Products such as the Yahoo! Frontpage, Yahoo! Frontpage, Yahoo! Nachrichten, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sport, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finanzen, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Mail oder auch Flickr."

And while all of that would be impressive enough on its own, the new deal's especially interesting because Yahoo is replacing Google as O2 Germany's default search provider.  It's not every day a swap like that happens.

Also, the partnership sort of builds on previous relationships (thus indicating a certain degree of success), as Yahoo already has ties to O2 in 15 other countries in Europe and Latin America.

Unfortunately, the exact terms of the new deal remain unknown, but the press release did make clear that this is a multi-year arrangement.

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