Yahoo! Pulse Becoming Yahoo! Profile This Week

On December 1st Yahoo! Pulse will become Yahoo! Profile. If you have not already, head out there and make the switch yourself now. (Edit: It is now past the first; keep reading to find out was has changed and how to update your new profile.)

You will be greeted with the below message on Pulse as soon as you arrive.

Take a few moments and read "see what this change means to you"; screenshot here and text below.

Timeline for the New Yahoo! Profile

• You can opt in to Yahoo! Profile as soon as it's available on November 3.
• If you want to transfer back to Yahoo! Pulse, you can, until December 1.
• On December 1, everyone still on Pulse will automatically start using the new Yahoo! Profile.

What Happens When You Transfer to the New Yahoo! Profile

• We'll transfer your Yahoo! Pulse information for you. There's no work for you to do.
• Your social games will move to games.yahoo.com. Your apps will move to my.yahoo.com.
• You will be able to manage your Updates on Yahoo! Profile, but you will not be able to see them on Yahoo! Profile. (You will continue to see Updates on other Yahoo! sites and can continue to view your Updates stream in Yahoo! Messenger desktop for Windows.)

What Happens to Your Connections in Pulse and to Your Privacy Levels

• When you transfer to Yahoo! Profile, your Connections in Pulse will be discontinued. This will not affect your contacts in your Yahoo! Mail Address Book.
• Yahoo! Profile will have two privacy levels, "public" and "private."
• Any information that is public in Yahoo! Pulse will remain public in Yahoo! Profile. Any information that is private in Yahoo! Pulse will remain private in Yahoo! Profile, unless you choose to make it public.
• Any information that is visible to your Connections in Pulse will be set to "private" in Yahoo! Profile. You have the option to change the setting, if you like.

Yahoo! Profile is now available. Start using it!
Thank you for using Yahoo! Pulse, and have fun with Yahoo! Profile.

All that could mean that Yahoo! has given up on its social endeavors. The new Profile is just that, a simple profile that has information about you. The network of friends you made and activities you used to do with Pulse will be gone, or transferred to other Yahoo! properties. Let's not forget that Google's first public step towards Google+ was with Google Profiles; it is unlikely, but possible, that Yahoo! is following a new path to social domination. The placeholder link for "Community Guidelines" in the footer of the new page makes me wonder.

Once you "Start using it" you will be taken to the new settings screen. Here you can edit your personal information, privacy settings, and automatic sharing options. Review everything by clicking the pencil in the upper right-hand corner of each section to review the data/options. Much more data is there than is seen on this initial look.

Inside each section you elect the privacy of each data point. The default is private for information previously marked as private or for connections only (since connections are going away), and previously public information will remain that way. The only item you can not make private is your location, but you can simply blank out the field if you want.

= Public

= Private



The final product is a very simple profile; mine is live here. Did you see that web address? The first enhancement they should make is to provide a vanity URL, even if it simply equals the users Yahoo! alias.

I am glad to see Yahoo! discontinue Pulse, but the replacement is certainly lacking. It ended up being a mess and didn't work out the way they had intended. Cleaning up the user interface is a welcome change. Although, many people did use it and may miss it. Project Phoenix by AOL may be a viable replacement with some of the Yahoo! Pulse functionality; you can even import your Yahoo! email there. Otherwise users can use Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, and Games.

What do you think of the new Profile? Has Yahoo! made a mistake removing a service you found useful?

IntoNow - The Amazing App I Overlooked

As a technology news writer I do my best to stay on top of the technology news using a myriad of platforms, services, and tools. Soon after I started, I soon realized it was impossible to keep up with and know about everything that was changing, launching, or merging. Even still; I try.

On January 31, 2011 a startup called IntoNow launched their revolutionary new iPhone app. I missed this news, but did learn of the company later on when Yahoo! purchased it in April for about $20 million; not bad for having just launched their first product only three months prior. Even at this time I didn't pay much attention because of the issues at Yahoo! and other news that overpowered it.

Then, at the end of July, IntoNow for Android was released upon the world. I would see this news story and pause for a moment to see what the service was all about. It was another TV check-in app like Miso, Clicker, and Philo. So I thought! The rate of information flowing through my brain allowed me only a few moments to scan the service's hompage and nothing jumped out at me that would differentiate it from the other social entertainment services like it.

Just a couple weeks ago I learned that the iPad had it's own version now. What did this app do? I said to myself... it must be more than a simple check-in service to account for this rapid expansion! Finally I grabed my Android phone and install it. WOW! IntoNow can listen to what is on TV and identify the show or movie you are watching. Consider it the Shazam of video.

This product is pure genius on a technology and consumer level. The proprietary technology (covered by patent 7,516,074) is called SoundPrint and has an index of over 2.6 million videos. That is more than 140 million minutes of aired shows that is constantly updated. In just seconds it listens to the show to identify what it is, and if it is a TV show, what season and episode you are watching. Because of the algorithmic speed the app has no problem identifying first run shows that are being indexed at the same time you are querying them. They have data for anything that has aired on television in the last 5 years.

On the consumer side IntoNow bridges the gap that other check-in services struggle with. The biggest obstacle to checking-in to a broadcast is searching for the show,movie, or event and, in many cases, creating the entry yourself. Miso is making progress by partnering with AT&T U-verse and DirecTV for faster check-ins, but nothing beats Yahoo! and IntoNow. Social sharing, stats, and information all accompany the iPad version as seen in the below video. The other platform versions also have excellent features to go along with the mind boggling video identification magic show.

Download IntoNow for Android or iOS today and let me know what you think in the comments. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Sled by Yahoo!

Update August 31, 2011: Sled is shutting down this week, but will live on as an open source project called Postmile.

Yesterday I can across this post about Sled.com and since I pretty much like to test and try everything I signed up. My expectation, like many of these new sites, is for it to be an interesting experiment with a cool UI.

That all changed with the next bit of information:


Experimental Service Terms and Conditions

• Sled is an experimental service from Yahoo!.
• This is a beta service, released without any warranties, and may be discontinued at any time. As an in-development product, data loss is possible.
• By using Sled, you agree that Yahoo! will be scanning, analyzing, and using any content you contribute to Sled to, among other things, provide personally relevant product features and content, match and serve targeted advertising, detect spam and malware, and protect against abuse.
• By inviting others to participate in your sleds, you are giving them permission to view the details, items, comments, and any other content included in that sled, as well as giving them the right to invite others.
• We will not share user information, including emails and other contacts, outside of the Sled experience. The Yahoo!, Twitter, or Facebook accounts you use to sign-into Sled will not be used for any other purpose without your explicit consent.
• Additional terms will be posted in the near future, at which time, you will have to accept the new terms in order to continue using the service.
• By accepting these terms you certify that you have read and agree to the Yahoo! Terms of Service, and Yahoo! Privacy Policy.

My eyes start scanning the page (screenshot below)... Copyright © 2011 Yahoo!. All rights reserved is at bottom right. The privacy, copyright, and terms all mention Yahoo!.

What is Sled?

Sled is an experiment.

There is a lot we don't know about how to make our daily lives more productive and organized, and how to collaborate better. What we do know is that the wide range of tools and services available to us are, generally speaking, not very helpful. Everything is either too limited or too complicated. Usually too complicated.

Sled is a collaborative list making tool with a strong focus on life events and collaboration between friends and family. Planning a party, a move, getting ready for a new baby, planning a trip, organizing a junior soccer league, or preparing for a marathon, are some of the efforts we hope Sled to be useful for.

Our goal with Sled is to provide a simple and useful tool, and we hope you will find it helpful. But we are also here to learn and observe. We know what doesn't work, but figuring out what does requires experimentation. We hope you join us.

Sled is basically a collaborative list creation and tracking tool with the ability to assign and track items. Keep and eye on their blog for more information. Now, the screenshots:

MyBlogLog by Yahoo! is shutting down May 24, 2011

It is officially official, MyBlogLog is done:

From: yahoo@one.yahoo-email.com
To: Dain Binder
Date: Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 9:21 AM
Subject: Yahoo! MyBlogLog to be discontinued

Dear MyBlogLog Customer,

You have been identified as a customer of Yahoo! MyBlogLog. We will officially discontinue Yahoo! MyBlogLog effective May 24, 2011. Your agreement with Yahoo!, to the extent that it applies to the Yahoo! MyBlogLog, will terminate on May 24, 2011.

After May 24, 2011 your credit card will no longer be charged for premium services on MyBlogLog. We will refund you the unused portion of your subscription, if any. The refund will appear as a credit via the billing method we have on file for you. To make sure that your billing information is correct and up to date, visit https://billing.yahoo.com.

Questions?
If you have questions about these changes, please visit the Yahoo! MyBlogLog help pages.

We thank you for being a customer on Yahoo! MyBlogLog.

Sincerely,

The Yahoo! My BlogLog Team