yahoo

Eric Jackson helped lead an investor revolt at Yahoo that presaged last month's resignation of former CEO Terry Semel. Don't look now corporate America, but Jackson is again poised to launch his own brand of Web-powered investor activism on a new target.

The CEO of a Naples, Fla.,-based consulting company, Jackson is not ready to disclose which company he's setting his sites on next, but he said Tuesday he plans to announce the name in coming weeks. This much is certain: The man, who challenged Semel during a recent stockholder meeting by asking him to apologize … Read more

I know that all the "cool kids" have moved onto multinetwork instant-messaging clients like Trillian, Pidgin, imeem, or Adium (for Mac), but I'm still a loyal Yahoo Messenger user.

When asked why, I usually reply that all of my friends use Yahoo Messenger, but the real answer is more embarrassing: emoticons. How could I live without "dancing guy," "big hug," "green vomit," "talk to the hand," or "laughing skull?"

For those of you who also like those goofy Yahoo emoticons, there's good news. Yahoo is planning to add 10 new emoticons to its instant messenger, and it's running a contest to let users submit their own entries and vote on their favorites.… Read more

It finally happened.

I fell for one of those silly phishing scams. The kind that I previously took sanctimonious pride in having avoided. The kind where you get a frantic e-mail or IM from a friend saying that a malicious link was clicked, a secret password typed in, and that they didn't know better.

I feel so ashamed, guilty, violated...stupid.

In case you haven't heard yet, an IM-based worm was spreading itself via Yahoo Messenger on Friday, propagating through people's contacts lists and directing hapless victims to a malicious Web site. The site looks like a … Read more

A phishing scam was circulating on Friday through Yahoo Messenger that directs people to a malicious Web site where they are prompted to enter their Yahoo user name and password. The malicious instant message automatically forwards itself to the victim's IM contacts.

The IM arrives from someone in your contact list with a link to a Geocities Web page and smiley face emoticons surrounding the link. When clicked on, the link opens a page that looks like a legitimate Yahoo 360 sign-in page.

Yahoo is investigating the matter and will take down the Geocities Web site if it is … Read more

When Yahoo Messenger went down Wednesday, it might have just been one of those little technology glitches that happen from time to time.

And when some people started having problems with Gmail Thursday, well, it probably was because of some small gremlin in Google's hamster wheel.

Same with my friend's company's corporate e-mail going down the last couple of days--all easily explainable.

Except, maybe there's a single unifying explanation. Maybe it's because of Mercury in retrograde.

I know. Roll your eyes all you want. But the phenomenon--an optical illusion in which Mercury, from our earthly … Read more

Today, users of AOL Mail can start chatting from within their in-boxes, without having to open the AIM application. If you want to add this feature to your AOL Mail account, then visit beta.webmail.aol.com each time you log in, which will roll the new features into your existing AOL e-mail service. The changes are set to take effect later today. Gmail and Yahoo Mail beta both offer built-in chatting.

AOL Mail, which is undergoing many changes lately (details here), also offers POP3 and IMAP access for free. And by the end of this month, users of both … Read more

What could have prompted Yahoo to hire its first-ever chief compliance and ethics officer? Could it have been the criticism executives received at the annual shareholders meeting about two weeks ago over Yahoo's cooperation with the Chinese government on censorship?

Yahoo allegedly provided information about a Yahoo Mail user in China to the government that led to his arrest and subsequent 10-year sentence. That man, a journalist, recently joined a lawsuit filed against Yahoo in the U.S. in April by the World Organization for Human Rights USA and the wife of a Chinese dissident who claims Yahoo aided … Read more

For a while on Wednesday morning, I was Yahoo Messenger-less. Actually, me and most of my colleagues were, and it was no fun.

I was out of the office and needed to ping my editor about something quick and I couldn't. I sent him an e-mail instead and noticed a lot of messages in my in-box from coworkers with similar stories of woe.

We've come to rely heavily on the ability to communicate with each other over IM, shooting quick messages back and forth like digital taps on the shoulder. I know that if my editor is staring … Read more

On our weekly Real Deal podcast today, Tom and I covered online photo sharing. It's not so much a comparison of the dozens of good photo sites we know of, but rather an overview of the issues for people confused about the whole space. Topics covered: Various services. How to pick a site. Privacy and copyrights. Online editing. And listener questions.

See also our Newbie's Guide to Flickr.

If you want to join the ongoing discussion, come on over to the Real Deal forums.