Yahoo

With Redesign and Twitter Deal, Is Google Growing Up?

Kit Eaton — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:51:48 -0500

Google's got two new announcements: It's pairing up with Twitter for Friend Connect login purposes, and it's done the unthinkable and re-designed its home page. Both moves are surprising...do they mean the curly-haired youth of search is growing up?

Google Plays Catch-Up in Japan With New TV Spots and Free WiFi

Kit Eaton — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:24:24 -0500

Google's offering free Wi-fi access in cafes--but not in the U.S. The company is busy wooing customer affections in another country: Japan, where it's losing the search engine battle.

Risky Business: Online Shopping at Work

Tom Musbach — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:23:14 -0500

The temptation to shop online while at work gets much stronger at this time of year. Despite the known risks, many of us do it on the sly anyway -- like using a cell phone while driving.

In fact, 1 in 5 workers (21%) said they will shop online for holiday gifts this year while working. The statistic comes from a new survey, conducted by financial staffing firm Accountemps, that was released a week before Cyber Monday -- typically the biggest day of the year for online shopping.

The Big Pileup: Social Networking Sites

Tom Musbach — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:13:11 -0500

Metaphors abound in descriptions of social media sites today. They are "exploding," the "next big thing," the "new media revolution." Here's another that will be familiar to anybody who watches football: They're the center of a big pileup.

Everybody -- including job seekers, recruiters, marketers -- is jumping on them, trying to get a piece of the action in the midst of a chaotic jumble. Sometimes you scoop up a new job lead or connect to a promising candidate. Or you come up empty-handed and a little bruised.

Some recent bits of data to consider:

Secret Weapon in the Job Hunt Today: Personality

Tom Musbach — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:26:04 -0500

Your interpersonal skills can make or break your chances of getting a job offer -- even in such a technical field as finance.

The point was made very clear recently in a survey by finance staffing firm Accountemps. More than 1,400 CFOs were asked: "If two candidates for an accounting or finance position had similar skills, which one the following additional qualifications would you find most valuable?" Topping the list was "personality or people skills" with 31% of the votes.

What Can Yahoo Learn From Malware?

Chris Dannen — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:42:30 -0500

Search engines would be more efficient if they were decentralized, reports MIT's Technology Review. In other words, they'd be faster if they were run like bot-nets.

Avoiding the Resume 'Black Hole'

Tom Musbach — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:46:55 -0400

I've heard some recruiters say they usually scan a resume in seconds. That boast could challenge job seekers to stand out as much as possible, but it also feeds the impression among candidates that their resumes end up in a black hole.

But that dominant view -- "you have to capture a recruiter's attention within seconds or else" -- ignores others who might assess your resume.

Lap Dances at Yahoo's Hack Days? A Lesson in Monitoring a Global Brand

Allyson Kapin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:35:39 -0400

Should You Change Your Looks to Get a Job?

Tom Musbach — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:41:20 -0400

A majority of job seekers this year have changed something about their physical appearance in order to impress employers, according to an online poll.

The respondents in the Yahoo! HotJobs poll made changes in several areas:

Clothing style: 11%
Lost weight: 13%
Hair style and/or color: 12%
Face (Makeup, teeth whitening, Botox): 4%
Two or more of the above: 19%
Nothing: 41%

Resume Format: 3 in 4 Hiring Managers Recommend...

Tom Musbach — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:31:49 -0400

If you're aiming to please a hiring manager in your job search (and who isn't?), then format your resume chronologically.

In a recent Accountemps survey, 75% of hiring managers prefer a chronological resume that lists the most recent work experience first. The respondents preferred this type of resume to one that is organized by job function and skills, according to the financial staffing firm.

The firm also reported that the managers' responses were little changed from 10 years ago when the question was asked.

Click Here: The Short, Inglorious History of Online Advertising

Stephanie Schomer — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:00:00 -0400

1994

Pay-per-click keyword advertising debuts at GoTo.com (later Overture, and now a part of Yahoo). It is widely mocked.

1998

HotWired is the first site to sell banner ads in large quantities to corporate advertisers. The first buyers? AT&T and Zima. Click-through rates, the gauge of success, are an astonishing 30%.

Common Interview Surprise: Illegal Questions

Tom Musbach — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:38:06 -0400

More than half of job seekers report being asked an illegal question during a job interview.

That eye-opener comes from a Yahoo! HotJobs online poll, in which 62% of respondents reported being on the receiving end of a question about a verboten topic, such as one's religion or marital status. Almost a third (32%) had not been asked such a question, and 7% said they didn't know.

The numbers surprised me and several of my colleagues, so it's worth reviewing what's permissible and not. Interviewers are not allowed to ask about:

Will Yahoo Win the Search Wars with Info Overload?

Chris Dannen — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:24:32 -0400

Today Yahoo! began a $100 million advertising push with the following commercial, which the company says is titled "Anthem." Can Yahoo win the search-ad wars with inundation?

For Lasting Salary Damage, Get Hired in a Recession

Tom Musbach — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:03:23 -0400

New grads entering the job market have come to expect that during touch economic times -- like the present -- they may have to settle for a lower salary to get a job. But that flexibility may result in income damage that could take nearly 20 years to overcome, according to new research.

A Depressing Discovery

By equating salaries for new hires to the unemployment rate, a Yale professor calculates that students who graduate during a downturn earn 6-8% less in their first year for each percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate.

Yahoo's New Ad Blitz: It's All About "Y!ou"

Clay Dillow — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:03:49 -0400

Before getting into how we feel about Yahoo’s new marketing campaign, let’s get the news out of the way. The company's new slogan is “It Starts With Y!ou.” That’s their spelling (or misspelling), not ours. Yahoo is spending more than $100 million on the campaign.

Overused Office Buzzwords: The List Grows

Tom Musbach — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:40:12 -0400

I recently wrote an article about the most annoying and overused terms in the workplace, and readers have been commenting with new words to add to the list.

The basis for the article was a survey by Accountemps, in which 150 senior executives identified the problem words and phrases (e.g. "leverage," "circle back"). But here's 10 more they missed, according to Yahoo! HotJobs readers:

Binghoo Update: Has the Marriage Been Called Off?

Kit Eaton — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:33:33 -0400

We thought it was a done deal: Yahoo and Microsoft were cosying up together, with Bing superceding Yahoo's own search engine. Now there's news Yahoo may let users choose which engine runs on their pages. What's going on?

Labor Day Surprise: Job Dissatisfaction Rises

Tom Musbach — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:15:00 -0400

One of the interesting things about this recession has been the modest rise in job satisfaction: People have been happy just to have a job, for the most part.

But that sentiment may be shifting as the economic tide starts to turn, according to a new survey by Adecco.

Workers' dissatisfaction with their employers gravitates toward three areas: compensation, retention efforts, and career growth.

Nearly a Third of U.S. Already at 10% Unemployment

Tom Musbach — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:17:58 -0400

New July unemployment figures show that 15 states have already reached 10% unemployment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many economists and pundits have focused like vultures on the national jobless rate rising to 10% this year, as if crossing that threshold might signal a new level of doom.

We're already there in 30% of the states and the District of Columbia. Double-digit unemployment is dreadful, but does it feel much different to the average jobless person who is struggling with the current national 9.4% jobless rate?

Yahoo Still Working on Search--What About Bing?

Kit Eaton — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:03:03 -0400

There we were just thinking Microsoft had sewn-up Yahoo's search-engine powers by licensing Bing to it, and now it looks like Yahoo's still polishing its search powers all on its own anyway. What the heck is going on?

Score One for Sanity in Yahoo Music Webcast Ruling

Kit Eaton — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:53:58 -0400

The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled in favor of Yahoo's appeal against punitive music royalty fees levied on its online Launchcast music service. Sounds bland? Nope--it may have a big impact on the online music industry.

Google Books Deal Faces Challenge by Tech Giants

Kit Eaton — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:26:15 -0400

Google Books' deal to scan an archive of published books has been controversial right from the start, and now faces its biggest challenge yet: From a powerful coalition that includes Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon. Is it all about search engines?

The Open Frontier in Hiring Today

Tom Musbach — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:02:17 -0400

The exploding popularity of social networking sites has created a new Wild West in the recruitment landscape, where few boundaries, guideposts, and rules exist. But recruiters and job seekers are rushing in for possible rewards.

A Hiring Helper?

Flickr Removes Obama-as-Joker Photo

Chris Dannen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:31:16 -0400

It's rarely a good PR move when a social Web site decides to remove a politically-charged image--the InterWebs get angry. One such case came to light today: A Photoshop mockup of President Obama as the Joker from The Dark Knight, superimposed on the cover of Time magazine, has been removed from Flickr.

How to Cope in a Miserable Job

Tom Musbach — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:29:22 -0400

Many people feel stuck in their current jobs. They may be grateful to have a job in this economy, but the job isn't satisfying them. If you're in that situation, some information below might help.

Begin by doing some self-reflection on the sources of misery on your job. Once you know the main cause, you can take steps to combat the misery. Here are some common problem sources:

The Boss