You know how Yahoo has been recently trying to retake many of the web-based industries that they were once leaders in? From search engine to text chat, they are tired of being the go-to second tier choice of the internet.  Well, it looks like the comapny's returning CEO actually knows more about what she’s doing than some thought. Yahoo recently introduced a plan to increase the global popularity of all Yahoo services, particularly Yahoo messenger.  They have created a unified platform for data management specifically targeted at countries where more users may be using data-phones/the internet for the first time in their lives, particularly Indonesia.

Following the newest Facebook on Yahoo update, Yahoo-owned Flickr has introduced an interesting new way to link your Flickr photos with your Facebook account. With the help of Facebook News Feed and Yahoo’s updated platform, you can have the thumbnails of your Flickr photos along with title and description appear on your Facebook page.

Yahoo has once again integrated Facebook features for its users. As we have mentioned earlier Yahoo is leaving no stone unturned to further connect to the social web. Initially it allowed web surfers to update Facebook contact information, and then came the announcement of updating Facebook status and viewing friends' profile pictures. The latest addition was further integrated Facebook’s Like action, commenting, and News Feed.

Yahoo introduced a new look for Yahoo Search in the U.S. back in April, and the company has now revealed the newly designed page to French, Spanish, German, and Indonesian language users in eleven international markets. The new features and design include “a new layout, handy new filtering tools, related search suggestions, and rich results that help you find what you’re looking for quickly and seamlessly.”

Yahoo has been constantly adding more Facebook features to Yahoo Mail. As the first step, Yahoo enabled Y! Mail users to import contacts from their Facebook account. Yahoo then allowed its users to update Facebook status from Y Mail along with the ability to see photos of their Facebook friends when they email them. Well yesterday Yahoo announced in its Yahoo Mail Blog yet another feature of Facebook available with Y Mail. Now Yahoo users can view, comment and like their Facebook news feed items directly from Yahoo Mail. The activities of friends at Facebook will now show up in the Updates section, in addition to friends’ activity on Yahoo, Twitter, Flickr, etc.

New partnerships with web service leaders aren’t the only way that Yahoo is planning to restore itself to their former position as a significant member of the internet search/content portal game.  While they have recognized that their former attempts to provide their own brand of every service that you could want spread them too thin to make good services, they recognize the necessity of having more than just a search bar.  CEO Carol Bartz called Yahoo’s former rival Google out on not having enough non-search revenue, claiming that in the changing web economy such a model couldn’t be indefinitely sustained.  She goes on to point out that only one half of Yahoo’s revenue actually comes from search.

As we speak, TechCrunch’s Disrupt event is going on.  Industry insiders from all over the world have come together to show off and/or discuss direction, and Amvona’s own Jonathon Knepper is  on the scene to catch all the action.  Today, perhaps one of the most fun, and perhaps prophetic events of the day was the interview with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz.  Lately, we've been rolling our eyes at Yahoo’s attempts to break out of their long time second place positions in the race to be kings of the search.

As of late, everybody has been trying to be on the bleeding edge of mobile media technology.  It has been clear for a while that phones, and similar devices, are the new battleground for computing and communications supremacy.  It was only a matter of time before folks started trying to be on the bleeding edge of mobile advertisement.  Starting yesterday, Yahoo has announced and launched their newest wave of smartphone oriented advertisements.  They have expressed a great deal of interest in utilizing the new HTML5 compatibility that most smartphone browsers are starting to have these days.

In all the hustle and bustle of the new Google Search updates, accusations of copying Bing, and the economic rise of Bing that brought about said accusations, it’s easy to forget our old favorite alternative search engine Yahoo.  Well, it would have been easy to forget them, had they not just released a new, aggressive, and expensive ad campaign in an attempt to make us remember that they’re there too.  The first in this line of ads criticizes its competitors for being too impersonal, and tries to promote their own feature-heavy homepage.  Sure, the features are nice, but why aren’t they promoting one major reason why people still go to Yahoo- their video search?

Back in June, Yahoo confirmed that it would be building a $150 million data center in Western New York that is focused on energy efficiency.  Well, pictures have surfaced of the new facility almost complete and there's now questions as to why the new data center appears to resemble a group of chicken coops.  Yahoo has an answer, it's because they are.... well, in theory. 

HTML5 is a buzz word right now in the world of web development. According to Travis Young, a senior product manager from Yahoo! Mobile Platforms Team, “HTML5 is not a single technology, but a combination of emerging and intersecting standards that will change the way we develop and interact with Internet applications.” Five striking features of HTML5, as defined by Travis include:

YouTube has launched a new video series on their YouTube channel that is focusing on improving user experience and further connecting users to what goes on behind the scenes. Each month, YouTube will announce a topic of general interest, which users can also suggest at this post on YouTube’s blog. Questions will be accepted for a week via a Google Moderator page. YouTube will then post a video with one or more employees to respond to user questions.

Yahoo Mail is taking yet another big step in becoming a social web email provider. Not too long ago Yahoo announced Yahoo mail users could upload contact information from Facebook friends. Yesterday evening Yahoo announced users could now update their Facebook status directly from Yahoo Mail as well as see the profile image of Facebook friends’ with their emails. As an added bonus the profile image will also link directly to your friends Facebook page. Currently the features are only available in select markets, which weren’t released in yesterday’s post.

The future is bright for Twitter integration with Yahoo.  The only integration at this point, is Tweets into real-time Yahoo Search results, but this is only the beginning. Yahoo has already announced features coming soon. The list includes:

Yesterday both the Twitter and Yahoo blog published posts relating to the newly formed alliance. This was only the next step for Twitter. Just another sign that Twitter and real time information sharing is becoming an important part of search result offerings. Also goes a long way in further solidifying social networking and a true testament to its longevity.