Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Earlier this week we heard the news of Jerry Yang resigning as CEO of Yahoo, the result of a painfully disappointing year for the company that saw failure after failure.  They have watched their grip on Internet search slip through their fingers and they are in danger of slipping into the worlds of anonymity and the pages of history.  However, things are looking good for Yahoo fans with two positive pieces of news.

One Search

They are both an attempt to fight back at Google’s search domination, both in the mobile phone and PC sectors.  The first is a deal sealed with T-Mobile with the “One Search” button.  Yahoo have been poor at closing deals recently; however, this catch is definitely one that should help them in the future.  T-Mobile has agreed to put the One Search button on their phones, thus allowing users to quickly get to a search engine and helping Yahoo by making it theirs.

Find out what else is in Yahoo’s plans to fight the Google empire after the break.

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Sections: Communications, Cellphones, Web, Websites, Google

Being a CEO of a major brand on the net isn’t easy.  Getting the job is even harder, that is where Gadgetell comes in.  By entering our contest, you’ll earn our public recommendation to Yahoo!‘s board for the open CEO position.  Warm up those golf clubs, here is what we think Yahoo! needs:

To be the next CEO at Yahoo!, we believe the company needs a big personality.  Google has the rollerblading wonder twins, MS now has almost larger-than-life Ballmer and Apple’s got a guy with a closet full of black mock turtlenecks.  While we don’t believe having rollerblades, being nutty or sticking to one outfit is a prerequisite, here is what we do think is. . .

Follow to find out more and to apply to Gadgetell’s Be the next Jerry Yang contest.

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Sections: Web, Web 2.0, Websites, Features, Contests

2008 has not been kind to Yahoo.  It began with a buyout offer from Microsoft that they promptly screwed up, and was followed by the disintegration of their ad deal with Google and two rounds of layoffs.  Now it appears CEO Jerry Yang has finally had enough.

Yang announced his resignation last night, saying he will remain on the board of directors and reclaim his old title of “Chief Yahoo.”  Yang has been under the microscope of his shareholders ever since he rejected Microsoft’s offer of $33 per share for being too low.  Yahoo’s shares are now trading at a mere $11 each.  He now appears to regret his decision.

“To this day I would say that the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo,“ he said at a conference two weeks ago. And when quizzed on if he would stick to a higher price that he demanded back in May added, “Oh no. At the right price, whatever the price is.“
But Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn’t bite and said a couple of days later, “We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly. They turned us down at $33 a share.“

Ouch.  Yahoo has begun the search for a successor, but finding someone willing to take over the tough job of turning around what was once the net’s top search engine won’t be easy, and for now what lies in the company’s future is anyone’s guess.

Read: [PC World]

• Random Amazon game deals
• Xbox 360 Arcade units confirmed to include 256MB onboard memory
• Microsoft using Office’s AutoUpdate feature to check licensing

Sections: Web, Websites, Google

The helpful folks at TeleNav shot me out their new Shotgun and here are my first impressions.  If you are planning on buying a GPS device this holiday season, this is one to watch carefully.  I’ve had the device in my hands now for about 30 minutes and already am very excited about it for 3 main reasons.

Excitement reason #1: POIs

TeleNav says it has 11 million POIs.  The local Ikea, for some reason, shows up on no GPS devices that I have tested except my TeleNav phone GPS.  No surprise that the Shotgun finds it easily as well.  So far, the TeleNav’s connected search has always been able to find every location I’ve searched for.  I cannot say the same for Garmin, Navigon and Dash.  Keep reading about what other points make the Shotgun a damn good GPS.

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TeleNav, the on-phone GPS provider that I rely on, announced this morning they are in the connected GPS game.  This news comes on the heels of Dash GPS announcing they were done making their stand along connected GPS device.  Let’s get to it: how good is this GPS device?

From the looks of it, pretty good.  A connected GPS device is the way to go.  Static data trapped in a box isn’t helpful.  What is helpful is a device that reaches out to get new info, expand its searches.  And that is what the TeleNav Shotgun is.

Check the connected features of this GPS device.

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Things aren’t looking good for Yahoo right now.  Google has pulled out of the advertising deal that looked so promising for both companies citing potential antitrust issues.  Now, CEO Jerry Yang is saying that the Microsoft buyout was probably the best thing that could have happened.  This coming even after a rumor saying that Microsoft and Yahoo “were in advanced talks to sell the company for between $17 and $19 a share,“ that Yahoo discredited.

Aside from turning down the Microsoft deal, Yahoo’s problems aren’t necessarily its own fault.  It is slowly rolling out the new Yahoo homepage to compete more against iGoogle.  It still owns Flickr, one of, if not the most popular photo hosting site.  Yahoo Answers seems to have grown quite a lot as well. 

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Sections: Web, Web 2.0, Google

One for the “impressive moments in tech history”: I just received a Dash GPS device for a review last week.  I’ve played with the device for a couple of days and now learn the product is out of production.  Even odder, driving around on lunch today, I was thinking they’ve nailed the connected idea for GPS and traffic, but lack in what Navigon has dialed: awesome guidance.  I was going to suggest a change in business models to something similar to TiVo, an alternative to pay more for a service you desire—like the best traffic info on the planet.

Sure, that is easy to say now.  Now it isn’t helpful or ground breaking.  In fact, it probably looks like I am lying out my rear end.

But no.  I would love to marry the traffic info and POI search of Yahoo local thanks to Dash to the Navigon unit.  To me, that is the best of both worlds as Navigon is top dog in my book for clear, concise guidance and I can’t say enough good things about the Dash traffic info.  And I am still going to review it as the tech is going to be licensed into other products (come on Navigon!).

A sad day for the Dash GPS team as they had the dream, delivered the product and then find perhaps the concept wasn’t spot on.  Here’s to hoping their brand of traffic and connectedness lives on.

Read [Wired}

• “Put down the Wise Man and slowly back away with your hands up” - GPS tracking devices now free
• Cyber Monday deals on tech from 6ave.com
• The disruptive spectre of a $99 Wal-Mart iPhone

Sources have revealed to the Wall Street Journal that Yahoo! will announce layoffs when they reveal their quarterly earnings tomorrow.  The exact number of jobs affected isn’t know but is estimated to be at least 1,000.  The move isn’t much of a surprise, however.  Last month they hired a consulting firm to help them streamline their operations.

The company, which once boasted the top search engine on the net, has been struggling as of late.  Its shares have fallen 32% over the past month, its deal with Google was put on hold due to an FTC investigation, and earlier this year they rejected a takeover bid by Microsoft.  Shares entered the week at $12.90 after hitting a 5-year low of $11.37 last week.  Microsoft takeover bid was for $33 a share.

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Sections: Web, Web 2.0, Websites

Yep, looks like we haven’t heard the end of the whole Yahoo/Microsoft going-ons.  However, that apparently isn’t the official position of Microsoft…just their CEO. While speaking at the Gartner ITXpo in Orlando, Florida, this morning, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer came out with the following comments.

“We offered 33 bucks [for Yahoo] and it’s at $11 today. It’s clear Yahoo didn’t want to sell. They probably still think it’s worth more than $33 a share…I still think it makes sense for their shareholders and ours.”

This little gem cause Yahoo stock to jump 17%...despite the fact that an official statement by Microsoft disputed any interest stating “Our position hasn’t changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo; there are no discussions between the companies.”

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Sections: Computers, Networking, Software / Applications, Web, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Websites

A judge in Anchorage has ordered Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to save her Yahoo! e-mail account and e-mails used for official state business. 

Another account, set up to handle e-mails between the governor and 15 of her closest advisors, including her husband, was also ordered frozen.  The Alaska attorney general has been asked to retrieve e-mails from the accounts so that the judge can determine why Palin invoked executive privilege by withholding over 1,000 e-mails in response to an open records request.

The Yahoo account was revealed last month after the son of a Democratic state rep from Tennessee hacked into it and posted some of the contents on an infamous hacker site.  More on this story after the break.

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Sections: Communications, Email / IM, Computers, Security, Web, Websites