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Tumblr Now Has Its Own Video Streaming

Live Video on Tumblr is Tumblr's video streaming feature.

Live Video On Tumblr shows promise as a video streaming feature.

Video streaming has gained another social channel, in Tumblr. The microblogging social media service announced that starting June 21st, video streaming will become an available feature to all Tumblr users.

Video streaming is quickly proving to be the direction in which social media will be going. There are concerns, however, in regards to how quickly social media is adopting video streaming. Personal user streaming from a handheld or portable device is currently still difficult and result in poor quality content. Mobile data plans do not currently guarantee enough speed and stability to allow users to stream video for several hours.

If video streaming does, in fact, become one of the principal means of gaining popularity online, future generations of social media users could become considerably less outgoing. A lot of contemporary social media revolves around events.

Many believed that May 2013 would be the beginning of the end for Tumblr. The media service was acquired by Yahoo! from its founder, David Karp. The transaction left David Karp $1 billion richer.

Currently, Tumblr sees close to 600 million monthly visitors worldwide. Over 300 million new blogs are added to the site every month as well.

The streaming feature, currently known as “Live Video on Tumblr,” could prove to be a worthy competitor to other video streaming services such as Google’s YouTube, Amazon’s Twitch, Twitter’s Periscope, or Facebook’s Live.

Competition aside, however, many speculate that the video streaming feature is meant to help Tumblr become a more financially valuable tool for Yahoo! as it has so far not been able to meet the yearly $100 million sales target set by its latest owner.

Following the acquisition, Yahoo! publically promised Tumblr users that it would not alter the microblogging platforms means of function. While Tumblr’s yearly sales target was also announced publicly as well, Yahoo! kept its word and did not flood the social media service with its pre-designed marketing concept.

Tumblr has currently not released any additional information apart from what is already present on the website. As such, it is yet unknown if and how Yahoo! will use Live Video on Tumblr to increase the latter’s revenue.

The first day of Tumblr’s video streaming feature proves to be an entertaining one, nevertheless. A Harlem Globetrotter will be giving basketball lessons and artist Adam J. Kurtz will be having a Q&A session later on.

Image Courtesy of Live Video on Tumblr.

Yahoo Is Making A Risky Step Forward

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Yahoo Is Making A Risky Step Forward

Yahoo is making a risky step forward, if we can even put it that way. The online giant is planning to continue its career by removing passwords from users’ emails. This new approach is at the verge of innovative and dangerous, especially since passwords have been around for a good number of decades. The two issues that Yahoo might have to face are convincing users that they need this, then educate them on the matter.

Our grandparents, parents and current generation have grown accustomed to passwords. It seems as though there is no other way to secure your email. But Yahoo has already released a new app, Android and iOS specific, that require you to activate a “push notification” rather than just type in your password over and over again. It sounds nice when you first think about it, but it may bring about some unpleasant consequences.

Instead of training your typing and memory skills, the new “Yahoo Account Key” will give you a notification, which you will need to confirm by pushing the appointed space on your screen. Nice and easy, not giving you anything to worry about, the Account Key is an ideal tool for anybody who is running around with multiple mails for different purposes.

Yahoo’s senior vice president, Dylan Casey, explained that “Account Key streamlines the sign-in process with a secure, elegant and easy-to-use interface” bringing along a fresh online environment for online users. Yahoo wants to maintain its former users and attract new ones with a new, accessible look. The only question that remains is if the look will be enough?

In a previous report, a Yahoo representative explained that this change has occurred mainly because the old mail-password system had become quite difficult and it did not serve to protect emails as well as it used to. This statement makes us wonder what kind of world we are living in if making an email address and creating a password are now considered difficult.

Still, our main concern is that this new app makes emails very “smartphone-centered”. If you haven’t been looking at the bigger picture until now, every new technological breakthrough ties individuals to a certain gadget, whether it may be a computer, a tablet or a phone. These gadgets become very important, but what if they fall into the wrong hands?

Yahoo is making a risky step forward, one that encourages burglars to get out of their houses more often and see what info they can get with a stolen phone. And this is not something to look forward to.

Photo Credits lookout.com

You Do Not Need Passwords Anymore

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You Do Not Need Passwords Anymore

The matter at hand is rather interesting, but dangerous at the same time, so we want to tailor this as more of an informing-questioning subject. What if someone told you that you do not need passwords anymore? Would you say no on the spot, just go with it or would you feel confused? If you already thought about that, it is our turn to say that this is going to happen.

The brilliant (or terrible) idea is coming from Yahoo, a company which seems to be done with passwords. It probably sounds awkward if you think that Yahoo sort of specializes in mails, thus passwords are a must know, but this is exactly what is happening and some of the details were revealed by Fernando Delgado.

Delgado made it very clear that Yahoo wants to stop making its users create passwords over and over again, and it seems like this idea is being embraced because people are making numerous Yahoo emails. Delgado did not say anything about millions of mails, but he did mention that the whole password protection system has transformed into a complicated procedure that seems ineffective when it comes to protecting people’s mails.

Now that Yahoo is turning 18 and is becoming of age (in some countries of the world at, least) it wants to release a brand new set of Android and iOS apps that will allow you to surf on the internet with a few email accounts. You can read it again, if you feel like you read something wrong, but we assure you that with these new apps you are going to access YouTube with 3 or more different emails.

Yahoo’s new system will be called Yahoo Account Key and, instead of asking you to type in your password for your 12^th email account, it will only give you a “push notification” that will give you a green light. It can be useful and it is surely a lot more comfortable to use, especially if you have multiple mails for your business, personal use and perhaps another one for registering to events, online games, etc.

There is a major issue, however: are we willing to trade security for comfort? This is a great issue and a very true one too. Whenever technology evolves, it rends to make people more comfortable, but this new feature seems to make us beg people to steal our phones. With all our information stored into one single device that requires one push, can we really say that you do not need passwords anymore?

Photo Credits pixabay.com

Yahoo Plans to Replace Google for the Apple Browser

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Yahoo kept the tech journals busy last month with the news of replacing Google as the default search engine in Mozilla Firefox. According to the news released by Mozilla and people familiar with the matter,

“Firefox 34 is to launch later today or perhaps tomorrow, and may include the search engine switch. All U.S. Firefox users who have previously left Google as the default search engine will see Yahoo as the new search engine.”

In other words, if your default search engine is still Google and you didn’t change anything in your browser settings, you may have the surprise of finding the Yahoo search engine working on your Mozilla browser. But this is not the only Yahoo related piece of news we have for today. Latest reports tell us that Yahoo plans to replace Google for the Apple browser too.

Apple has its own browser, Safari, and its contract with Google is due to expire next year. Apparently, Apple doesn’t want to renew the contract with Google, but is instead shopping for a new primary search engine for the Safari browser in all Apple products, be them desktop or mobile.

The race for Apple’s contract is currently held between Yahoo and Microsoft, a long time partner of Apple when it comes to searching things on the Internet. Microsoft’s search engine Bing provides search results for Apple’s Siri and so far it seems that Microsoft is the favorite candidate for the Google switch.

However, Yahoo is going strong with its New Yahoo Experience and interface. According to specialists, Yahoo boasts the “one-click search”

“which would allow users to search across Google, Yahoo, Bing, Amazon, DuckDuckGo, eBay, Twitter or Wikipedia to start – and then give users the ability to expand from there.”

In other words, all you have to do is type your search on the interface and select on the icon of the preferred search engine. The tricky word here is “preferred”, as truth be told, Google is still the world’s most preferred search engine. Is there a real choice, even if the platform gives users the illusion of a multiple choice search engine?

If you remember our November report related to Yahoo replacing Google in Mozilla, Google didn’t even flinch at the news. It seems the giant search engine doesn’t feel threatened by the fact that Yahoo plans to replace Google for the Apple browser either. However, just as the specialists mentioned, closing the deal with Apple will be a game changer for Yahoo, or for Microsoft, as

“whoever wins the Safari contract will be presented a great opportunity for user traffic and revenues, as the browser is available on all of Apple’s iOS devices including iPhone, iPad and Mac.”

Google Gets Replaced by Yahoo in Firefox Browser

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On Wednesday, Mozilla Corp. CEO Chris Beard announced a historical change to take place inside the Mozilla Firefox browser: Google will no longer represent the default global search experience, but it will get replaced by Yahoo. After a decade, Mozilla ditches Google as the default search option, motivating the choice by the need to go local, instead of global. In the words of Chris Beard,

“Today we are announcing a change to our strategy for Firefox search partnerships. We are ending our practice of having a single global default search provider. We are adopting a more local and flexible approach to increase choice and innovation on the Web, with new and expanded search partnerships by country.”

What does it mean that Google gets replaced by Yahoo? First and foremost, this change represents the end of a ten years-long beneficial partnership between the two companies, and also an opportunity for Yahoo to get back in the game. Once upon a time, Yahoo was a very popular browser, yet with the rise of its competitors, it slowly lost its ground. But now that Google gets replaced by Yahoo, the latter has a chance to prove it can still be a global tech force.

The contract between Google and Mozilla is due to expire at the end of this month, although friction among the two goes a long way back. In 2008, Google released Chrome, as a strong competitor for Firefox, and by now the Chrome browser managed to account for 67% of searches on US desktops. Yahoo was waiting for this opportunity to jump in and take Google’s place, calling the future five – years partnership with Mozilla as “the most significant partnership since forging the Microsoft deal in 2009.”

How does this development change the users’ search experience on Mozilla Firefox? When you enter a topic in the search bar, you will be automatically redirected to Yahoo’s website instead of Google’s. However, Google will still be a built – in search option in Mozilla. Since Mozilla insisted on going locally, it also announced that its China customers would be redirected towards Baidu, while the Russia customers would be redirected to Yandex.

Yahoo also made some interesting promises in the light of this partnership: the company will unveil a modern, clean, dynamic search engine interface on Firefox. They will also release the same upgraded version on their website early next year. Other modifications also include some upgrades in the way Yahoo displays the results.

Now that Google gets replaced by Yahoo, what is the search engine giant’s attitude? Google seems to be cool and calm, as it still accounts for around 90% of the global online search market. Moreover, last month, Google named Amazon as the fiercest search competitor they have, and not other browsers, such as Yahoo or Mozilla.

The Mobile Messaging App Blink Will Belong to Yahoo

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It seems that the major tech – giants are in a perpetual race against each other to buy promising start-ups and mobile messaging apps. Last year Facebook tried to buy Snapchat, but its offer was rejected. In an attempt to expand its mobile ruling over the global population, Facebook later bought WhatsApp, in a historical purchase of $19 billion.

This acquisition cost Facebook a lot of money, but it also brought the company over 450 million users. If you remember older news, you know that Japanese company Rakuten Inc. bought Viber this February, adding to its portfolio the mobile app which enables free calls and messages. The Japanese have spent $900 million for this deal.

Among all the titans spending money on mobile messaging apps and small companies, Yahoo seems to be the most ambitious. Since CEO Marissa Mayer took over Yahoo two years ago, the company registered around 22 acquisitions. According to reports,

Yahoo bought more U.S. tech companies than any other company last year.

The latest news involving Yahoo’s acquisitions are related to the mobile messaging app Blink. We don’t yet have the fine details of this deal, but in an official statement Blink has announced that they would

shut down both the iOS and Android versions of the app in the coming weeks before the switchover.

A few words on the mobile messaging app Blink: the app allows users to take photos, send texts and sketches and even record audio files or make videos. The greatest thing about the Blink is that all messages sent through the app self – destruct at a time set by the user. This sounds very much like Snapchat, but what differentiates Blink now is that the company isn’t exposed as a liar and a fraud, like Snapchat is.

Some analysts consider that Yahoo should have make an offer to buy Snapchat instead of Blink, but we assume that the recent negative spotlight Snapchat received doesn’t make the mobile platform too attractive for investors. On the other hand, the mobile messaging app Blink has few users and fans. According to Google Play Store statistics, the Blink has been installed only 10,000-50,000 times, which is very little in comparison to either WhatsApp or Snapchat.

However, Yahoo’s CEO seems to know what to buy and when to buy, as her attempts to redefine the company and strengthen its mobile presence are going in the right direction. Presently, the company has over 400 million monthly users of Yahoo mobile products and with this new acquisition, the numbers could go higher. For now we are waiting for more details regarding the purchase of the mobile messaging app Blink by Yahoo and we will keep you updated as usual.

Yahoo! looking to acquire photo sharing site Imgur

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Yahoo! has been on a spending spree for the past year, grabbing everything from natural language startup Summly to blogging giant Tumblr and the company may not be finished, with news Marissa Mayer is looking to grab photo sharing website Imgur.

Imgur is one of the most popular photo sharing websites and is being rapidly used on Reddit, we can see why Yahoo! may have their eyes open for the buy in. The question is has Imgur got any real profit margins and does it have enough of a userbase to make Yahoo! any long term investment.

The story of Imgur is straight-forward, Alan Schaff decided there was not a good photo sharing website for users to instantly upload and link to and he decided to make one for Reddit, it quickly became popular and users switched from their old work-arounds to Imgur.

Since it is so easy to use and so accessible, with users being able to add a photo and link without actually making an account, it has withdrawn the amount of actual users on Imgur who have registered and actively use their account to upload photos.

Yahoo! may see long term investment but from a Reddit standpoint this is a bad thing, since Yahoo! likes to either cut the startup down and take the spoils or start quietly integrating their own media and services into the subsidiary, slowly making it their own.

Reddit has never been one to make acquisitions but they may look to battle it out against Yahoo!, considering most of their users go to Imgur to upload photos, either that or Reddit will implement their own photo sharing solution in the coming months.

Imgur has never said they really want to be acquired by any company, the owner obviously only wanted to build a solution to all the half-works photo sharing solutions and he has succeeded and probably makes a mint from the millions of daily visitors.

Imgur is priced somewhere between $100 million and $500 million, but in the times where users and function mean everything, Imgur could price could surprise us, just as Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter IPO did.