I just have a feeling I’m going to need this some day. -m

Yahoo! Mobile has a new look–the first of many changes in the pipeline. The refresh brings the mobile site in line with the recently relaunched main page. -m

Interesting, but not surprising. The source article talks about revenue share unhappiness, but that seems like a bit of a stretch for a deal only inked six months ago. There’s some more interesting analysis in there as well.

It was the open secret in the industry that both Voda and T-Mobile were beginning to have their doubts about their marriage with Google. Now the honeymoon is over rumors are mounting that both operators are ripe for a new union with Yahoo or a white-label solution – or both.

My opinion is that folks are starting to realize that there’s a lot more to life than being really, really ridiculously good at search. -m

How hard could this be? A six month project if three engineers are doing it in a garage. Five years if you put one hundred programmers on it.

Guy Kawasaki

-m

A few pics up on Flickr. Still recovering from travel, more soon. -m

Yeah, help still wanted. I’m looking for a markup and standards guru to work with me on a cool Mobile project. Can you list five different types of CSS selector off the top of your head? Can you map all five to the equivalent XPath? Can you spot semantic markup by reflex? Do you daydream about microformats or scribble down BNF during idle moments? Do you obsessively check the TR page at the W3C?

If you answered YES to the above questions, send me your CV. Include “Yahoo!” somewhere in the subject line. -m

I spend a Pareto portion of my work day in three applications: jEdit, Firefox, and a terminal.

I hang around Emacs (and VI)-loving folks all day. Emacs. jEdit. Emacs. jEdit. The tension is palpable. :)

Maybe their influence is starting to rub off on me. Here’s what I want: Dear readers, can you provide comments on any tips to achieve any of these in Emacs?

• I keep about 20 files open at a time, in multiple “sessions”. With one dropdown in jEdit, I can switch to a different 20 files in a different session, all open and ready for editing. When I start the editor, I don’t need to individually open files.
• I use a plugin to show a bunch of tiny tabs at the bottom, so I can see what’s open at a glance.
• Text selection with shift+arrow keys, and copy and paste with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. PgUp and PgDn working. (Just like my web browser)
• Ctrl+W to close a tab or workspace. Ctrl+T to open a new tab. (Just like my web browser)
• Ctrl+S to save (Just like my…you get the picture)
• I’m not a heavy mouse user, but when I do use a mouse, I should at least be able to select text with it.
• Line numbers showing on each line.
• Nice fonts (no small feat on BSD).
• Here’s the kicker: I want to attach in from a remote computer (on a different OS) and have the same experience, same files already open, and so on. Here, jEdit isn’t helping (unless I go VNC, but that’s a big hammer…)

I’ve talked about this before, though my environment now is a little different. (For one, I am now making basic use of GNU Screen for my terminal sessions.) Basically, I want an editor that works like all the other software I use all day, instead of making me remember an entirely different set of key bindings. Every extra bit of my limited wetware storage claimed by my tools detratcts from the stuff I really need to be thinking about. Comments? -m

It’s no secret that Yahoo! has two different photo sites. And two different social bookmarking sites. Until pretty recently I thought this was craziness. But gradually I’ve realized the power of this approach.

You take a smaller, hipper embodiment of an idea alongside a mainstream site. The resulting double-threat can’t easily be matched be either fresh startups or entrenched players. The smaller site can keep innovating and experimenting away, while the larger site adopts the best ideas and keeps improving without freaking out their base. It’s effective. Car companies have known this for years.

Now, my second realization: The W3C is doing the exact same thing with XHTML 1.x and XHTML 2.x+XForms. -m

Lots and lots of blog traffic on Google Spreadsheet, but I haven’t seen anyone make a key point:

The underlying message is: full-blown applications in the browser are now real.

Many smaller players have been doing things like this for years, just as many smaller player were using Ajax before it had a catchy name. But as soon as it had a name and a big player (again, Google) behind it, it left the launch pad in spectacular fashion.

The era of Web Applications has begun. Don’t think that Microsoft Office should be afraid–it’s even bigger. -m

For better or worse. In no particular order.

1. Affordable unlimited data plans
2. Google getting into the operator business
3. Yahoo! getting into the operator business
4. Affordable phones not tied to carriers
5. The iPod phone
6. Development of strong AI (yes I say this about everything)
7. Development of decent agent software
8. Affordable unlimited voice plans
9. Collapse of network neutrality
10. An active mobile WebStandards task force (ok, not overnight, but still important)

-m

Check out the presentation page, with a link to the paper. Because someone asked, my name got top biling due to the prestigious “alphabetical” reference system. -m

At WWW I have a short presentation on Yahoo! Go on Friday. It’s one-fourth of a 90 minute slot, so don’t expect any huge revelations.

You might also see my name on another paper, Visualizing Tags over Time on Wednesday (nominated for Best Paper) (!). I won’t be presenting, though I did help a bit with the project.

Anyway, if you’re making it to Edinburgh this year, look me up next week. -m

The following is a blatant job posting. If you’re not into that kind of thing, feel free to skip.

In Yahoo! Mobile, we’re working on an amazing project which, unfortunately, I can’t say much about just yet. We’re growing, and we need some more talent. All of the following are in Sunnyvale, CA and have the full benefits package. Relocation is always a possibility for the right candidate.

Web Guru/Developer: If you dream in semantic XHTML and prefer command line tools to read and write web pages, this is the job for you.

Release Engineer: On the other hand, if you dream about virtual IPs and consider Apache config files a second language, you’d be happy in this challenging position.
There’s more openings than these; I’m just highlighting a few here. If you’re interested, or just looking for more details, email me. If you’ll be at WWW next week, you could also look me up in person. -m

According to news.com

Apple and Japanese telecom giant Softbank may be developing a new mobile phone that can download songs from iTunes

Wait a minute, is that the same Softbank that owns the biggest chunk of Yahoo! Japan? Yep. This is utter speculation, but I’d watch the Apple+Yahoo! space, particularly for mobile… -m