Tonight at 1 am PT, techies who have nothing else to do — that would be me! — can click onto a brand new tech site called The Verge.

Well, kind of — it’s the result of many months of work by the gang that defected from AOL’s popular Engadget tech powerhouse, set up temporary shop under the Web site name This Is My Next and busied themselves with creating The Verge.

I have another screenshot below of the new site that will be focused on news, reviews and features about tech, and which has been getting a final tweaking all today.

From my quick perusal, it has a vibrant and slick design, with a lot of packed boxes, swooshy movement and plenty of content.

Along with the launch, The Verge’s parent company — formerly doing business as SB Nation, focused on sports — will also transform into Vox Media.

In a chit-chat with Vox’s CEO Jim Bankoff, top exec Marty Moe and Josh Topolsky, The Verge’s Editor-in-Chief, the trio of former AOLers all said they were going to for the big time.

“We want to build the platform for talented native Web voices, in sports and tech for now, and then we plan to grow more verticals,” said Bankoff.

“We want to create more than a news site or blog about tech — the frustration at AOL was that we did not get the resources or manpower to realize that bigger vision,” said Topolsky.

(You’re speaking to the choir, brother!)

Said Moe: “We think this category has not had a large enough vision…not enough has been innovated over the years and we think it is a big opportunity.”

Topolsky said the site, along with a mass of original content from 30 writers, will also be helped by a strong database of information about all its topics and gadgets and also focus a lot on community input.

“What we want to do was graduate beyond the blog,” he said.

(Hmm…and here I just got the hang of this blog thing.)

Bankoff, who would not say how much Vox spent on launching The Verge — my back-of-the-envelope guess, several million dollars — said that costs were spread out between the tech and sports sites with centralized sales and product teams.

Initial launch sponsors are BMW, Sony and Samsung, said Moe, who is aiming to sell “major brand advertisers on the idea that we will be the premiere destination of consumer tech coverage.”

It has to grow past big sites like Engadget to do so, but Topolsky said that This Is My Next had three million unique visitors in the last month and more than 10 million page views.

“We have done that with a lot of editorials and in-depth reviews,” he said. “I think people are really hungry for great content and stories.”

As to competitors, Topolsky said that “this not to necessarily I win if you lose,” although his clear aim is to unseat sites like CBS-owned CNET, Engadget and Gawker Media’s Gizmodo and perhaps even newsier sites such as TechCrunch and AllThingsD (as if!).

“We are going to do the nuts and bolts stuff,” he said. “Somewhere between Engadget and Wired.”

Topolsky compared The Verge to a “boutique hotel — we have the same stuff everyone else has, but it is a much more elegant experience.”

Later, that will change, he promised, noting that “this is only version 1.0.”

Of course — but what else would you expect from a gadget site?

(Good luck and congrats to the entire The Verge team from AllThingsD!)

And here is another lovely screenshot, as promised:

MicroHoo is funky!

At least according to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on the Silicon Valley search giant’s first-quarter earnings conference call about its recent financial performance.

Yahoo’s results showed a continued worrisome revenue growth stall, due in large part to a search advertising fall-off, and a still-turning turnaround.

Yahoo reported revenues of $1.06 billion, down six percent from a year ago, on net earnings of 17 cents a share, down 28 percent.

The results were essentially in line with Wall Street expectations.

2:03 pm PT: The call started right on time, as per usual. Maybe they can’t get search right anymore, but Yahoo execs sure know how to start an analysts’ confab.

Bartz started off the call, noting “overall, our turnaround is proceeding on schedule.”

Well, the schedule of a three-toed sloth, I suppose, but it’s on schedule!

Bartz is too smart, though, and quickly noted the problems with search revenue declines, related to its search and online advertising partnership with Microsoft.

Still, she then used the unusual term “funky comparisons” to dismiss the key issue.

But isn’t she the one who struck the funky deal with Microsoft that has resulted in these funky comparisons and these even funkier search advertising revenues?

Just askin’!

Bartz proceeded quickly to noting Yahoo’s advances due to technology improvements, which showed a doubling of impressions to big events such as the Super Bowl and the Oscars.

It’s a good point, since Yahoo–for all its troubles–is still a huge traffic driver, including serving up 1.3 billion page views for the Oscars.

Bartz talked about monetization and said a lot of other stuff, but got to the finances quickly.

“Search was a mixed bag,” she said flatly. You can say that again–but not in a good way.

Bartz tried to put a good-news spin on it, but had to admit that “on the downside [Microsoft's] adCenter is not seeing strong RPS,” she said.

That’s revenue per search and a key number that Yahoo had thought would be better by now.

Bartz noted that the paid search markets internationally will be delayed until MicroHoo gets its act together.

Good idea!

2:16 pm: CFO Tim Morse took over to go through the numbers.

“We had good display momentum around the globe,” he said.

But search was, um, bad. It underperformed, but Yahoo had that guarantee from Microsoft to pay out, which Morse called a “financial floor.”

Morse pretty much read the press release from here on out.

2:24 pm: Bartz was back talking up the huge audience Yahoo has abroad. And it is true–the Yahoo brand is a golden one globally.

Also video consumption is up too, as it is across the Web, in terms of views and time spent. Yahoo’s “Primetime in No Time” got 500 million streams in the quarter.

Bartz turned to mobile, which is weak no matter what she said about the laudable Livestand. It’s one of many in a very competitive market.

Same for social, which Yahoo has essentially abdicated to Facebook. That said, Yahoo has tried to weave social within its myriad of sites and it gets it, especially compared to the socially awkward Google.

Bartz summed up that she hoped everyone gets that profitability and revenue growth were on track to get better, promising more at the investor day in May.

2:30 pm: Q&A time!

The first question is about display growth. It’s a softball, since display was up.

The next is about other revenue growth areas to come.

Bartz–who seemed not so prepped for such an obvious question–ticked off shopping, travel and uuuuuh….

Morse jumped in and talked about making internal connections, which I also did not understand.

An analyst then wanted to “dig into” search problems. I’d say it’s time to call in Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel!

Relative to RPS, Bartz acknowledged it was low and everyone was studying the issue. There is a plan, apparently. Again, Bartz was maddeningly vague.

I missed the next question and then it was back to search.

Bartz was not getting too specific about search, but would say video advertising was going to do well.

She did note that Yahoo expected a dip in Q1 related to search revenue, “but the dip went a little lower than we expected and lasted a little longer than expected.”

Bartz said she had recently sat down with Microsoft execs to go over the problems. How much would I have liked to have been a fly on that wall!

The next question was about video and it turns out Bartz loves the babbling babies too! I knew we had something cool in common.

The next question is about Japan and the possible deal to sell off Yahoo’s ownership of Yahoo Japan!

Morse said diddly, except “we continue to make progress.”

A question about display and possible content verticals.

Verticals Yahoo is interested in, according to Bartz: Entertainment, lifestyle, women, gossip.

“The things people really want to do, they want to disappear,” said Bartz, which was an interesting way of putting it.

Yet another question in what was beginning to feel like an endless call.

It was about Right Media, Yahoo’s advertising exchange. Cleaning it up, etc.

The next question is about communications, as in email.

Bartz even sounded bored and messed up a few words. “I’ve had too many Diet Cokes,” she joked.

Personally, I am considering disappearing into some content, since there is yet another question.

It’s–no surprise–an RPS question!

Funky!

Search guarantee payments from Microsoft are in place for another four quarters. Thank goodness.

Bartz got more detailed about the problems. There is some kind of prediction issue, which she said Microsoft is working on.

Now a local advertising question and its relationship with Facebook.

Bartz grabbed this one by the horns, noting you don’t have to run to the social networking powerhouse to get you a social ad!

It’s about branding with a social component. Which would be, um, Facebook, which was part of Yahoo’s Chrysler campaign referenced by Bartz.

A question about daily deals.

It’s growing, but more at Groupon and LivingSocial, which Morse does not mention.

Finally, the last question.

Another gigantic softball on engagement and Yahoo’s new content platform and some mobile deets query about whether Yahoo can make it there.

Bartz said she was working on it. As to content, Bartz said stats show big lifts.

“The good news is that it’s all in the right direction,” she said.

Up would certainly be good.

Earlier this week, he hired away eight staffers from AOL’s Engadget in order to create a competing tech news and gadget reviews site.

And now, according to sources close to the situation, the former AOL content head is close to hiring another former top AOL media exec, Marty Moe (pictured here), to manage it and also more niche sites the blog network is contemplating launching.

Sources said the hiring of Moe is not yet complete, but is close to being struck.

Tyler Bleszinski, SB Nation’s founder and sports editorial director, will continue to manage the start-up’s sports blog network, while Moe will focus on the company’s tech vertical and any other future categories.

Moe left AOL less than a year ago, after nine years working at the New York-based portal, including with Bankoff.

Both had been involved in the purchase of Weblogs Inc., which included the flagship Engadget site.

Now, it seems they will be trying to remake the concept of a content network, although in a more entrepreneurial and innovative setting.

The new tech site–which is still unnamed and will be helmed editorially by outgoing Engadget Editor in Chief Josh Topolsky–will debut some time in the fall. It is the first content expansion at the Washington, D.C., SB Nation, which has heretofore been exclusively focused on sports.

Topolsky will be joined by former Engadget managing editor Nilay Patel and also former staffers Paul Miller, Joanna Stern, Ross Miller, Chris Ziegler, Justin Glow and Dan Chilton.

All of the above had left Engadget in a series of departures of late, all due to increasing unhappiness with AOL’s management and content strategy.

Paul Miller and Ross Miller, who are not related, both stated publicly that they did not like the editorial direction AOL was going in, especially a controversial content strategy document titled “The AOL Way.”

New AOL content head Arianna Huffington has shifted toward a more journalistic path, but the talent bleed began before AOL’s $315 million purchase of the Huffington Post.

Many new upstart content sites such as SB Nation have begun to try to eat away at the big portal’s content strategy–pushed by its CEO Tim Armstrong–with perhaps more nimble efforts of their own.

And those smaller companies are also well funded.

SB Nation completed a $10.5 million Series C venture round, led by Khosla Ventures, in the fall.

It had already raised about $13 million in total funding from Accel Partners, Allen & Company and Comcast Interactive Capital, as well as from angel investors such as Ted Leonsis and others in Silicon Valley.

BoomTown always enjoys the maiden voyage of a newly public company, so liveblogging Demand Media’s first quarterly earnings seems like a must-do.

It’s also the first public outing for CEO Richard Rosenblatt, who has sold off his previous entrepreneurial efforts.

And it seems like a good start, as the Santa Monica, Calif.-based online content company, which had its IPO in late January, finally out to rest some controversy about how much is actually earns by posting $1 million in net income in the last three months of 2010.

Okay, that is a weensy amount, to be sure, but it beat expectations, as well as for revenue, with sales of $73.6 million for the fourth quarter.

Of course, Demand wants Wall Street to look at “Adjusted OIBDA” results, which was up 88 percent, and which it is a much prettier $20.1 million in earnings.

Also on deck, as MediaMemo’s Peter Kakfa noted today:

“Expect to hear at least one riff on whether or not the company feels threatened by Google and changes the search engine is making to push “content farms” out of its results. CEO Richard Rosenblatt insists that his company is not a content farm, and that Google is just fine with his stuff, but I have a feeling the issue won’t go away just yet.”

We’ll see–here we go:

2:05 pm PT: It took me a bit to get into this conference call, since I could not get the live broadcast from the Web site at all and the teleconference operators were snoozing.

And I tuned in just as Rosenblatt (pictured here) was talking about how Demand was helping people get information about how to ripen avocados.

No, really.

(Memo to self: Curb the snotty journalist tone, especially since I love me a good, ripe avocado.)

Rosenblatt, who seems only a little nervous, pressed on by talking about its massive eHow site, as well as Cracked.com and other major branded sites Demand has.

The latest is TypeF women’s health and beauty site, which is guided by supermodel Tyra Banks.

Rosenblatt then linked it all to advertisers and how much they want to spend on sites like this.

“We are not limited to just a few key verticals,” he said, touting its sales staff, including Rosenblatt’s daring raid of Chief Revenue Officer Joanne Bradford from Yahoo.

“The company is well positioned to capture an increasing share of brand revenue,” said Rosenblatt.

2:18 pm: Rosenblatt then zeroed in on the juicy issues, which center around the quality of the content Demand churns out.

Or, as critics have argued, lack of quality.

“The level of specificity is arcane to some,” noted Rosenblatt, using the example of flying paper lanterns and how to make a roof rake as examples of the kind of niche content Demand produces.

Arcane is right, but it takes all kinds!

Plus, insisted Rosenblatt, it’s good! Accurate! Edited! Useful!

He took the gloves off here, which made me want a Demand piece about taking care of leather gloves (linseed oil?).

“We’re just getting started,” said Rosenblatt, about the company and not the glove care tips.

2:24 pm: The CEO turned it over to the CFO, Charles Hilliard, which meant I was off on my critical Web search about taking care of my gloves.

That’s because he immediately said: “Adjusted OIBDA.”

Which-let’s be honest–sounds like a communicable disease.

Essentially, said Hilliard, it’s up, up, up for Demand, in terms of revenue, earnings, page views and more.

You can read all these gory financial details in the press release here.

For some reason, Hilliard is using the retail term, “same store sales,” as a comparison. I covered retails for years, so it is a surprise for this to be the metaphor, but Demand obviously sees itself as a content store.

2:39 pm: Q&A time and the Google-fights-spam question came first!

Rosenblatt said he welcomed it and appeared unconcerned. His avocado-ripening, roof-rake-making, flying-lantern company needed to make no excuses!

The next question is about expansion, including internationally. Sure, Western Europe.

Then, a sneaky follow-up on content farms.

“We consider ourself very white hat,” declared Rosenblatt.

I wonder what the best way to clean a white hat is?

Voila! It’s right here on eHow:

“1. Wash your white hat in the washing machine if it is made of cotton or polyester. Just add laundry detergent and one cup of bleach. Wash the hat using the hot water setting. Do not put the hat in the dryer. The hat will shrink and then it won’t fit your head.”

Call the Pulitzer Prize committee!

(Wait, snotty again! I also love clean, white hats.)

I was so riveted by the white-hat thing, I completely missed the next question, but tuned in again to one about revenue momentum.

Essentially, Bradford–who looks great in a white hat, I might add–is on the case.

Then some internal technical questions and about guidance for Q1. CFO Hilliard said that the company was guiding for growth, despite more public company expenses.

(Needless to say, you can find out about how to run a public company here on eHow.)

The last question was about how much branded advertising will make up total revenue. Between five and 10 percent of 2010, said Hilliard, but it is the fastest category of growth.

And also one about curation of content and use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for feedback.

Rosenblatt said that feedback can even become content, which will be part of new eHow redesign to come.

Want some tips on that? Of course, Demand Media has the answer, at least to this easy question.

The latest exec to leave the Googleplex for AOL* is John Burke, who is now SVP of “Global Sales Strategy,” reporting to sales head Jeff Levick, who was Armstrong’s first major hire (from Google, of course).

Burke is a longtime Googler–he arrived pre-IPO, in 2002–who started off running the technology “vertical” for its sales team and eventually oversaw 10 more industry categories by the time he left. Last title: “Managing Director, Industry Development and Marketing.”

AOL provided me with this quote from Levick when I asked them about the hire:

“We are thrilled that John Burke has joined AOL as SVP, Global Sales Strategy, responsible for sales development, industry outreach and marketing. He will be focused on ensuring AOL brings unique insights and a customer driven approach to our partners. This is another step forward in creating the smartest, most sophisticated partner and customer driven organization in the advertising business.”

* Which needs a snappy name for its New York HQ. “The building above the KMart, which used to house MTV digital a long time ago” doesn’t work.

Gil Elbaz, the man who in 2003 sold a start-up called Applied Semantics (now known as AdSense) to Google, has what he thinks is the solution. His latest effort is Factual, and it attracted a $25 million round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures with SV Angel and former Disney president Michael Ovitz participating. Ben Horowitz and Danny Rimer are joining Factual’s board of directors.

I caught up with Elbaz by phone yesterday to talk about the vision of Factual and his plans to grow the company.

NewEnterprise: So at a high level, what is Factual and what do you intend to do?

Gil Elbaz: We see this as an emerging category. We think of it as a data platform that offers data and data services to all sorts of developers, to build cooler, more innovative applications more quickly, especially when it comes to apps that are data-driven. Finding the right vendor for that data, and then integrating it, then managing and maintaining that data is costly and expensive. Developers can move that much more quickly by tapping into our knowledge base. We’re marketing certain verticals where our data is really good. We’re putting some extra marketing muscle behind our places database.

NE: Give me a use case. How might someone use the platform?

GE: Our places database is a good example where we’re getting quite a bit of traction. What we’ve done is built one of the most comprehensive databases of business listings and points of interest. This data is easy to browse, and it’s complete. It contains address and phone and contact info and latitude and longitude. If you want to a build a new service like Yelp or Foursquare, or something that relies on knowing what’s in close proximity, a mobile app can make a simple API call, send over the current GPS coordinate and fulfill the request very quickly. That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what we can do, but it’s making serious waves because it is very hard to get that data, especially if you’re going mobile. It’s very hard to get that good data for locations around the world.

NE: Do you have other datasets?

GE: We’re being market driven and being focused on that because that’s what our customers have been asking for. But we do have others. We have data from other vertical segments like health and entertainment. In the area of education we built a database of high schools that Newsweek magazine uses in their fairly important annual ranking of high schools. They not only use the data that we were able to generate and build, but they were also able to benefit from our crowdsourcing API, so that their users get not only a more engaging experience but the great partnership comes back into our central database, so the information can be improved. That’s a nice virtuous circle that makes us confident that our data is going to keep getting better because of these partnerships.

NE: I’m trying to come up with a metaphor, and the closest thing I can think of is data–information–as a utility supplier of data. If I want to build an application that contains a lot of data, I can come to you for the data I want to use so I don’t have to go out and gather it myself. Is that fair?

GE: I think that’s a pretty good metaphor. It’s really the access that’s important. When you use our pipe you’re going to know that you’re getting good data, that’s up to date and that we stand behind it, and that other people are participating to make it better, and update it, and that you can get it quickly. Looking ahead, there’s going to be times when it’s not strictly our data. Sometimes it will be data that has been uploaded from other people or from people in the community who want to take advantage of the data platform. So it’s really the pipes and the platform that we’re building that make this kind of data and sharing possible.

NE: You sold your first company to Google. The issue came up that you don’t need the funds. You could fund this on your own. Explain why you sought funding.

GE: I did fund the company for a little while. But I knew that our mission is very audacious and in order to become the ubiquitous data layer for the Internet, to be the obvious place that a developer would go to first to get data into their application, it’s a huge, tall order, and something that’s going to take a lot of technology and marketing effort and strategic guidance. The types of people that we brought in on our angel round and then the people we’re bringing onto the board have a lot of operational experience. Also, you never know when an idea is so big that you want to raise money down the line. If you want to do that it makes sense to build bridges with the financial community as early as possible, in case it does become a more capital-intensive business. This is a new category and we feel like we have a good understanding of it, and things can change quickly, and if it does, we want to be positioned with a good team who can help us navigate the different opportunities that will certainly arise.

NE: So now that you’ve landed the funding, what’s the first order of business?

GE: The challenge is always scaling correctly and quickly. I think we’re positioned well for this. We have a humming machine here. The management team is in place and we’ve been working on this for a few years now. And we have a great culture in place with people who are really passionate about making data available. However, hiring the engineering talent is taking up a huge amount of time. That’s the number one thing on my priority list for the short term.

NE: How do you find the best engineers? Is there a trick to it?

GE: I’d have to say that having worked at Google for three and-a-half years was the perfect place to learn what a deep and strong engineering culture was all about. I also got a lot of hiring experience at Google’s Santa Monica office. I don’t think there’s one trick. I think there are signals that a person is not just looking for a job, but for an opportunity to make extremely important intellectual contributions. And also I’m looking for people who want to make contributions not just to a project but to the world. You look for quick thinking and passion, and a history of doing things beyond what the job requires. I love it when I see people who have contributed to open-source projects on their own time. That demonstrates that they’re trying to contribute to society but also that they like working on important tools that make a difference.

But it seems a reach to say FTB is “social”–the company primarily relies on paid researchers to compile information tables on specific topics like GPS navigation systems or fast-food nutrition. Regular users are welcome to suggest topics and edits, but actual edits are only made by company staff and freelancers. (It’s kind of like Demand Media in chart form.)

A spokesperson for FTB said this morning that the company is planning to add more social stuff, but didn’t get more specific than that.

FTB is particularly notable because of its founder and CEO Kevin O’Connor, who also co-founded the ad network DoubleClick, and had been on a sort of 10-year break since then. To date he had funded the company himself out of Santa Barbara, Calif.

The Kleiner investment was led by partner Randy Komisar and is of an undisclosed amount.

Instead, the magazine pushed users to read its app in just the horizontal “landscape” mode, and essentially disabled the vertical “portrait” mode.

At the time, Time Inc. editor Josh Quittner said the publisher was doing so because:

• Viewing the app horizontally was better for users;
• Producing just one version of the app saved money;
• And since Apple wasn’t cooperating with Sports Illustrated‘s effort to sell subscriptions to the app, it didn’t make sense to throw more resources at the project.

That was back in September, and since then Time Inc. (like just about every other big publisher) has yet to reach an agreement with Apple about how to handle subscriptions in iTunes. But in the meantime, Sports Illustrated has apparently thought things over, because readers can once again view the app in landscape and portrait modes. Behold!

I only noticed the change today, but it turns out it has been in place since the magazine’s October 18 issue. What gives? Or what gave?

A statement from a Sports Illustrated rep doesn’t shed much light: “We are constantly exploring the iPad’s numerous functionalities for innovative ways to present Sports Illustrated to consumers. Each issue delivers something unique either in its design, functionality or content.”

So in the absence of better information, I’ll make a couple of guesses that aren’t mutually exclusive:

• I think app users complained quite a bit about the change, because conventional wisdom is that people like access to both modes, and they particularly enjoy reading magazine apps in the vertical mode, because that’s the way they read the paper-and-ink versions.
• Someone at Time Inc., or its parent company Time Warner, rethought the notion of negotiating with Apple by making its product look less attractive.

That said, it’s worth noting that Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes himself has been quite vocal, in a corporatespeak sort of way, about his company’s eagerness to work with tablet makers beyond Apple. (This mirrors what the magazine industry’s Next Issue Media joint venture is saying, too, by launching with Google’s Android platform first.)

Bewkes made noises about it during his company’s earnings call earlier this month. And he got more forceful about it–again, by his standards–yesterday during an onstage interview with the New York Times’ David Carr.

If somebody that makes a tablet–you can nominate who it is–wants to not have app support for what we’re going to put over the internet, they will degrade the capability of the tablet that you bought.

So if you’ve got a tablet that whoever gave it to you, they don’t want it work well, that will be their actions not ours…

You’re the customer, you bought the device. Are you going to tolerate a device, that doesn’t let its app support give you the full range of capability that is offered by the publisher or the network?

Because we’re going to be very public about what we offer, and it’s going to be all free, for anybody who buys the magazine. And if some tech company stands between you and that experience, they should answer to you.

In fact, it’s worth watching Bewkes deliver this speech in real time, and it’s a hoot to watch him onstage with Carr. If you’re in a rush, the magazine/tablet stuff kicks in around the 26-minute mark.

Ross Levinsohn officially starts at Yahoo today, although he has already been busy machinating and taking meetings since he was appointed North American head recently.

The former News Corp. exec replaces Hilary Schneider, and enters a tumultuous job running Yahoo’s key media and advertising sales businesses.

BoomTown has yet another primer for him today, but first let’s hear from Ross in his first blog post for the Silicon Valley Internet giant, titled “Once in a lifetime opportunity”:

Today marks my first official day at Yahoo! and I am thrilled to be joining one of the world’s preeminent technology companies that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. I am extremely passionate about digital media and as a longtime user and fan of Yahoo! I couldn’t be more excited to be part of this incredible company and amongst some of the best and brightest in the industry.

I truly believe that Yahoo! is one of the most compelling and dominant companies in the world. Having run digital companies big and small over the past 15 years, the task of building audience, engagement and revenue is no small feat. I feel fortunate to now be part of a company that not only has one or two category leaders, but operates the number one or two site in more than a dozen verticals. This is a feat unmatched in the industry, and provides unparalleled upside opportunities for all of us.

As I begin my own Yahoo! journey, I think it’s important to commit to each of you that one of my main goals is for the Americas team to be open and utterly approachable: I want to talk with you and understand your views of Yahoo! in order to make sure the Americas organization continues to win. I welcome all new ideas and I will act quickly to implement the right ideas for our business. Collectively we will continue to foster success for the company, each other, our partners and our customers with one goal–to deliver the absolute best consumer experience for Yahoo! users.

I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to be at the forefront of the digital media revolution. These types of opportunities rarely happen in one’s career. As I start at Yahoo! today, I feel like a new chapter has begun. Having the opportunity to work here and help shape the next phase of Yahoo! is easily the greatest opportunity of all in my career.

I came to Yahoo! to win and I’m ready to get started.

Ross Levinsohn, EVP, Americas Region

Hearst is the latest publisher to show up on the iPad, with a tabletized version of Esquire.* As always, you’re better off checking it out yourself then reading about it.

Still here? Okay:

• As promised, Hearst is selling the app at the same price as the paper-and-ink version: $4.99. Squawk all you want, but “we have to reshape expectations” for digital pricing, says Esquire publisher Kevin O’Malley.
• Hearst has talked about offering subscriptions to its iPad titles, but you can’t get one right now. And O’Malley doesn’t sound hopeful that he’ll be offering one through Apple’s (AAPL) store anytime soon. Join the club.
• Like every one of its peers, Esquire on the iPad looks like the print magazine, with some multimedia bells and whistles. Unlike many apps, Esquire doesn’t provide a literal translation of the print copy. So it can’t count app sales as newsstand sales, but O’Malley seems fine with that. The upside for the reader is that Esquire doesn’t need to include every ad from the print edition, and instead features just two ads from a single sponsor–Lexus.
• Many of the multimedia features are low-key grace notes, but that’s okay: You buy Esquire on the iPad because you want to read Esquire on the iPad, right?
• But there are plenty of clever touches, like animated illustrations and a clip of Javier Bardem reciting poetry in Spanish. And, pretty much for giggles, a copy of Ivan Turgenev’s “First Love,” a 76,000-word novella published in 1860 (I didn’t know, either).
• Some apps let you read their magazine in horizontal and vertical modes, while Time Warner’s (TWX) Sports Illustrated only works in horizontal mode (for now). But Esquire only works in vertical mode, and that feels just fine.

*This is Hearst’s first full-fledged iPad magazine, but if you want to be a stickler you can: The publisher has some of its titles available through Zinio’s PDF-reader service, and earlier this year it put out a partial version of a Popular Mechanics issue.

Here’s the official video from Yahoo about its new search upgrades, which include an “accordion” information presentation paradigm.

Yahoo (YHOO) unveiled a series of new search features last night, and the video explains how it’s going to compete against Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) Bing.

Enjoy:

The new features include an innovative, if odd, vertical “accordion” tab.

“We have been actively working on the algorithmic transition of search, which was completed in August, and we are already releasing new features to the search experience,” said Shashi Seth, SVP of Yahoo Search and Marketplaces, in an interview with BoomTown today. “Since we are not actively spending a lot of energy on back-end stuff, we can focus our efforts on new things.”

Among the new enhancements to Yahoo (YHOO) search: A vertical “accordion” paradigm with shortcuts on search results that allow for new kinds of information presentation; “quick apps,” beginning with one for Netflix (NFLX) that lets its members add movies to their queue directly from the search results page; slideshows within search from the “Trending Now” lists on Yahoo; more immersive and theater-style photo and video search, as well as “the ability for people to view personally meaningful public Facebook albums from friends,” when they sign in to Facebook; and a new mobile search experience for Apple (AAPL) iPhone and Google Android smartphones, as well as feature phones, that uses HTML5 technology.

“We wanted users to see that things had changed dramatically,” said Seth. “Consumer needs for search engines have changed.”

He said that in testing so far, engagement–an increasingly important measure for advertisers–had spiked with the new features, especially in “taking search from an information need to action at an end.”

Seth promised a “huge pipeline of stuff” to come in search, where the Silicon Valley Internet giant holds the No. 2 position in market share, well behind Google (GOOG) and ahead of the Microsoft (MSFT) Bing service.

Both Google and Microsoft have been adding a series of search upgrades over the last year, such as Google Instant, while Yahoo has not.

Yahoo has a blog post up about it here.

And here are some screenshots, as well as the official press release and an overview by Yahoo of the new search features (click on the images to make them bigger):

Yahoo! Makes Searching More Relevant, Productive and Fun

New features help people explore their interests and do more

SUNNYVALE, Calif., October 7, 2010–Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) today introduced new Search enhancements that will help millions of people be entertained, productive, and informed anywhere they are across Yahoo!. Leveraging Yahoo!’s rich content and robust technology platforms, these new Yahoo! Search features will help people get to the entertainment and news content they care about on all connected devices–and do more with the things they find.

“Our goal is to understand what people care about and to make it fun for them to explore the most personally relevant, interesting, and informative content so that they can get things done faster and stay in the know,” said Shashi Seth, senior vice president, Yahoo! Search and Marketplaces. “Yahoo!’s new immersive Search is a cornerstone of the overall Yahoo! experience, creating more ways to connect people with whatever and whoever interests them.”

To start using the new enhancements, go to Yahoo.com and search for topics such as “Lady Gaga” or “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” The features include 3D multifaceted results and tools that let people:

• Cut to the chase–Intelligent shortcuts for movies, musical artists, celebrities and news topics conveniently organize the most important details such as images, articles, videos, tweets, event listings, and ratings. They also provide quick and easy ways to purchase movie or concert tickets while searching.

• Find favorite flicks–The first in a series of unique “quick apps” from Yahoo! Search, a new Web app for Netflix provides an easy way for Netflix members to add movies to their Queue right from the Search results page. In the coming months, Yahoo! plans to launch additional apps that change the search paradigm from finding to doing.

• Watch what’s happening now–Continuing to bring Search to more people in more places across Yahoo!, the company is helping people feed their curiosity by displaying image slideshows right above the standard results for interesting topics from Yahoo!’s Trending Now lists on Yahoo.com and elsewhere.

• Lean back and browse more pictures–An immersive new Yahoo! Image Search delivers engaging slideshows with public photos from Flickr and Yahoo!’s leading content sites, as well as the ability for people to view personally meaningful public Facebook albums from friends when they sign-in and connect their Yahoo! accounts to Facebook.

• Search on the go–Android and iPhone users can now get faster, more sophisticated Search results, thanks to the latest HTML5 technology. Rich content on entertainment, finance, and local topics is surfaced in more unique and compelling ways for high-end mobile devices.

Working toward its vision to be the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo! is dedicated to re-imagining Search by creating new ways to bring people closer to what they need and want on the Web. Today’s visually stunning new Search experiences throughout the Yahoo! network, along with innovative technology enhancements and quality improvements for rich local and shopping searches, all supplement organic algorithmic Search listings from the recently transitioned Microsoft search platform. Yahoo! expects current and future innovations to redefine Yahoo! Search and drive greater consumer engagement and loyalty.

New features began rolling out to Search users across the U.S. today, and Yahoo! expects to launch them for additional global markets in 2011.

Search Launch Overview Oct 2010

Yesterday, at the Apple music event in San Francisco, I had a short chat with Apple CEO Steve Jobs as he strolled through the demo room for the media, just after he had announced various updates for the iPod, Apple TV and iTunes onstage.

One of the those was the introduction of a new social network for music called Ping that Apple (AAPL) has integrated within iTunes 10 and which looks an awful lot like the experience you get on Facebook.

Essentially, it is a vertical version–in this case for music–of the powerful social networking site.

Facebook has noodled for years about creating its own social music offering, including doing a partnership with Lala, which was bought by Apple last year and shuttered in June.

But its efforts have largely gone nowhere.

And Facebook is nowhere on Ping, either. Currently, there is no linking, sharing or participation of any kind with Facebook–or Twitter or MySpace–on Ping, which will work only on the iTunes software on computers, iPhones and iPods.

When I asked Jobs about that, he said Apple had indeed held talks with Facebook about a variety of unspecified partnerships related to Ping, but the discussions went nowhere.

The reason, according to Jobs: Facebook wanted “onerous terms that we could not agree to,” related to connecting with Facebook friends on Ping.

For those who are struck by the word, the definition of onerous, according to an online dictionary: “Involving an amount of effort and difficulty that is oppressively burdensome; Involving heavy obligations.”

Jobs did not elaborate on those troublesome terms and also would not say if Ping would incorporate connecting with Facebook or even using Facebook Connect–which would make it much easier to find friends to share music with.

“We could, I guess,” he shrugged.

And when I asked how to find friends, Jobs offered, noting iTunes had 160 million users across the globe: “You can type their names into search or send them emails inviting them to join.”

Okay, although being more open would work too!

As MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka noted:

“Maybe Apple plans on joining the rest of the Web, via an open API that will let Facebook, Twitter et al–maybe even the to-be-launched Google (GOOG) music service–play nicely with Ping. We’ll see.”

Facebook–including some execs who are definitely irked about how closely Ping resembles Facebook, right down to the blue color scheme–hopes so.

Consider the statement issued by Facebook to me–after attempts to get it verbally failed, due ironically to several dropped connections on the iPhone of the exec I spoke to:

“Facebook believes in connecting people with their interests and we’ve partnered with innovative developers around the world who share this vision. Facebook and Apple have cooperated successfully in the past to offer people great social experiences and we look forward to doing so in the future.”

In other words: Zing, Ping.

UPDATE: Oddly enough, a Facebook connection feature appeared to be in Ping when some signed up–not for me–as noted by Cult of Mac. And Silicon Alley Insider’s Dan Frommer even spotted the wording in Jobs’s stage presentation. I have an email into Apple PR asking for a comment on the change.

In any case, at the Apple event, Jobs told me he had great hopes for the social music service, adding that Ping could be the most significant thing to come out of yesterday’s announcements.

But soon enough he moved right on to the new iPods, declaring enthusiastically: “Isn’t the nano amazing?”

In yet another small acquisition, Facebook has bought Chai Labs, several sources said.

BoomTown could not confirm the price for the purchase of the content-focused start-up, but it is likely to be around $10 million and directed at acquiring talent.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based Chai Labs, which was founded by former Google (GOOG) AdSense exec Gokul Rajaram, raised $1.1 million in funding last year, according to a regulatory filing, and $1.3 million before that.

On its Web site, Chai Labs says that advisers to the company include prominent Silicon Valley players, such as Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman and Joe Kraus, who appear to be angel investors.

Chai Labs describes itself as a “technology platform [that] enables publishers to easily customize and launch scalable, search-friendly sites in several verticals. We seamlessly complement our partners’ editorial teams, and some of our most compelling implementations have occurred when editors and journalists have worked side-by-side with our platform.”

The ability to help publishers create, store and deliver content is something that makes sense for Facebook, given the powerful social-networking site has been trying to work with media companies rather than compete with them.

Facebook declined to comment and Chai Labs has not responded to an email query.

Microsoft is rolling out a new series of updates to its Bing search service tonight, including a deep dive into a media-rich entertainment vertical, as well as other improvements to its existing offerings.

The software company has been pushing hard in the search arena, trying to gain market share from the dominant Google (GOOG) and the No. 2 player, Yahoo (YHOO).

The effort has so far included a different look and feel and very detailed results in certain niches, such as travel and health.

The push to improve entertainment search is a natural one, given its popularity with consumers.

For example, Microsoft (MSFT) will now allow users to listen to entire songs from its 6.8 million-song catalog rather than just samples of the songs.

It will also offer lyrics and more detailed artist profiles, as well as loads of movie and television information.

“We want to be one of the two major players in search and we are building out to do that,” said Yusuf Mehdi, SVP of Microsoft’s Online Audience Business. “The economic opportunity of search is as good as it gets in the business, if we can make these inroads.”

Those inroads have been encouraging, with Bing gaining market share. But they have also been costly, with the Online Services division bleeding cash.

Of course, search is an area Microsoft cannot abandon, so I would imagine the push will continue.

That’s good for consumers, of course, and it sure is pretty.

But seeing is better than a BoomTown description–here are some entertainment-focused screenshots (click to enlarge, except for music and movies homepages), and below them, the official fact sheet:

Music Homepage:

Music/Lady Gaga Songs:

Movies Homepage:

Movies/Visual Search:

TV/”Gossip Girl”:

Games/”Bubble Town”:

Bing Spring Update Fact Sheet

It’s more than a little ironic that the new “Glo” Web site–a highly stylized women’s lifestyle destination MSN debuted just after midnight today in partnership with Hollywood’s BermanBraun and Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.–will likely be one of the online media sites that shine best on the new Apple (AAPL) iPad.

Even though it was conceived before the tablet was announced and currently uses Apple-barred Adobe (ADBE) Flash in its headline rendering (soon to be adjusted), Glo is actually more aimed at upending the notion of what makes a good women-focused Web site.

With a vertical sweep, simple clean lines and a swoosh navigation bar, it’s the kind of new Internet sensibility informed almost entirely by touch, feel and–especially–visual elements.

And while it has a decidedly glossy magazine tone, Glo is also heavily laced with tools such as online scrapbooks and is strongly social, with deep links into Facebook and Twitter.

Of course, since it is a Microsoft (MSFT) property, Glo also was required to make copious use of its Bing search engine, links to which are constantly present and mostly useful.

Glo is the second dramatic site designed, created and run by the Los Angeles-based production company run by former Yahoo (YHOO) media chief and well-known television exec Lloyd Braun and his business partner, Gail Berman.

The first was a very different kind of celebrity site, Wonderwall, whose consumer engagement metrics have pleased advertisers so much that MSN ordered up another one aimed at fashion, decor, relationships and beauty.

“Obviously design plays a huge role in all we do,” said Braun in an interview with BoomTown yesterday. “We think there is an enormous opportunity to create content and program in a very different way.”

Braun said the site was trying to approximate the “endorphin release” that occurs when women get a new fashion magazine in their hands.

Berman agreed. “There is something very powerful about the connection you can establish with a magazine that has not yet been replicated online as well,” she said. “We are aiming to have a true voice to reach this kind of level of emotional connection with our readers.”

To help that along, as part of the deal with MSN, announced in December, magazine giant Hachette–publisher of Elle, Woman’s Day and Elle Decor–is providing content and editorial expertise to Glo.

There will be seven “packages” a day, with access to archival content too.

Like Wonderwall, Glo will aggregate original, Hachette and third-party content from a variety of partners, but have a voice that new Executive Editor Anne Weintraub–who has been online director for Elle magazine–called “inspirational and also aspirational” and with a heavy dose of imagery.

Instead of the unusual horizontal design that scrolls like Wonderwall, though, Glo goes steeply vertical, although still using a plethora of images and a deeply visual sensibility to attract the eye.

“We are trying to grab the reader in a different way, through linear narration,” Weintraub said in an interview yesterday. “And we also want the women who read it to feel that they are one step away in terms of aspirations, that we reflect their reality on a really good day of theirs.”

The business plan, of course, is advertising. The companies said MSN will lead the advertising sales efforts along with HFM U.S. on selected accounts, with JCPenney, Vaseline and Fox Broadcasting Company (think “Glee” and you get the demo being targeted) as inaugural advertisers.

“Advertisers have been looking for premium content opportunities online and they really are not there in this important space compared to what’s out there in print, for example,” said MSN U.S. head Scott Moore. “Like the celebrity category, we see a lot of room to grow by offering something different and of higher quality.”

Todd Anderman, SVP for Digital Media at HFM, which already has Web sites for its well-known magazines, noted that the company was in uncharted territory. “This is a new brand for all three of us,” he said.

Here are some screenshots from today’s debut (click on the images to make them larger), as well as the full press release below:

MSN, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. and BermanBraun Unveil Glo, a Premium Online Lifestyle Destination for Women

New site features an innovative design that creates the feel of a magazine experience on the Web for women seeking style, beauty and lifestyle content.

REDMOND, Wash.; LOS ANGELES; and NEW YORK–April 6, 2010–MSN, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. (HFM U.S.) and BermanBraun today announced the launch of Glo (www.Glo.com), a lifestyle site that focuses on style, beauty, living and relationship content through a uniquely engaging and dynamic experience. Glo provides users with everyday inspiration and practical ways to attain their best life. It combines the imagery and feel of a magazine with the appeal of a dynamic site such as WONDERWALL, to offer an online destination that is neither traditional Web nor print, but a unique escape for women on the Web.

Glo utilizes a unique vertical scrolling method, a feature that is exclusive to the site as an online lifestyle destination. Glo presents its topics daily with a fresh and in-the-know perspective, filled with glossy, full-screen photo galleries, videos, and unique features. Glo features original content from its editorial team, HFM U.S. properties, MSN properties and relevant content from popular lifestyle sites including Sugar/Sugar Entertainment, LimeLife, Modelinia, Remodelista and more. Key features of Glo include the following:

• Scrapbook. This feature allows readers to save a custom page of their favorite images and ideas from the site, just as if they were tearing them out of a magazine.

• Sharing tools. Sharing tools are included on each page and allow readers to share articles, videos and more with friends and family via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and Windows Live.

• Bing integration. Bing, the new generation of search from Microsoft, is deeply integrated throughout Glo. Bing is a decision engine that offers a faster way to make more informed choices.

• Facebook. This feature allows customers to comment on articles and videos they see on Glo using their Facebook login information.

• Full-screen photo galleries. Glo is loaded with visually compelling, full-screen photo galleries, covering a range of topics that are better seen than read, such as the best shade of red lipstick and chic body art.

The design, programming and operations of the new digital brand will be spearheaded by BermanBraun and HFM U.S. Glo is accessible at www.Glo.com, as well as through the MSN home page, editorial programming across the MSN network, and across HFM U.S. online properties.

MSN will lead the advertising sales efforts along with HFM U.S. on selected accounts. Major brands such as Vaseline, JCPenney and Fox Broadcasting Company have signed on as inaugural advertisers.

“We are very happy to be partnering with MSN on the launch of the Glo Web site on behalf of the Vaseline® Aloe Fresh lotion line,” said Srini Sripada, marketing director, Unilever Skin Care. “Our goal is to communicate the light, refreshing sensory benefits of the line, and we believe that Glo provides a unique opportunity to reach women who are looking for light, fresh content. We are excited to be engaging in this endeavor.”

Anne Weintraub, who has held various positions at ELLE including former online director, has been appointed as the executive editor of Glo. She has deep editorial experience running online lifestyle experiences dating back to 1999 when she was the founding editor of Beautyjungle.com. Weintraub also worked as a beauty editor at Vogue, and as a freelance journalist for magazines such as InStyle, Harper’s Bazaar and Self.

Women spend more time online looking at lifestyle content than any other category, with 68 percent saying that going online is a great way to relax and 45 percent marking it as the most peaceful part of their day.1 For MSN, lifestyle is among the most popular content categories, reaching more than 8.2 million unique users a month. MSN will offer Glo in conjunction with its lifestyle portfolio, including MSN Lifestyle, Delish and MSN Health & Fitness.

“Lifestyle is one of our top content priorities because of its popularity among consumers and advertisers, and Glo is a great addition to our lifestyle portfolio. The launches of the new MSN home page and WONDERWALL have shown us the importance of delivering visually compelling and innovative designs and how quickly we can attract millions of customers using the distribution power of MSN,” said Scott Moore, regional partner executive producer, MSN. “We’re excited to build on our successful partnership with BermanBraun, adding the category branding expertise and panache of HFM U.S. to deliver a compelling new lifestyle experience on MSN.”

“Following our successful partnership with MSN in bringing WONDERWALL to the celebrity entertainment space, we are thrilled to be partnering with Hachette and MSN to create Glo–a new and unique lifestyle brand. We believe the innovative design and distinctive tone of Glo will excite both the online audience and our advertising partners,” BermanBraun partners Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun said in a joint statement.

“Like all publishers, we are exploring different ways to deliver content onto all platforms,” said Alain Lemarchand, president and CEO, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. “We are very excited about creating a Web-only brand with an original voice that fills an open position in the marketplace. Our collaboration with our two outstanding partners MSN and BermanBraun has been a rich one with each team bringing distinct strengths and voices to the project.”

Yesterday, the monthly search market share numbers from comScore (SCOR) were released, showing Microsoft (MSFT) Bing up, Yahoo (YHOO) down and Google (GOOG) maintaining its dominance.

In today’s release by Experian Hitwise, Bing is up again, from 9.37 percent to 9.7 percent, while Yahoo is flat at 14.57 percent, and Google gave up a scooch of share to fall to 70.95 percent from 71.49 percent.

This time it appears to be the vertical searches–such as autos and health–helping Bing, which has been its strategy to differentiate itself from the Google juggernaut.

Here is that table, which you can click on to make larger:

Looks like Microsoft’s long-rumored “Pink” phone project is about to make the jump from speculation to reality. Gizmodo has managed to get its hands on some marketing materials that appear to confirm Pink’s existence and finger Verizon (VZ) as a launch partner.

Evidently, there are to be two Pink phones–one with a horizontal slider, the other with a vertical one (click on image below to enlarge)–both manufactured by Sharp. Neither, it seems, will run Windows Phone 7, though Gizmodo suggests that whatever the phones do run might share some aesthetic elements with the operating system.

“It’s suggested that the (Pink) platform has apps of some sort,” writes Gizmodo’s John Herrman. “For a phone like this to share apps with Windows Phone 7 is pretty much impossible–the minimum hardware requirement for a Windows Phone look out of reach for this little black lump–so this one’s a big question mark. Is it another SDK? Or closed app development like we’ve seen on the Zune HD? Web apps?”

Interesting questions. Perhaps, Pink is Microsoft’s (MSFT) way of getting into the feature phone business without alienating its Windows Phone 7 hardware partners. According to Gizmodo, we may find out as soon as April when the devices are expected to arrive at market.

[Pink Phone Image credit: Gizmodo]