Yahoo's big lean into content to fuel growth

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

One of perennial questions about Yahoo has been, "What is Yahoo." As the pioneering Web brand slid downward, rebuffed Microsoft's generous acquisition offer and was overshadowed by the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, the question morphed into  "Is the beleaguered Yahoo going to fade away?"

Marissa Mayer, the fifth Yahoo CEO in five years, seems to have a clear view of what Yahoo is, and a plan remove the word "beleaguered" as an adjective preceding its name.

The stock price is up over 70 percent since Mayer took over in July 2012. She has upgraded the executive and engineering staffs, updated Yahoo's mobile apps with an aspiration for them to be more "delightful" and "inspiring," and added 300 million younger visitors, 110 million blogs, 24 billion minutes of month of usage and 90 engineers via the $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr.

Yahoo is trying to make its web sites and mobile apps more 'delightful' and 'inspiring' to drive additional usage.

(Credit: Yahoo News mobile app screenshot)

Mayer's view of Yahoo isn't much different from that of her predecessors, defining the company as a "media network" -- the marriage of content and ads. She states Yahoo's mission as giving "end users something valuable and delightful that makes them want to come to Yahoo every day" and to "help guide people's daily habits in terms of what content they read."

The super-focus on media indicates that Mayer will continue her efforts to eliminate squandering of resources on peripheral projects or in areas where Yahoo has low odds of winning big.

Google, for example, is an everyday habit for the majority of people connected to the Internet. It delivers 100 billion search results per month, each one in milliseconds, for about a billion people. Mayer, who spent 13 years at Google, knows that the company she has been running for the last 309 days isn't going to become the search leader.

That said, Yahoo can continue to improve its search user interface and generate a few billion in revenue (unlike Google's nearly $50 billion last year) using Microsoft's Bing search engine for now. But the company has to generate far more revenue and time spent on its properties by personalizing the overall Yahoo user experience and offering more content, such as Tumblr's.

On the social networking front, Facebook is by far the dominant service. It's a daily habit for 665 million people, and accounts for the vast majority of minutes spent on line. Yahoo isn't going to challenge Facebook to become the town hall for the Internet, and has focused more on placing Facebook and Twitter hooks on Yahoo properties.

Tumblr is similar to Twitter with its following and followers model, but lacks the more variegated social graph of Facebook and Google+. Nonetheless, Yahoo can use Tumblr data to create richer "interest" graphs, and deliver users more content tailored to their profiles.It turns out that Mayer just acquired a budding social network in Tumblr, but she made no mention of Tumblr's social networking capabilities in the press release or in her remarks on a conference call with financial analysts. It's as if the social aspect of Tumblr was swept under the carpet, so as not to draw attention to how it compares to Facebook or Twitter.

In essence, Mayer's plan for Yahoo is to be for personalized content what Google is for search and Facebook is for social networks. It's not that Google or Facebook aren't focused on personalizing content or social networks, but it is not their sole focus.

Yahoo has the leading news, finance, sport and entertainment sites, and reaches about 86 percent of U.S. Internet users per month, per comScore's data. It ranks second behind Google in the U.S., according to ComScore, with 191 million unique U.S. visitors in March 2013. But the company hasn't shown much growth in users or revenue.

(Credit: Yahoo)

Now, Mayer needs to show that her plan is really working. She'll have that opportunity on a quarter-by-quarter basis, but only a few quarters more to use her standard disclaimer on earnings calls: "Getting the company growing at a rate we would like to will take several years."

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NY official: Airbnb stay illegal; host fined $2,400

(Credit: Screenshot by Donna Tam/CNET)

New York officials have determined that a man who rented out part of his apartment on Airbnb should pay $2,400 for violating the city's illegal hotel law, despite Airbnb stepping in on the host's behalf.

The city initially asked host Nigel Warren to pay $7,000 total in fees for violating a law that makes it illegal for property owners to rent out homes temporarily -- essentially mimicking hotel stays -- and for unrelated issues with building and zoning codes, according to the decision and order issued by the board. (See PDF below; it cites Abe Carrey, who owns Warren's condominium, and Warren's first name is misspelled.)

The city argued that the apartment "may only be used as private residences and may not be rented for transient, hotel, or motel purposes."

As Airbnb continues to shake things up for the hotel industry, it's increasingly running into issues with the law, particularly in areas where the law is not clear cut. It's not just in New York -- officials in the company's hometown of San Francisco are concerned about property owners potentially using its service to get around local tenant protections and land use codes.

The New York case is centered around a 2011 law that makes it illegal for New York residents to rent out a property for less than 29 days. It was originally aimed at landlords who bought up residential properties and turned them into hotels. Airbnb has been lobbying legislators to change the law so it clearly protects hosts, like Warren, who are not trying to turn their homes into hotels.

For Warren's case, Administrative Law Judge Clive Morrick dismissed the building and zoning code violations but agreed that Warren did violate the illegal hotel law. He lowered the fee total to $2,400.

"While breech of the condominium rules is not of itself a ground for sustaining this (notice), respondent was in breach (through Warren's acts) and the existence of the rule against rental for transient, hotel, or motel purposes is evidence that the unit owners were to restrict their use to permanent occupation," Morrick wrote.

Airbnb issued a statement to CNET, saying it was disappointed in Morrick's decision:

This decision runs contrary to the stated intention and the plain text of New York law, so obviously we are disappointed. But more importantly, this decision makes it even more critical that New York law be clarified to make sure regular New Yorkers can occasionally rent out their own homes. There is universal agreement that occasional hosts like Nigel Warren were not the target of the 2010 law, but that agreement provides little comfort to the handful of people, like Nigel, who find themselves targeted by overzealous enforcement officials. It is time to fix this law and protect hosts who occasionally rent out their own homes. Eighty-seven percent of Airbnb hosts in New York list just a home they live in -- they are average New Yorkers trying to make ends meet, not illegal hotels that should be subject to the 2010 law.

Warren's landlord has 30 days from May 14, the date the decision was mailed, to appeal the decision, according to the Environmental Control Board, which oversaw the case. The board reviews cases related to regulations that "protect the city's health, safety, and clean environment."

Warren told CNET he hasn't decided if he's going to appeal the decision:

While I'm disappointed with the ruling, I'm relieved the penalty is far less than what the original fines seemed to be. I'd say it's now a pain in the ass, which is much better than life-altering. I'm also glad that four of the five violations were dismissed. I plan to talk to Airbnb before making any decision on whether to appeal. I like what Airbnb does, and I don't want this ruling to stand in the way of what I think is, overall, a great startup.

The case started in September when Warren rented his condo to a woman for a three-day stay. His housemate was also living at the apartment at the time, according to the hearing testimony, outlined in the document. He's used Airbnb for rentals twice before.

Airbnb stepped in at Warren's hearing on May 9 to argue that his case should be an exception to the New York law. Airbnb argued that "allowing such transient use supports the city's desire to preserve living accommodations because it allows tenant the ability to bolster their income and pay rent."

Airbnb's statement refers to the 2011 illegal hotel law at the center of this case. There are several exceptions to this illegal hotel law -- one is for houseguests who intended to stay for 30 days but did not actually stay for that length of time, and one for shared spaces.

Morrick found the first exception didn't even make sense:

In summation, petitioner (City of New York) asserted that the intent of houseguests or lawful boarders, roomers or lodgers is at least a 30-day occupancy even though they may leave after a shorter time. Respondent (Warren, representing his landlord) disputed this interpretation. On this point, I find petitioner's position untenable.The statute clearly states occupancy can be fewer than 30 days. And if houseguests, lawful boarders, roomers or lodgers were staying beyond 29 days, there would be no need for the exception because they would be permanent residents.

Warren argued for the second exception for shared spaces, since his housemate was living at the apartment during the rental period. Morrick decided the exception didn't apply because the renter had to be considered a member of the "household," with "access to all parts of the dwelling. Warren said his room door doesn't lock, but Morrick noted that his renter did not go into Warren's housemate's room during her stay.

Now, this doesn't necessarily mean New York will crack down on all Airbnb hosts. The city enforces this regulation when a complaint is filed. It's not clear why officials zeroed in on Warren's situation. But this has to have Airbnb worried about concerned customers, particularly because the company can't formally do anything about Warren's case. Airbnb's only recourse is to change the law.

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LG to demo bendable, unbreakable smartphone screen

A flexible OLED display inside protective covering.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

LG Display is preparing to demonstrate a new, flexible smartphone panel that promises to be unbreakable.

The new screen is set to pop up at the Society for Information Display's annual exhibition,Display Week 2013. The event, which showcases display products, is taking place this week in Vancouver, Canada.

The OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology used in the LG screen is apparently thinner, lighter, and more flexible than conventional LCD displays.

According to LG, the screen "comes at a crucial time when smart devices are being used more than ever and at increased risk for damage from drops, hits, and other accidents."

Yoon Bu-hyun, LG's vice president of mobile, revealed last month that the company plans tolaunch a smartphone with a flexible OLED screen in the fourth quarter.

But other companies are also eyeing the technology. At the Computer Electronics Show in January, Samsung demoed a flexible display technology called Youm, which it said will allow its partners to create bendable, rollable, and foldable displays.

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New MacBook Air imminent?

New MacBook Airs could be coming in weeks.

(Credit: Apple)

Signs may point to a refresh of Apple's popular MacBook Air. Possibly next month.

AppleInsider said Friday that at large online retailers like MacConnection, stock has vanished for the popular 13.3-inch Air with a 1.8GHz processor and 256GB solid-state drive.

That said, Best Buy has stock, but it's the "only reseller on AppleInsider's Mac Price Guide that is currently advertising available inventory," according to the Apple-centric site.

Dwindling inventory at authorized Apple outlets is usually an indication that a product refresh is imminent.

And what, pray tell, will Apple deliver with the next Air? It's pretty much a given that Intel's next-gen Haswell chip -- with improved graphics -- will be on board.

It's much less certain that Apple will adopt a Retina display for the MBA. Though the addition of a Retina display is seemingly a no-brainer, those displays still entail a lot of extra cost and can wreak havoc on battery life in thin designs.That processor will debut in early June, and Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference will follow soon thereafter.

The thinnest MacBook with a Retina display is the 0.75-inch-thick 13.3-inch MacBook Pro. But it's thick by MBA standards -- partly to accommodate a large battery -- an indication of the challenge of getting these displays into the most svelte designs.

High-resolution display technology is advancing rapidly, however, so Apple could surprise.

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Winklevoss twins on Bitcoin: Time to work with the Feds

Cameron (left) and Tyler Winklevoss, the twin Harvard graduates who competed in the 2008 Olympics as rowers and became Bitcoin investors and owners, say it's time to "work with regulators."

(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET)

SAN JOSE -- The Winklevoss twins, who transformed a lucrative Facebook payout into a venture capital fund, say it's now time for Bitcoin companies to work with governments rather than against them.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twin Harvard graduates famously portrayed in the 2010 film "The Social Network," showed up at the Bitcoin 2013 conference to talk up the future of what is the Internet's favorite alternative currency -- as long as it escapes a government crackdown.

"I don't think anyone wants a fight -- I think everyone here wants to build Bitcoin, to work with regulators," Cameron Winklevoss told over 1,000 conference attendees yesterday evening. "Cooperation is really the way forward."

The Winklevii, who became enough of a cultural icon to be immortalized with Snooki and Kermit the Frog in pistachio commercials, have motives that are far from altruistic: they reportedly own1 percent of all Bitcoins mined to date. They also led a seed funding round that yesterday raised$1.5 million for BitInstant, a New York startup that makes it easier to buy and sell Bitcoins.

"You can laugh all you want, but Bitcoin's real," Tyler Winklevoss said. "FinCEN acknowledges virtual currencies. They've given guidance, which is a big step." That's a reference to a March 2013 statement from FinCEN, an arm of the Treasury Department, which slapped Bitcoin exchanges with a hefty set of regulations borrowed from the banking world. Smaller U.S.-based exchanges promptly went out of business, prompting a Bitcoin Foundation board member towarn last month that the rules are "choking" entrepreneurs.

Lack of government control is precisely why Bitcoin has grown so rapidly. Unlike what devotees refer to with disdain as government "fiat currency" -- more can be brought into existence with a printing press run -- the supply of Bitcoins is sharply, algorithmically, limited. An all-digital currency allows people in places like Cyprus or Argentina to evade currency controls with ease. It also, in at least some ways, is far more anonymous than moving cash through the legacy banking system.

But that period of benign neglect appears to be over. The Royal Bank of Canada pulled the plugthree weeks ago on a Calgary startup that acted as a Bitcoin marketplace. An internal FBI reportpredicts "malicious actors will exploit Bitcoin to launder money."

A Homeland Security police unit that investigates money laundering crimes obtained a court order this week cutting off Dwolla payments to Mt. Gox, a Japan-based company that operates the largest Bitcoin exchange. The Feds allege that Mt. Gox lied about being a money transmitting business, a felony if true. (It also means that Mt. Gox employees, who are presumably aware of the legal troubles of Kim Dotcom and those gambling executives a few years ago, probably don't want to set foot on U.S. soil right now.)

That may be why Peter Vessenes, the executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation who's also enmeshed in a messy lawsuit against Mt. Gox, also stressed the need for governmental cooperation.

"We'll be hiring someone to work on [Capitol] Hill and interact with regulators," Vessenes said. "I'm someone who thinks we should have a civil conversation.... It's time to engage with regulators and have a good, productive conversation."

Then again, that didn't stop the E-Gold online payment system from being shut down after a federal indictment on charges of money laundering. Not only did E-Gold chairman Douglas Jackson interact with regulators, he even testified before the U.S. Congress a year before the indictment took place.

One difference is that Bitcoin is, by design, far more distributed. That's one reason why alternative currency enthusiasts and Federal Reserve critics love it so much: the merry band of libertarian activists from New Hampshire who produce the Free Talk Live radio show not only showed up at the conference but were also broadcasting live for a few hours from the event floor. The antiwar and liberty activists at BitcoinNotBombs were happily selling T-shirts for $20, or a fractional payment in Bitcoins, from their booth yesterday evening even after the conference had officially ended for the day.

So far, the informal alliance of liberty-minded aficionados and technical savants who embraced Bitcoin early on and the buttoned-down investors who merely want to get rich has held. But now cracks are showing.

One Bitcoin trader dismissed libertarian politics in a conversation with CNET yesterday, saying what's important is merely liquidity and a stable market and that Panama-based companies likeCoinapult don't help accomplish that in the eyes of regulators. At a booth a few feet away, conferencegoers were arguing about whether the Commodity Futures Trading Commission or the Securities and Exchange Commission would be the preferred regulatory agency for a fund that would let investors buy and sell Bitcoins. And many venture capitalists actually prefer regulation, believing it's a sign of a mature market.

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How Google slurps in Street View data -- not just from streets

The Street View snowmobile is used to map ski areas. Google had to adapt the technology to keep hard drives warm enough. Google showed the Street View technology at its Google I/O 2013 developer show in San Francisco.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO -- By now Street View is a routine part of online mapping. But people might not be so familiar with how Google actually gets the data for its 360-degree panoramic views of the world.

Street View imagery launched in 2007 with photos taken by cameras perched on cars. That's still the mainstay of the project, but there's much more to it now, and Google was showing off its methods at its Google I/O 2013 developer show here this week.

How Google gets all that Street View data (photos)

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Exhibits included not just a car, but also a snowmobile, tricycle, backpack, trolley, and self-propelled underwater camera system. The underwater and backpack systems are controlled byAndroid devices.

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Al Gore and Bono invest in Biz Stone's mystery startup

(Credit: Jelly)

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has picked up some interesting celebrity investors for his mysterious mobile startup Jelly. The list, published on the company's Tumblr Thursday, includes rockstar Bono, former vice president of the United States Al Gore, and Greg Yaitanes, the director of hit TV shows like "Lost," and "Heroes."

"We chose angels like Al Gore, a Partner at KPCB and Chairman and Co-founder of Generation Investment Management, Greg Yaitanes, a Hollywood director, and Roya Mahboob, an entrepreneur doing amazing work for women in Afghanistan partly because they work in divergent fields. Knowledge diversity is something we prize highly and is also something that will be represented in our product," the blog post reads.

Yaitanes, an angel investor of Twitter, and Gore, a partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, are no strangers to tech investments. Jelly didn't say how much money it raised this round.

Jelly's got some tech notables as well. Other investors includes Stone's fellow Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, The Obvious Corporation co-founder Jason Goldman, popular science writer Steven Johnson and Roya Mahboob, one of the first IT female CEOs in Afghanistan.

Spark Capital lead this first round of funding with additional investment from SV Angel. Spark General Partner Bijan Sabet will now serve on Jelly's board of directors.

Stone launched the startup earlier this yearand it's expected to be a product that people can use on smartphones or tablets. The funding announcement didn't give any concrete examples of what Jelly actually is, but it will probably be something involving the intersection of mobile tech and the social good, considering its angels.

"As mobile devices have taken an increasingly central role in our lives, humanity has grown more connected than ever--herein lies massive opportunity," the post reads. "With this capital raise, Jelly has the means to hire more great talent and continue building what we think of as the natural next step for our connected society. We will share more about Jelly from a product perspective when we move beyond early prototyping.

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Google I/O: What we didn't get

(Credit: CNET)

The Google I/O keynote for 2013 is here and gone, but not without a fight; at nearly 4 hours, it was enough to challenge even the most rapt attention span.

Yet, Google I/O's central keynote event had precious little of the things we dreamed of and evendownright expected. Instead, all most of us can seem to discuss is what we didn't get. Well, for starters:

(Credit: CNET UK)

No new Android OS: Despite a preshow rumor that Android Jelly Bean 4.3 would be unveiled, there wasn't any news. No Android 5.0, not even Android 4.3. Your Key Lime Pie fantasies will have to wait for another day; have another handful of jelly beans. Then again, with all the updates and services announced, maybe 4.3 is a way to tie it all together.

No new phones: Other than running a Nexus software environment on the Samsung Galaxy S4, there was no phone hardware news at all. No word of Motorola's mysterious X Phone, or anew Nexus 4, or anything else, really. Nothing. Just software.

No new tablets: In a similar vein, the supposed 1080p Nexus 7 wasn't announced or mentioned. Android, carry on.

No new Chromebooks: Sensing a trend? The Chromebook Pixel was frequently discussed (and given out to all attendees), but that product already exists (read the review here). Instead, the Google keynote honed in on Chrome's benefits in education, and how Chrome on Android is improving.

Sergey Brin showed off Glass at last year's I/O, setting a high bar.

(Credit: CNET)

No Glass news: Despite appearing everywhere from Robert Scoble's showering face to "Saturday Night Live," the futuristic, controversial Google Glass was barely even named, let alone discussed. I thought there would at least be some news. Those who made it in now own Explorer Edition versions of Google Glass, and -- well, as for other Glass news, new apps, or hints of what's to come -- there are the developer sessions over the next few days, but that's it.

No Nexus Q: The left-for-dead glowing orb of a streaming box given away last year and briefly sold was rumored for a reboot with games support. No such thing happened, although thatrumor died down before the keynote. Q remains, for now, in the Google Graveyard.

(Credit: CNET)

No crazy stunts, no Sergey: Google's 2012 keynote earned the company a reputation for wild antics: skydiving, indoor biking, and plenty of buzz, plus Sergey Brin. This year was the polar opposite: we ended with Larry Page discussing big ideas and raising difficult questions in an often somber, somewhat sad raspy voice that evoked Carl Sagan as he stood in front of a sea of Google Maps-generated stars. The rest was APIs, coding, streaming-music services, and education initiatives. Developers might have appreciated the down-to-earth pace of this year's keynote, but by the end we could have used a little craziness.

No smartwatch: No new hardware news, and certainly no curve-ball announcements. Nobody really expected a smartwatch, but recent rumors seemed to suggest that Google might continue exploring wearable tech. We should have gotten the early memo: a picture of the Pebble Watchappeared early on during the keynote, as if to say: that's already being handled, let's move on.

No self-driving cars: Larry Page discussed the value of Google's automatic cars for the future of humanity, but no actual cars appeared onstage, nor was there any news on that front. Some of these vehicles are on display in the main hall of Moscone, though.

No brevity: A snack break or brief leg-stretch would have helped. Luckily, there were power outlets and Ethernet cables under the seats. Otherwise, we would have stopped live blogging midway.

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Preorders begin for Canon's costly 200-400mm 1.4x lens

Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender

(Credit: Canon)

After keeping wildlife and sports photographers waiting for years, Canon has put a price tag on its 200-400mm supertelephoto lens with an unusual built-in 1.4x telephoto extender.

And it's not cheap: $11,799, at least on B&H Photo's preorder page for the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender.

Canon one-ups Nikon's $6,400 200-400mm lens with the 1.4x extender, which changes the Canon lens range to 280-560mm with a f5.6 aperture.

The built-in extender can be engaged by flipping a lever, a rapid operation that makes the lens more adaptable. And because it's built in, the extender is geared specifically for the lens' optics. Both traits set it apart from ordinary telephoto extenders that photographers must laboriously attach between lens and camera.

Canon shows 200-400mm supertele prototype (pictures)

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Excited photographers should rein in their expectations, though. "Due to high demand we anticipate being unable to fulfill all customer orders with our first allocation. Product supply from Canon is very limited," warns Amazon on its preorder page.

Canon announced the 200-400mm 1.4x lens in February 2011. A company representative said last year that Canon hoped to begin selling it in 2012.

It's got 25 lens elements, including some made of fluorite and ultra-low dispersion (UD) glass; that increases to 33 elements with the 1.4x extender engaged. It's also got Canon's SubWavelength Structure Coating (SWC) and Super Spectra Coating technology to minimize reflections and glare inside the lens when shooting into bright light.It's a very hefty lens, weighing 8.3 pounds (3.6kg) and measuring 14.4 inches (36.6cm) without its lens hood on. It's got a close-focus distance of 6.6 feet (2m) with or without the 1.4x extender.

The lens is weather-sealed and has image stabilization good enough to let photographers shoot for four stops slower than they ordinarily would. At least for stationary subjects, that means a photographer could shoot without camera shake at 1/60 sec. rather than 1/1000 sec., or alternatively, shoot at ISO 100 instead of ISO 1,600. Note, though, that camera manufacturers' shake reduction claims can be optimistic.

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Nikon 1 series gets a really fast prime

(Credit: Nikon)

One of the hardest parts of making an interchangeable-lens camera series attractive to people who use more than just the two basic slow zooms is the process of ramping up the lens selection. It's been a year and a half since the company announced its Nikon 1 series, and Nikon is still slowly filling out its lineup with the fixed focal-length lenses that attract the more advanced users. As of now, the company only offers eight lenses, six of which are pretty slow zooms. The latest addition, a 32mm f1.2 (with an equivalent angle of view to 86mm in 35mm terms) sounds like a welcome supplement to the two fixed focal-length options in Nikon's lineup.

Available in June for a not-insignificant $899.95, the lens incorporates a manual focus ring (not all the Nikon 1 lenses do); the Nano Crystal Coat that the company uses on its high-end lenses; Nikon's Close-Range Correction system, which allows for better sharpness at close distances; and its Silent Wave Motor to allow manual override of autofocus.

There do seem to be two potential drawbacks, though. First, it's only a seven-bladed aperture, the bare minimum you'd expect in a really good lens -- you can usually still see some polygonality in the bokeh with seven blades -- and second, there's no image stabilization.

Given the small sensor of the Nikon 1 and its 2.7x crop factor, it's unsurprising that we've yet to see any really wide angle lenses; the widest Nikon has managed is 18mm equivalent on its 6.7-13mm f3.5-5.6 model. But a small sensor makes for nice, compact telephoto lenses.

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