Yahoo is once again planning a bold move in the tech space as recent reports suggest that the company might be planning to put up its own video platform to rival that of Google’s YouTube.

According to source of recode.net, the company is planning to build its own video platform and it plans to accomplish this by pirating YouTube content providers by offering larger monetary incentives and bigger ad revenues for their videos. There are even reports saying that Yahoo is promising content providers a chance to feature select videos on the company’s home page.

The supposed video platform will reportedly be exclusive to those video content providers handpicked by Yahoo. Ordinary consumers will have to wait after a year before they are given access to the platform, by that time Yahoo would have put up its own content management system or bought an existing video service such as Vimeo.

Of course, these are all hearsay and there’s no guarantee that a video platform is in the pipeline, so we do recommend taking this news with a handful of salt. And in case we get more juicy details about this issue, we’ll keep our blog updated as soon as we can.

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Yahoo has announced today on its blog that it has detected a coordinated attach on its system that targeted Yahoo mail accounts.

According to the company’s investigations the list of usernames and passwords that were used to execute the attack was likely obtained from a third-party database and that Yahoo has no reason to believe that their system was directly accessed.

The breach was said to target specifically the names and email addresses stored on the affected users’ sent items folder. Yahoo has already notified the affected users and has advised them to change their passwords. Yahoo has also implemented a two-step verification process to re-secure users’ accounts.

As of the moment, Yahoo has yet to announce how many users are impacted saying the details of the breach is being used as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. 

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Yahoo might be joining the video-sharing battle with Facebook’s Instagram and Twitter’s Vine with its recent acquisition of Qwiki, an iOS app that takes photos, music and clips and turns them into short videos.

According to a report by AllThingsD, the deal is said to have cost somewhere between 40 and 50 million dollars. However, unlike other Yahoo acquisitions, Qwiki will reportedly stay in the App store and continue to be supported. Qwiki’s team will then be relocated into Yahoo’s New York City office which is just a few miles for the company’s current office.

Although the app is very similar to what other video-centric app does, its CEO and co-founder Doug Imbruce said in a statement last February that they want Qwiki to be known not as a video-sharing app but more of a story-telling app. But with Yahoo’s acquisition, will Qwiki still push for this vision or will it be Sunnyvale company’s answer to Vine and Instagram? What do you think?

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People say that politics makes for strange bedfellows. But in the tech world fierce competition can also sometimes push former rivals to instantly become BFFs. And this might be the case with Yahoo and Google as Yahoo’s CEO hinted that the company might be developing apps for Google Glass.

In an interview during the Wired Business Conference in New York yesterday, Yahoo’s Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer (who also happens to be a former Google executive) said that Yahoo has gotten its hands on some developer versions of Google Glass and their staff is looking on how to people can use Yahoo’s programs on the device.

Yahoo and Google were once head to head competitors in the search business, in which Google eventually prevailed while Yahoo slumped back to third position just behind Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Since then, Yahoo has tried to revitalize its efforts to get more traction for its products and services, one of which was the change of leadership in the company which saw the appointment of Marissa Mayer as CEO.

Marissa Mayer’s current strategy for Yahoo is to put the company back into people’s lifestyle by positioning its products in areas where people spend most of their time – mobile to be specific. In fact, Mayer said that the company’s moonshot is to bring its products to very smartphone, every tablet, every PC, every day for every internet user.

And although Marissa Mayer didn’t specify whether Yahoo will be releasing any apps for Glass, it’s not at all surprising if the company starts developing apps for Google’s headgear. Besides, what’s more mobile and close to a user than a piece of technology that you actually wear?

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Yahoo continuous its assault on mobile as it adds popular to-do-list app Astrid in its growing list of mobile company acquisitions. The announcement was made on Astrid’s website in which the company stated its course of action for the next few weeks.

Astrid which made its name as a collaborative to-do-list app was first established in 2008 by Tim Su and Jon Paris and has amassed approximately 4 million users worldwide.

As with recent Yahoo acquisitions, the entire team of Astrid will be absorbed by Yahoo to work on its projects. As for the app, the company said it will continue to work for the next 90 days but will no longer accept any new premium subscriptions. The company has also stated that they will soon contact users to help them download their data and that any users who have existing annual subscriptions will be able to receive refunds after they shut down the app.

Details about the deal have not been revealed yet but sources say that Yahoo paid a hefty price for Astrid in contrast to other acqui-hire arrangements. This might be due to Astrid’s nature as a social network. Unlike Summly which Yahoo bought for a reported $30 million, Astrid comes with an existing base of mobile users on top of the productivity technology that it utilizes for its app which makes it a bit more valuable.

Both companies are highly optimistic about the acquisition with Astrid’s CEO Jon Paris saying that he and his team are really excited in joining Yahoo’s team and in helping the company realize its goal of making the world’s daily habits more inspiring and entertaining.

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Yahoo has been very busy these past couple of months, actually making headlines just a few days ago when it announced that it will be shutting down several of its long time projects to focus its efforts on the development of apps.

And based on the looks of its new weather and mail apps, it seems that the company’s decision to streamline its portfolio was a good one. Both the weather and mail apps sport a new interface characterized minimalist yet highly visual user interface. Today, Yahoo announced its flagship app for iOS which integrates features developed by its recent acquisition – Summly.

Summly, which was acquired by Yahoo last month for a reported $30 million is a mobile app for iOS that summarizes news feeds into short and condensed version for easy consumption. After the acquisition, Yahoo absorbed the Summly team including its founder 17-year old Nick D’ Aloisio into its app development wing to start working on Yahoo’s mobile apps.

And today, the result of this acquisition is reflected on the company’s new app. The app provides Summly summaries of new stories in a “virtually endless” newsfeed that is shown on semi-transparent panels on top of images stretched across the entire width of the display. The app also let users to drill down on specific categories and allows users to like or flag topics which they deem interesting or not.

Searches done on the app as well as preferences set inside the app are also reflected on Yahoo’s site both for the desktop and on mobile as long as the user is signed in using his Yahoo ID. The app is currently available to US customers only but an international roll out is sure to follow.

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In a surprise move today by Yahoo, the company shuts down several of its projects to focus on new projects similar to its new Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Weather mobile apps. The projects that will soon face the chopping block include Deals, Yahoo Upcoming, Yahoo Kids, Yahoo SMS Alerts and the J2ME feature phone versions of Yahoo Mail and Messenger.

According to Yahoo’s corporate blog post, the decision to shut down the said projects is in line with the company’s efforts in bringing its products closer to its users. The blog post also adds more detail on how the company will go forward in shutting down the said services which is also outlined below.

For users who have accounts with these programs, the company advises them to download any information they have uploaded to the site including events saved on Yahoo Upcoming and coupons saved on Yahoo Deals.

For other programs like SMS alerts, and Yahoo mail and messenger for feature phones, Yahoo encourages its users to use other sites and services currently offered by the company including Yahoo’s News, Weather, Sports and Finance apps. Yahoo mail will still be accessible via mobile web for feature phone users.

For Yahoo! Kids, users under the age of 13 can register for a Yahoo ID through the company’s Family Accounts program, use Yahoo Mail and Messenger to connect with family and friends and find family friendly films using Yahoo! Films.

Lastly, June 3^rd will be the last day that people can use older version of Yahoo Mail. Those who are still using these versions are encouraged to switch to the new Yahoo Mail as soon as possible.

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