How Google Can Lead the Fight Against Chinese Oppression

Google is putting its profits and growth on the line to stand up to China's authoritartian practices. Whatever we might suspect about its motives, the company deserves applause for that. Maybe now it can lead an allied, anti-repression tech force. More »

The French Resistance to Yahoo's Cost-Cutting CEO

Carol Bartz's lacerating eccentricity may captivate Silicon Valley, where she's cutting costs left and right. Not so in Europe: When Yahoo tried to shut down operations in France, workers made this surreal, defiant video. And went on strike, naturally. More »

Yahoo Puts a Price on Your Privacy: $10

Lawful online spying is so common, Yahoo has a detailed price list to reimburse for staff time helping authorities: $10 for basic account information, $35 for the whole email inbox, etc. China's authoritarians presumably get a discount.

Yahoo Confirms: Holiday Blowout Cancelled

Yahoo has indeed canceled this year's iteration of its infamous year-end bacchanal, a spokesperson for the internet conglomerate told us, confirming our earlier post. There will instead be "department/location based events... in line with industry norms." Norms=boring. (Pic)
#holidaze

The Year End Party Is Over for Yahoo, We're Told

We hear Yahoo is canceling its annual "Year End Party" for 2009. That's quite a change for a company that last year held three company parties and additional bashes at the departmental level, amid layoffs. More »

Yahoo's Lesbian 'Don Juan' Backhands Lindsay Lohan

Courtenay Semel, the sapphic spawn of former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, is quoted in the lesbian magazine Curve dissing former lady friend Lindsay Lohan. Then she complains that the media twists her relationships. The nerve of this one. More »

Über-Programmer Ditches Yahoo Over 'Lame' Microsoft Deal

No one likes Yahoo's search deal with Microsoft. Wall Street wanted more up front money; tech elites called it an abdication, a "shame" and "seppuku." Now Yahoo is losing a programming icon over the embarrassing arrangement. More »

Monuments to Hubris: The New Tech HQs That Harbinger Doom

Historically, big tech companies start building new gigantic corporate campus instead right before they implode. Oh, look: Yahoo's drawing up plans for a 42-acre project and hadn't laying off thousands of workers. More »

How to Blow $3.5 Billion

Yahoo finally shuttered Geocities today. Acquired in 1999, Geocities was one of the costliest dot-com duds of of all time: $3.5 billion for an ugly, cash-bleeding homepage hosting service. And to think Google's founders were simultaneously begging server funds. More »

Carol Bartz Too Sick To Explain Financial Performance

Carol Bartz has "come down with something," Yahoo's chief financial officer tells Wall Street, so the CEO was absent from a third-quarter earnings call. Whoops: Profits tripled this quarter, but Bartz's illness is a ready-made metaphor for Yahoo's falling revenue. More »
Yahoo has apologized for providing lap dances on stage at a Tawian programming event. Critics aren't mollified, and that's probably just as well: it's all but certain something like this will happen again soon. More »

Yahoo's CEO Is a Thumb Sucker

Quirky Yahoo chief Carol Bartz enjoys cursing like a sailor and "crawling into a hole" with chocolate. We now learn she also likes time outs: "I come home. I suck my thumb and don't talk to me." No problem. (Pic)

In Messy Divorce, Ex-Yahoo President Accused of Being a Druggy, Philandering Spy

Sue Decker's tenure as Yahoo president was full of corporate intrigue. But it's nothing compared to her ongoing divorce in which her husband's lawyer is brandishing accusations of illegal drug use, "extramarital affair(s)" and secretly recording him at home. More »

Current Yahoo CEO Isn't 'Stupid' Like Certain Other Yahoo CEOs

Carol Bartz's CNBC appearance today was great P.R. — sharp and personable instead of defensive and sweary — but couldn't be good for morale back at the office. The Yahoo CEO kept talking about Yahoo fuckups. More »

Yahoo's CEO 'Wanted to Crawl Into a Hole and Eat Chocolate'

Carol Bartz's critics nearly put her into a chocolate-eating funk, the Yahoo CEO wrote in a recent memo. But now is no time for "staring at our navels... Get out of the sugar low." Maybe with some chocolate! Wait... [AllThingsD]

How to Delete Any Photo on Flickr

Yahoo deleted a controversial caricature of "Joker" Barack Obama from its creator's Flickr account. Why? Someone with an obviously fake name filed a copyright complaint. More »

Flickr Shuts Down Discussions About Flickr Constantly Shutting Things Down

Flickr deleted a controversial Barack Obama caricature; it nuked thousands of pictures over some comments about Obama. What sort of political expression is allowed on the Yahoo photo-sharing service? Unclear: Flickr decided a conversation on the topic was... not allowed. More »
#deals

Yahoo Learns New Definition of 'Safe'

In September, Yahoo touted Firefox to Internet Explorer users as a "safer" browser. Now it's doing just the opposite. Funny what an innocent little "search agreement" can do to one's perception of the world. [TechCrunch]

Flickr Loses a Few Thousand More Pictures, with No Recourse

A Flickr user is complaining loudly that the photo service allowed 3,000+ of his photos to be deleted by a hacker with no warning. Now they're supposedly gone, forever. When will Flickr start making backups? More »