Consider the most successful celebrity news destinations online, and something else jumps to the top. For more than a year, one site has attracted more eyeballs than any other in the realm of celebrity gossip: Yahoo Inc.s omg.
With a dedicated staff of just five people, and more than a dozen shared with other Yahoo sites, the company has settled on a formula that Yahoo Media Group head Jimmy Pitaro calls “highly profitable,” though Yahoo wont reveal details.
The fact that Yahoos entertainment site outdraws rivals that aim to break news - such as TMZ.com, which broke the news of Michael Jacksons [...]

Bartz made the pledge Thursday during her first shareholder meeting since Yahoo hired her six months ago.
In the mostly amiable one-hour meeting in Santa Clara, Bartz also told shareholders she wont talk publicly about Yahoos on-again, off-again talks with Microsoft unless the two rivals make a deal.
Yahoo Inc. rejected a $47.5 billion takeover bid from Microsoft Corp. last year, infuriating many of its shareholders. Microsoft has since explored buying Yahoos search engine, but Bartz has downplayed that possibility.
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The change in command announced Wednesday isnt a surprise, given that Hoffman brought in Weiner as LinkedIns interim president to start the year. Weiner joined LinkedIn as Hoffman reclaimed his job as the Mountain View-based companys chief executive from Dan Nye, whom he hired to run LinkedIn in early 2007.
“It became real clear to both of us that this was the next logical extension,” Weiner said of his working relationship with Hoffman.
Weiner, 39, hasnt been a CEO previously, but he has experience overseeing an operation even larger than LinkedIn.
In his last position during a seven-year stint at Yahoo, Weiner oversaw [...]

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Yahoo filed its lawsuit Monday in federal court in Minneapolis.
According to the complaint, a licensing arm of the players union has threatened to sue Yahoo if it doesnt pay for the information. The last of Yahoos licensing agreements with NFL Players Inc. expired March 1. But Yahoo claims it doesnt need authorization, due to a court decision in April in a similar dispute between NFL Players Inc. and CBS Interactive Inc.
Fantasy sports league participants create teams comprised of real players. As the season progresses, participants track their players statistics to judge how well their team is performing. [...]

Bartz also played down the chances of Yahoo teaming up with rival Microsoft in remarks made Wednesday in New York.
Yahoo has been trying to streamline its operations and improve its online advertising system since Bartz replaced Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang as CEO in January. Bartz predicted it will take another 12 to 24 months to complete the transformation.
With the companys profits slumping since 2006, Bartz has continued to explore the possibility of turning over Yahoos search operations to Microsoft. But she emphasized Wednesday that Yahoo has a “bright, bright future” without Microsoft.
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An alliance in Internet search would have to enrich Yahoo, give Yahoo access to the “right data” and bring strong technology, Carol Bartz said at The Wall Street Journals D: All Things Digital conference. In the past, Yahoo has insisted it needs data culled from search requests to sell the most effective ads and tailor other services to suit its users interests.
Asked if she would consider selling all of Yahoo, she said, “Oh, theyd have to have BIG boatloads of money.”
Yahoo already has walked away from what would seem to be a boatload. Microsoft offered as much as $47.5 billion [...]

The Sunnyvale-based company previewed some of the upcoming improvements Tuesday as it updated reporters and bloggers on its two-year effort to gain a better understanding of what users really want when they make certain requests.
Its a challenging mission because the same search request can mean different things for different people. For instance, one person entering “Paris Hilton” may be looking for the latest dirt about the rollicking socialite, while another may simply want to make hotel reservations for an upcoming trip to France.
Yahoo thinks it is doing a better job, largely because it is able to track the search patterns [...]

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed that Internet service providers such as Yahoo are generally protected from liability for materials published or posted on their sites by outside parties.
But the court left open the possibility that the woman, Cecilia Barnes, could sue Yahoo over whether it had promised to remove the photos and the unauthorized profile, amounting to a breach of contract.
Barnes filed a lawsuit in 2005 in Portland claiming her ex-boyfriend not only posted nude photos taken of her without her knowledge or consent, but also created a fraudulent profile with personal information and posed as her [...]

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company disclosed the pay of Yang and its other top executives in its proxy statement filed Wednesday.
The breakdown of Yahoos top-paid executives in 2008 served as a reminder of the current shake-up at the company as its new leader, Carol Bartz, tries to end a three-year slump that has devastated Yahoos stock price.
When Yang stepped down as CEO in January, Yahoo President Susan Decker left the company rather than work for the woman who beat her out for the top job. Blake Jorgensen, Yahoos chief financial officer, also plans to leave as soon as Bartz can find [...]

The service will be shut down later this year. Visitors to the site now see a message that says new GeoCities accounts will not be available and gives them the option to sign up for Yahoos Web hosting service for $5.98 a month.
It is not clear when Yahoo made the move, but a spokesman said in an e-mailed statement that the decision was recent.
GeoCities is not the only Yahoo service to get the ax - Yahoo Briefcase, Farechase, My Web, RSS ads, Yahoo Pets, Yahoo Live, Kickstart and Yahoo For Teachers all are being eliminated as [...]