Mike and Allen discuss the implications of theYahoo-eBay partnership announced this week.  Is it a partnership that could have been forged awhile ago or an alliance necessitated by today's circumstances.

In this installment, Mike and Allen talk about Yahoo in Google in the wake of their respective analyst/press days. 

In today's installment, Mike and Allen trade shots over a curious new addition to Yahoo's stable of beta products, Yahoo Answers. What does it mean to extend to the online world the physical world experience of asking a general question to a group of people? We try to provide . . . an answer.

In today's installment, Allen and Mike 'cast about the evolving online video market -- a subject we'll be returning to regularly.  For today, we'll focus on Apple's iTunes vs. Google's online video offering. Will consumer-created content be a deciding factor in who owns the online video market?

Yahoo! launched a new search shortcut today, the details of which can be found on the Yahoo! blog. Essentially, it allows you to type in “shortcut” in the search box to take the stress off of your tired fingers. A keystroke here, a keystroke there…maybe you can ward off carpal tunnel a few more years.

My favorite shortcut is the one that literally starts with a bang (!). One that starts with a bang can take you directly to a given website. I made one called !Wot that takes me to this site.

Maybe I am missing something. I’d much rather have Yahoo! incorporate these shortcuts with Konfabulator to allow me to create graphical desktop shortcuts that avoid the search box altogether.

After seeing the top searches from Yahoo! for 2005, I think it’s time for me to go on vacation and get-reoriented to the real world. There are no top searches from the world of politics, critical world affairs or even such events as Hurricane Katrina. It makes you wonder if anyone over the age of 15 searches the Web.

The Yahoo! Search 2005 Overall Top 10 Searches:

1. Britney Spears

2. 50 Cent

3. Cartoon Network

4. Mariah Carey

5. Green Day

6. Jessica Simpson

7. Paris Hilton

8. Eminem

9. Ciara

10. Lindsay Lohan

As Mike and I mentioned on our most recent MADCast, we are crazy about Yahoo!’s new RSS feed reader which is baked into the Beta client of the new Yahoo! Mail (hopefully coming soon to a PC near you).

Today, if you go to Inform, you can create your own customized RSS feeds (and, of course loading them into your Yahoo! mail client). You need to do a search at which point you can follow a few steps and generate an RSS feed. You cut and paste the feed script into your reader of choice, and away you go. It’s especially useful for topics that don’t have a natural RSS feed. Worth a try.

The power of rich media search is growing. I am trying to put these pieces together: Barry Diller is now on Brightcove’s board coupled with IAC/Ask Jeeves’ newly announced deal with Go Fish, a rich media search platform. Diller is CEO of IAC. Factor in the news that AOL—a new partner of Brightcove—owns Singingfish, a powerful rich media search engine that competes with Go Fish.

Friends, partners, competitors. Where have we seen this before?

Google officially announced Google Base today (see below). My take? Well, it’s party eBay, part Craigslist and part this crazy Web 2.0 notion where every tags his/her own content and everyone else adds their tags along the way. At this point, the community tagging is missing here, but I am sure it’s to come.

Also, it appears to be part of Google’s “open” strategy in that the company applies as few limiting standards are possible to cut down on the typical friction required to get anything done on the Web. It’s like the company’s IM strategy in which it used an open (XMPP) standard to encourage as many developers and third parties to become part of the federation. Google can afford this approach because of its massive ad revenue flow. It will get even better for Google once it opens up the Google Wallet as a payment scheme. That has to be coming soon as well.

Google Base is an extension of Google’s existing content collection efforts such as our traditional web crawl system, as well as Google Sitemaps, Google Print and Google Video – all which enable content owners to easily make their information searchable via Google. The goal of Google Base is to improve the overall quality and breadth of Google Search results by collecting even more information about a wider diversity of content.

Similar to a database, Google Base enables content owners to describe and assign attributes to it the information they upload and uses this meta-data to better target search results to what users are looking for. For example, if a chef chooses to upload their very best recipe for tamales he/she can further describe that recipe with a photo or by assigning attributes such as “medium-spicy” or “spicy.” When a user searches for the word [tamale recipes] from the Google Base homepage they will be presented with a list of recipe results accompanied by a list attributes at the top of page which enable them to further refine their search to “medium-spicy” or “hot” tamale recipes.

Google Base also creates a new opportunity for content producers to submit any kind of information even if it’s not a web page or online. This could range from an old family photograph to a large database of museum artifacts both of which may not have been previously accessible online. As part of the early-stage beta, Google has been working with a variety of commercial and non-commercial information providers. Some of which include:

• ArtNet an online art information source and marketplace is uploading information on artworks, artists, galleries and auction records.
• CareerBuilder an online job listings site is uploading its listings with various attributes including geographic location, field of profession and other information.\
• Collegeboard.org not-for-profit membership organization is uploading free information for students and parents about college admissions, financial aid, college selection, and other college planning resources.
• StepUp a local shopping services company uploading product lists from a variety of local retailers so that people searching can learn where to by products from stores near them.
• World Resources Institute an environmental think tank is uploading links to data on sustainability issues such as climate change, human health, and resource consumption.