Yahoo unveils Livestand and other products for tablets, mobile devices
Yahoo Inc., looking to compete with Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. for eyeballs and advertising dollars, offered a sneak peek of upcoming products at its annual runway event.
The struggling Internet giant is pressing forward even as it faces an uncertain future. In a prolonged financial funk, Yahoo fired its beleaguered chief executive, Carol Bartz, in September.
Yet its products are still some of the most popular on the Web. And despite all the upheaval, Yahoo is following a product plan it laid out a year ago that emphasizes the growing popularity of tablets and other mobile devices to consume digital content.
Chief among Yahoo’s new products is magazine software for Apple Inc.’s iPad called Livestand that pulls content and video from newspapers, magazines and other publishers that appeal to users’ interests. It’s similar to the magazine apps from Flipboard and AOL’s Editions.
With Livestand, Yahoo is looking to reach consumers who are increasingly accessing digital content on tablets and other mobile devices to bring in more advertising revenue. Yahoo had hoped to roll out the app in June.
Other new Yahoo products that debuted Wednesday included an IntoNow iPad app for television viewing, Yahoo weather for Android, Yahoo mail for the iPad and some new social features.
Yahoo’s chief product officer, Blake Irving, took the stage to introduce the products. He also tried to set the record straight on what Yahoo is, a subject that has bedeviled him and other Yahoo executives in the past. Irving, who joined Yahoo from Microsoft Corp. in 2010, said there was “very little confusion” about the subject now.
“What is Yahoo? Simple. It’s the premier digital media company. Period. Stop,” Irving said.
