Yahoo Users to Switch Photo Sites
Yahoo is shutting down Yahoo Photos, a photo storage site, and asking users to move instead to its photo-sharing site Flickr, a Yahoo executive said in a report carried by Reuters.
Next month tens of millions of registered users of Yahoo Photos will be notified of their options, including moves to Flickr or various competing photo-storage sites, according to Stewart Butterfield, a co-founder of Flickr and a director of product management at Yahoo. Flickr was sold to Yahoo in 2005. Yahoo continued to operate both its older photo service and Flickr over the last two years, reflecting the different customer base of the two sites.
Yahoo Photos is a more conventional photo-finishing site, full of family snapshots, while Flickr has attracted a passionate fan base of amateur and professional photographers who use the site to share digital photos online, and for whom printing is largely an afterthought.
MSN Hotmail Goes Live
Microsoft is making available Windows Live Hotmail, the successor to MSN Hotmail. Microsoft asserts that the service was built from the ground up to enable a safer, more productive and more powerful web mail experience than previous versions. Windows Live Hotmail offers users flexible access to their e-mail — whether via the web, a mobile phone or a PC. Accounts start out with 2GB of storage.
Updating an account from MSN Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail is easy. When users update their e-mail address, their contacts and saved information go with them automatically. The new service also works seamlessly with other Windows Live services such as Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Contacts and Live Search.
Windows Live Hotmail is available in 36 languages including Arabic for the Saudi market. New customers can sign up for Windows Live Hotmail at www.hotmail.com, and existing customers can update from MSN Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail once they log into their account. For a brief overview of the features and technologies in Windows Live Hotmail see the Live Hotmail Fact Sheet at www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/msn/factsheet/hotmail.mspx.
How Much Is a US Home Worth?
Real estate website Zillow.com has released US home value reports for the first quarter of 2007. In addition to reporting appreciation rates and home values, Zillow is now comparing the “average” American home across the country. The average American home is defined as a three bedroom, two bathroom, 139 square meter house.
Not surprisingly, this home is worth the most in various California cities, with Santa Barbara topping the list at over $800,000. This home is the most affordable in the Midwest and South, with Tulsa, Oklahoma posting the most affordable value just below $100,000. Some of the greatest year-over-year appreciation in the “average home” was seen in the Pacific Northwest, with cities in California and Florida experiencing some of the greatest year-over-year value declines.
