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1. Yahoo is working on its Instant Messenger 9.0 BETA. The new recent features added are:

• Viewing your contacts by their Yahoo! ID vs. their full name
• New expanded contact list
• Message formatting in the IM window
• Installation problems for Windows Vista users
• Games are missing from the IM window
• The LAUNCHcast plug-in

There are also a few things about Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta that you may not know about. One is that 9.0 is the first version of Messenger that is unicode compliant. This means that it supports IMs and status messages in many more languages than before. A few other interesting tips… 9.0 will remember your status between sessions.

2. Kickstart is a new service aimed at helping college students and recent grads connect with alumni, employers, and professionals.

Kickstart was inspired by research done with college students who are experiencing first hand the biggest transition of their lives: their initial career choice and job/internship search. Students and recent grads kept saying, “I don’t know who to connect with to help me get a job.”

3. Yahoo! has a new search. Search can help you go from “to-do” to “done”. Check out the video demos.

4. The Site Explorer has been enhanced. Or fixed.

Last week we announced that we were working on a fix to correct discrepancies in the page and inlink data counts. The good news is that the fix is now complete. You should see consistent page and inline counts in Site Explorer, whether you’re logged in or logged out.

Try a query in Site Explorer to confirm. As always, let us know your feedback.

I really want Yahoo! to be a bigger competitor for Google in terms of SEO and search. Maybe even expand their Yahoo! Publisher Network, because more options is always better.