With the introduction of the new Yahoo! homepage, sharing interesting tidbits has just become a little bit easier, and, a little less complicated.

The next time you visit the new Yahoo! homepage take a look at the top right corner (right above the “Popular Searches” module). Here, you’ll see “Hi, YOURNAME.” Hovering over this produces a drop-down menu that provides you with quick access to your profile.

Want to update your status without leaving the homepage? Easy! Just hover to the right of your name. Doing so will conjure up a “status” box, allowing you to plug in a link, message, or anything else you’d like- all without ever having to leave the homepage.

Lastly, if you’ve been connecting with people across Yahoo!, you should be seeing other people’s activity in your updates stream. In the “My Favorites” column (on the left side), you may see a row titled “Updates” (1). (Don’t see it? Click on the “Add” button (2) next to the “My Favorites” title and click “add” to include it in your list of favorites). If one of your connections has published an update, you’ll see a number next to the “Updates” name . Hovering over the “Updates” button will produce a pop-out menu that includes a snapshot of your connection’s updates.

Want to see what the rest of Yahoo! is up to? Try clicking on the  “everyone” tab.

These latest additions to the Yahoo! homepage make it easier to share what interests you with your connections, and, find new people across the network.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Prior to August 17th, if you wish to have your age hidden, you must also hide your full profile (see below for instructions).

After August 17th, accounts that are in the midst of the 35-day waiting period, or, have just started it, will automatically have their ages hidden. Once your account has passed the 35-day verification period, you will have the option of hiding or showing your age. Thank you for your patience.

Following the announcement of the new age verification process, several of you had a variety of questions surrounding this new feature.  Below, please find a list of the most commonly asked questions on this new topic:

Q: How do I know if I’ve started the 35-day waiting period?

A: The best and easiest way to tell is to click on your profile, and then click on the “Edit Profile” link. While on this page, if you do not have the option of editing your age, you have triggered the 35-day period and should be able to edit your age information within the next 35-days.

Q: How will I know when my 35-days have passed?

A: Currently, the only way to tell whether your 35-days have passed is to log into your profile and attempt to edit your age. We’re aware that this is frustrating to some users and are working on ways to alleviate this frustration.

Q: Right now my age shows on my profile-how do I hide this while I’m waiting for my 35-days to pass?

A: Currently, the only way to do this is to completely hide your profile while you’re waiting for your 35-days to pass. To do this: click on the “Settings” link located at the top right of your profile. Under the “Permissions” tab, you will see a “Hide My Profile” link located right above the “Save” button. Click on this link, and a pop-up confirmation message will appear. Select “Hide My Profile”, and your profile will remain hidden until you decide to unhide it. (Note: Your display name will still be visible to others even if you hide your profile).

Q: My age shows as one thing on my new profile, but that’s not what I had entered. What’s the deal?

A: In the past, you were able to share your age with Yahoo! in several places, including: your profile, the old profile, and your Account Management page. For some users, they showed one age on their profile, and another within their Account Management page. This change consolidated this information. Once your 35-days are up, you’ll be able to edit your age back to whatever you’d like, and it should remain this way across the network.

Q: Once my 35-days has passed, can I hide my age?

A: Yes! You’ll be given the option of hiding your age from your profile. However, it’s important to note that your age will still be visible to YOU but not your connections.

Q: I am under 18 or my child is under 18-I do NOT want my/their age showing. How can I prevent this from happening?

A: Users who are under the age of 18 will not have their age show while waiting for the 35-day period to pass. However, their age does, and will, show to their connections. This can be removed once the user has passed their 35-day waiting period.

Q: Will everyone’s age be editable in 35 days from the time of this announcement, or does everyone’s day vary?

A: UPDATE: The 35-day period is variable-this means that this process begins whenever you change your security questions. To jump start this process, please go to the login screen for Yahoo! and click “I can’t access my account” — if you have not already selected a new security question, you will be prompted to do so when you log in. Otherwise, you’ll be randomly prompted to change your security questions when you log in. For more information, please read this post from Yodel, our corporate blog: http://ycorpblog.com/2009/04/14/a-24-hour-locksmith-for-your-yahoo-account/

Q: Why are you making this change? It seems like it opens us up for more fraud than before. What gives?

A: By making this change, your data is actually more secure. Previously, you could have used your birthday as one of your security questions. This means that if someone knew your email address and your birthday, they could potentially log into your account without your permission. Now, you cannot use your birthday to verify your account, which ensures that your account and your data is more secure.

Q: If it’s so secure, why are you showing my birthday now?

A: Currently, we’re only showing your age (which you can hide by hiding your profile)-not your actual birthday. This setting is triggered AFTER you have changed your account verification question, ensuring that your identity is not up for grabs whilst you wait for your 35-day period to pass.

Q: Why could we hide our age before, and can’t hide it now?

A: Previously, users hid their age by selecting a “blank” space from the dropdown menu. This is not the intended behavior of profiles. Once you’re able to edit your profile you’ll have the option of hiding your age by selecting a “check box.” You will still be asked to enter your age, but this will not be publicly displayed.

While I know that this change may come as a surprise to many of you, it’s important to note that should you wish to hide your birthday while you’re waiting for your 35-day period to pass, you’re welcome to hide your profile completely. To do this, please follow the instructions above, or, follow this help link: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/profiles/permissions/02.html

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Prior to August 17th, if you wish to have your age hidden, you must also hide your full profile (see this post for instructions).

After August 17th, accounts that are in the midst of the 35-day waiting period, or, have just started it, will automatically have their ages hidden. Once your account has passed the 35-day verification period, you will have the option of hiding or showing your age. Thank you for your patience.

Over the past couple of days, a few of you have commented asking how you can change your age or birth date within your profile.

The profiles team and membership team are currently changing the way you enter your age on profiles so that your age is automatically calculated for you based on the birth date you enter.

We are also introducing a birthday reminders feature by Sept 1st that allows your friends to know when your birthday is coming up and vice versa, if you choose to share your birthday.  In order to do this, we changed the way you access your Yahoo! account when you’ve forgotten your password. In the past, you verified your identity by entering your birthday. Now, you verify your identity by answering a few secret questions. You may recall selecting your secret questions during a recent login.

While we transition everyone to this new verification procedure, you’ll still have the option of keeping your birthday as a way to recover your account for 35 days after you selected your secret questions.  To protect your data during this time, we’ve omitted the ability to change your birthday for 35 days after you change you answered the secret questions. At the end of these 35 days, you can edit your birthday through the profiles edit page and this will change your age.

You will be able to edit your birthday and age in 35 days from the ‘edit basics’ page: http://profiles.yahoo.com/edit/basicinfo

Please note: many of you are commenting on the fact that your age currently displays to other users. This has been the case with profiles since launch. Age, sex, and location has always been shown as public data.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

If you use a different ID for your Picassa, YouTube, Last.fm or Yelp accounts, you can add them one-by-one using the “Username” box. (2)

Currently you can share from 19 different sites (in addition to all of the Yahoo! properties that are found on the Updates page, and we’ll be adding more in the near future.

By linking your third party-sites with your profile you’re able to easily share your activity with your connections on Yahoo!. Once you’ve added a few third-party sites, you’ll be able to manage your preferences from the Updates page. As always, your options are: Anyone, My Connections, and No One.

If you don’t want to see this module on your profile page just click on the grey “x” in the corner and it will disappear. (3) Once you click the “x” you can access the same content by visiting the “Share More” page, found here: http://profiles.yahoo.com/share_more/

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

By now, some of you may have taken the time to explore this new feature, but if you haven’t here’s a quick walk-through of the new blogging tool’s features.

Getting started

Once you’ve set up your profile on Yahoo! you’ll notice a “My Blog” module in the right column.

Composing an Entry and Permissions

Clicking on the “Compose Entry” button will take you straight to the blogging module, where you’ll be able to compose your first entry.

From here, you can edit the title of your blog (each title defaults to the current date, just like a diary), and begin your latest entry.  (1)

When composing an entry, you have the option of adding links, images, and video.  I’ll outline each of these features later on in this post. (2)

Once you’re through writing, click “Post Entry” to post your blog to your profile. (3)

After you’ve composed an entry or two, these will show up in the right column under the “Most Recent Entries” title. (4)

To easily change your blog’s permissions, click on the hyperlink in the right column (5)

This will take you to the Permissions page, where you’ll be able to select whether or not you want your blog entries to be viewable by “Anyone,” “My Connections,” or, “Me Only.”

It is important to note that if you set your blog to be viewable by “Anyone” this also permits “Anyone” to comment on your blog.

Blogging Tools

When composing an entry you have several tools at your disposal that allow you to easily inject more personality into your posts.  Below you’ll find a quick walk-through of the tools found within the blog editor.

B: This is the universal symbol for “Bold.” Use this to bold your text. Either select it prior to typing (and all subsequent text will be bolded until you deselect this option), or, highlight the text you’d like bolded and then click on the “B” icon to bold it.

I: Just like the Bold icon, this is the universal symbol for “Italic.” Use this to italicize your text. Either select it prior to typing (and all subsequent text will be italicized until you deselect this option), or, highlight the text you’d like italicized and then click on the “I” icon to bold it.

U: Just like the Bold and Italic icons, this is the universal symbol for “Underline.” Use this to underline your text. Either select it prior to typing (and all subsequent text will be underlined until you deselect this option), or, highlight the text you’d like underlined and then click on the “U” icon to bold it.

T (Font Color): This is the text color grid. To activate it, you must first select a batch of text to “colorize”. When you do this, you’ll be presented with a drop-down menu that allows you to select from an assortment of colors.

13 (Spin Button): Just like the color grid, to activate the size tool you must first select a batch of text to enlarge. All blog entries default to size 13 font. To increase the font size, use the “up” arrows. To decrease, use the “down” arrows next to the number. You can also use “Control + Shift + Up Arrow” and “Control + Shift + Down Arrow” to toggle between font sizes.

Create an Unordered List: Have a list of facts or details that you want to share? Use this feature to create a bulleted list. To use this feature, you can select the feature first, and then begin typing your list, hitting “return” (or, “enter”) to move on to the next bullet point. Or, if you already have a series of items entered and just want to bullet them, just highlight the list (each entry should be separated by a “return” or “enter”) and then click the “Unordered List” button to format your entries. Using this feature automatically activates the text color wheel and the size buttons.

Create an Ordered List: This feature works the same way as the “Unordered List” option, but instead of displaying a series of bullet points, this option will create an ordered list. (See above for formatting tips). This feature also automatically activates the text color wheel and the size buttons.

Add a Link: Want to share a link? Use this feature to insert a hyperlink into your Article. To hyperlink a word, first type the word you want hyperlinked or, just select the word within the entry you want to hyperlink, and click on the Link icon. When you do this, you’ll see a pop-up menu that says “Link Options,” which will allow you to enter the link URL and a description, if you want. You’ll also have the option of selecting whether or not the link will be opened in a new window or in the same window. By selecting the “Open in a new window” box, you’ll enable your readers to stay on your blog page, and, explore the link you’ve presented them with.

If you’ve hyperlinked too much, use the “Remove link from text” link in the bottom corner of this pop out window to remove it.

Insert an Image: Spice up your entry by adding an image from anywhere on the web. Clicking on this icon will present you with a pop-out window that will allow you to configure your image options.
Your blog within your profile does not support uploading images straight from your computer. Instead, we allow you to find an image on the web and place that image’s URL in this box. This will insert your image straight into your blog entry.

To adjust the size of your image, either manually adjust the pixels in the size window, or, once you’ve clicked “Done” you can manually resize your image by grabbing a corner and dragging it.

Adjusting the “Text Flow” will allow you to reposition your image within your blog entry.

Adding a description is optional and does not display beneath the image. Instead, when a viewer hovers over the image they’ll see your description as a yellow pop-up.

The “Link URL” option allows you to hyperlink your image to another location on the web. This can be used to send readers back to the original location of the image (like your Flickr album), or, to a relevant site that relates back to your entry.  Selecting the “Open in a new window” box will open a new browser window and will allow users to stay on your blog entry and viewing the new webpage.

Add Media: Click on this icon to embed a video from your favorite video sites into your entry. All you need to do is grab the embed code and click “Done.”

Yahoo! Video Users:  Click on the envelope icon at the bottom of the video. The Embed code will appear above.

Flickr Video Users: Click on Share This at the top right of the screen, and then click on Embed it in the box that appears.

YouTube Users: The Embed code is to the right of the video, inside the information box.

Edit HTML Code: Clicking on this icon will switch you over to “HTML Mode.” Doing this “greys out” the WYSYWIG tools to display your blog entry in HTML format. This way, if you’re an old pro at HTML, or, just prefer to edit between carrots (< >) you’re able to.

Your profile page

Once you’ve hit “Post Entry,” your entry will show up on your profile page. When you’re on your profile you’ll notice that the blogging feature defaults over to the right column. If you prefer to give your entry a little more space, just grab the entire box and drag it over to the first column.

On your profile, you’re able to rearrange the “Guestbook,” “My Blog,” “About Me” and “Updates” modules. This allows you to rearrange your content in whatever way you deem fit. The only modules within your profile that are static are: “Connections,” “Invitations to Connect,” and your contact card (this is the top portion that contains your name and display image).

That’s it! If you have questions about the blogging tool, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below, and I’ll respond to as many as I can.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Just like other Yahoo! properties, you’re able to manage your settings right from your profile by visiting the http://profiles.yahoo.com/settings/updates/ page. Here, you’ll be able to select whether or not you want to  share your updates with “Anyone” “My Connections” or “No One”.

(It is important to note that the first time you try to adjust your “Share Settings” for Yahoo! Groups, you’ll have to scroll down to the bottom of the “Manage My Updates” page, and then select “Show All Yahoo! Sources” to expand a larger list of Yahoo! properties, including several Yahoo! Groups properties).

Once you’ve configured your settings, you can adjust your opt-in and opt-out preferences. These can be managed on a group-by-group basis, and are done from Yahoo! Groups, not your profile on Yahoo!.

Here’s how:

To get started, first visit your My Groups page (http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups ). Then, click on the “Edit My Groups” tab where you’ll see a column titled “Yahoo! Updates.” From here, you’ll be able to adjust your updates settings for each group you’re a member of.

You can opt to “Share my Updates” and “Prompt me before sending updates” or, “Never prompt me before sending updates.”

Once you’ve configured your privacy settings accordingly, return to your favorite group and test it out by uploading a photo. When you’re through uploading a photo, we’ll prompt you with a pop-up window, asking you whether or not you want to share this update with your connections.

You can opt to keep this pop-up on (so that it appears each time you upload a photo), or, you can switch it off, by checking the box that reads “Don’t ask me for this group again.” Please note that by checking this box you’re granting Yahoo! permission to share all of your photo updates for THIS GROUP ONLY with your connections. You may change this setting at any time by visiting the My Groups page.

After you click “Yes” your new photo will appear on your profile page on Yahoo!, under the “Updates” section.

Please note, the update does take some time before it shows up on your profile. We have designed to system to send data to your profile in series of buckets rather than every single request.

It’s important to note that what YOU see on your Updates page is a bit different than what your connections will see.

Here’s an example of what you’ll see (if you were to upload 5 LOL cat images to your group):

As the “updater” (or “uploader”) you’ll see each image broken down into individual updates, giving you the option of deleting updates, one-by-one, should you change your mind. (To delete an update, just click on the grey “x” next to the update).

However, your connections would see a more condensed view (like what you see below):

And that’s it! If you want to completely opt out of Yahoo! Groups Updates, be sure that all of your Group settings are set to “Never” share my updates (this setting is found on the “My Groups” page) and, that on your profiles page, you have set your Yahoo! Groups settings to be viewable by “No One.”

For more details on privacy, profiles, and more, please check out this particular post that was initially written for Answers users, but covers major questions and concerns regarding profiles and privacy.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Like most Yahoo! properties, Answers allows you to control your settings from both the property level (http://answers.yahoo.com) and the profile level (http://profiles.yahoo.com)

Within Yahoo! Answers, you’ll have the option of sharing your questions (or answers) with your connections each time you ask or answer a question. This option appears in the “Preview your question” stage of asking your question-here, you’ll be able to “Manage your Updates.”

This gives you total control over what information is shared with your connections, and when it is shared.

By default, Updates will be set to “Don’t share my Updates” to keep your content private unless you choose otherwise.

You’ll have the option of changing this setting any, or every, time you ask or answer a question on Answers.

Once you’ve answered a question on Answers and have decided to share your Update, you can further refine who sees your Updates by adjusting your settings on your profile.

To adjust your settings, click on the “Updates” tab in your profile, and then “Manage my Updates.“

Scroll down to “Show all Yahoo Sources.” Click, and locate “Yahoo! Answers,” and select your privacy settings (Anyone, My Connections, No One), and hit save.

After you’ve selected and saved your preferences for Yahoo! Answers from the “Show all Yahoo Sources” menu it will move up to the top updates menu, for easier access.

Once you’ve customized your settings, you can delete specific Updates (without affecting the lot) by clicking on the “x” by that Update, in your Update stream. This will delete that specific Update from your Updates stream without affecting any future Updates of that kind.

If you want to disable your Updates all together, deselect the “Share my Updates” box at the top of the “Manage my Updates” page and click “Save.”

Updates allow you to share your activity on the network with people you know and have connected with on Yahoo!. To prevent this information from being shared, be sure your settings on Answers are set to “Don’t share my updates.”

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

What types of sites would you like to see more of? (Social Networks (MySpace, Orkut, Facebook); Photo-Sharing (Photobucket); Bookmarking (Digg, etc.); Blogging (WordPress, etc); Shopping Sites; Ticketing; etc)

To see what services are currently available, log into your profile, and then click on the “Updates” tab up at the top (1) , and then click on “Share More” (2).

To share your thoughts on what other third party sites you would want to see on the “Share More” tab, please leave a comment below. Feedback will be shared with the Profiles product team. Thanks!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

For those of you who have tinkered with the Guestbook feature you might have noticed that it supports some HTML-this means that for those of you wishing to share links with your friends, this might be a great way to post your favorite website, page, or site until the “Cool Links” functionality returns to profiles.

To do this, just enter some basic HTML code for links in your Guestbook. You’ll be using the “a href” tag (you can see it in the screenshot below, and in the visible code below)-just substitute in your URL where the http://www.yprofileblog.com is, and then add in the appropriate description text after the carrot (that’s the >) where it says “Profiles News Blog”.

<a href=”http://www.yprofileblog.com”>Profiles News Blog</a>

Once you hit “Post Comment” the code will show up as an active link, ready for your connections to click and view!

For those of you wishing to share your Guestbook with anyone who happens across your profile, you can easily do this by going to the Settings page and then selecting “Anyone” from the drop down by Guestbook. To restrict the Guestbook to your connections only, just change this to “My Connections,” and click “Save” at the bottom of the page.

Hope this helps and have fun using your new Guestbook!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Not familiar with Yahoo! Buzz? It’s a recent addition to the Yahoo! family launched in February 2008 that allows you to submit stories you find online, or, more commonly, vote up stories that other users have already submitted.

Last week the Buzz team added a few new social features, including commenting, updates, and viewing your connections’ activity. If enabled, whenever you “buzz up” a story, it shows in your new profile, providing another way to share your interests with your connections.

To check out the latest changes to Buzz, be sure to visit http://buzz.yahoo.com and start buzzing! The main page of Buzz scrolls through the top buzzed stories in the last 12 hours (default, but you can change it to cover more or less time), the top searches, and your most recent connection updates.

In order for you to “buzz up” a story or comment on a story, you must be logged into your Yahoo! account, and can opt to have this information displayed on your profile and to your connections.

To change your settings on whether or not you want to share your Buzz updates, you can go to the Settings tab in your profile, and then click on Updates. Then, check or uncheck “Yahoo! Buzz” depending on your preference. (For a shortcut, just click here: http://profiles.yahoo.com/settings/updates)

If you’re a blogger (like me) you can submit your own stories to Yahoo! Buzz by going to the publishers page for more information.

You can quickly and easily add a Buzz widget to most blogs, letting your connections know what you’re up to much more easily. For more details on adding the Buzz widget to your blog, please visit the Yahoo! Buzz publisher’s page. Or, to manually submit a story you find online, go to: http://buzz.yahoo.com/submit/ to share your story’s details.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager