Yahoo after the bell 8-17-06

Yahoo started the trading session with news of being sued for defamation by the former head of the company's China operations. Unfazed by this news, Yahoo shares posted a 1.83% gain, or 52 cents, to close at $28.91.

Some other news of the past couple of days perhaps reminded investors of Yahoo's core strengths:

• Yahoo! Photos, which reported 30 million users, more than other similar services, launched the new version of the site today. New features include tagging, folders and other smart options users would find useful, I dare say. It seems that the new site is limited to U.S. based users but will become available world wide over time. One interesting point, though, is that Yahoo! Photos and Flickr still run independently without any intention of consolidating the two.
• Yahoo! Answers has been an immediate success ever since its launch with 14.3 million unique visitors in July. Starting two days ago, a Yahoo! Answers API has been available, meaning developers can create applications that use the Yahoo! Answers database to search on any topic, watch for new questions or answers in certain categories, etc. from within their sites.
• Mobile Search - A small non-assuming article in Forbes mentioned that Yahoo Inc has signed an advertising agreement with go2 (privately held). go2 is a directory system for mobile phones and will now feature Yahoo sponsored search listings on go2 mobile search results according to the agreement.