Yahoo today announced new features that will give its users even more access to updates from the popular social networking site Facebook, expanding a partnership the web companies struck last year.
Starting this week, people who use both Yahoo! and Facebook can link their accounts and view and share updates with friends across both networks. People who connect their accounts can consume their Facebook News Feed on the Yahoo! homepage and in Yahoo! Mail and other Yahoo! sites and services. Additionally, people who create and share content on Yahoo! sites - including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Flickr, and many Yahoo! entertainment sites, such as omg!, Yahoo! TV, and Yahoo! Movies can share their actions with friends back on Facebook.
Launched in October 2008, Yahoo! Profiles has allowed people to manage their identity and activities across Yahoo! from a central location. Yahoo! has made its privacy settings easier to use and to give people a central dashboard to manage what they share on Yahoo! from the external social accounts and apps that they have linked to Yahoo!, starting with Facebook and with others to come later this year. Yahoo! Profiles has been renamed Yahoo! Pulse.
The updated experience is available at http://pulse.yahoo.com.
The new features underscore Yahoo's efforts to tap the popularity of social networking, and keep its users from fleeing to hot sites like Facebook.