My Yahoo! Blog

How smart are you really?

Are you tired of working? Have you checked your email for the thousandth time? Are you bored of chatting online? I’ve got something to cheer you up and throw your boredom out the window. It’s a new app called, Hey Einstein. This app offers a wealth of different quizzes to test your knowledge of topics from the Seven Wonders of the World, historical facts, or even a quiz on shark attacks! This is not your average online quiz, it’s challenging, fun, and you never know… you could be a genius!?

One of the great features in this application is that you can see how you stack up against your friends and connections. This feature really brings a competitive edge to the game – so try not to cheat by checking Yahoo! Answers when challenging your friends (wink wink).

Whether or not you are a history buff or science fanatic, this new app will provide you with daily entertainment. So, if you’re in the mood for a brain teaser and some wide ranging trivia then give Hey Einstein a try – you won’t be disappointed.

Josephine
- My Yahoo! Marketing

Pump it up.

Summer is officially here. You can always tell when the summer season has arrived because the gas prices start to rise. How do I know that gas prices are rising? Keep reading. If you’re like many people who have chosen a stay-cation or short weekend trip for your summer break, I have something that will come in handy.

My Yahoo! has a new app called the “Gas Buddy”. Essentially, this app provides you with a quick glance at the cheapest gas prices in your area so you can save on your pocketbook. You can also view interactive historical gas charts and gas price temperature maps so you can easily keep up to date. I find it interesting to check out our gas prices over the past 2 years. We’ve really been on a roller coaster!

Now, you can sign into your My Yahoo! page, find out where to fill up your tank, and see if it’s a good idea to go on a road trip this weekend. With the current economic climate, what more could you ask for? C’mon you know you want to try it…

Josephine
- My Yahoo! Marketing

Try our mint.

During these tough economic times, it’s more important than ever for working parents like me to manage our finances wisely. So, I was really excited to hear that Mint.com was building a new personal finance app for My Yahoo!. My husband and I have been using the Mint service for over a year, and we have found the service incredibly useful for managing our family’s finances.

When I installed the Mint Personal Finance app , I was impressed by the amount of personal financial information I could see on my My Yahoo! homepage. I can now see how I’m doing as far as cash vs. credit card debt, alerts on unusual financial activities, and a breakdown of all my spending by category. I can even see how my investments are performing against the S&P 500.

But, perhaps one of the most useful aspects of this app is its ability to help me stay on track with my budget. One of the most challenging items on my monthly budget is food, because it’s just so easy to eat out a lot. Now, I can use the Mint app to stay on track by checking the budget graph. Judging by the graph, it looks like I can still afford to go out for a nice meal in June, given I’m still in the green for restaurants and groceries!

In addition to giving me a useful and accurate snapshot of my financial health, the Mint app also protects my privacy. I really appreciate how the app doesn’t reveal any of my personal account balances or bank info, since all of the information within the Mint app is displayed as relative trends and percentages. I don’t have to worry about a co-worker or customer seeing my checking account balances if I happen to leave My Yahoo! on my screen. And, if I want to see all of my detailed financial information in private, I can click into my Mint.com account from the canvas view of the app.

It’s great to have a new app on My Yahoo! that helps me manage my money quickly and safely. Whether you are new to Mint or already a user of the service, I recommend that you check out their new app on My Yahoo!.

Julie
- Yahoo! Developer Network

What’s cookin’ on My Yahoo!?

If you’re a serious foodie, a wine enthusiast, or just interested in either, we’ve got something new that I think you’ll love. Thanks to the nice folks at Snooth, we have a new app called “What’s Cookin’ – Food & Wine Pairing”. This easy to use app allows you to find a ton of different recipes and the perfect wine pairing to go with it. In addition, if you have been saving that perfect bottle of wine for a special occasion (like me) but are unsure of what to serve with it, this app will provide you with a solution. Bingo!

What’s great about this app is that it provides you with a lot of options. Have a specific dish in mind? You can search for particular dishes or wines or even stay within a specified budget. Need help deciding what to eat and drink? You’ll get suggestions with the highest rated food pairings and most popular recipes of the day. Plus, you can bookmark the links to your favorite wines and recipes so you can go back to them at any time.

For those of you who are interested in the developers that built this app, here’s a little background on the company. Snooth is a well-known wine site that allows you to quickly search for, compare, and purchase wine online. They are famous for their wine pairings, wealth of information, and community of wine lovers, amateurs and connoisseurs alike.

Now, try the app. Bon Appétit!

Josephine
- My Yahoo! Marketing

Open! Open! Open!

Open Apps are here! If you don’t already know, Open Apps allow you to interact with information and tools for just about anything that you’re interested in. Open Apps can also help you connect with friends and people you care about. Built by third-party developers for Yahoo!, Open Apps can be added to your My Yahoo! page so you can view them at a glance. Last week, we announced several new apps that are now available for you to enjoy. This is all a part of our ongoing commitment to providing great new content, features, and tools from some of the Web’s best developers.

We have all kinds of apps to make your life more efficient and fun. There are apps to help you manage your personal finances, find cheap gas prices by zip code, keep track of your medications and receive alerts to drug interactions, to do lists, and even an app to research schools for your kids. For more entertaining content, we offer a blogging app, a meal and wine pairing app, games, and quizzes… it’s all there! To find a list of our featured apps, click on “Add Content” and then on “Open Apps” or click here .

Wait! That’s not all; you’ll be able to find hundreds of apps by searching from within the app gallery . (Example: Try searching for “games” from within the app gallery search box and add a few like Chess or Scrabble… take a break from all that productivity.)

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting several of these new apps in more detail. Give them a try! If you’re a developer and want to create your own app, see our guidelines on the Yahoo! Developer Network.

One last thing… we’ve consolidated all of the options for every app into one “Options” menu on the upper right-hand corner. All of the functionality that each app supports can now be found in one place. Also, you can now minimize or maximize your apps easily. Just click on the “-“ button on the top left hand corner to minimize it or click on the “+” button to maximize it. Maximizing will also refresh the app to display the latest content. Well, that’s all for now. Keep checking back for more information on our Open Apps.

Michael
- My Yahoo! Team Lead