End the indecision! Ask your friends what they think easily and efficiently using the new My Yahoo! app Whaddyathink?

How? Simply add the Whaddyathink? app to your page and then follow these simple steps:

1) Once it’s on your page, click the “Create A New Poll!” link to go the the app’s “full view”. This will take you to a page with the title “Create a new Poll”. Now you can create a simple opinion poll for our friends!
2) In the “What would you like to ask?” field, type a question that’s been on your mind. Let’s use the example above, “Should I get the new iPhone 3G S?”
3) In the “What category does your poll fit in?” section, pick a category that best suits your question. For the iPhone question, we’ll go with the “Computers” category.
4) In the “Choices” section, enter possible answers. For our example, “Yes” and “No” will be perfect.
5) When you’re satisfied with your settings, click the “Submit” button and you’re done!

After submitting this form, you’ll be taken to the results for your newly created poll. As expected (unless your friends with lightning quick reflexes have already voted), you will not see any results yet.

Now that we’ve covered voting, let’s explore the results this app delivers, starting with the small view. Click the “My Results” tab in app on your My Yahoo! page to see a summary of your results from the small view. If you want to dive deeper, including a breakdown of who voted and how, click the Whaddyathink? logo at the top of the small view, which will quickly take you to the full view of the app.

In the full view of the app, results for a poll are broken into three sections: categorical summaries, a graphical representation of votes, and a listing of who cast each vote. The categorical summaries include the “Most thumbs up”, “Most thumbs down”, and “Most controversial” results visible in the small view, and also “Highest participation”, “Lowest participation”, “Highest overall”, and “Top performer”. If the “Most thumbs up ” and “Most thumbs down” categories are equal, check the “Most controversial” section to help break the tie.

The graph portion of the results shows the total number of votes for each choice. Roll your mouse over the bars in the graph to get a reminder of what they represent. Roll over the points on the line to see the data represented by each point.

In the vote listings, the icon and name for the voter link to the voter’s profile page. A voter may vote up and down for different choices, and you can see these responses reading horizontally for each voter.

Now you know how to create a simple opinion poll on My Yahoo! and analyze your results, you can build your own! Check back next week for details on how to vote and invite your friends to participate. So, Whaddyathink?

Erik Eldridge
Whaddyathink? team member

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

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

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 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

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

This new addition will allow you to pick any beloved photo from your Flickr account and frame it on your My Yahoo! page. You can also slide the columns to increase or decrease the size of the picture to fit perfectly on your page. Check out the scenic picture below from my recent trip to Peru.

I think the best part about this app is that you can change it in an instant. Whatever your current interests or vacation photos are… you can display it with a few clicks of your mouse. Click here to add it to your page and start your day with a special photo. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.

Josephine
- My Yahoo! Marketing

SCOTUS Blog is one of the best feeds around for following all things related to the High Court. The author mixes up political news with policy analysis and looks at rulings from the nine justices.

If you want an in-depth look at Supreme Court rulings as they are made, look no further than the Supreme Court Blog which is pretty technical and detailed.

For more of a big picture perspective, NPR’s Legal Affairs Blog gives astute overviews of the implications of Supreme Court happenings.

The nomination of Sotomayor may have never happened if it weren’t for the historic rise of President Obama. Her life story also has some uncanny parallels to his. Follow the continuing drama of Obama’s administration through the images on Yahoo! News.

Jay
My Yahoo! Editorial

Here’s how to get started:

1. Go to your My Yahoo! page and use your cursor to hover over the space between two columns. (You will notice that the cursor will change to a slider icon.)

2. Click your mouse and the space between the columns will highlight.

3. Now move the cursor left or right and the columns on either side of the spacer will grow or shrink.

Why would you want to do this? Look at the sample I have above. The default layout has the list of links in the left-hand column, a wide center column, and a narrow right hand column. I think that the Weather app and the Today app would look better if they used less space on the page. If I had more space in the right had column, the Headlines app would appear more comprehensible and easier to read. So, let’s try it out!

After dragging the space between the two columns more to the left, I was able to make the page easier to digest… Oh yeah, this is much better!

I hope you’re enjoying these little product enhancements. Please continue to let us know how we can make your My Yahoo! better. We love to read your opinions in the comments section of this blog.

Now, go customize your page. You can add a new tab, add some new content, change your background theme, adjust the columns, and enjoy everything My Yahoo! has to offer!

Michael
- My Yahoo! Team Lead

If you have a lot of apps on your page, you may find it difficult to see the background image clearly. See my example below… I chose a photo from my Flickr account that I took in an airplane when I was flying into Cleveland. I have always loved this shot because it reminds me of where I was born. However, the steel blue color background of the individual apps is covering up most of my picture.

To make the background of the apps transparent, click on “Change Appearance”, then “Customize Theme”, then click on the area under the label “Header” (it has copy like “Text”, “Links” and “Visited Links”). You’ll see the option to make the background see-through. Check the box. Click “I’m Done”.

The background color of all the apps has been made transparent and the background theme image will now show through. Oh yeah!

Next time, I’ll tell you about another little customization feature that should bring a little slice of joy to your My Yahoo!. Stay tuned.

Michael
- My Yahoo! Team Lead