Exploring the Yahoo! homepage just got a lot more fun. To kick off the new year, the Brand Marketing team is rolling out a series of Y! Bang animations that will appear on the homepage, periodically replacing Yahoo!’s familiar purple logo. Along with reflecting the lively energy of the brand, the animations will be timed to celebrate notable occasions and raise awareness for meaningful causes.

“Among other things, the Yahoo! brand is fun, and these animations are a representation of that,” says Connor Smith, Brand Marketing Associate in the Global Brand Marketing team.

Connor and the Brand team plan to develop close to 40 animated designs for 2012. The current animation is for Chinese New Year. In this animation a rabbit hops into the scene, pauses, and then bolts out as a dragon walks in.

“The animation is a tongue and cheek reference to the Chinese zodiac- 2011 is the year of the rabbit, and 2012 is the year of the dragon” explains Connor.

Clicking on the animation will bring you to a relevant Yahoo! page, providing a deeper user experience, whether it be more fun or more facts. The Chinese New Year animation will link to a page on Chinese astrology within Shine’s horoscope section. Some of the more cause-related animations, such as the breast-cancer awareness and World Aids Day designs, will provide additional Yahoo!-generated information on the issues.

Click here to view the Chinese New Year logo which appear on Yahoo! from midnight to midnight on January 23rd. Stay tuned for the next animation – this time for the Superbowl -- on the Yahoo! homepage.

What's a Chief Yahoo? It's a guy who dreams, inspires, and rolls up his sleeves while working side-by-side with teams in the trenches. We're talking of course about Jerry Yang, Yahoo!'s co-founder.

Before the wired world was neatly organized and so readily accessible, we actually had to browse page after page of Boolean look-ups to find stuff. But Jerry Yang and David Filo changed all that. The year was 1994, and in a trailer at Stanford, these two guys began creating a guide that eventually became a directory of sites dubbed "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," or Yahoo!. Yahoo! is now a brand known around the globe, and the world's premier digital media company, but only because of the vision and hard work of its two founders.
A few days ago it was announced that Jerry has decided to move on from Yahoo!, leaving it in the capable hands of our new CEO Scott Thompson, Jerry's old pal "Filo," and the 13,000 + Yahoo! employees worldwide.
Jerry, whatever trailer you choose to take your talents to next, we know you'll rock the world with your vision. This yodel's for you.

-- All of Us at Yahoo!

Reposted from Yahoo! Advertising Blog.

What a way to start 2012! After an intensive four-month search, Yahoo! has named Scott Thompson as chief executive officer. Thompson comes to Yahoo! from eBay’s PayPal unit, where he served as president of the leading online-payment site since 2008. The tech guru has also served as the chief information officer for Barclays Global Investors and Visa Inc.’s Inovant. He plans to apply his dedication to innovation, speed, and discipline to carry Yahoo!, the premier digital media company, into the new year. In Thompson’s own words: “I cannot wait to get started.”

Here are six fun facts to keep you up to speed on the new CEO.
-    The 54-year-old New Englander hails from the small town of Raynham, near the south shore of Massachusetts. He’s a die-hard fan of all things related to Boston sports. Listen closely for his distinct Boston accent, which the Wall Street Journal calls “the best New England accent in corporate America since Jack Welch.”

-    Thompson’s father was a small-business owner, which inspired Thompson’s own professional path. He remembers, “What [my father] did and how he did it is why my brothers and sisters and I are where we are today.”
-    Thompson is a proud graduate of Stonehill College, a small private Catholic school in Easton, Massachusetts, where he holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and computer science. “A lot of things form the basis of who you are,” Thompson said in an interview, “and I give Stonehill the appropriate amount of credit for helping shape me along the way.”
-    The left-handed Silicon Valley resident is married with two sons and a daughter.
-    Thompson was the recipient of the 2011 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
-    During his time at PayPal, Thompson helped to more than double the payment service’s revenue, boosting it from $1.8 billion to $4 billion.

Quick Quotes From Thompson
-    “Pretty religiously, I start [my day] on some Yahoo! site in the morning.” – On his longtime loyalty to Yahoo!.-    “I’m from Boston; [we’ve been] the underdogs since the beginning of time. Hopefully that spirit has held through. I like doing complicated, very difficult, very challenging things.” – On his ability to step up to the challenge of becoming Yahoo!’s CEO.
-    “I want to return this business to being one of the great iconic brands. I have a core belief that what happens in the next five years — and the next ten — is almost impossible to imagine.” – On his vision for the future of Yahoo!.
Quick Quotes About Thompson
-    “When he took over PayPal it was far smaller, much more like an emerging startup that eBay absorbed a couple years earlier.” – Gil B. Luria, Wedbush analyst, on Thompson’s success at PayPal (via Wall Street Journal).
-    “Scott brings to Yahoo! a proven record of building on a solid foundation of existing assets and resources to reignite innovation and drive growth — precisely the formula we need at Yahoo!.” – Roy Bostock, Yahoo’s chairman of the board, on the decision to appoint Thompson as CEO.
-    “Thompson is a seasoned executive and a smart operator with particular depth in technology.” – Wells Fargo analyst Jason Maynard in a report to clients (via San Jose Mercury News).