You already use Facebook Messenger to stay connected to your world. Now, thanks to four new Yahoo bots that are algorithmically-driven, coming to Messenger today, you can stay on top of what matters to you. Follow stock market trends or share weather forecasts without ever leaving Messenger. And for those of you longing for a pet monkey, your dreams have come true. 🙈🎉
Introducing…
Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance), exclusively on Messenger. This bot allows you to search the latest news and information in order to stay on top of the stock market and ever-changing world of finance. Follow market trends, read finance news and play fun games, then easily share information you find interesting with your friends.
Stay on the pulse of current events by searching with the Yahoo News bot (@YahooNews) to discover trending stories and dive deeper into the news that interests you most. Even search for specific news articles to send to your friends directly in Messenger.
Start a conversation with your friends using Yahoo Weather (@YahooWeather) on Messenger. Caption and share beautiful Flickr images that bring the forecast to life.
Send as many emojis as your heart desires to MonkeyPet (@MonkeyPet), an emoji loving virtual pet that shares selfies from its “travels.”
You can try searching with these bots today by going to Messenger on your mobile phone (both iPhone or Android) and messaging @YahooFinance, @YahooNews, @YahooWeather or @MonkeyPet.
Want to help us make these bots better? Just message “Feedback” to any Yahoo Bot to share your thoughts directly with our team. We’re excited to learn from you, as we continue to iterate and improve the new bot experience on Messenger.
At Yahoo, we’ve always built experiences at the intersection of search, communications and content to help you connect with what matters most to you. Today, we’re thrilled to announce three new Yahoo-powered bots, available on Kik. We are excited to explore how messaging will change the way that we all discover and engage with information.
Whether you’re planning a weekend outing, dreaming of a Parisian vacation or simply celebrating summer sunshine, check out weather information for multiple cities with Yahoo Weather (@yahooweather). Because messaging is all about sharing, we’ve made it really easy to share weather conditions, brought to life by beautiful Flickr photos, with your friends on Kik.
Yahoo News (@yahoonews) helps you discover, delve deeper and share the stories that interest you most. Just chat this bot to learn what’s trending. We’ll also share a morning and evening news digest with you.
Lastly, you can adopt a pet monkey right on Kik – meet MonkeyPets (@monkeypets). With care your virtual pet will grow and thrive. It’ll also teach you a thing or two about emoji and our beautiful world as it shares selfies from its travels.
You can help us make these bots better by sharing your feedback. Just write “Feedback” to any Yahoo Bot to provide input with our team. But first, try them today by adding @yahoonews, @yahooweather or @monkeypets as friends on Kik! We can’t wait for you to try our first few bots!
Search in Apps was first introduced at the Yahoo Developer Conference back in February. Since then, we’ve been working hard with mobile developers across the U.S. to build awesome in-app experiences with Yahoo Search.
As users spend more time in apps, we want to provide a seamless search experience that is always available, no matter what app they’re using. Today we’re excited to announce the Search in Apps integration with
,one of the most popular mobile keyboards in the industry.
This integration with TouchPal will roll out initially in the U.S., giving more than 16 million Android users access to Yahoo Search directly from their mobile keyboard. By bringing search to the keyboard, Yahoo makes it easy for users to find and share information from virtually any app they’re using.
Over the next few months we’ll continue to work closely with Touchpal to bring more features to the Yahoo Search integrated TouchPal experience. Stay tuned for more!
In the run up to this last Mother’s day my wife’s book, The Runaway Mommy (published in 2013) was downloaded over 7,000 times in just a couple days. It has been encouraging to see all the positive reviews pour in as reader’s continue to appreciate her humor and the artistry of the Scott Rim, the Illustrator. If you are the parent of small children, or any adult still dreaming about what you want to do when you “grow up” I am sure you will enjoy this picture book for parents.
Below is a review I wrote when the book was published.
Full disclosure: I am married to Jane Kuo Paris (the author) and am the father to the two wonderful children who helped inspire this story. I wanted to provide my perspective for those who are curious about purchasing this book for themselves or someone in their lives.
I love how in each vignette, Jane and Scott remind us how children change everything. With our limited time, the sacrifices we make to raise children are real, as are the authentic imaginings captured in this book - of paths in life that are left behind, bypassed, or indefinitely delayed. This book reminds us that we are not alone in our loss of freedom and autonomy.
Yet, the short story and the extraordinary artwork remind why the sacrifices are worth it. Seeing the bunny interrupt the daydreams of his mother, reminds me of the innumerable times where my kids’ antics have changed my plans. While many of these experiences were maddening in the moment, in hindsight, they remind me how much more I love my kids than the pristine furniture, perfect vacations, and a clean career path.
Seeing our lives with children in them is different… we trade one set of adventures for another. Far from discouraging parenthood (and motherhood in particular) this book celebrates the adventure of parenting, in a way that both parents and kids will enjoy.
I had the honor of announcing Yahoo Search in Apps at the Yahoo Mobile Developer Conference on February 19th, 2015. We announced it as part of the Yahoo Mobile Developer Suite. We start talking about search at 38 minutes, 25 seconds. There is also a follow up discussion later in the day.
Runaway Mommy, the picture book for kids and adults that I published last year is now available for free via digital download until Monday, May 5, 2014.
For over 10 years my focus, the one thing I strove to do well at was campus ministry. During my time at UC Berkeley my studies of physics and chemistry became secondary to my desire to help others explore the mysteries of the christian faith. After graduating I focused my career entirely on mentoring university students equipping them to go out as agents of change in our world. The books I read, the movies I watched, and the conversations I had were almost entirely about this mission. Campus ministry was my main thing - and by most accounts I did it well. But am also deeply grateful that throughout this time I worked on side projects.
In the early 2000’s my side project was writing software to make routine tasks easier. I wrote scripts to file expense reports, send out newsletters, and reconcile lists of donors and donations. I worked on web apps to follow-up with new students, share files with colleagues, and help students register for conferences. All of these side projects were in the service of university ministry.
As I look back, I realized the code I wrote was mediocre at best. It wasn’t efficient, concise, or intelligible. And while it is hard to admit, the programs I wrote probably took more time to write than they eventually saved. Still, with the perspective of hindsight it is clear that the time was well spent.
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I largely agree with Andy Dunn’s exhortation to “get one thing right.” Flitting around doing many things poorly will seldom help anyone. The advantages of specialization are at the roots of human civilization and I would be the last person to argue against focus, radical prioritization, and doing at least one thing in life with excellence. That said, for most of us the “one thing” we are trying to get right today won’t be the same “one thing” a few years from now. The question I want to address is how do we discern the “one thing” for tomorrow.
After spending my 20’s as a campus minister, I wanted to join the “agents of change” I was sending into the world. I dare say I felt called by God to have an impact outside the context of the university. While I wasn’t a great programmer my side projects taught me what it took to get something built. I was equipped to credibly invite talented engineers to join me and build something great together. My side projects helped me identify my interests, abilities, and values and gave me skills, experiences, and opportunities to step out with a sense of calling.
In 2007 some friends and I built Graceful Tools, a web service that helped tens of thousands of students arrange meetings and register for conferences. In 2009 I started another company called Todoroo, focused on helping people do the right thing. Again it helped tens of thousands of people achieve their goals. But it was a side project called Astrid that lead to the eventual success of our company. My co-founder Tim Su, originally built Astrid to learn Android programing and to nag him to get stuff done. In 2009 when Todoroo became our thing we tried to get right, I insisted we keep Astrid alive. Two years later, we were glad we did, when it became clear that Todoroo wasn’t the right “one thing.” We went on to raise funding form investors including Google Ventures because of Astrid. By the time we sold Astrid to Yahoo, users had downloaded the application nearly 5 million times.
This past year my wife worked on a book entitled Runaway Mommy, an imaginative reflection on the joys and challenges of parenting young children. Right for her writing is side project, but personally I think her writing is brilliant and I’m sure she will write again.
What creative projects are you working on? Great things often start small and on the side.
If you are a parent of young kids you are sure to relate to the Runaway Mommy, written by Jane Paris, my wonderful wife. Watch the campaign video and you’ll see some our kid’s antics that informed the story!
These last number of years Jane has been the biggest supporter of my work with IVCF and Astrid. She bore the lion’s share of child care duties and, until I joined Yahoo, she was also the family’s primary bread winner. My boys and I are forever indebted to her for sticking with us and holding the family together through many a trying time.
This book shares the understandable imaginings of someone with potential to live out many experiences but at the moment is embedded in a less than glamorous story. The concise prose and beautiful illustrations portray the dreams deferred and the adventures of parenting.
To provide feedback, support the campaign, and share with others who are in this very special and challenging time of life please visit the Runaway Mommy Kickstarter Campaign.
