So far you’ve probably noticed that Yahoo! has shut down many of their old services such as Yahoo360 and GeoCities. And then you may have discovered that Yahoo! has released a new marketing campaign, homepage, search engine, and have started going nuts about selling ads in their new search result pages.

A lot is changing with Yahoo!, and even the famous yodel is subject to change. In fact, earlier last week, Yahoo! set up a mobile recording studio in the middle of Times Square and invited anyone passing by to record their version of the yodel. Lucky winners with the best yodel will become famous and earn bragging rights that their yodel is the official Yahoo! yodel. The yodel was one of the things discussed in the interview with Elisa Steele.

She offered assurance that Yahoo! was going to continue using the original yodel; however, to align properly with their promise of making Yahoo! all about about person relevance, they are going to be collecting personal yodels around the globe. In fact, in addition to setting up mobile studios, such as the one in Times Square, Yahoo! has created a web based Yodel Studio.

So you might wonder why would Yahoo! want to re-brand after 15 years of being one of the most widely recognized and successful companies in the world. It may seem strange that Yahoo is investing time and money into creating one of the largest re-branding campaigns ever. Yahoo decided to launch their new brand campaign is to remind consumers where Yahoo! is today, and the kind of services they can offer people in the modern era of the Internet today. Check out this video below that captures the exclusive thoughts of Elisa Steele behind the new Yahoo! marketing campaign.

This Q&A with Elisa Steele is the first in a new series of videos called Yahoo! Yodelcasts, hosted by Nicki Dugan, blog editor for Yahoo!

To stay on top of current events and news about Yahoo! I recommend reading their Yodel Anecdotal blog and subscribing to their RSS Feed. It wouldn’t hurt to pick up a subscription to their YouTube Channel as well.

What are your thoughts about the new Yahoo! and do you think that their new marketing efforts will cause you to switch to using Yahoo! Share your thoughts in the comments below.

In a press release, Yahoo! said that they are launching a new global brand campaign to celebrate its connection with people and communicate core product enhancements. This global brand campaign will be considered their single largest global intergrated marketing campaign ever. They claim that the core of their message will focus on YOU.

Yahoo! says that the global campaign will celebrate all of your individual wants, needs, interests, and passions. Yahoo! further explains the reasons behind this is because they really care about you and want to continue evolving their company to adapt more towards being able to offer you more of what you want and less of what you don’t. They say that they want to make the web your own, and they’re designing products that put you in control of your Internet experience.

Elisa Steele, the executive vice president of Yahoo! said that their vision is to be at the center of people’s online lives and claims that the gloabl brand campaign is more than an advertising campaign. She said that it’s about delivering a promise to the market and an illustration of their level of commitment to provide a relevant online experience for users.

With the launch of this new campaign comes the launch of a new website called, Y!ou and Yahoo!. The site is designed to house all the elements of the campaign. On the site you can learn more about global brand campaign, share information and opinions with others in various official Yahoo! social network profiles, download audio news releases, and view official television creatives and banners.

Today Yahoo! launched their all new Yahoo! Search, claiming to make results more presonally relevant. According to Yahoo!, they have been soft testing their new engine with a percentage of users. Yahoo! claims that their new search is designed to help users find and explore their interests better by enhancing user experiences.

In addition to the newly launched Yahoo! search, there have been quite a few surprises occurring with Yahoo! over the last few months. The first big was their newly launched Yahoo! homepage. If it’s been awhile since you’ve been to Yahoo!, you might want to check it out. You can now use apps to view your favorite sites from the comfort of the Yahoo! homepage.

Other recent improvements include a new and enhanced version of their Yahoo! Mail, as well as higher quality video calling features in Yahoo! Messenger. Lastly, Yahoo! has a new suite of mobile features worth checking out as well. All in all, things are looking pretty good for Yahoo! At least I can say that they’re actively trying. And you know what, I think they are doing quite well. I actually enjoy visiting Yahoo! again. That’s something I couldn’t say just a year ago. Much has changed, and I hope they continue moving in a forward direction.

What are your thoughts? Do you think Yahoo! will succeed in the long term, or will they eventually become a dot Com failure? I’d really hate to see Yahoo! go, would it matter to you though? Share your thoughts below.