Short Takes: Yahoo’s Own Sites Need iPad Boost

By Mike Shields • November 2, 2011 •

Yahoo’s tablet play Livestand is finally here, and not a moment too soon. After being announcned in February, the product’s launch had taken longer than many expected. It now arrives on the scene well after similar players Flipboard, CNN’s recently acquired Zite, and AOL’s Editions — though before Google’s awaited Propeller platform.

While late, Livestand is launching with some serious momentum, including 100 content partners, ranging from ABC News, to Forbes to Parenting Magazine to smaller titles like Bike and Surfer. A big goal of Yahoo’s is to have Livestand be the platform and tech backend for thousands of indie publishers.

It also debuts with Living Ads, the company’s head turning answer to banner ads on the tablet. (Parenting), Toyota and DreamWorks Pictures have kicked off new campaigns as of Wednesday (Nov. 2).

Yahoo gets a lot of grief, most of it deserved. But Livestand could be a winner. It looks great, and it’s an impressive entry into the tablet space. A huge question for all portals is how well their content travels to the app-centric iPad world. When tablets become a significant source of overall Web traffic, do brands like Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Finance take a traffic hit as users stick to closed apps? Not if Livestand can help it.

https://digiday.com/?p=1883

More in Media

Member Exclusive

Digiday+ Research: Publishers pull back their dependence on digital revenue

July 9, 2025

After a year in which publishers shifted their revenue dependence away from traditional channels and toward digital channels, 2025 has seen a shift back toward more of a balance between traditional and digital revenue sources.

The Creator Economy

LinkedIn makes it easier for creators to track performance across platforms

July 8, 2025

Creator data is becoming more accessible to third-party vendors via a new API — another step in LinkedIn’s creator platform evolution.

Member Exclusive

Ad Tech Briefing: The ‘plumbers’ posing as the unlikely saviors of the internet

July 8, 2025

After several false dawns, can Cloudflare’s ‘anti-AI scraping tool’ finally offer publishers a road to commercial redemption?