Guillaume Belfiore

Overall the new site is less cluttered and more attractive visually. However it is also “missing” some features that are present today.

The first thing you notice about the new Local UI is that it’s essentially a list, likely inspired by Twitter and/or Facebook’s news feeds. Another significant change is the absence of a map on the Local home page or internal pages. There’s a link to maps on the right, however.

The new Local beta is really about “discovery” rather than search. Yet Yahoo has also apparently removed any category navigation, which means the top tabs are the only way to browse content. And there’s essentially no way to look up specific restaurants or local businesses within the new Yahoo Local.

There’s no local-specific search box here either. Entering a query in the field at the top of the page takes you out of Local to Yahoo Search results. Yahoo seems to have made a decision that it wants to consolidate search results in a single experience rather than offer distinct experiences as it does today.

Stewart Butterfield helped found Flickr, the popular photo site later acquired by Yahoo, as a backup. Originally, he had set out to build an online video game, but then detoured when he failed to find investors.

Now, six years later, Mr. Butterfield, made wealthy by the sale of Flickr, is back to video games. Tiny Speck, his start-up, is testing its first game, Glitch, with more than 5,000 users.

Glitch is what gamers call a massively multiplayer game, which lets many people play online at once. In Glitch, characters, or avatars, appear onscreen in a fantasy world, inspired by and wood block illustrations, that includes giants, chickens and underground mines.

Games are the most popular type of mobile app, and to promote its own mail and other apps, Yahoo is putting a twist on mobile games. The company is set to launch a series of interactive outdoor touch-screen games placed in San Francisco bus shelters, and will egg on competition among Bay Area neighborhoods to score a free concert featuring OK Go.

The goal of the Yahoo Bus Stop Derby campaign is to promote four Yahoo mobile apps: Mail, Messenger, photo app Flickr, and sports scores and news app Sportacular. The company is calling the effort - which will run from November 22 through January 28, 2011 - part of its broader integrated marketing efforts for 2010. Yahoo launched its wide-reaching, 15-month “It’s Y!ou” branding campaign last September.

Picture a 72-inch LCD touch screen stationed in an outdoor bus shelter. Would-be bus riders can a choose a neighborhood from a drop-down menu and pick one of four games to play on the giant screen, each of which has a theme related to the app it’s intended to promote. A Yahoo blog page will post continually-updated scores displaying which neighborhoods are showing off the best skills.

Facebook, Yahoo, AOL UK, Mumsnet and the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) have written an open letter to David Cameron calling for “urgent reform” of UK libel laws to better protect free speech online.

In the letter, part of the Libel Reform Campaign, the group appeals for the prime minister to update the current UK legislation, describing it as having a “disproportionate, chilling effect” on writers and web hosts.

“The libel laws have not been updated to address the rise of online publication. The current multiple publication rule, dating back to 1849, defines every download as a publication and a potential new cause of action,” the letter reads.