How To Use Yahoo! Go - Part 2 of 3

Use Yahoo! Go - Part 2 of 3

by Michael E. Callahan aka Dr. File Finder

Last week, in part 1 of this 3-part series on Yahoo! Go I talked about some of the basic functions like the Carousel as a way to easily navigate. I also took a brief look at how Yahoo! Go gives you easy access to both Flickr and Yahoo! Email. This week I'm going to tell you about the other features that come standard. Next week I'll fill you in on all of the extras you can add to Yahoo! Go. So, let's get to it.

Yahoo! News

Like other aspects of Yahoo! Go the Yahoo! News section gives you complete configurability. For example, you can have a "Watchlist" where you can enter topics that are of interest to you. So, if you want to keep up with your favorite political candidate or get the latest information on a top news story, you can do it. Add multiple topics to your watchlist and get the latest news you want. Yahoo! News also provides a list of "Top Themes" which are really like hot topics. For example, one of them today is Charlton Heston and if you click on that you're presented with a wealth of information about the actor, his movie roles, his biography, and lots more. At the top of the page you always see exactly how long it's been since the news was updated and if you want you can refresh the news. Yahoo! News comes with default news sources like CNN, ABC, and so on. If you like you can change the sources and add sources of your own. Each source gives you several articles and if you want more there's a link where you can get more with just a click. Really very handy.

Yahoo! Sports and More!

If you're really into sports the Yahoo! Sports function in Yahoo! Go will be just what you need. I'm not a fanatical sports person, but I do like to follow certain teams. With Yahoo! Sports you can put in Your Teams and even Your Scores so you can keep up with the teams you follow. There's also up-to-date information on MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, and more. Here again, if you want you can add sources of your own. Moving along the Carousel we come to Yahoo! Finance At a glance I can get a "market summary" that shows me how the stock market is doing. You can also enter stocks you've invested in so you can keep track of them when you're on-the-go. You also get all the latest financial news from ABC, the Motley Fool, MarketWatch.Com, and more. Once again you can add your own sources if you wish for a totally customized experience. A "source" can even be an RSS feed that you want to have on your phone inside Yahoo! Go. I love the fact that you can manage the sources that provide information with just a couple of clicks on your phone. Remove a check mark and the information from that source stops appearing. Add a source and now you have it. Really slick. Once you've checked on your finances you might want to move along the Carousel and check Yahoo! Weather. Since we're in the process of moving from Colorado to Tennessee I have it set up to show me weather from both places. I can see the weather for the current day and also the extended forecast. You can add or remove locations on-the-fly. Another cool feature is the ability, from the Carousel, to get just the weather for one location. That makes it nice when you're looking for something specific. Speaking of specific, the next item on the Carousel is Yahoo! Local. This is a cool feature for finding things that are close to you. Need and ATM? a coffee shop? a restaurant? a gas station? The "local" function in Yahoo! Go puts all these things right in the palm of your hand. In the screen shot, for example, I was looking for the nearest ATM machine. Yahoo! Local found nine (9) for me in just seconds and displayed them on the map. To move to the next one I just push the '3' key or to move back I just press '1'. Each flag shows the physical address where that ATM is located. You can use this same technology to find movie theaters, museums, bars, pubs, and post offices. As someone relatively new to this area Yahoo! Go and it's local function are a great help to me when looking for things. Also in this section are driving directions. There's also a city guide that shows you hotels, restaurants, places where you can lounge, places to visit, and more.

Summing It Up!

Yahoo! Go is the most full-featured program for mobile devices that I've looked at and I've looked at them all. You get news, sports, weather, finances, local information and so much more. On top of that you can customize the default options and add sources of your own. That makes Yahoo! Go a complete information package. You can look at your photos on Flickr, check your stocks, read your email, and add widgets that give you even more.

What I love about Yahoo! Go is that it puts everything I need right in one, easy-to-use interface. The Carousel is a clever way to let you move around between modules. There are lots of configurable options so you can make Yahoo! Go your own.

That's all for this week as I've covered all of the default information packages that come standard. Next week, in part 3, I'm going to cover some of the many options you can pick from. We'll look at widgets and other sources you can use with Yahoo! Go. I hope you'll join me.

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