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Talk of the day: Yahoo aims to be social climber with new site

By Times Staff Writer
Published September 18, 2007

Facebook and MySpace aren't shaking in their boots just yet, but Yahoo Inc., the most-visited U.S. Internet site, has started testing a social-networking service called Mash in a challenge to the more popular sites. Mash users can add photos and information about themselves to their pages and accept contributions from others, Will Aldrich, who runs Mash, said in a blog entry on Yahoo's Web site last week. For now, an invitation from a friend is needed to join the system.The company's older networking service, Yahoo 360, had 2.12-million U.S. users in May, a 38 percent decline from a year earlier, according to New York-based Nielsen//NetRatings. News Corp.'s MySpace had 56.6-million users, up 35 percent, and Facebook Inc. jumped 85 percent to 14.2-million.

Chocolate recipe sacred, Mars says

The maker of M&M's and Milky Way bars says it won't be scrimping on its chocolate. Mars Inc. said Monday it will continue to use 100 percent cocoa butter in its U.S. chocolate products, bucking an industry campaign to allow cheaper vegetable oils to be substituted. "Changing the definition of what chocolate is would be a mistake," said Todd Lachman, president of Mars Snackfoods US in Hackettstown, N.J. "The bottom line is that we're not going to change our chocolate. Today, Mars US chocolate products are pure, authentic chocolate, and they're going to stay that way."

Midwest drives up hybrid car sales

U.S. sales of new hybrid cars were up 49 percent in the first seven months of this year, due largely to a boom in sales in the Midwest, an auto information and marketing company said Monday. Oklahoma led all states with a 143 percent increase in hybrid sales compared with January-July 2006, said R.L. Polk & Co. of Southfield, Mich. Hawaii was the only state to report a decline in hybrid sales. Hybrid sales were up 57 percent in the Midwest, the most of any region. The Toyota Prius and the hybrid version of the Toyota Camry were the most popular models there. Hybrid sales rose 52 percent in the West, 49 percent in the Northeast and 42 percent in the South.

Journal magazine writes for the rich

Dow Jones & Co.'s Wall Street Journal will start a glossy monthly magazine next year aimed at wealthy readers and advertisers of luxury goods and services. The magazine, to be called Pursuits, will be an extension of the Weekend Journal and the Personal Journal section of the weekday newspaper that focuses on luxury travel, leisure and lifestyle stories, New York-based Dow Jones said in a statement Monday. The magazine will be sent to 800,000 "selected subscribers," the company said.

[Last modified September 18, 2007, 01:13:12]