Yahoo! Small Business Launches Advisor, a New Media Property With Personalized News, Advice, and Tools for Established and Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Site to feature exclusive tips from chef Ming Tsai of "Simply Ming" and Dylan Lauren of Dylan's Candy Bar, among others

Political survey of small businesses across the country showcases frustration of the small business community with majority of small business owners saying they intend to be politically active this year

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Yahoo! Small Business announced the launch of Yahoo! Small Business Advisor, the newest online destination for personalized entrepreneurial news, advice, and tools. In addition to these features, Yahoo! Small Business Advisor launches with exclusive, personal small-business tips from world-renowned chef Ming Tsai with additional posts from various celebrity entrepreneurs to follow.

Yahoo! Small Business Advisor devotes an entire section to key political issues facing the small- business community throughout the 2012 election year. Featured in the launch is an exclusive Q&A with Small Business Administrator Karen Mills, President Obama 's new Cabinet appointee, along with results from Yahoo!'s second quarterly small-business political survey.

Released today, the online survey conducted by Yahoo! Small Business and Ipsos MediaCT indicates that small-business owners across the country continue to be frustrated with the status quo. A majority are planning to become politically involved this election season, saying they will give time or money to support political candidates in the upcoming elections, and nearly one-third said business issues will take priority over family, lifestyle, social, or geopolitical issues when they head to the polls in November.

Additional findings show:

The GOP presidential candidate that these small-business owners say will be best for supporting small-business issues is Mitt Romney, with 23 percent of respondents behind him; however, "none" is the choice of 20 percent surveyed and another 20 percent remain undecided.
More than 70 percent of survey respondents — all owners or partial owners of U.S. businesses with 1-100 employees — claim that the stalled economy has had a negative impact on their business.
"We are thrilled to present our users with a destination that provides them with the support they need in these complicated economic and political times," said Tom Byun, vice president and general manager, Yahoo! Small Business. "We are passionate about providing the small-business community with the necessary counsel — whatever that means to the individual — to help them achieve their entrepreneurial dreams."

Also featured today is an interview with chef Ming Tsai, Emmy award-winning host of the public television cooking show "Simply Ming" and owner of Blue Ginger restaurant, offering his personal tips for entrepreneurs and aspiring small-business owners. This kicks off a broader series with Yahoo! Small Business Advisor spotlighting celebrity small-business owners. Future small-business tips will be provided by other celebrity entrepreneurs, including Dylan Lauren, CEO and Founder of Dylan's Candy Bar.

Yahoo! Small Business Advisor will include original articles and videos from Yahoo!'s own Small Business experts, while top-tier partners including Entrepreneur, Inc. and Reuters contribute best-in-class small-business news.

Yahoo! Small Business Advisor showcases some of Yahoo!'s patented technologies and new features, including:

Yahoo!'s Content Optimization Relevance Engine (C.O.R.E.) — also used by Yahoo! editorial programmers as a guide in Yahoo! homepage programming, which enables Advisor to learn what is interesting to users and surface those types of articles for easy navigation and content discovery
Yahoo! Social Bar highlights the business news a user's personal social network is reading and talking about
Yahoo!'s Livestand iPad app provides "anytime, anywhere" access to Advisor content, which includes small-business articles, videos, blogs, and Twitter feeds
Yahoo! Answers allows users to tap the wisdom of the community to answer pressing small-business questions
Released in beta in late 2011, Yahoo! Small Business Advisor aggregates the best of Yahoo! original articles plus content from leading business publishers, while leveraging Yahoo! technology to deliver personalized information to both aspiring and established business owners. Testifying to audience enthusiasm, the site reached 4 million page views just three months into beta.

About Yahoo! Small Business

For more than a decade, Yahoo! Small Business has helped millions of businesses get online and grow their presence on the Internet. Whether you hope to start a side business or are currently running a multi-million dollar venture, you can trust Yahoo!'s proven online business experience, powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, and broad community support to help your business succeed online. Learn more at: smallbusiness.yahoo.com.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) is the premier digital media company, creating deeply personal digital experiences that keep more than half a billion people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the globe. And Yahoo!'s unique combination of Science + Art + Scale connects advertisers to the consumers who build their businesses. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.com) or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com). Follow us @YahooInc