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Yahoo pushes Olympics coverage through all sites, apps

Yahoo plans to broadcast Olympics-related information across every screen it can, making it possible to follow the 2012 London games on the company's various apps in addition to its usual news outlets.

Donna Tam Staff Writer / News
Donna Tam covers Amazon and other fun stuff for CNET News. She is a San Francisco native who enjoys feasting, merrymaking, checking her Gmail and reading her Kindle.
Donna Tam
2 min read
The Yahoo Hub sports an Olympics look. Screenshot by Donna Tam/CNET

Yahoo plans to blanket its site and apps with Olympic coverage this year, running breaking news, commentary and visuals across all its available platforms, according to a news release.

Anchored with Yahoo Sports, Yahoo's "Beyond Gold" will provide Yahoo's 700 million global users with content in dozens of languages. No doubt Yahoo sees the value in promoting Olympics coverage, as the event itself emphasizes the digital. The company, along with Google, revamped its search engine several years ago to include a number of shortcuts to Olympics-related information in attempt to grab a piece of the huge viewership the games attract.

"Yahoo! has been the No. 1 online destination for Olympics coverage since 2006, proving to be the place for users to gather and follow the biggest events," Ken Fuchs, VP of Global Media for Yahoo and head of Yahoo Sports, Men's and Games, said in the release. "London 2012 will be a showcase for 24/7 reporting, across all screens, and Yahoo is investing to deliver powerful experiences for our users and advertisers. Our unique storytelling combined with innovative new products will help establish new memorable moments as they happen for 700 million fans around the world."

Here are some of the offerings:

The Hub: The site is redone with an emphasis on the Olympics -- breaking news, headlines, daily recaps and photos and analysis of the most exciting moments. Yahoo is also promoting "London Pick'em," a prediction-style game that lets fans challenge friends and compete against other users from 27 countries around the world.

IntoNow: The iPad app lets users access information that supplements what you're watching on TV. If that's the Olympics, then users will get medal counts, images from the games; schedules and athlete bios; additional social media, including Twitter content from personalities at the games; and trivia.

Sportacular: A tab on the sports app offers personalized and access to teams, players, and leagues, allowing fans to get updates, stats and news on specific events and medal counts.

Connected TV: Integrated into the Yahoo Sports TV app, "Beyond Gold" for Connected TV is an on-screen experience and offers news, scores, medal counts, photos and videos on the TV.