Yahoo updated its My Yahoo service and has started inviting some users to try out the new modular style. They have adopted a style that is similar to several Web two dot oh startups, using dynamic features to make a customizable homepage for My Yahoo’s 50 million users. PR pro Steve Rubel thinks Yahoo has “abandoned the geeks” with the change. Richard MacManus disagreed with this, but did say “geeks are obviously
not their biggest priority.”

The SEC shut down trading in 35 companies that have been appearing in numerous pump and dump email scams. “Operation Spamalot” focused on protecting investors from the schemes being sent out in one hundred million junk messages per week. Google anti-spam engineer Brad Taylor said he was thrilled that the SEC would hit spammers “where it hurts.”

Local businesses can make photos part of their profiles that appear on Google Maps. Google’s Local Business Center added the image option along with a few new features to enhance the business listings in its directory. The continued push into local search means giving businesses more features. Along with the image option, businesses can correct the Google map marker showing their location, and add custom attributes to their listings.

Google’s Keyword Tool has some added information for the company’s advertising clients. It now shows the previous month’s search volume for keywords research through the tool, but it looks like Google has not rolled it out to all of their clients yet. AdWords users should appreciate the new transparency being offered here when it fully launches.

MySpace will offer a new service called MySpace News sometime this summer. MySpace users will be able to customize the topics they see, and rate and comment on news and blog stories they read on the MySpace News pages. The appeal MySpace News has could be limited, as Susan Mernit said it “may be not the best alignment with the core users of the site.”

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