“More than 13 million personalized story combinations are delivered every single day on the Yahoo.com Today module, and it happens within milliseconds of someone logging on,” a Yahoo spokesperson tells WebProNews.

She also shares the following stats:

- More women (53%) than men (47%) read the article about Gisele Bundchen criticizing her husband Tom Brady’s teammates for the Patriots’ Super Bowl loss. In total, 67.7 million people read the article.

- The most viewed article in New York City today was ‘Former ‘Home Alone’ star’s startling new look.’

The point of all of this appears to be that Yahoo’s breadth of content is serving all kinds of people with different interests, which is why the company is headed for more of a filter bubble approach – taking what you like and feeding you more of it.

Yahoo is doing this with what it calls C.O.R.E. That stands for Content Optimization and Relevance Engine, which Yahoo Labs developed to surface stories based on interest and reader behavior.

“Every hour C.O.R.E. processes 1.2 terrabytes of data in order to learn how a user’s behaviors and interests influence the likelihood of clicking on a specific article,” the Yahoo spokesperson says. “And, every day, C.O.R.E. personalizes 2.2 billion pieces of content for Yahoo! users.”

“Since optimizing with C.O.R.E., Yahoo!’s Homepage click-through rate has increased 300%,” she adds. “Yahoo!’s personalization approach is a clever mix of scientific algorithms and human judgment, as editors have control to override C.O.R.E. at any time, to ensure certain stories are seen. Initially developed within Yahoo! Labs, C.O.R.E. has become a vital tool used throughout the day by editors across the company to bring our users personalized news, first.”

In an interview with AdAge, Mike Kerns, Yahoo’s VP-social and personalizatio, likened Yahoo’s system to offerings from Pandora, Zite or Amazon. It will give Yahoo feedback, he said, so they can “start showing them very obviously that they’re seeing content based on what we know we think about you or what we think we know about you.”

“So my wife clicks on ‘I want more of Gisele,’ and the next time we see her we’ll weight that explicit declaration along with everything else we’re personalizing based on behavior, and other people like her,” he is quoted as saying.

Steven Lyons, Sr. Product Manager, on C.O.R.E. talks about the system on Yahoo’s Yodel Anecdotal blog:

Today, C.O.R.E. powers content on many Yahoo! properties, including Yahoo! News and the Today Module. There, editors write and gather the most important and engaging stories of the day, and C.O.R.E. determines how stories should be ordered, dependent on each user. Similarly, C.O.R.E. figures out which story categories (i.e. technology, health, finance, or entertainment) should be displayed prominently on the page to help deepen engagement for each viewer.

Editors use C.O.R.E. and their editorial judgment to ensure that important stories are front and center. For example, Yahoo! editors made sure that the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death was on everyone’s page the moment the news broke. An algorithm couldn’t have done that.

No mention is made of Yahoo Voices, which essentially took the place of Yahoo’s Associated Content content farm, but I don’t see why this wouldn’t be implemented there as well.

The first new channel comes to you from Motor Trend. Here’s what the Motor Trend Channel will offer users:

Get your automotive adrenaline charge right here on the Motor Trend channel. From first drives and tests of the hottest new supercars, muscle cars and motorcycles, to the latest automotive news from around the world, to the incredible machinery and personalities from beyond the automotive mainstream, the Motor Trend channel has it all, delivered daily. The Motor Trend channel. We drive it. We ride it. We live it.

You can expect the channel to have original programming from the folks that brought you Hot Rod, Motorcyclist, Lowrider, and Car Craft.

The other new channel is the Drive Channel.

Drive celebrates the culture of cars. On the road, to the races, to the factories, to the studios — to the places you can’t go. Cars may be something you need, but drive with us and you’ll never look at them the same way again.

YouTube says that on the Drive channel, we can expect to find news, reviews, and commentary from people like Mike Spinelli, Leo Parente, and Chris Harris.

Ever since YouTube launched their new homepage, they’ve made a point to focus on channels. YouTube wants to beef up their offerings of original content, and promote those channels so that users can easily subscribe to their interests.

Last month, YouTube added new entertainment channels as well as new action sports channels, one of which features Tony Hawk.

With that in mind, it’s clear blogging still has a great deal of value, but what does your favorite blog say about you? What does it mean if your favorite blog is the Huffington Post or any of Rick Denton’s products? Thankfully, over at Slacktory (via Boing Boing), Nick Douglas tackles this pressing issue and the results are a lot more accurate than the blog fans would ever care to admit.

While I’m not going to reprint Douglas’ entire list, here are a few of the gems that stood out to me:

Gawker: You tell your friends jokes about their ethnicities and sexual orientations. They grin and say “Bitch!” and pretend to smack you.

Huffington Post: Most of your pleasures are guilty pleasures.

Daily Kos: You own a “Disappearing Civil Liberties” mug.

Kottke.org: You read all the liner notes, even if you bought the album as mp3s.

Perez Hilton: You were bullied in high school.

Consumerist: You have some sort of fact sheet, like the Bill of Rights or some measurement conversions, in your wallet.

ReadWriteWeb: You are the only person who actually called your representative about SOPA.

Douglas’ list continues on with about 15-20 more blogs being added to the fun, and like the subtitle suggests, I found the list to be incredibly accurate. Other blogs pointed out on the list include Deadspin, Think Progress, Neatorama, Serious Eats and Mashable. If you are one of the folks who frequent these or similar blogs, you should check out the Slacktory list. Just be sure to leave your “easily offended” pants at home.

Call of Duty Elite, of course, is the gaming network built around Modern Warfare 3′s release. It allows players to access detailed statistics, as well as various social options involving clans, matchmaking, and video sharing. Call of Duty Elite Premium is the $49.99 package that provides players with bonus features – early access to DLC obviously being one of them.

Today’s DLC kickoff contains two news maps, Piazza and Liberation. Here’s a description of the maps from Major Nelson:

Elite Drop 1: Piazza Map

This seaside Italian getaway is anything but idyllic, as tight corners and branching pathways pose great risk at every turn. Close-range combat dominates, and the team that best utilizes flanking routes will most often come out on top. Attacks from behind, above and below are an ever-constant threat. Keep up your awareness and don’t get taken by surprise.

Elite Drop 2: Liberation Map

A militarized Central Park stretches across a vast landscape, ripe for long-range sniper and LMG fire. Mounted turrets on either end lend power to anyone brave enough to expose themselves in exchange for deadly firepower. Plan out your movement and always be aware of nearby sightlines to avoid becoming fodder for the enemy.

Call of Duty Elite Premium members won’t need to shell out any extra cash for these two new maps, as they are included as part of the premium subscription.

Check the lead video for a walkthrough of how to access the new DLC and check out the videos below for some gameplay from the new maps, courtesy user Matroix.

Arrington’s post was particularly interesting given that AOL is an investor in his Crunchfund.

Now, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that one of AOL’s largest shareholders, Starboard, sent a letter to Armstrong saying that AOL’s efforts to become an ad-supported media company are “destroying shareholder value.”

Business Insider has posted the letter in its entirety, along with this response AOL reportedly issued to Starboard:

Over the last two years AOL has significantly reduced costs, sold non-core assets, made significant investments for our future, and also recently repurchased over 10% of outstanding shares. AOL has a clear strategy and operational plan to provide our consumers and customers with exceptional value, which we believe will lead to the creation of shareholder value. Our Board and management team remain firmly committed to creating value for all shareholders and we will continue to aggressively execute on our strategy in 2012 as we continue the turnaround of AOL.

The Starboard letter was a lot longer. It’s conclusion was:

We strongly believe that AOL is deeply undervalued and that there are opportunities to substantially improve overall operating performance and valuation based on actions whithin the control of management and the Board. AOL’s stock price has underperformed over almost any time period and we believe it is time for the Board to take immediate action to address the significant concerns highlighted in this letter.

As one of AOL’s largest shareholders, our interests are directly aligned with those of shareholders. We would appreciate the opportunity to engage directly withg you and the Board and would request an in-person meeting to discuss our views on how to enhance value for AOL shareholders. We look forward to a constructive dialog as we look to ensure that AOL is run with the best interests of all shareholders as the primary objective.

The golden ratio, also known as the divine proportion, golden mean, or golden section, is a number often encountered when taking the ratios of distances in simple geometric figures such as the pentagon, pentagram, decagon and dodecahedron. It is denoted phi, or sometimes tau.

The Golden Ratio is often associated with the Greeks and arts and architecture. However, Chris Pearson, the Creator of Thesis and Founder of DIYthemes, has a pretty convincing argument for applying it to typography and Web design. He said that if people relate aesthetic beauty and efficiency to the Golden Ratio, then why not use it in typography?

“There’s a whole lot of conjecture and assumption and arbitrary decisions that have been made throughout history to say this is the right way to set text,” he said. “I’m not satisfied with arbitrary choices and preferential selection.”

As Pearson explained it to WebProNews, looking at the Golden Ratio in this way gives proper placement to every single pixel on a website. He built a calculator to simplify the process to allow others to take advantage of this concept too.

“The idea is that you’re gonna produce the most aesthetically beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, and easy-to-read text that you can have,” Pearson pointed out.

He went on to say that applying this idea to a website is extremely important since content is the primary mode of communication for publishers.

“Since content is the only way that you’re communicating with people online… I don’t want to leave to arbitrary selection and choice,” he said.

Pearson also added that applying the Golden Ratio to typography also helps publishers organize their content proportionately, which is critical since people view content on so many different devices.

Are you open to trying Pearson’s idea for your website? Let us know.

In a post on Yahoo’s Yodel Anecdotal blog, the company says “We have retired more than 75,000 pieces of inactive and outdated content from Associated Content. None of this content will appear on Yahoo! Voices, and only content that meets our revised Submission Guidelines will be accepted moving forward. Older content that does not meet these standards will be gradually retired or returned to the original author for editing.”

This is obviously a reaction (albeit a very late reaction) to Google’s Panda update, which itself has been updated various times throughout the year, and will likely continue to be tweaked. I’m sure you know the story if you’re reading this. If not, you can find our past coverage here.

Demand Media ended up deleting around 300,000 articles from eHow, and seems to have been doing ok since (though they did implement a broader quality clean-up initiative and put a greater emphasis on social).

Here’s an email that Yahoo has sent out to writers:

We’re writing to notify you about some important changes to Yahoo! Contributor Network and our digital library of content.

First, allow us to introduce Yahoo! Voices: a new online home for millions of pieces of content created by our community of experts and enthusiasts.

Yahoo! Voices (http://voices.yahoo.com) replaces Associated Content as the official digital library of Yahoo! Contributor Network. Most content formerly published on Associated Content will now be found on the new site, andassociatedcontent.com URLs will automatically redirect to the corresponding pieces on voices.yahoo.com. You’ll now see Yahoo! Voices in place of Associated Content on your profile page, Account page, and Content menu as well.

We’re also pleased to announce these important changes in connection with the launch of Yahoo! Voices:

New Submission Guidelines: Today we are releasing revised Submission Guidelines, which better clarify what we’re seeking: unique content containing authentic perspectives from experts, enthusiasts, and citizen journalists, to complement Yahoo!’s broader editorial offerings. Read the new guidelines here.

Editing and retiring content: The above guidelines apply to new and existing content. Any published content that does not meet these standards may be returned for editing or retired. We ask that you review your own library to identify content that doesn’t meet our new guidelines, is outdated, or simply isn’t something you’re proud to call your best work. We’ve added two new options to our content flag tool. “Flagging my own content for retirement” will, pending editors’ review, remove that content from the site (without affecting your accumulated page views, pending Performance Bonus, or Clout score). “Flagging my own content for edits” will prompt us to return the content to you so that you can update and resubmit it.

“Yahoo! Style Guide” giveaway: The “Yahoo! Style Guide” is the ultimate guide to best practices in online content creation, and it has already become invaluable to many contributors. We’ve sent style guides to hundreds of contributors so far, and to celebrate the launch of Yahoo! Voices, we’re spreading the knowledge further. If you haven’t received a style guide from us already and you live in the US, those of you with more than 10 published articles who also publish a new article before the end of the year will receive an invitation to claim a free copy. Don’t miss your chance to get this amazing resource for free!

Additional information:

On the blog: Associated Content founder and Yahoo! VP Luke Beatty discusses the launch of Yahoo! Voices, and how we got here.

Yahoo! Voices FAQ: Learn more about how this launch may affect you.

If you notice any technical issues in connection with this launch, please contact us.

Thank you for helping us reach this milestone! We’re excited to provide an even better place to showcase your unique voice on Yahoo!. Check out Yahoo! Voices now.

Sincerely,

Yahoo! Contributor Network

Some writers were wondering why they hadn’t been getting assignments from Yahoo lately. That would explain it.

If you’re not familiar with Helium otherwise, WebProNews readers may remember the site being discussed in the wake of Google’s Panda update. It’s a user generated content site (perhaps considered a content farm to some) often mentioned in the same breath as Demand Media, HubPages, Suite101, Associated Content, etc.

It was hit by the Panda update early in the year, but like many other Panda victims, soon began making a lot of changes to its site, and was able to raise $10 million in funding back in May.

Now, it appears some writers are seeing erroneous negative balances in their accounts. Today, Helium’s Steve Singer posted an update on the company blog:

We are aware of a problem that many writers have reported today, 12/1/11 regarding negative balances to their account. Helium’s tech team is currently working to correct this. We do know this is only an issue with the display and that the correct balances are in our database. Please do not contact the help desk — we’re working to fix this as soon as possible!

An update to the post later said:

The tech team believes they have isolated the problem and are working on a fix. Once the fix is coded, it will need to checked. So we don’t yet have a specific delivery time.

Helium has also been tweeting updates:

From the sound of it, it’s not going to be anything to worry too much about, but it’s likely been an inconvenience for some.

Update: Singer has made a couple more updates to the blog post:

Update 12/1/11 12:15 PM Eastern Time –We’ve come up with a fix, that worked properly in our test environments, and then deployed it to production. However, apparently once in production it’s appearing only as a partial fix. So while your earnings may come up, it’s not fully complete. We are still working towards full resolution of this issue.

Update 12/1/11 3:15 PM Eastern Time – We are continuing to investigate this issue, with the assistance of several helpful members.

On the earnings call, CEO Richard Rosenblatt ran down the latest on the company’s strategy, which of course consists of various content properties, social platforms, advertising and a domain registrar service. The company’s sites get 95 million uniques, he said.

“ehow was not affected,” by Google’s most recent freshness-related algorithm, he said.

You may recall that earlier this year, the company launched a content clean-up initiative for eHow. On the last quarter’s earnings call, the company reported that it had deleted about 300,000 eHow articles in addition to implementing its feedback tools and launching various partnerships.

There was no update on the number of articles deleted as of today, but he did say they are continuing to take more steps to improve content quality, including evolving Demand Studios (the content creation platform), increasing the variety of content (with a wider breadth of topics), new formats (such as photo-driven articles), rigorous fact checking, improved content recommendations, and applying things learned from its other content properties like LiveStrong and Cracked (which tend to have better reputations than eHow) to eHow itself. This means taking select passion areas and tapping different kinds of content formats.

He said they’re reducing the volume of new text content by over 50%. That’s in line with the recent (controversial) reduction in article assignments the company announced.

Rosenblatt also noted that they’re looking at expanding more internationally, adding that in the last two months, they launched eHow en Espanol and eHow Brazil.

The subject of that recent traffic glitch did come up. Rosenblatt reiterated that this was just a temporary technical server-related glitch that shouldn’t happen again. Everything was recovered.

The company has also emphasized its growing investment in video, including new YouTube channels, which they’ll start launching content for in early 2012.

About 33% of Q3′s revenue came from Google.

According to the New York Times, the deal is worth around $10 to $15 million and will bring Disney media to its very own YouTube channel. The original content will be produced entirely by Disney, and then distributed on a “co-branded channel on Disney.com and YouTube.” The new channel will also include other related YouTube content.

The first new series on the channel will be a show based on a puzzle app called “Where’s My Water.”

The motivation behind the deal is pretty obvious from Disney’s standpoint. Apparently, the company looks at the deal as a path to web videos “that can be monetized quickly.” The company has reported losses over the last few quarters, and Disney.com’s traffic is also down.

For Disney, YouTube’s popularity gives their content a better chance to be seen.

For YouTube, this looks like a move in the quality content direction. Late last month, YouTube officially announced that they would be making a push for new original content, with dozens of new channels filled with quality programming. It’s all in an effort to establish the site as a rival to cable – a place where there’s not just free content, but really good free content that can challenge standard television.

YouTube channels will feature well-known personalities and producers from many different sectors including film, food, sports, news and more. The first of these channels will go live this month, with more rolling out over the next year. You can check out some of the first entries and sign-up to be notified when they go live here.

So YouTube wants to bring quality content to their site, and Disney wants the exposure that YouTube can provide. Looks like a pretty solid matchup.

In other Disney/Google hookup news, The Muppets will be holding a Google+ Hangout on Monday evening, 7:30 EST.

What do you think about a dedicated Disney channel on YouTube? Let us know in the comments.