Microsoft has been trying for quite a long time to get its hands on a deal with web search and content giant Yahoo! and now at long last they’ve achieved their goal.

Yahoo! and Microsoft jointly announced today that they have signed an agreement to work together. Microsoft will power Yahoo! searching and Yahoo! will become the exclusive international advertising sales force for both companies. Yahoo! will continue doing what it does best, enhanced now by having Microsoft’s resources behind it. Per Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, advertisers will appreciate the benefits of working with a single platform and sales group. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that the deal benefits Microsoft by helping to attract more users and advertisers, leading to more relevant ads and search results.

Both companies hope that joining forces will allow them to knock out a larger portion of the market; currently Microsoft and Yahoo! combined handle less than 30 percent of web searches in the US and 11 percent globally. The 500 pound gorilla of the industry, Google, handles 65 percent of US searches and 67 percent everywhere else.

Thai Tom, the uberpopular, tiny, and always crowded restaurant and main reason for venturing into the northern reaches of the Ave in the U-District has been closed for a variety of hygiene and safety reasons by the County.

snapshot from kingcounty.gov

(via @andypixel)

inside 15th Ave Coffee & Tea. More in the photoset [flickr].

Hot off the CF card, a whole bunch of pictures from the interior of the new 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea store, “inspired by” Starbucks and located in the former 15th Avenue shop on Capitol Hill (website: streetlevelcoffee.com). Almost everything from the old store was gutted and recycled; so during this afternoon’s preview we heard the words “repurposed” and “reimagined” with extreme frequency to describe the new decor and goals. The cupping table came from headquarters, the bar migrated from the recently renovated University Village store, a barn or two were repurposed like crazy, metals were soaked in water and left to rust, movie seats that would put modern audiences into back spasms were dragged in from somewhere, an entire philosophy text was turned into wallpaper, and pieces of a ship were dismantled — mast holes and all — to make a communal reservable table near the window. The effect, while overwhelming when cataloged, is one of a comfortable cafe with bins of small batch beans in the open for scooping and specialty whole leaf teas from Tazo in shiny chalkboard canisters for steeping. If anything, it reads as “typical upscale cafe” rather than a Disnified version that one might have anticipated from a corporate overhaul.

The store opens bright and early tomorrow, staffed by baristas in street clothes playing music over a state of the art sound system without a nearby LCD screen for making immediate purchases. You can get your drip coffee a few ways — through a French Press, a Clover, or dripped through ceramic filters — and shots of espresso will be hand-pulled with no frappucinos or smoothies in sight (though espresso drinks will me a tiny bit more expensive than usual). Snacks come mostly from Essential Bakery in Fremont and since they’ll be touching multiple “daypoints”, bottled beer and wine (one from Oregon represents the Northwest), sandwiches, and hand scooped ice cream are also on the menu.

As to the hypercritical question of the stealthiness of this endeavor, I don’t think that anyone is going to be “fooled”, nor is it clear that is their intent. If so, launching these test balloons (there will be three this year)in Seattle in a neighborhood with some of the most discerning and opinionated coffee consumers in the country wouldn’t have been the best strategy. Instead, everyone involved seems incredibly excited by the prospect of showcasing products they love in a comfortable setting. The “inspired by” in the name seems like a bit of a branding stumble; given the major departures from the look and feel of almost every other store in the massive fleet, it seems like a clean break from the recent past. I’m deeply dedicated (or tragically addicted) to our smaller local stores — my day is pretty much a disaster without at least one serving of Vivace and Victrola is a frequent office — but I don’t begrudge Starbucks for giving this a shot. In many other US cities, I admit that I’d probably be pretty happy to find one of these stores as an oasis in a desert of questionable quality coffee; in Seattle it’s a bit of a different story.

At this point, though, how it will feel beyond the repurposed furniture and decorations when people are actually inside serving and drinking coffee, meeting friends, or hiding behind their computer screens soaking in the free wifi is probably the most important component of this re-imagined experience. That test starts tomorrow; let us know what you think.

Have you been hovering near the far edge of your seat of choice in anticipation of Throw Me the Statue’s latest album? Then you’ll be pleased to read that you can get a digital copy a few weeks ahead of the physical release date. Take it away, twitter:

Although I would have been fine with sparing a few plastic or vinyl forests and just taking my local pop electronically, I do appreciate the instant download. See for yourself. [secretlycanadian]

karen o of the yeah yeah yeahs performing at coachella, coming to a bumbershoot near you. (photo by josh).

Bumbershoot released the full, final, start-planning-ahead-online schedule today. The great news: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been added to the lineup. The bad news: they’re scheduled for the weird early-afternoon “up and coming” indie band spot (2:30 pm Sunday) instead of the sunset headline slot they probably deserve.

Other notable music additions include the Helio Sequence, Cold War Kids, the Old 97s, and the Portland Cello Project. Peruse the whole thing — comedy, arts, film, kids, books, and all of the other spectacle — and begin considering difficult choices for your perfect Labor Day entertainment lineup using the nifty online schedule tool at bumbershoot09.sched.org; advance multi-day tickets are available online now, single-day tickets hit the stores on 21 August. [bumbershoot]

The city of Mukilteo, Washington, 25 miles north of Seattle and best known for its scenic views of the Olympics, the Cascades and Puget Sound, the historic 1906 Mukilteo Light Station, and being half of the Mukilteo to Clinton Washington State Ferry route, is one of the nicest small cities around the Sound, or, at least, I’ve always thought so.

Guess I’m not alone: Money magazine named Mukilteo to the tenth place spot on its list of “Best Places to Live” 2009 edition, citing its lovely scenery, good schools and low unemployment rate.

Mukilteo follows cities and towns in Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, and Georgia: other Washington locales that made the top 100 are Sammamish at number 12, Newcastle at number 17, Richland at number 51 and Silverdale at number 92.

This last weekend was an exciting one for skaters of Seattle. After months of construction, Seattle Center’s SeaSK8 is finally open to the public. Located in the space between Key Arena and Fisher Pavilion, SeaSK8 is one of the most impressive skateparks Seattle has seen in a long time. At about 10,000 square feet (and a cost of $2.2 million), it has elements that most skaters should be able to enjoy.

Last Saturday was the official opening of the park. The day started with a 30-minute “no skate” presentation by the different groups responsible for the park’s existence, ended with a ribbon cutting. After that it was pure skating mayhem. Marshall from Manik Skateboards took over as MC and lead everyone through trick competitions on the various elements of the park. These included a vert competition at the giant glass punk wall, best trick over the gap on the benches, best trick down the 4-foot tall stairs, best trick by a kid 11 or under, and on and on. All of these events netted the skaters tons of free gear from the many sponsors. There was even live music from the Vera Stage setup in the nearby plaza. A really fun day!

If you skate, get out there and use this park!

Tomorrow morning at 9:00 am (Wednesday, July 8th, to be precise), there will be a special meeting of the Seattle City Council Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee. On the agenda is land use and zoning for the Qwest Field North Parking Lot, which might be of interest to the sporty among us. Also on the agenda, besides the usual boring amendments, corrections, and updates, is a report from the Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee (and others) on the process of updating Seattle’s neighborhood plans. We all live in a neighborhood, yes? Yes!

The NPAC briefing and discussion is item six, slotted for about 45 minutes of the 2.5-3 hours that the committee will be sitting. You can attend in person to comment, or you can call or email:

Phone: 206-684-8888
Email: councilagenda@seattle.gov
Agenda PDF: http://www.seattle.gov/council/agendasc/planning.pdf

This is your chance to bitch and moan about sidewalks, speeders, crosswalks, street lighting, et cetera.

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On Friday, July 10th, the Seattle City Council Special Committee on Open Government will hold a special meeting, at 2:00 pm. Way back in January, the Seattle City Council made creating an online Citizen Engagement Portal one of its 2009 goals. Towards that end, they have improved the online Council calendar (Press Release)(Calendar).

Friday’s meeting is part of the process to make City government more open and accessible. On the agenda (PDF) are discussions about on recording executive sessions, the creation of ombudsman positions, and the Citizen Engagement Draft Plan.

I have previously pointed out that council and committee meetings are incredibly inconvenient for the average working stiff, but if you can get Friday afternoon off, you might as well spend two hours being alternately bored and outraged for a good cause.

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On the national front, our legislators are pretty much keeping their heads down. Senator Cantwell had been pretty mum about a public option for health care insurance, but she seems to be responding to an intense letter writing campaign. Cantwell was the sole Seattle-ish hold-out waffling on the issue, until last week; although she still hasn’t come out with a firm position, she’s at least mentioned the public option, publically, in a nominally supportive fasion.

A vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend: After my recent experience in a local ER, I became one of the foaming, letter-writing, email-sending, phone-call-making masses that contacted Senator Cantwell’s office to urge her to support a public option. During the 4.5 hours that I spent, mostly eavesdropping, in the ER, I was the ONLY person there who had a primary care physician and health insurance. Nothing like a little personal experience to politicize one.

Yesterday’s revelation of the bizarre “don’t call me Liz” e-mail thread between a McDermott aide and an overly apologetic scheduler from JP Morgan Chase has made it from Politico’s “shenanigans” blog [#] across the internet and back. Today it crossed over into even stranger territory when Keith Olbermann ended Countdown [msnbc] with a staged reading of the messages. Adding even further to the oddity, the part of Elizabeth Becton was played by a man in a terrible wig. Watch for yourself:

“don’t call me liz”, msnbc.

The Seattle City Council is reviewing a draft plan to make Seattle a more pedestrian-friendly town. Appropriately enough, the measure is called the Pedestrian Master Plan. Very grand sounding, ain’t it?

I’ve lived in Seattle long enough to remember when Westlake Plaza was closed to traffic, and I’m still outraged that the city opened it. Westlake Center has never regained the vibrancy and foot traffic that it had when the Plaza was closed. And does anyone think that closing Pike Place Market to through traffic would detract from its appeal? There is no bad there.

The new plan, currently in draft and public comment stage, purports to focus on “safety, equity, vibrancy, and health,” through six stated objectives:

1. Complete and maintain the pedestrian system identified in the Pedestrian Master Plan
2. Improve walkability on all streets
3. Increase pedestrian safety
4. Plan, design, and build complete streets to move more people and goods
5. Create vibrant public spaces that encourage walking
6. Get more people walking for transportation, recreation, and health

These are great goals, and the plan (read it HERE or download as a PDF -low res or high res) does an admirable job of outlining strategies and tactics to meet them. The city has a funding levy of $60 million to fund pedestrian improvements over the next six years. Based on current programs, the plan projects that $47 million will go towards new improvements, such as sidewalks, curb ramps, and signals, while $19 million would pay for maintenance. The plan would require other funding to fully support all of the objectives, such as private investment.

And it’s this last part that has me worried: private investment.

The draft Plan includes stated strategies for meeting the objectives. Among the strategies for #5– “Create vibrant public spaces that encourage walking”– the single most important strategy is missing: car-free streets. Instead, “develop guidelines for car-free and shared space streets,” is the last item in the sidebar, under “sample of actions” that could possibly, perhaps, be considered to encourage walking.

Private investment does not like car-free streets. Private investment likes lots of convenient parking, preferably on-site parking. Pedestrians buy only as much as they can conveniently carry home or back to the office. Drivers buy as much as can fill up their SUV for the drive home to the suburbs. Car-free streets favor small businesses that serve local residents and employees. Parking lots favor ‘shopping destinations’ that serve tourists and visitors. National chain stores and big retailers wield the political clout and investment dollars that result in parking lots, narrow sidewalks, and through traffic. Neighborhood business owners, residents, and employees get screwed. Again.

It doesn’t have to be that way. As residents and business owners, we have a say in this process. The public comment period for the draft Pedestrian Master Plan has been extended to Friday, June 26th. You can read it at http://www.seattle.gov/mostwalkablecity.htm, or download a PDF from the same site.

Also, the Transportation Committee and the Special Committee on Pedestrian Safety will host a public hearing on the draft plan on Tuesday, July 21st, from 5:00-6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall (600 Fourth Ave.). This is your chance to be heard. Don’t blow it!

Other ways to comment:

Online webform: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/pedestrian_masterplan/contact.htm
E mail: mostwalkablecity@seattle.gov
Telephone: 206-733-9970
Mail: Pedestrian Master Plan Comments
Seattle Department of Transportation
P.O. Box 34996
Seattle, WA 98124-4996