Profiles Tutorials

Getting Started With Your Profile on Yahoo!

What Is a Profile? Introducing the Profile Page Setting Up Your Profile Card Adding About Me Information Setting Permissions for About Me Rearranging Your Profile Page

What Is a Profile on Yahoo!?

Your profile on Yahoo! is your personal identity on the Web. It allows you to share information about yourself with the people who matter to you most—your connections—while protecting your privacy when that’s important to you. You choose the relationships that you care about and, through your shared profile, communicate to enrich those bonds.

An example of a profile on Yahoo!Enlarge

Notes:

See the Your Identity on Yahoo! tutorial to learn more about how your profile on Yahoo! relates to your Yahoo! ID and your aliases.

Profiles are for users ages 13 and over. Yahoo! users under age 13 are encouraged to visit Yahoo! Kids.

So how do you get started using your profile?

  1. Begin by setting up your profile card, including supplying some basic information and a status message. (Click here to learn how.)

  2. You can also include more personal details in the About Me section of your profile, such as your work, education, and other interests. (Click here to learn how.)

  3. Add an image, such as photo or avatar, to your page. (Click here to learn how.)

  4. Next you’ll want to begin inviting your nearest and dearest to become your connections. These are the people that you want to share your personal information with on an ongoing basis, the ones who can keep tabs on you (and vice versa) through ) profile updates. (Click here to learn how.)

  5. Before you’re finished with the initial set-up of your profile, you should take a look at the default permission settings and adjust them to suit your privacy preferences. (Click here to learn how.)

 

What’s Next

Before you start working on your own profile in Yahoo!, take a look at the profile of a typical user, Mel Jackson.

 

Help Topics

 
 

Words to Know

  • Alias: a unique name that identifies you to others when you don’t want to share your Yahoo! ID. You might, for example, prefer to use an alias in a chat room or on a message board.
  • Avatar: a character that you can use when interacting with friends online. By changing hairstyles, clothes, accessories, and backgrounds, you can create your own unique persona.
  • Basic information: personal data in your profile on Yahoo!, including your first and last names, your display name, and your age, gender, and location.
  • Connection: a person you spend significant time online with and with whom you want to share personal information. Connections have privileged access to each others’ profiles.
  • Profile card: the part of your profile that’s always visible; it includes your picture, your display name, and other basic information.
  • Updates: brief messages about profile changes and other activities on Yahoo! that are automatically shared between connections.
  • Yahoo! ID: the name by which a person is known to all Yahoo! networks.