• February 11, 2010

Yahoo is launching a grassroots program in Vancouver this week to get people to go to Yahoo to keep up with the games. Besides the venue, the company will run advertising on its portal and on Facebook to promote its involvement in the games and its coverage of events.

The 6,000-square-foot venue, "FanCouver," has things like video streaming; appearances by athletes; and promotional giveaways.

The portal is also launching a games-dedicated website at Sports.Yahoo.com/Olympics and a new Olympic mobile site. Ads to promote these initiatives will run on Facebook with regular updates on Yahoo pages and Twitter feeds.

Yahoo won't be advertising during the games in traditional media. The company said that during the 2008 Summer Games it reached 38.5 million users, and during each week of the 2006 Winter Games it attracted more unique users than any other online site. Yahoo quotes comScore data that 32 million users in January followed sports.

The portal says long-time Olympic sponsor Visa is handing out passport books within the Fancouver venue and will extend its online Winter Games presence by supporting Yahoo Sports' Winter Games medal count coverage, athlete pages and Team Fan shop.--Karl Greenberg