Here we are waiting on Yahoo!'s Q4 earnings call to begin. We'll be liveblogging the whole call, so be sure and hit the "Refresh" key on your web browser to stay updated to the call -- as updates will happen every few minutes or so.

All times below are in Eastern Standard Time (EST).

Update, 1-24-06 -- see the end of the liveblog for reader poll results against actual Yahoo! results. Who won -- those who voted "meet" or "beat"?

5:00pm -- waiting for the call/webcast to start -- very cool music you are playing there, Yahoo :-)

5:04pm -- do these things ever start on time?

5:06pm -- we are starting. Finally!

5:07pm -- Jerry Yang, Terry Semel, Susan Decker, Dan Rosensweig and CEO Terry Semel are on the call...so here we go.

5:08pm -- disclaimers are still being read <twiddles thumbs>5:09pm -- Terry is talking about improving search monetization. Duh. He states that Yahoo! is capitalizing on this -- although Project Panama is, um, really late. He's also talking about video and premium services along with the business group reorganization that was recently announced.

5:10pm -- Terry is talking about Project Panama and how it is now released -- invites will be going out during Q1.

5:11pm -- Yahoo! ended the quarter in line with expectations, says Terry. Some specifics -- to follow...Project Panama will also officially transition its ranking system (Panama) on February 5th. I am curious to see how this is different from Overture, the "bid placement" company Yahoo! bought years ago and which runs its search ad network until...now.

5:12pm -- Project Panama will be rolled out to international markets in Q2, starting with Japan. Terry keeps calling it an "ranking model" ad search system. Hmm.

5:13pm -- Terry is talking about Yahoo! "leading" the search monetization space...what? That's hard to pit against Yahoo!'s nemesis, Google. But, maybe he means something else.

5:16pm -- Terry is talking about an "audience-based" marketing platform. That is a rather generic term, yes? He wants "advertiser-friendly" platforms to connect customers to marketers. He also talks about the re-launch of Yahoo! Personal Finance and Yahoo! Food recent launches.

5:17pm -- Terry is talking about the eBay partnership -- it is progressing well, and Yahoo! is supplying graphical and text ads to eBay right now.

5:19pm -- Terry is talking about strengths in mobile web, social media and video, and he notes out Yahoo! Answers as a good example of social media. That's true -- but is that the *only* one? He also talks about the acquisition of Bix.com -- more entertainment and social media across Yahoo!'s network.

5:22pm -- revenues from Q4 were a little over $1.7 billion (get full results here), with net income for the quarter at $269 million

5:24pm -- Terry is talking about the re-launch of Yahoo! Go at CES a few weeks ago and the partnerships with RIM, Motorola, Nokia, the new Apple iPhone and with Opera. Yahoo! is really ramping up its mobile web and search presence. It is going head-to-head with Google over the battle for your cellphone screen.

5:27pm -- Terry has handed off the presentation to CFO Sue Decker, who starts talking finance shop immediately from her script. She talks about getting Project Panama "right" instead of deploying it "right away". That's great -- let's see how it works in 2007, of course.

5:28pm -- Sue is talking about free cash flow, which is "value creation" I agree -- and she talks about the net income of $269 for the latest quarter, with a little over a billion for the entire last fiscal year.

5:29pm -- over 93 million YHOO shares were re-purchased by Yahoo! for the fiscal year -- representing about 6% of outstanding shares. Woo-hoo Decker!

5:32pm -- Sue is talking about marketing services and fees as the two revenue drivers for the company. While Google almost takes all revenue from "marketing services", Yahoo! has quite a bit more revenue from user fees for premium services it offers its customers. This is one thing I have liked about Yahoo!'s strategy since Semel came on board -- it was virtually non-existent before then.

5:35pm -- Sue is talking about page view growth in December for the year -- and she ties that to "stronger engagement" without more detail on how those page views grew (acquisitions? organic growth? how?)....

5:38pm -- 3.7 million "paid relationships" were added to Yahoo!'s coffers in 2006. These are people who pay for Yahoo!'s premium services. A deflated *wow* can be inserted here. Or, maybe that's impressive to some.

5:40pm -- 11,400 was Yahoo!'s headcount at the end of the fiscal year, notes Sue. This represents a 16% growth for the year. That's quite a few new Yahooligans.

5:43pm -- Sue hands the presentation off to Terry, who starts to take Q&A from the audience.

5:45pm -- the first analyst concerns the monetization of Project Panama during Q2 and for the following fiscal year. A second question talks about the CFO replacement now that Sue is going to leave that post soon.

5:47pm -- a second question deal with "video advertising" -- are ad dollars shifting into or out of the area. Terry answers by saying that video advertising is still in its "early days". Yep.

5:49pm -- a third analyst chimes in with a question about acceleration of display advertising -- as opposed to the search advertising business. We're talking about the increase of those annoying banner and skyscraper ads among other things.

5:52pm -- a fourth question is asked about the specific modules of Project Panama, and what is planned beyond just text-based ads. Good question here -- Panama is very scalable, explains Sue. I think many analysts have thought that Yahoo!'s new system is just about re-tooling search advertising to compete with Google better -- not true. Can you say "customized and relevant" banner ads? Yikes, actually.

5:54pm -- the next question concerns Yahoo!'s mobile biz -- and when are material impacts going to be seen? Terry talks about Yahoo! being on more handsets than ever, with many ties to Yahoo!'s content as that relationship with an increasing audience is built.

5:56pm -- I guess most analysts are complete non-listening dolts -- the conference call facilitator repeatedly reminded the call-in audience to limit themselves to one question -- but every single analyst had two complete questions every time they got up to the mic. Hello -- listen people!

6:00pm -- the call is just about to be concluded after some last analyst questions (Sue Decker's voice is ... sooo boring ... and a few closing remarks. Remember -- see the full financial results for Yahoo!'s latest quarter and full fiscal year here.

6:05pm -- Terry ends the call after some closing remarks. We are outta here!

Update, 1-24-06 -- how did Yahoo! do based on last week's Yahoo! earnings "meet/neat/exceed" reader poll? 39% said "meet" while 34% said "beat". So, the winning readers this time around were the folks who voted "beat", as consensus estimates put Yahoo! Q4 EPS at $0.13 and Yahoo!'s actuals -- including stock-based compensation -- were $0.16 for Q4.