This week's Read/WriteWeb Files is investigating the 100 Days For Yahoo. In a recent earnings conference call, new Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said that "the next 100 days or so" will be spent mapping out Yahoo’s strategic plan. So we thought we'd help with the strategic analysis.
Yesterday I listed 10 top Web properties that Yahoo owns. But the real question is: how to tie all of Yahoo's properties together and utilize them better? Josh Catone wrote that the solution is to make My Yahoo into an open platform, a la Facebook or iGoogle. Josh explained what can be done to create a more useful and meaningful Yahoo! for users, one that can keep people on the site and drive them to use their search engine. His theory:
Yahoo! needs to realize that the web platform is getting more and more important. Google already has, and is building a platform around their start page, iGoogle, by encouraging developers to build "gadgets" specifically for it. For Yahoo!, a platform can unify their services -- which right now are scattered -- and add utility to their page that will keep users there long enough to conduct searches. Yahoo! controls some of the hottest and most useful properties on the web, but has not figured out how to tie them together. They've started to bring some of their acquisitions under the single Yahoo! sign-on umbrella, but that still doesn't bring my del.icio.us links, my Flickr photos and my fantasy sports team management to one central location.
The good news for Yahoo! is that they already have a property just waiting to be turned into a full fledged platform: My Yahoo!
Josh goes on to recommend 3 immediate courses of action for Yahoo:
1. An Open API - why have a team of people adding only "official" modules to My Yahoo, when Yahoo could have thousands of developers doing the work for them for free?
2. Richer Applications - For My Yahoo! to be taken seriously as a platform and compete with Facebook and iGoogle, they'll need to support richer applications. That means applications that can be interacted with on the page.
3. Make the Platform Social - My Yahoo! already has 50 million users (by December 2006 numbers) -- certainly a lot more than Facebook. So it makes sense to build in a social network, rather than purchase one from the outside an go through the headache of figuring out how to get it integrated.
As Josh noted, "Yahoo! is actually in a better position to create a winning platform than Google is right now. Their start page is already established and has an enormous user base, they have a rich developer culture built around their other APIs and they can seed their platform with some of the best content on the web."
Josh's post is an excellent kick in the pants for Yahoo. I've just presented the Cliff's Notes version here, but read the whole post. Also check the comments, there are some insightful ones.
So will Jerry Yang take Josh's advice and make My Yahoo an open platform? The answer to that may effect the way you vote in this week's poll ;-)
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Comments
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Agree, we have similar views - it would probably cost a lot less to recombine Yahoo's formidable assets into a Facebook killer (and it would probably be quite large from the get-go), and then "entice" new users.
Anyway, we blogged our thoughts on this over on our blog in a longer post yesterday.
Posted by: alan p | August 1, 2007 4:10 AM
It won't work. It's all about branding, and Yahoo isn't known to be a social network..... In large part because My Yahoo doesn't have a UI that is suitable for a social network.
Michael Vu
CTO/Founder
www.fantasysportsmatrix.com
"A social network for sports fans"
Posted by: Michael Vu | August 1, 2007 4:53 AM
I think that the post overstates the similarity between Facebook and iGoogle. Facebook is the face I present to the web. iGoogle is the start page for my use of the web.
My Yahoo is more like iGoogle. Yahoo 360 is/was more like Facebook.
Posted by: Andrew | August 1, 2007 8:33 AM
This is surely going to be an uphill task for Yahoo! They missed a great oppty to acquire FaceBook.
Jitendra
Posted by: Jitendra | August 1, 2007 10:25 AM
This is so well written and an enlightening article. The Web is becoming so much more social and personal with each such initiative. I think the next few years will see a lot of shake-out in this space.
Posted by: Nitin | August 1, 2007 11:05 AM
This post is like deja vu, I posted a question just like this to LinkedIn's Q&A section back on July 16th. The question and answers are here:
http://jobmatchbox.com/2007/08/01/facebook-vs-my-yahoo-vs-igoogle-vs-myaol/
You forgot to mention myAOL. They are down, but they are not out. Look for a lot more competition in this space in the near future.
Posted by: Bob | August 1, 2007 5:50 PM
Open api is indeed an opportunity for yahoo to attract new users and applications. however, Yahoo! is still struggling with some product duplication issues.
Glad to see that they are finally closing Yahoo Photos... but what about del.ico.us and MyWeb?
-ed
Posted by: Edmund | August 1, 2007 8:10 PM
So it's now possible that these two failing companies will get together, with Microsoft wanting to buy Yahoo to compete with the new boss: Google
http://www.songtexte32.com/interpreten/stina-nordenstam/index.php
Posted by: munchen | August 3, 2007 12:00 AM
The Open API is the killer feature of Facebook. The walled garden is their Achilles heel. Yahoo can take them on. They can take on Google as well. They might not win but they will end up in a much better second place than they are now. I also think they can create a better ad interface than adwords... Yahoo is not history. Yahoo maps are way behind the rest. It needs a steep quality impulse. Yahoo needs a much better maps app, it is a part which can join lots of Yahoo services together.
Posted by: dc crowley | August 3, 2007 2:45 PM
The question is not assets, capital or technology.
It is culture
Does Yahoo have a corporate culture that can see where the internet is OBVIOUSLY going and get there first?
If not then the "brains of the outfit" should sell out and move on. If they don't have the right culture they can't do it no matter what they buy, sell, trade or make.
We're not in a position to sit here on the internet and guess what is going on in the corporation.
Regards,
Roy
Posted by: Roy Rodgers | August 4, 2007 8:25 PM