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Yahoo! Tunes into Blogging and Social Networking

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wed Mar 16, 2005 09:18 AM
from the welcome-to-the-club dept.
The Internet
aarthi_r writes "The social networking wars have finally begun, with Yahoo! coming out with it's very own Yahoo! 360, which combines blogging, social networking, music, mobile connectivity, local searches (for restaurants and businesses) as well as photo-sharing. With stiff competition from the early starters like Orkut it will be interesting to see if Yahoo! will succeed." If you want to log in, don't hold your breath- they aren't opening until the end of the month.
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Yahoo! Tunes into Blogging and Social Networking 50 Comments More /

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  • 2005: Yahoo's Year (Score:5, Interesting)

    by filmmaker (850359) * on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:19AM (#11952746) Homepage
    "Yahoo is entering social networking with a significant advantage because so many people have already shared their personal information with the company to become registered users. Yahoo also has deep pockets, with $3.5 billion in cash and short-term investments at the end of 2004"

    This is why Yahoo is going to have one helluva year this year. They're taking all the good ideas Google ever had and generating their own implementations of them. That's not to say the reverse hasn't happened, or that Yahoo has no original ideas. Yahoo, before the end of summer or perhaps earlier, will match Google toe to toe on all of the following:

    Web Developer Kit; APIs to query Yahoo directly

    AdSense-like program through Overture, which now bears the Yahoo name

    Social network and blogging service as per today's article

    Fully independent, spider-based search system

    To name a few. Plus, I'm finding Yahoo's spider to be much more responsive to changes than Google, and Yahoo's search results seem timelier lately. MSN is even starting to take some of my attention from Google. It would have been unfathomable for me 1 year ago to say this, but I think Yahoo may tear Google a new one this year, unless Google makes some changes, fast.

    • I've been a longtime Google fan and frankly use all of their services reguarly.

      The update interval is definitely becoming a serious issue with Google. Their images.google.com is admittedly near-useless for getting an image that's newer than 6 to 9 months. Their search is lagging so far behind other search engines that their results are really starting to suffer.

      Hopefully it's just growing pains and they will be able to work out the kinks.

    • Google's responding... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by PornMaster (749461) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @10:02AM (#11953112) Homepage
      Google's beginning to respond... since Yahoo came out with the Yahoo Publisher Network [yahoo.com] on a limited release, signaling competition, Google's AdSense has changed their TOS to include Direct Deposit of ad revenue to the publisher's account. People have been clamoring for this for quite a time, but in just a few weeks after some competition from Yahoo (the rebraded Overture bits), they moved in to add value to their offering.

      Yay competition!
      • Haha. Yeah. I love Google, don't get me wrong. It's been my homepage for 5 years. You might call me brave for posting what I've posted, except, it really doesn't matter since no one reads slashdot anymore; not compared to a couple years ago. As Mr. Robert Zimmerman said so well: "the times they are a'changin'."
          • Yeah, like I said, Mr. Robert Zimmerman. :D

            Seriously though, can't tell if you're joking; in case you're not, Dylan is Zimmerman's stage name.

            While we're on the subject, I recommend Chronicles Vol. I. Good read.

  • Blogs (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BWJones (18351) * on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:19AM (#11952747) Homepage Journal
    Ah, maybe this will explain the sharp increase in bots from Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and others hitting my Blog [utah.edu] constantly over the past couple of months. The interesting thing is that the bots somehow have been preferentially scanning my blog over our lab site [utah.edu] which is also hosted on my same workstation.

  • Typo/Doesn't seem so special (Score:3, Insightful)

    by frazzydee (731240) * on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:21AM (#11952760)
    I think that it should be "Yahoo! tunes into...", unless you're actually talking about a service by Yahoo! called Tunes. Obviously, I have too much time on my hands ;o) here are a few sites that agree with me:
    Yahoo!s privacy policy [yahoo.com] "Yahoo! takes", "Yahoo! treats", "Yahoo! products and services"...
    Their currency converter [yahoo.com] "Neither Yahoo! nor"
    Geocities main page [yahoo.com] "Yahoo! member sign-in"

    But as for the actual story ;), it looks to me like they've seen how powerful it has been for google, and are pretty much copying them. Will it be successful? I don't think so; why would I want to use this new service by Yahoo! when I can use a more established service by google?
    But let's face it, most people don't think that way. Most people will see their other friends' blogs, say "I want one", and click that handy signup button right at the page they're on. And they know it's good, because their friend is using it. IMO, Yahoo! should've bought off another social networking company and taken advantage of an instant userbase.

    One more point: At the bottom of the article (you DID read it, didn't you?) it says that it's going to (initially) be invite-based, a la google. Well, IMHO this is a crappy idea. It worked for google because when they have something, it's (usually) fresh, new, and innovated. Plus, they always have the bonus of a fanclub. Yahoo!, on the other hand, does not enjoy such benefits. It doesn't seem any better than what I can get right now without begging for an invite.
    • I don't think so; why would I want to use this new service by Yahoo! when I can use a more established service by google?

      You're right. Who would switch away from Netscape to that new fangled IE?

      Oh wait...

      Funny thing is, I thought the same thing when Google first came out. What was wrong with Yahoo and Webcrawler. Well, we know how that turned out.

    • I think it'll work for yahoo, a lot better than it did for Google.

      Yahoo! is a company based more around keeping users on the site, and Google, quite the opposite. Yahoo! has launch to tie in to Geocities to tie into their new AdSense-like program, so they can now build a system like Orkut, and have it be wildly successful.

      Plus, I think they already have a wildly established user group; those people who are currently not using LiveJournal or some other alternative, and who are editing static geocities

  • Duh (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sparr0 (451780) <sparr0NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:21AM (#11952770) Homepage Journal
    With stiff competition from the early starters like Orkut it will be interesting to see if Yahoo! will succeed.


    They want to overcome 'stiff competition' from Orkut? I have a simple solution... Allow people to join the site. This seems pretty obvious, but Orkut apparently hasnt figured it out yet. I am about 10 degrees of seperation from anyone who has ever even heard of Orkut, so they will never get my 'business'.

    • Re:Duh (Score:5, Interesting)

      by BWJones (18351) * on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:27AM (#11952826) Homepage Journal
      Well, when Orkut can solve their teething problems and get their servers up to the load that is coming from S. America and the Middle East, then perhaps they will start allowing more people. I was in one of the first groups of folks to start using Orkut, and at the time it was useful, but it rapidly started going down hill due to all the traffic, noise and garbage which is making it largely useless. I actually have not visited in quite a while.

      Moderation is the only thing that has prevented Slashdot from completely going to hell and unless Orkut implements the same type of moderation system, they will become totally hopeless.

    • Re:Duh (Score:4, Informative)

      by igrp (732252) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:32AM (#11952872)
      I wonder how well Orkut will do in the long run.

      I first tried Orkut when it was the "new hotness"(tm) and it was all good and fun. However, for some reason the novelty wore off rather quickly.

      I think it had to do with their by-invitation-only policy. Just like GMail (which I love and still use on a daily basis, by the way), people wanted to use it really bad not because of its' features or out of curiosity but primarily because they couldn't. I guess, in a way, it's akin to a little child who wants something just for the sake of having it. After you have it, you use it for a while and move on to the next new thing.

      And I have to admit I haven't logged into my Orkut account for about half a year (and that was only to see for myself what all those "Brazilians take over Orkut" blogs were about). It will be interesting to see where Google goes with this (afterall, it's still in beta and not very tightly integrated into Google's other services, if I'm not mistaken).

    • I agree. I have never heard of Orkut. The social network that will win is the one that has enough people in it to be interesting. If I want enough people to read my blog and a large enough group to social network with then I will use the new Yahoo service. Yahoo's strong brand already gives it the advantage.
      • The social network that will win is the one that has enough people in it to be interesting.

        Since Real Life does not seem to have enough people in it to interest most bloggers, it seems unlikely that Yahoo will find enough to "win".

        TWW

    • Re:Duh (Score:5, Informative)

      by generic-man (33649) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:35AM (#11952898) Homepage Journal
      Orkut is pretty much dead. It is without question the least-reliable, worst-maintained, most-ignored beta that Google has ever released. The interface doesn't even have anything to suggest it's a Google property other than the "in association with Google" tag at the bottom, which is non-evil-speak for "a Google employee wrote this, so we own it."

      Orkut is a very poor Friendster clone that has had server problems from day one. The only reason why it gets any press is because of the small-print "association with Google."
      • Orkut may be "dead" to US and Canada residents, but their is a huge following of members from South America and Asia.

        In orkut I only have friends from South america (Brizalians keep adding me)

        "You are connected to 4,513,561 people through 11 friends."

        I think 4.5 million people that I am connected to through only 11 people would disagree with you that orkut is dead.

        This is comparable to friendster.com where I have 22 friends, but connected to only 40739 people.

        The biggest problem with orkut now is that
    • In order for the entire site to be connected to each other, Orkut can't make an open registration policy. It will destroy how it works (everyone is connected to everyone).

      The biggest problem is they can't handle the traffic. If Brazil is awake, you can forget about logging in. The server issues have resulted in many people giving up on it, it was fun at first but many of the good commnities I was in went dead, not a post since the server problems kicked off.

      I wonder what they are doing (if anything)
  • I've tried out Friendster and Orkut, but couldn't find any compelling reason to keep using them. The only social networking tools I find at all useful are ones based primarily on a specific interest, like Audioscrobbler, or ones that groups have built or, sometimes, that seem to have built themselves out of the raw network using ordinary communication tools like Usenet and bulletin boards.

    Trying to artificially develop a network of people whose only interest is that they're members of the same network... I don't know, it just seems silly.
    • Audioscrobbler is the first thing I thought of. I try and look at the websites of my neighbours if they have them, since sharing my musical taste is important if I'm going to like someone, but there's not that much opportunity to interact unless you're willing to go straight to messaging them, which seems a bit too...forward. Having blogging combined with collaborative music filtering seems to me to be a very good idea. If I didn't need to distance myself from my Yahoo identity, I'd try it.
      • Audioscrobbler is the first thing I thought of. [...] but there's not that much opportunity to interact unless you're willing to go straight to messaging them,

        There's a few people I've kinda got to know through moderations, and I've had a few "Wow, you really like Yasunori Mitsuda!" type messages.

    • Me Too! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by samael (12612) <Andrew@Ducker.org.uk> on Wednesday March 16 2005, @10:40AM (#11953444) Homepage
      The only social networking service I have found that actually seems worthwhile is LiveJournal - and that's because it's used by my friends to keep me up to date with what's going on with them.

      It's of no interest to me to know that RandomBob is two degrees of separation away from me, unless I can then get some idea of who RandomBob is - and being able to go and read his journal and see what kind of person he is.

      I've made a few friends in a variety of places, learnt all sorts of things and keep in touch with old friends - it's basically replaced email as the main communication method that my circle of friends uses.
      • Hah, that's funny cause the exact same thing happened to me and a large group of my friends - except that we actually had a mailing list setup all these years and blabbed to each other constantly on it.

        LiveJournal came out, and our list traffic just plummeted. And other than their blogs, I don't really read any other ones. LJ lets you basically be very efficient at keeping up to date w/your friends.

  • no interest (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tiro (19535) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:26AM (#11952819) Journal
    thefacebook.com has totally taken over this market for most american college kids. as they continue to expand, they're putting a big dent in the viability of these services. I don't think anyone would bother being on orkut + thefacebook when their college educated friends are already networked together. [there is a bit of a class element to this as well.]

  • Done (Score:2, Interesting)

    by clinko (232501)
    I did this a long time ago with Clinko Music [clinko.com]

    It basically turns any song into a chat room. You then can see who has similar songs and tastes (just like friendster)

    In fact, last night I stayed up all night to add Movies [clinko.com] Last night.

  • What should we call the duopoly? (Score:5, Funny)

    by bigtallmofo (695287) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:32AM (#11952875)
    Since Yahoo and Google appear to be encroaching on each others territory now, I guess the only remaining thing to do is to name the duopoly between Yahoo and Google. Windows/Intel has always been called Wintel, for instance.

    I prefer Yahoogle, but Goohoo isn't bad either.

  • Social Networking? Meh. (Score:3, Funny)

    by WormholeFiend (674934) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:34AM (#11952891)
    Social engineering is where the real action is at.

  • I tell ya I get no respect. (Score:3, Funny)

    by FlacoFuerte (567879) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:34AM (#11952892)
    If you want to log in, don't hold your breath- they aren't opening until the end of the month.
    Reminds me of my wife. /dangerfield> ba-dum-ching

  • But will it work outside IE? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hta (7593) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:37AM (#11952918) Homepage Journal
    Orkut worked fine for me for a few months, but I've not been able to log in with anything but IE for the last 6 months.
    Not that I miss it much.

  • Myspace. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Paul Slocum (598127) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:38AM (#11952924) Homepage Journal
    Everybody I know now uses Myspace [myspace.com], mainly because they include actual bands as nodes and have an interface to upload and post mp3s, along with photos, blogging support, event announcements etc. It's a good way to promote and network music/art projects. (and there are a lot of hot chicks on there too!) I haven't logged into Orkut or Friendster in months.

  • Anyone Seen Imeem.com (Score:5, Interesting)

    by illectro (697914) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:39AM (#11952936)
    http://www.imeem.com/ [imeem.com]
    It's an application that's still in Beta - basicallly takes all the communications stuff we use - IM, mail, blogs, groups, forums, galleries file sharing etc etc and rolls it into one all in one application. Remember that /. story about the bounty for adding file sharing to Gaim the theory was that sharing with friends is more likely to be legal than sharing with every user on the internet. Well these guys must've been way ahead of the curve on that one, the file sharing is just good enough to make it interesting to the p2p crowd. I see that some of the employees came from Napster. They also make a big thing about encrypting all the content in the network to protect you - unlike every other IM app.

    It should score huge Kudos points here because the developers say that they wrote te whole thing in C# and they're running the servers on Mono.

      • Re:Anyone Seen Imeem.com (Score:5, Interesting)

        by szyzyg (7313) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @11:12AM (#11953773)
        OK I'm one of the imeem developers - the first poster is kinda correct we wrote as much as possible in C# to make it trivially portable. The web servers are still running IIS because we've discovered a number of shortcomings in Mono's ASP.Net implementation. I'm the security guy here and I expressed reservations about running IIS, but in the end there were bugs we just couldn't get around when the time came to deplying the web services.

        But! the original is also right the servers that run the actual service - the 'supernodes' - they're running mono on top of linux and I am extremely impressed by how well mono handles it all.

  • The social network will be open (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TuringTest (533084) on Wednesday March 16 2005, @09:57AM (#11953060)
    The technology for social uses of the network will not belong to a single company - be it Orkut, Yahoo, MS or a startup. It will be built on top of the "lowercase semantic web [tantek.com]" the same way that the old Internet was built on top of the open TCP/IP protocol.

    This semantic web is the result of integrating lightweight, distributed metadata "miniformats" like the del.icio.us tagged bookmarks, the blog trackbaks, and other task-specific metadata like FOAF. Since nobody can control an open standard and users can easily flee from a centralized server and adopt rival ones, market forces will guarantee that not a single provider will hold all users' data.

  • BBS's? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kc0re (739168)
    Except for the Music this sounds like.. back in the day BBS's that had forums, chat rooms, and file sharing. The idea of sharing music (at least where I logged on) hadn't caught up yet, *don't think Mp3 had been invented yet*, but...

    sounds like the WorldBBS of yesteryear.

  • so many social network sites (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2005, @10:08AM (#11953160)
    how many social networking sites do we need?

    http://www.friendster.com
    http://www.orkut.com
    http://www.emode.com
    http://www.expats.com
    http ://www.tribe.net
    http://www.simpatico.com
    http:/ /www.christianconnect.com
    http://www.catholicconn ect.com
    http://www.netrelate.com/
    http://www.bud dhistconnect.com
    http://web.tickle.com/
    http://w ww.jewishconnection.com
    http://www.linkedin.com

    maybe the next thing someone will come up with is a meta-social-network, so you can have one network of all your other networks!
  • I have participated several Yahoo! groups and have found them wonderful. Unfortunately the chat rooms only work for people using certain versions of Windows, and not for all browsers.

    I think for this to take off, Yahoo! will need to start developing for a wider base of operating systems and software.

    Disclaimer - I am a long time UNIX, Macintosh, and Linux user
  • Those articles don't mention music. Where is the submitter getting that from?
  • "With stiff competition from the early starters like Orkut"

    Orkut has been around for about 16-24 months. There have been many more socail networking sites that were around much longer before them, like friendster.com, which has been around for a few years now. There biggest competitor will be myspace.com which has millions of users, mainly located in the us/canada regions, where orkut seems to be used mainly by people out of north america.
  • What's going to keep me away from this site is the same thing that bothers me about all the Yahoo sites: you have to keep logging in.

    I work on a bunch of computers at work and at home and Yahoo won't let me stay logged in for more than a few days. Multiply that annoyance by about six computers and it seems that I'm constantly having to enter my password.

    Yahoo has decided to make things somewhat safer for those who use public internet terminals but at the expense of most of us who have exclusive use of

  • Tribe.net [tribe.net]... that's all ya need.
  • is it just me or is 360 becoming the new X,i,e, extreme. You know, take something and append X,i,e or extreme on it and make it cool. Between Xbox 360 and yahoo 360 i am beginning to see a trend.

    • Google (Score:2, Interesting)

      by backslashdot (95548)
      Google is better poised to pull of a music search -> download option.

      When someeone searches for a song it can have a little light blue box appear on top of the results that says "would you like to buy this song?"

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