Yahoo the social network?
Yahoo has made a declaration that their day of search aren’t over…well, not just yet. Although Yahoo seems intent on delving even further into social networking (more on that in a minute) they’re still producing extras to entice more users to use their search engine such as a new results page lets searchers connect directly to the Web content they want without leaving Yahoo’s results page. If this proves popular, we would expect to the feature included in the merged Bing/Yahoo Search engine recently agreed.
Ok, so search is pretty much old hat for Yahoo. Where to next? Looking at anniouncements coming out of Sunnyvale, California suggest that Yahoo can see huge potential in the social networking arena. Popular Yahoo products such as Mail and Messenger will be getting a number of ’social extensions’ that allow users to update their status, share photos with friends, and make video calls. Like FaceBook, I guess.
Yahoo’s chief aim is to turn core products, such as Yahoo Mail, into a social hub that a) pulls in more users, b) keeps currrent users C) provides a larger base for advertisers to target (my words, not Yahoo’s!). Again, much like FB! Yahoo will be providing subscribers with the ability to update information about themselves and then post those updates to their social profiles on other websites.
Ok, by comparing Yahoo’s efforts to FB I may be being a little unfair. Regardless of how you look at it, Yahoo Mail is the leading email service in the world which gives them a pretty good head of steam as the drive forward into the world of social networking. But the question is; “Where do Yahoo want to go with this?” In my opinion, there’s little chance of them making serious headway in the social sector of the web - the likes of FaceBook and MySpace have that pretty well wrapped up. If I were running things at Yahoo I’d definitely be eyeing up the potential to grab a slice of the market by allowing the users to post updated profile info via their Yahoo account. Features like this will allow Yahoo to keep users on their site for longer which provides more potential to hammer home those adverts! By providing hooks into other websites Yahoo can remain firmly outside the ring that is hosting the current bout between social networking heavyweights. Illogical? Not really. Consider this: everything we see on the web is basically a phase - companies rise, companies fall. Take Google as the prime example. I have absolutely no doubt that the search giant will still be here in 10 years time but other contenders are likely to nibbled away at the market share. I know lovers of the mighty G might be cursing me but nothing lasts forever.
So, by taking a slice of the pie Yahoo seem to be positioning themselves as a one stop shop for everything i.e. traditional Yahoo services with some funky social addons that will no doubt pull in many interested users. More subscribers = more moolah! Sorry, let me rephrase that: Yahoo wants to provide a social outlet for existing Yahoo users who don’t use Twitter, MySpace..etc, etc!
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