While Microsoft struggles with branding issues as it looks to gain some ground against Google, Yahoo is worried more about its social activities and how it stacks up against the social networks of the web.
One thing that Google does very well is keeping its various products right within reach when you are using one of them. When you are using Gmail, you are one click away from Picasa. When you’re using Google calendar, Google Docs is just as close. This is one of the reasons why Gmail (or Google itself really) is a powerful social network of sorts.
Yahoo is looking to integrate more of its properties at the social level, which in my opinion is a smart move, and probably one that should’ve been made some time ago. Reuters reports:
In the next several months Yahoo will begin rolling out new versions of its most popular products, from Yahoo Mail to the Yahoo home page. A thread of social media features, including a common user profile, list of friends and regular updates about friends, will tie the family of Yahoo properties together.
When an individual recommends a news story from the Yahoo homepage, uploads a photograph on Flickr or makes a trade on a fantasy baseball team from Yahoo sports, Yahoo will send an alert to a network of friends or contacts.
On a separate note, Yahoo Search BOSS has gotten some new features including delicious (Yahoo’s social bookmarking site) integration that can add a little bit more social to search results. Delicious data available to BOSS developers includes things like saves, top tags, and count information. Doug has more on that.
Is Yahoo taking steps in the right direction? What do you think about their social initiative? Comment.
