Yahoo services Answers and Music joined social networking site Bebo to tap its popularity with users in the United Kingdom.
While Facebook’s platform and Google’s Open Social have drawn some lines, at least among bloggers, Yahoo has quietly sidestepped both of them in favor of a relationship with Bebo. The social media network site deployed search services from Yahoo, but has added more from the company.
Yahoo UK’s Dan Peters said on the Yahoo Search blog the company has integrated Yahoo Answers and Yahoo Music with Bebo. He also noted how socializing has changed as people use the web as a networking tool.
Yahoo’s popular Answers joined the new application platform at Bebo. A module on a Bebo user’s profile allow them to ask and answer questions directly from Bebo. People can publish their questions and answers to the module to share them with friends.
Three channels of Yahoo Music – Rock, Urban, and Top Music – offer Bebo users the opportunity to subscribe to videos. They can add favorite songs to their Bebo profiles and see who their friends think is hot right now.
At its core, the deal provides Yahoo with brand reinforcement beyond its search product, already on the Bebo site. If successful, this gives Yahoo the chance to maintain mindshare with the young, entertainment-savvy networking crowd on Bebo.
If that leads to Bebo members signing on for other Yahoo services, or simply spending some time off Bebo on Yahoo properties, Yahoo benefits from the ad presentations they make during those times.
