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Yahoo! Tunes into Blogging and Social Networking

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the welcome-to-the-club dept.

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.

122 comments

  1. 2005: Yahoo's Year by filmmaker · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "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 Want To Believe
    1. Re:2005: Yahoo's Year by chimpo13 · · Score: 0

      Oh golly, now everyone will know what I think about 90210, Paris Hilton and the fat chick from Wilson Phillips. Google's been hiding my diatribe blogs about it for so long. I'm glad yahoo will fix that.

      On my dumb "blog" posts, google picks up matches pretty danged quick. I made a reference to "Phil the Fuck Wit" and it's number one on the charts. One out of one matches, when it's in parenthesis. Why is google watching me?

      Actually I'm glad google is getting some competition. It'll make them better.

      --
      riding round the world on an old motorcycle
    2. Re:2005: Yahoo's Year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      You are a brave, brave soul. Launching an anti-google attack at the top of an article about yahoo.

      God have mercy on you. hehehe.

      Maybe the google evangelism is getting a little high on slashdot.

      I'm going to keep using gmail until yahoo slims down their email client, it's too bulky right now (I pay for the plus account (or is it premium now).

    3. Re:2005: Yahoo's Year by filmmaker · · Score: 1

      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'."

      --
      I Want To Believe
    4. Re:2005: Yahoo's Year by bigtallmofo · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      I'm a big tall mofo.
    5. Re:2005: Yahoo's Year by Dorothy+86 · · Score: 1
      I think you mean Bob Dylan

      ;-)

      --
      Game Overdrive - Gaming News
    6. Re:2005: Yahoo's Year by filmmaker · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      I Want To Believe
    7. Re:2005: Yahoo's Year by superpulpsicle · · Score: 1

      I don't know why you say no one read slashdot anymore. It's still the premiere techie forum. Is there anything really better? If so, I'd like to know.

    8. Re:2005: Yahoo's Year by Dorothy+86 · · Score: 1

      That's quite interesting. I love the music, but never read much about the man himself. I wasn't joking, Learn something new every day!

      --
      Game Overdrive - Gaming News
  2. Blogs by BWJones · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ah, maybe this will explain the sharp increase in bots from Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and others hitting my Blog 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 which is also hosted on my same workstation.

    --
    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    1. Re:Blogs by jacksonj04 · · Score: 1

      Simple. Your blog is linked from more places, therefore it gets a higher 'interest' rating and is more important.

      --
      How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
    2. Re:Blogs by FooAtWFU · · Score: 1

      Not necessarily. Blogs update more frequently than static sites, by and large; if Google+Yahoo+MSN bots think that it's a dynamic site of some sort (presumably they have a variety of clues to determine one way or another) then they will scan it for updates more frequently.

      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  3. Grammar!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What kind of sentence is "Tunes into Blogging and Social Networking"?

    ;-)

  4. Typo/Doesn't seem so special by frazzydee · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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! takes", "Yahoo! treats", "Yahoo! products and services"...
    Their currency converter "Neither Yahoo! nor"
    Geocities main page "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.

    1. Re:Typo/Doesn't seem so special by BearJ · · Score: 1
      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.

      --
      Stand clear of the doors. The doors are now closing.
    2. Re:Typo/Doesn't seem so special by ciroknight · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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 pages to make a blog. Don't count them out; I have a number of friends that still blog this way, and they say they hate it, but they're blogs are established, they have friends that know the URL, and they simply have no incentive to move away from Yahoo!.

      I do believe, however, than an invite-based system is foolish. It worked for Gmail because they needed a slowly growing userbase (unlike what you said). They wanted to make sure their servers could take the load as they slowly wrote more software for the Gmail system. Same with Orkut, only their servers are a good deal worse; I've actually had people Instant Message me saying "Oh no, I think I helped crash the Orkut server again".

      So don't count this new fangled groupware stuff out. Yahoo's a bit behind in the game, but they're still in the game. Hopefully it'll just force Google to keep innovating and not sit back on their stock cash cow (which they REALLY need to do a 5:1 stock split or something, who the hell's gonna by a $180 dollar stock of a web-based company???).

      --
      "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
    3. Re:Typo/Doesn't seem so special by JCZorkmid · · Score: 1
      I think that it should be "Yahoo! tunes into...", unless you're actually talking about a service by Yahoo! called Tunes.
      Doesn't "Yahoo! Tunes into Blogging..." follow the standard english article title capitalization?
    4. Re:Typo/Doesn't seem so special by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. The complainer evidently didn't read past the first 3 words of the title...

    5. Re:Typo/Doesn't seem so special by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually Google doesn't have an equivalent as of this moment. Google's version is a bunch of disparate pieces that don't really go together. I don't know a single person that gives a crap about orkut, and very few want to install Hello just to post pictures on their blog. Blogger is doing decently because it's designed to plug into any page but it's really on it's own with a lot of missing pieces at this point.

      From what I see on the Yahoo page, it looks like they are finally tying all their services together to _share_ on one page so I think it'll work great for them. Also, if the rumors of the flickr buyout are true, there's no doubt it'll plug straight into this.

  5. Duh by Sparr0 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    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'.
    1. Re:Duh by BWJones · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      --
      Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    2. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      stiff competition from Friendster and MySpace maybe, but yeah, Orkut is dead.

    3. Re:Duh by igrp · · Score: 3, Informative
      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).

    4. Re:Duh by wheelbarrow · · Score: 1

      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.

    5. Re:Duh by generic-man · · Score: 5, Informative

      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."

      --
      For more information, click here.
    6. Re:Duh by fab13n · · Score: 1

      Orkut is still extremely beta, and couldn't properly handle the charge it alreasy has. So if they have to limit the number of users, their strategy is great. They create a lot of hype, people need it if only to aknowledge their hype (if with a geekish twist) status, and now many people who wouldn't have given a sh*t about it, maybe including you, would jump on the first occasion to use it. They just reused GMail's succesful trick.

    7. Re:Duh by DavidLeblond · · Score: 0

      I used Orkut for awhile just to see what it was. Its horrible. The interface was terrible, it didn't work 1/2 the time and when it did it was extremely slow. Its supposedly Beta, should be Alpha. :P

    8. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they are all dead long live http://www.adultfriendfinder.com/ :D

    9. Re:Duh by nagora · · Score: 1
      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

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    10. Re:Duh by blanks · · Score: 1

      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 the US the site speeds are sloppy at best.

      --
      TruePunk | Games
    11. Re:Duh by generic-man · · Score: 1

      Out of those 4,513,561 people, how many of them have logged in successfully more than once in the last N days? Google doesn't make a distinction between "user" and "active user," so your numerical comparison is about as valid as AIM's claim that they have 400 million users in their system.

      As a US internet user, I sort of expect Google's sites to work well in my country. To Americans, Orkut is dead and its US users (all X million of them) don't log in any more.

      --
      For more information, click here.
    12. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
      Can't do it. Orkut would have to drop MS dot-Not. Since they chose a technology which can't scale and can't handle the load, they're obviously making decisions based on religion or ideology, so dropping the cherished dot-Not of Bill isn't going to happen.

      You'd think that they'd learn a lesson from Hotmail and drop MS from the infrastructure altogether.

    13. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Orkut was actually out a few months before gmail and the invite system is unlimited. But the difference with gmail is that gmail is actually useful and can claim improvements over competitors and keep their momentum going. Orkut on the other hand is a flaming pile of crap that most people don't care about after the first 5 minutes and causes them to go back to their LJ/flickr/Friendster/MySpace/whatever.

  6. pfft by Mr.Zong · · Score: 1, Funny

    Anderson Cooper's gonna pwn yahoo's ass for this one. Pwn it like only the fat kid in dodgeball gets pwned. And why? Because he's got the hair.

    1. Re:pfft by B3ryllium · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you want to sleep with him.

    2. Re:pfft by Mr.Zong · · Score: 1

      Sleep? Please. There would be NO sleeping.

  7. Social Networking needs to have a reason... by argent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by m50d · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      I am trolling
    2. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by argent · · Score: 1

      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.

    3. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrdD!!

    4. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by rayofsunshine · · Score: 1

      I think multiply.com is interesting and has a reason. Like this new Yahoo product it is meant for sharing stuff. Unlike Yahoo it really is a social networking product. I'm not sure why people think this Yahoo product has social networking.

    5. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps this new social networking tool will be a pass to access more focused social networks?

      I can imagine having several specialized groups existing in Yahoo's infrastructure and you could use the same account to access any of them and even cross reference a person's posts.

      Actually, this is similar to how Live Journal works except Live Journal is perhaps too focused on journaling and doesn't have the vast scope or professional audience Yahoo does.

      The one big benefit Yahoo has over everyone else is that there are people that already use Yahoo for everything they do. Millions of them actually. And they will use this over other blogging / social networking sites simply because of the convenience of having it all together.

    6. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by m50d · · Score: 1

      Hey, you sound kinda nice, perhaps we should get to know each other better...

      --
      I am trolling
    7. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by kevcol · · Score: 1

      Trying to artificially develop a network of people whose only interest is that they're members of the same network...

      You are missing the point. It isn't just because they are on the same network. You have to communicate with other people to make it happen. You can't just expect passively joining is going to get the job done for you. Within these networks are shared interest groups, and the means for you to share ideas. That's the whole point. I've made lots of friends who I see locally IRL, and reconnected with others from the past who have moved out of town through this. Not to mention email pals from all over the world who I have come to know quite well- hell I think I have a free place to stay in several places on any continent just from these experiences. Sometimes shared interest groups are nothing more than inanely titled communities for nothing more than people to have a laugh with each other. Sometimes the dialog that ensues is like well done improv comedy and sometimes it's not. But for me, the experience has been quite positive. The biggest downside is the more popular they become, the worse the experience is with regards to site stability.

    8. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by emija · · Score: 1

      These kind of systems are more valuable for the early 20s, just out of college crowd. People dating, people just starting out in their careers. But the older you get, the less sense it seems to make.

      The more you know influential people, the more the whole idea just becomes horrifying. Let's suppose I'm a personal friend of Larry Wall. The LAST thing I want is for some random person to look at my network and use my name as an excuse for contacting Larry ("hey, I'm a friend of em's, and ....")

    9. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by argent · · Score: 1

      You have to communicate with other people to make it happen.

      Well, yes, now what does that have to do with things like Orkut or Friendster? I am a part of many communities online, and I'm sure you are too... including communities that you may not consciously think about as communities.

      Sites like Orkut and Friendster didn't create this phenomenon. I suppose for some people they facilitate communication, maybe that's why they seem important to you. For others, for people who are already part of online communities (some of which date back to long before the Internet was known as the Internet) they seem clumsy, forced, like the Monkees opening for the Beatles...

    10. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by argent · · Score: 1

      Heh.

      For some reason I keep getting invites to join the "Virus Writing Community" on Orkut. Uh, yeh, right...

    11. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by argent · · Score: 1

      I can imagine having several specialized groups existing in Yahoo's infrastructure and you could use the same account to access any of them [...]

      Like Yahoo Groups, perhaps?

      I've been involved in some Yahoo Groups boards, and they don't seem any worse than any other online bulletin board system. There's a lot of people who really like them... who get kinda obsessive about them, to be frank, and start pushing them at people who are quite happy using Usenet or ordinary mailing lists.

      The new Google Groups 2 seems to have unleashed a new flood of these people, who don't quite realise that the "Googe Groups" groups are really quite a different beast from the ones they gateway from Usenet...

    12. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by kevcol · · Score: 1

      Well, yes, now what does that have to do with things like Orkut or Friendster?

      Again, from your original comment: network of people whose only interest is that they're members of the same network

      This statement is fallacious- few people develop sub-communities within these social network sites just because "they're members of the same network" unless they are discussing how to improve/share ideas/bug reports about the network generally. They create discussion groups every bit as valid as that cherished mailing list you've been on for 10 years.

      Sites like Orkut and Friendster didn't create this phenomenon.

      So what's your point? It's just another outlet for it. There have been many in the past, and there will be many more in the future.

      they seem clumsy, forced

      It's not any more or less forced than USENET, MUDs, BBS', web boards, mailing lists, etc. You either choose to play, or you don't.

      For others, for people who are already part of online communities... *snip*

      Here is an important point: You are speaking only for yourself. You can find plenty of contributors actively participating in social networks who have been around the block and back in Internet time, yours truly included. I'm in the upper levels of the age demographic in SN sites, and I get a kick out of it.

    13. Re:Social Networking needs to have a reason... by argent · · Score: 1

      few people develop sub-communities within these social network sites just because "they're members of the same network"

      Well, yes, that's my point.

      The purpose of social networking sites is to try and artificially promote the crystallization of communities. It's the people who form the networks, not the "social networking" software. If the software supports what you're interested in doing *with* that network, it's much more likely to be useful than if it's just designed to try and promote the networking itself.

      It's not any more or less forced than [...], BBS', web boards

      Well, really, it *is* a web board, or a blog, or a BBS. That's the application that the N-degrees software is there to support.

      My goal is not to dissuade people from using and developing social networking software, but to encourage the use and development of sites and services that are more designed to support people's activities themselves as well as just being "N degrees" trackers. Because we need things like Audioscrobbler more than we need yet another BBS... and unfortunately those "N degrees" sites tend to be pretty poor BBSes, which is what made Orkut in particular seem barren and forced to me.

  8. Social networks and blogging by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    New words for webpages and links. I'm really impressed like I am with flashmobs and college kids stuffing themselves into volkswagons. This kind of stuff will change the fabric of the universe.

  9. no interest by Tiro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.]

  10. Orkut ? by mirko · · Score: 1, Informative

    Orkut is a closed network, it is not meant to compete.
    And IIRC, it was rendered unusable by Brazilians, no ?

    --
    Trolling using another account since 2005.
    1. Re:Orkut ? by diablobsb · · Score: 1

      not it wasn't... there were thousands of brazilian users, but the orkut infra-structure was (is) flawed from day one...

      --
      I for one, welcome our new hot grits... PROFIT!
  11. Done by clinko · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I did this a long time ago with Clinko Music

    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 Last night.

  12. What should we call the duopoly? by bigtallmofo · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:What should we call the duopoly? by metlin · · Score: 2, Funny


      Nah!

      Goohole!

      How does that sound? Bad, I suppose.

  13. Social Networking? Meh. by WormholeFiend · · Score: 2, Funny

    Social engineering is where the real action is at.

  14. I tell ya I get no respect. by FlacoFuerte · · Score: 3, Funny

    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

  15. But will it work outside IE? by hta · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:But will it work outside IE? by kevcol · · Score: 1

      I use it regularly with FireFox and Opera* on Linux/XP/OSX, Safari and Camino on OSX. I never use IE for it (or anything else for that matter).

      *Some of the features do not work properly on Opera though the site is accessible.

  16. Myspace. by Paul+Slocum · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Everybody I know now uses Myspace, 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.

    1. Re:Myspace. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (and there are a lot of hot chicks on there too!)

      I hope they stay there after the slashdot crowd joins in...

  17. Anyone Seen Imeem.com by illectro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.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.

    1. Re:Anyone Seen Imeem.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      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.

      according to netcraft they are running on Windows Server 2003/Microsoft-IIS/6.0 and they always have

      if they have to lie about something so pathetic as their server OS choice what else are they lying about ?

    2. Re:Anyone Seen Imeem.com by szyzyg · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    3. Re:Anyone Seen Imeem.com by lupus-slash · · Score: 1

      Please file bugs about the issues you found at bugzilla.ximian.com if you haven't already, so we can fix them.

  18. Google by backslashdot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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?"

  19. yahoo... by eobanb · · Score: 0, Troll

    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

    Yahoo: ME TOO!!!!!111

    --

    Take off every sig. For great justice.

  20. The social network will be open by TuringTest · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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" 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.

    --
    Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
    1. Re:The social network will be open by eobanb · · Score: 2, Funny

      Additionally, it will be fully buzzword-compliant.

      --

      Take off every sig. For great justice.

    2. Re:The social network will be open by TuringTest · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually not. That would be the uppercase Semantic Web, but the point of the "lowercase" is that it is already working, far away from academia. It's evolutionary, not designed.

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
  21. Re:geocities, yahoo photos, yahoo groups, launch by NerdHead · · Score: 0

    Actually, I think Yahoo! Groups works really well. What I really think they should do is get rid of the awful bandwidth restrictions on Geocities.

  22. Google's responding... by PornMaster · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Google's beginning to respond... since Yahoo came out with the Yahoo Publisher Network 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!

    --
    500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
    1. Re:Google's responding... by Walkiry · · Score: 1

      >Yay competition!

      No kidding, meanwhile the user is rubbing his hands and grinning.

      --
      ---- Take the Space Quiz!
  23. Bullshit Propaganda by ElitistWhiner · · Score: 1

    when all they purport is feature list and sign-up sheet. Yahoo! just can't find their user's heart without copying Flickr, eBlog, iTune, etc... Give me something original Yahoo!

    user@yahoo.com -> snailmail gateway
    user@yahoo.com -> Fax gateway
    user@yahoo.com -> SMS gateway
    user@yahoo.com -> beeper gateway (myairmail.com)

    DistributionLists:
    user@yahoo.com -> Photo gateway via snailmail

    Yahoo! could be a real dashboard but for the blinding adcentricity of their developers and UIdesigners.

  24. BBS's? by kc0re · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  25. so many social network sites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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!

    1. Re:so many social network sites by inertialFrame · · Score: 0

      You didn't mention perhaps the coolest one of all (and the one that I use):

      StumbleUpon.com

      StumbleUpon's toolbar for Firefox and MSIE make maintaining one's own blog *really* easy, the discussion forums are lively, and the community is quite interesting and diverse.

    2. Re:so many social network sites by Fortun+L'Escrot · · Score: 1

      or at least a web portal to all those social networks. one sign in all your social network stuff aggregated on one site. you could add filters to re-organize the information on-slaught.

      sounds interesting if you ask me. if you start getting the servers hosting these social networks to talk to themselves for example sharing database information throw a little google on there and you can start creating links with people based on news or events that you find mutually interesting. all the chatter related to an interest could be immediately organized in a way to reflect new interpretations about that interest at a given period in time. the information collected from this can then be fed into an AI...

      actually you're right that's a little silly.

    3. Re:so many social network sites by blogeasy · · Score: 1

      It would actually be great for the consumers to have many providers for social networking technology all connected by a standard. Each technology provider could add their "value-added" services and still communicate with the other social networks via a standard protocol as part of bigger federation of social networks.

      --

      Browse the Information Directory
    4. Re:so many social network sites by FooAtWFU · · Score: 1
      I don't need any of them.

      And no, I don't count Slashdot's friends/foes bit as a "social network site".

      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  26. Implementation by server_wench · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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

    1. Re:Implementation by vidarh · · Score: 1

      Try using Gaim if you want to access Yahoo! chat from Linux.

    2. Re:Implementation by server_wench · · Score: 1

      My web hosting includes a Jabber server. While looking around I found Fire for Mac OS X. Most of my buddies are on Yahoo!, AOL, and ICQ so it meets my needs. Running under Linux is not an issue right now as I have a shell account and use a Mac as my main working machine -- use Photoshop fairly heavily to prepare graphics for web sites.


      Thanks for the tip about Gaim, I will give it a try. Looks like it connects to more services than Fire.

      To return to the thread though, it is really frustrating to be a member of a support group on Yahoo! with members who feel the need for live chat and for most of said members to be unable to use the chat room Yahoo! provides.

  27. Orkut can't make an open-registration policy by telemonster · · Score: 2, Informative

    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) to remedy the situation. I heard they put squid boxes infront of all the web servers.

    If the site worked, and people were using it, I imagine more people from the US would be joining. I'm reluctant to invite more people because they won't be able to log in.

    --
    Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
  28. Silence by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    Those articles don't mention music. Where is the submitter getting that from?

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:Silence by aarthi_r · · Score: 1

      The page does talk about including Launch cast as a part of Yahoo! 360. I'm referring to the part which says "Let your friends listen to your Yahoo! Music station." :)

    2. Re:Silence by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      It sounds like you've found a page different from the two linked from the Slashdot story. Where do you see that description of Launchcast?

      --

      --
      make install -not war

    3. Re:Silence by aarthi_r · · Score: 1

      Check here..the right hand list of features includes Launchcast station.. http://360.yahoo.com/reg/whatis.html

    4. Re:Silence by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Ah, not linked from the Slashdot story, but interesting - thanks. I found the detailed description of LaunchCast elsewhere.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

  29. So is this like LiveJournal? by Dony · · Score: 1

    Blogging and social networking. Is it just me, or is Yahoo not moving into Google's space here as much as LiveJournal's? As others have said, Orkut seems pretty dead. Google's Blogger doesn't do social networking as far as I know. Sounds more like LJ to me.

    --
    Machiavelli, a graphic novel
  30. Me Too! by samael · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    My Journal
    1. Re:Me Too! by sumbry · · Score: 1

      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.

  31. Early starter? by blanks · · Score: 1

    "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.

    --
    TruePunk | Games
    1. Re:Early starter? by smitty45 · · Score: 1

      orkut is very much overrun with Brazilians, more than anyone else.

    2. Re:Early starter? by blanks · · Score: 1

      Yeah it is, its strange, but all the communities that I have started are allmost 90% Brazilians. And the only non Brazilian I have on my "friend" list is someone I told about the site.

      --
      TruePunk | Games
  32. Logging in too often by ep385 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    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 our machines.

    1. Re:Logging in too often by gopalarathnam_v · · Score: 1

      yeah unlike "Customize our G News service", where the service doesn't even recognize me (does not require login) and I'll have to go and do the same customization on every computer I use.

  33. Try the ultimate instead by smagruder · · Score: 1

    Tribe.net... that's all ya need.

    --
    Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
  34. EDS Doesn't Have a Clue! by Necrotica · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    "From a corporate perspective, we are not confident where Linux is right now today. A large enterprise needs to be sure because it relates to securifying [sic] the environment. We see some of the same things occurring that did to Unix -- it could splinter into many different types of languages. We are quite cautious about Linux and its deployment," said Rasmussen." If I were a company looking to outsource my IT, EDS just talked themselves out of it. First of all, I don't know how anyone could securify anything. Second of all, I thought Unix was an operating system, not a language. It appears to me that Mr. Rasmussen has no idea what he is talking about and is obviously in WAAAAAY over his head. That's embarassing.

  35. 360 by minus_273 · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.

    --
    The war with islam is a war on the beast
    The war on terror is a war for peace
  36. Excellent marketing by sfjoe · · Score: 1

    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

    Just one question: Can't Yahoo! pay for their advertising like everyone else?

    --
    It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
  37. That's just like Audioscrobbler by chuck.kahn · · Score: 1

    Only Audioscrobbler supports foobar2000. And Clinko defaults to IE. How do you add movies to Clinko? Does it scan your DVD drive?

    1. Re:That's just like Audioscrobbler by clinko · · Score: 1

      Interesting idea. Movies are added automatically, with dynamics between users being added later (i'll probably program the first few sql statements tonight)

  38. Whats the f...point by Boulderado · · Score: 1

    A bunch of random comments Take Yahoo 360 and multiply it by 1000 and you get Grouper and other private P2P apps. I guess if you want to share a bunch of text and a few photos 360 works. Isn't this just MSN Spaces all over again. Also Yahoo should have used 360 to allow many to many interaction instead of just one to many. Since you have to upload shared files I assume there will be space limitations and they will monitor your files for offensive or illegal content. Yahoo will push it like mad to its massive audience so I am sure there will be many users.

  39. cybersocieties.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they have a neat hotornotesq chat alliances journal profile system. It's allright.

  40. What Yahoo Needs to differentiate itself- FotoFlix by senzafine · · Score: 1

    Yahoo! has a huge userbase and can immediately get rolling with a social networking. They can integrate Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! email and even personals. They have so many things going for them with this.

    The only thing they need is to acquire FotoFlix and offer a unique photo/audio feature.

    --
    Better than Flickr - Manage, Share, Archive
  41. Blogger Survey by ArTeCc · · Score: 1

    Do you blog? There is currently a research survey out that seeks to know "why bloggers blog." The study is being performed by a graduate student at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. The survey takes less than 5 minutes to complete. Thanks for your time. Click Here to take the survey

    1. Re:Blogger Survey by Paul8069 · · Score: 1

      You know when this survey should be completed? I'd be really interested in seeing the results.

      --
      Paul
  42. images of this new service by yourfavoritetroll · · Score: 1

    http://v2.decipherinc.com/survey/yahoo/yah04023/ho mepage_03.gif
    http://v2.decipherinc.com/survey/yahoo/yah04023/my page_03.gif

    i got asked to do the survey about this (link now dead) and i guess i must have been putting the right answers because they gave me access to a beta site so i could do more questionaires on it.

    i looked for about 3 seconds, its just like another blog site to me.

  43. Eh? by David+Gould · · Score: 1


    Moderation is the only thing that has prevented Slashdot from completely going to hell

    !

    Sorry, but I had to re-read that several times to be sure I wasn't mis-reading it. Now I'll just walk away, shaking my head and muttering.

    --
    David Gould
    main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
  44. Yahoo behind the times again by microbrewer · · Score: 1

    Looks like they stole the name and idea from Microsoft who has a program that overlays MSN Messenger called 3 degrees that has been around for quite a while

    http://www.threedegrees.com/

  45. so... by danisdanisdan · · Score: 1

    yTunes, anyone?

  46. Blogging & Social network still in trial mode by Steward5732 · · Score: 1

    There are tons of website for blogging not body knows how to keep making it profitable. Currently, the only one making money based on ads and membership. .. As long as there are traffic keep coming it will doing fine

    --
    Free Posting on thousands and hundreds cities in World Cities Community
  47. orkut and brazil by mattkidman · · Score: 1

    I am a brazilian user, here Orkut is REALLY popular, it appears even on tv, with tv hosters talking about their orkut, but the service is REALLY bad as much as it popularity, the curious thing, is that in orkut nobody posts anything! you just afiliate to a community to say "hey I think like them!" but you dont say anything, its dead of content but full of people. PS: I hate orkut, what a waste of time..!