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On Yahoo!'s Acquisitions

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the buying-up-the-web dept.

Barry Norton writes "The Guardian has quite an insightful article about recent Yahoo acquisitions Delicious and Flickr. They quote Joshua Schachter, Delicious' creator: 'We're excited to be working with the Yahoo search team - they definitely get social systems and their potential to change the web. We're also excited to be joining our fraternal twin, Flickr!' And why Yahoo's interest? The article opines: 'It takes a lot of the hard work out of searching the web. The very clever thing about social software is that it puts the burden on to the user, not the provider.'"

8 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. PR...! by mister_llah · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What you see there is the Public Relations Friendly(tm) version of the advertising plan you speak of...

    When making a statement about such an acquisition, you don't say "The very clever thing about social software is that we can sell advertising at higher rates because we can tailor the ads to the market and promise more responsive viewing."

    It's not that they are missing the point, it's that it doesn't sound very good to come out and say something that sounds so self-centered.

    --
    MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
    http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
  2. They bought it... by mister_llah · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'd wager it won't take very long, unless they intergrate the social network into their already existing Yahoo! Groups ...

    They bought the companies... I think it's a lot more straightforward/honest to change the name.

    Yahoo! is not a holding company or anything, they are in a brand war with Google, they need to get their name out there, it's just good business.

    ===

    I don't want to make any inferences, so I will just ask... do you think that it is at all questionable that Yahoo buys these companies and changes the name?

    --
    MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
    http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
    1. Re:They bought it... by ravenwing_np · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Mr Schachter is an intelligent man with his own vision. Many companies were bidding on del.icio.us. I have faith that he joined the company that allowed him to keep as much of his original vision as possible.

    2. Re:They bought it... by User+956 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Mr Schachter is an intelligent man with his own vision. Many companies were bidding on del.icio.us. I have faith that he joined the company that allowed him to keep as much of his original vision as possible.

      You mean like when AOL bought Nullsoft for WinAmp? That turned out greaaaat.....

      --
      The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  3. YAHOO is trying to catch up... by PenguinBoyDave · · Score: 3, Interesting

    With all of the services Google has been offering, YAHOO has to catch up if they hope to stay on top. Google started simple and grew. YAHOO exploded, and has never really grown. Personally, I like what YAHOO has to offer, but I spend much more time on Google.

    --
    I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
  4. Hey! by isecore · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Don't forget Konfabulator! They bought that as well.

    --
    I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
  5. Yahoogle by komodo9 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This is just the next step in Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft fighting to provide more features than any other website. Google buys Blogger, so Yahoo needs delicious. Google makes maps, so MSN needs to make them also. Everyone's copying each other, and Google usually starts it. -- United Bimmer BMW Enthusiast Community

  6. Why this is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting


    Algorithms and 'communities' used to deliver content based on previous and current interests are completely
    perverse if you think about it. What defines human intelligence? It is the capacity to grow, to change. All of us move from one thing to another in our lives. We are not cast in stone. Generally the more intelligent you are the faster you will move through lifes chocolate box. Politically you'll be a fascist at 14 where the simple rules of power seem appealing, but by your 20s you'll have discovered other people, community and responsibility and start to take on socialist ideologies. In your late 30s you'll learn to temper ideologies with realism and become more of a conservative liberal. Perhaps by retirement your fear of progress and change will take you full cycle back to the stagnant naivety of right wing thinking again. Throughout this life you will have interests in cars, then not. Maybe your passion for football will wane and a love of fishing will take over, only to be replaced by a love of flying or motorsports. Your teenage apathy for diet might blossom into a curiosity for food and fine wines. Even seemingly immutable characteristics have the capacity to change. Atheists become believers and vice versa, you might even change your sexuality. The thinking behind much of the current attempts to direct content at people based on their profile is damaging. You simply become more of yourself. So these are actually inhibiting and stifling technologies. To circumvent them I find it useful to develop multiple online personalities, or to occasionally correct my profile by taking an interest in far right politics for a week, or suddenly becoming a fan of art movies, or looking at property in the south. This has huge payoffs, not least of which I get to know the views of my enemies and occasionally I genuinely take on new ideas and interests that were far outside of my scope. Only this way do I stop profiling from effectively connecting my arse to my mouth and exploding me in a feedback loop of drowning in my own shit. As Einstein said "Life is a bicycle, to stay on it you must keep moving" Profiling and hanging out in cliques stops you from doing so. I dare to say, even this very Slashdot website is one such example.