Yahoo! Expands Open Web Platform Plans

Ian Lamont writes "Yahoo has announced it is further opening its Web platform to developers and moving closer to a Facebook-style social networking concept. Yahoo CTO Ari Balogh made the announcement at the Web 2.0 Expo, and said that while Yahoo already has open APIs for some services, it will expand the open API concept to other areas and make it more consistent for developers, while boosting the 'social' aspect of its services for its members. Analysts don't expect this to increase Microsoft's interest in Yahoo!. In fact, recent comments from Steve Ballmer suggest that Microsoft will give up entirely."

Comments

Balmer again

[splict]

What I find more interesting than the "main story" is the article at the last link in the summary. Maybe some of this is out of context, but Ballmer just amazes me with the things he gets away with saying while still keeping his job.

Ballmer again repeated that acquiring Yahoo is essential for enabling Microsoft to succeed in the online advertising business, where both companies have been chasing Google.

Yet just the paragraph before that, the article states:

At a conference in Milan on Wednesday, CEO Steve Ballmer said Microsoft is "prepared to move forward without merging with Yahoo," according to a transcript provided by the company.

Ummm... Yeah... That's good for your stockholders (which incidentally through a gift I happen to be one of). I realize this is preparation in case they don't get Yahoo and of course they would move on without them. However, is it really smart to keep clamoring on about how essential they are for you to be competitive yet at the same time making it clear that you now have doubts if you can even do it?

Maybe I'm just being too hard on him or reading too much into it, but I did just finish rewatching "Pirates of Silicon Valley" last weekend and, well, it's just good fun. ;)

Re:Some of their API protocols are interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Do not click on parent's link. Couldn't slashcode just block out rds.yahoo.com links?

Re:Sounds familiar

[Enderandrew]

Then again, many Yahoo sites are designed to work in all browsers, and you won't see much ActiveX or ASP.

That's part of why I thought it never made sense for Microsoft to buy them. Would Microsoft allow Microsoft owned web-services running on Apache, and coded in PHP? Would Microsoft demand that Yahoo re-write all their web services? Would they attempt to force the Yahoo user-base into Microsoft web services, and in turn just lose those users that they spent over $40 billion to acquire?

Re:leading from behind

[owlnation]

Why not judge them on the quality of their products instead of who thought of it first?

I very much do. This being another reason why I'm certain they've been living on borrowed time. I agree that Google's dominance of the search market isn't a good thing for anyone, including Google. But Yahoo -- as also Google are now doing -- are resting on their laurels. Search hasn't advanced much for years. Yahoo could do that, but they don't. There's little revenue from IM, and their mail system is a broken spamfest hidden behind slow, heavy code and flash ads. You use gmail, I use gmail, we all use gmail, and we all know why.

This was also my point in my original post -- why diversify away from their core business? Especially when you are not the leader in your core business, and you are under threat. Yahoo has very, very bad management, and it has had for years. There's room for VAST improvements in search. Search in no way meets anyone's needs right now, but it looks like any improvement in search tech is going to come from the next Google/Yahoo -- a small enterprise run by a couple of smart guys with a server cluster held together with duct tape. This is because Yahoo (and also Google) aren't doing enough there.

Yahoo are dead men walking. This is actually a good thing, while Google tries to be not evil, Yahoo is evil. They shall be missed about as much as AOL.