Yahoo MyWeb's Gonna Kick MySpace in the Jimmies
I'm becoming a major Yahoo fan.

In January, when Yahoo said it was willing to tread-water in terms of search share I said, "Yahoo's going to win more search share by increasing usage of their portal properties and if it keeps up the social web push I think it will see that happen."

In August of '05 I tripped out over Yahoo's inclusion of user generated content (oops sorry... Authentic Media) in Yahoo Local searches: "It's the melding of user generated content into the local/map search that gets me excited. Yahoo's providing the trellis for all this incredible and detail-rich LOCAL user content to grow up around."

Now I see in Yahoo's latest rendition of MyWeb pretty much exactly what I wrote about two days ago: "I think that the social networking killer app, will be the tools for users to create their own myspaces that can connect easily and fluidly and CONTROLABLY through [a] single interface. Oh yeah, and it has to be mobile and local too of course :)."

Tim Mayer says the changes in MyWeb are "about lowering the barriers to entry to mainstream users so they can experience social search."

I see the MyWeb changes as empowering users to more clearly define specific relationships within their ENTIRE SOCIAL UNIVERSE. Essentially, users can decide who gets the PARTY home video, who gets the blogposts on Junior's ADHD and who gets the RESUME.

This flexibility is a huge step up from what MySpace and LinkedIn currently offer, and is essentially a social networking TOOL with limitless flexibility. Also, Yahoo's miles ahead of MySpace when it comes to... SEARCH. And I would argue that MyWeb and Yahoo in general is more in tune with the concept of InfoLust.

In Chris Sherman's SEW write up of MyWeb he mentions, in regards to the flexibility, that "the feature is similar to one offered in Yahoo's photo-sharing service, Flickr." I'm not a photographer so I've never gotten in to Flikr. MyWeb seeks to enable Flikr-like communities to form through social networking and social media tools connected through a single login.

Now if Yahoo can just figure out how to make it hip it WILL kick the living jimmies out of MySpace.

I'll switch over just as soon as all my MySpace friends do ;)

(Will Google Base set off a social networking/social media spark? HIGHLY LIKELY. Will it have the flexibility of MyWeb: probably not for awhile. It will have only one login though, which is good.)

(some SEMs are in both)

What are the MyWeb social networking and social media implications on search marketing? Watch for my upcoming article!

Also, I'm happy to talk to anyone, any time about what's happening at Yahoo! and what it means to how we consume media 919-433-3139.

update:
Also check out Greg Sterling's interesting YouTube a Yahoo Takeover Target?
Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive | permalink | +marktd |