As it inches more towards its evolution into one big social network, Yahoo! has launched its new look user profile; the first proper product release for the social part of YOS (Yahoo! Open Strategy).
It’s been a long haul for the company, which first
talked about the new strategy almost a year ago. More details, and a few conceptual screenshots, were
announced at CES in January. A newcomer to Yahoo, VP Communities
Jim Stoneham, is leading the team that’s creating new social features.
So here’s exactly what Yahoo is launching: a new look for the user profile, and the ability to create “connections,” which are mutual friendships. That’s it for the front end. Yahoo has also created what they’re calling a “vitality system to share updates” on the back end, which is an engine to run activity stream-like content for future releases.
Over the next few months, they say, Yahoo properties will begin to integrate with the new profile. So if you answer a question at Yahoo Answers, for example, the activity will show up in your feed update. Eventually the front page of Yahoo Mail will show what your friends are up to as well. Emails from your connections will also be highlighted, so you can read them first.
If you have a Yahoo account, you can see your profile at profiles.yahoo.com/[username] . The other half of Yahoo’s YOS strategy centres on an open strategy, particularly around search - see TechCrunch’s
update from April where some of those features were discussed and released.
Time will tell if this ends up having an impact on targeting, Yahoo’s performance as a media choice, and user stickiness on the site. For the full article, click
here.
- Rick
