Yahoo! Gets into Blogging and Social Networking

http://360.yahoo.com/

[Imaster]

Yahoo! is 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.

[story.news.yahoo.com...]
[360.yahoo.com...]

Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) is preparing to introduce a new service that blends several of its Web site's popular features with two of the Internet's fastest growing activities — blogging and social networking.

The hybrid service, called "Yahoo 360," won't be available until March 29, but the Sunnyvale-based company decided to announce the product late Tuesday after details were leaked to The Associated Press and other news outlets.

Yahoo is testing the service with a small group of employees, some of whom have been working on the project since last year when the product was operating under the code name "Mingle."

[rogerd]

Interesting. At the last WebmasterWorld Conference, we discussed how everyone wants to have "community". It looks like that includes the Web's #1 site.

[martinibuster]

This is pretty cool. You won't need to use services like snapfish anymore to share pictures of your baby with friends and families. If your kid goes away on vacation or on an exchange program, they can keep a running blog with pics to keep in touch with you.

I love sharing baby pics with family located all over the place, so I'll welcome an easier way to do it.

It's great to see a company get out there and do something innovative (gets boring when it's always Google). ;)

[Imaster]

I think the "Invite Only" idea (which GMail had done) is a bad idea for Yahoos this product.

Yahoo already has a huge user base and this is not a completely new idea where people will want to "die for" to get invitations, well GMail was different! I think Yahoo should open this up to everyone.....

[flashfan]

By tracking invitation, they could study the relationship , and better use it.

[martinibuster]

I think the "Invite Only" idea (which GMail had done) is a bad idea for...

I dunno, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the "Invite Only" thing was a signup page to get on the waiting list?

From the 360page: [360.yahoo.com]

Getting Started Is Simple
Already have a Yahoo! ID? That's all you need. Your page is out there waiting to be filled with whatever you like. If you don't have an ID, sign up for one. It's free, and takes a few seconds to get.

[Imaster]

From the story, see last paragraph,

When it becomes available later this month, Yahoo 360 initially will be restricted to users invited by the company. Those early participants will then be able to invite others.