Yahoo!Mash unveils Facebook clone
Yahoo! couldn't buy Facebook for a billion, so they did what a portal like Yahoo would do to compete with arch rival Google - create a second Facebook before Google does. Yahoo!Mash (invitation only, so the link may not show anything) is building a platform for developers just like Facebook's F8 to create widgets. Metaphorically, social networking is starting to develop multiple and incompatible operating systems... and developers need to repurpose their widgets each time. I'm not a developer, but I hope a Facebook application can be redone as a Yahoo!Mash app quickly.
(note: partial screen of Yahoo!Mash... more widgets to the side and bottom)
The interesting twist to Yahoo!Mash is the power of friends to "edit:" the home page, in particular, the About Me frame. The above screenshot include my input on Kevin's "About Me" page. This is a leap into personal transparency... you'll have to be pretty comfortable with yourself to let your friends create your "personal profile" because it could either be slightly embarrassing or illuminatingly hilarious.
Update: Scott Karp just pointed out what's bothering me about this About me frame... Yahoo Mash and Facebook both seem to assume we're teenagers and the stuff we talk about is all personality based instead of work-related.
Social Network proliferation and their future
For real estate professionals, the most annoying thing about Yahoo!Mash is it's just one more social networking avenue. I always recommend maintaining only a few social networks - LinkedIn, Facebook and Active Rain seem most appropriate - among the zillions popping up. The future of social networking may follow these paths:
- New social networking aggregation sites that enable users to update multiple social networks from one application.
- Standardization of widget development across social networks
- Trend towards using different social networks for different purposes. Just like I use Yahoo Mail for all the discount alert junk I receive from airlines and Amazon, I might use Yahoo!Mash just for closer acquaintances and let everyone else in on Facebook.
Technorati Tags: yahoo mash, google, facebook, social networking, widgets, F8, Active Rain, linkedin
Hello Pat,
Please forward an invite to my email used for this post.
Thanks,
Jessie B
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I feel the need to do some comparison shopping. I'm waiting for an invite.
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Thanks for the invite this morning Pat. After checking over for about a half hour this evening after a long day of open houses, I guess my question is... do I really have the time to get involved and maintain more than one social utility? I must say I felt a bit underwhelmed at with the UI as well. Facebook seems to have much more flexibility. I keep wanting Yahoo to do better. del.icio.us and flickr are amazing tools. I just wish the could get away from the certain branding they have that seems somewhat "dumbed down" for my taste.
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Hey Brad, I agree with you... there's no need to become involved with a variety of social utilities. I myself just test them out to see what is happening and if there is any utility from the experience... there's a wasteland of old online experiments with my name on them out there.
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Jury is still out. Let's see what's to come - developers ideas included. Speaking of experiments. If you haven't already, check out what Plaxo has been up to. Very interesting... they have a "pulse" as well.
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