What is the Yahoo! Open Strategy (Y!OS)?
Yahoo!s Open Strategy is a company-wide plan to re-wire itself and open up its
assets to third party publishers, developers and advertisers in the form of
global platform services. By opening up its core assetsfrom its dominant media
properties and communication services to its world-class computing
infrastructure, massive search index, enormous user base and rich social
graphYahoo! will drive innovation and rapid differentiation of its products.
This will make them dramatically more social, relevant and useful to consumers
around the world, and grow Yahoo!s footprint and influence.
What is the goal of the Y!OS initiative?
The goal is to build Yahoo!s strengths which includes its unique, diverse
and rich web experiences, and latent social graph. It would dramatically enhance
the consumer experience of Yahoo! and the web. The application platform by Y!OS
will make it possible to open up our properties and allow developers to build
and deploy applications that can reach our incredible user base in places where
they are already highly engaged on Yahoo!.
The Yahoo! Social Platform will help consolidate our social assets and make
them available to users everywhere. It will add a social lens across Yahoo! rest
of the web that will make their experiences more personal and relevant. The
Yahoo Web Services Platform will provide content and services that will be used
by inside and outside developers to build any sort of application.
How is the Y!OS platform being rolled out?
We have already set the momentum of Y!OS and Yahoo will continue to roll out
elements of Y!OS throughout this year and the next. For example, after
announcing Y!OS, we have launched several products. The products include the
address book, building ones own search service using Yahoo!s Open Search
platform, creating location-aware applications and services, managing all
geo-permanent named places on Earth and using Yahoo Music catalog of artists,
albums and videos. Search Monkey will use structured data to enhance Yahoo!
Search results.
How does Yahoo! define open? What are the implications of open to the
general public and other parties?
Open for Yahoo! means open to innovation and enabling talented people to
create better, more relevant and social experiences on the Yahoo network and
beyond. The Y!OS platform is the key tool that will make it easier for Yahoo!,
third party developers and publishers to create those compelling experiences and
become indispensable parts of consumers lives.
What are the benefits of Y!OS for: Advertisers, developers/publishers,
consumers?
For advertisers, Y!OS will help make connections with a larger and highly
engaged audience of relevant consumers (must buy). For developers and
publishers, Y!OS offers a huge opportunity to leverage Yahoos real-estate and
web services to build innovative applications that reach a massive group of
potential users and help them make money. For consumers, Y!OS will help them by
making their experiences both on and off Yahoo! more customizable, social and
relevant.
Sudesh Prasad
sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in