By introducing Yahoo! Open Strategy (Y!OS), Yahoo! has embraced Web 2.0. Finally, the company has decided to be a web platform from a web portal. Great move! The power and benefits of open source has made it an ultimate development methodology and a leading choice for IT companies. Google launched its open source browser, Google Chrome; Yahoo! introduced its open source strategy – The future of open source is surely bright. Yahoo! has introduced its vision in the form of Y!OS and we have seen many open source applications - SearchMonkey, Fire Eagle, BOSS, Social APIs, Yahoo! Query Language (YQL)  - released by Yahoo! in the past few months. Are these technologies establishing Yahoo! as the next platform of choice?

Yahoo! claims that it has opened its doors to deliver open source platforms to lead the industry and to facilitate publishers and developers. Yahoo! Developer Network explains Yahoo! Open Strategy (Y! OS) and describes its main features.

“Y!OS platforms will harness Yahoo!'s unique strengths – our rich and relevant user experiences (we’re #1 in 7 verticals), our massive audience (half a billion users/month), and our deep data repositories (content, content, content) – and open them to the innovations of the developer community. Our aim: to fundamentally transform how people experience Yahoo!...

“Specifically, Y!OS includes:

• A Single Social Platform for Yahoo!
• Lotsa Standardized Web Services
• The Yahoo! Application Platform (YAP)”

Yahoo! has gained much appraisal from the developers community and tech gurus for its recently released technologies. SearchMonkey, Fire Eagle, and BOSS have established Yahoo!’s reputation as a future web development platform.

SearchMonkey – It is a structured search result data API, which helps developers and content owners create small applications to improve Yahoo! search results and to drive more relevant traffic to their sites. This API improves the search experience by making it more personalized.

Fire Eagle – This API helps build location aware applications that users can use to store and manage their current location.

BOSS - Build Your Own Search Service (BOSS) is search service application that helps build web-scale search applications based on Yahoo! Search Index. Applications currently using BOSS include Hakia search engine, Me.dium Search, Daylife, and Cluuz.

YQL (Yahoo! Query Language) – This service helps users discover the available data sources and structures and to retrieve data. YQL uses SQL-like syntax SELECT, SHOW and DESC to search and retrieve data. YQL service is currently in preview mode and is not open for use.

These applications sound really great and one can build interesting and cool applications using them. “So the combination of these first three services starts to get interesting. You can build a location aware niche search engine as part of your application, and your users would only know that your application is really cool and useful,” says Rob Diana in his post The Future is Yahoo the Platform on Mashable blog.

Y!OS and Social Networking – Social APIs

With Y!OS, Yahoo! is looking to introduce some new aspects in social networking.  Its Social APIs suite features Social Directory, Contacts, User Status and Updates APIs that will give Yahoo! a new look. Social media experts are anticipating that these Social APIs will not only establish Yahoo! as a social network platform, in fact it will help to develop some great social network applications. Rob says,

“Given the number of users with email accounts and personalized homepages at My Yahoo, there is a very large market that they can tap into. By providing the Social API suite, they are giving third parties the chance to create a social application based on the Yahoo user base.

“This could be a very interesting move for Yahoo. Because they have millions of users, many developers will try to create applications to woo them. Because the social applications would be using the Yahoo Mail address book and other information that users have already entered, these applications would need to be value added services instead of a “traditional” social network application. The Social APIs could be a major boon to Yahoo’s social presence, but it is not the most important technology release.”

Yahoo! is in the process of adopting new technologies – Web 2.0 technologies.  This seems quite ambitious considering the failure of some past projects like Yahoo!Mash and Yahoo!360 which have damaged its reputation in the market. This does not mean that Yahoo! is no more. Yahoo! is still a major player and with the Y!OS, they are back in the game. With Yahoo!Mail, My Yahoo!Properties and Yahoo!Buzz, it is still attracting a large number of people and has a sizable user base.  It has also recently launched its social network in India. It looks like Yahoo! is delivering what it has promised. I think if Yahoo! manages its open source strategy wisely and effectively, then it just might be the next web platform of choice.

References:

Ding.D. (2008). Y!OS, a new start of Yahoo?.  Retrieved Sept. 22th, 2008 from http://yihongs-research.blogspot.com/2008/05/yos-new-start-of-yahoo.html

Diana. R. (2008). The Future is Yahoo the Platform.  Retrieved Sept. 22th, 2008 from http://yihongs-research.blogspot.com/2008/05/yos-new-start-of-yahoo.html