Yahoo has repeatedly been criticized for its failure to leverage its social networking properties into something more comprehensive and, well, useful for consumers. The Web giant hasn't been sitting
on its hands, but it's not making any lofty promises either: last week the Sunnyvale, Calif. outfit relaunched its Yahoo Answers service as a network--one that already has the kind of international
reach (at 90 million worldwide users) to rival the likes of MySpace and Facebook.
However, its approach is more niche than big mess, like its other social-ish properties del.icio.us,
Flickr and MyBlogLog. The aim here is to get those with similar interests to share info in closer contact with one another. Here's what's new: profile pages with basic info, interests, and contacts.
On its home page, users' pages will be updated when others in the network ask and answer questions. Users can also opt-out of the social networking aspect if they wish.
Yahoo has certainly
taken the early lead in this market, as similar sites like Digg.com are about sharing Web sites and news stories. Answers is all about original information. Yahoo executives call it "knowledge
networking." Indeed, wiki upstarts may be the closest thing to competition Answers has. SEJ says Answers presents the perfect opportunity for Yahoo to sync its social and other properties together. In
fact, it would be surprising if the Web giant didn't do this.
Read the whole story at Search Engine Journal »